
Starring: Callum Turner, Jeff Bridges, Kate Beckinsale, Pierce Brosnan, Cynthia Nixon
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Drama directed by Marc Webb. The Only Living Boy in New York (2017) centers on recent college graduate, Thomas Webb (Callum Turner), who is trying to find his place in the world. After moving from his parents Upper West Side apartment to the Lower East Side, he befriends his neighbor, W.F. Gerlad (Jeff Bridges), a shambling alcoholic writer who dispenses worldly wisdom. Thomas’s world begins to shift when he discovers that his father, Ethan Webb (Pierce Brosnan), is having an affair with a seductive younger woman, Johanna (Kate Beckinsale). Determined to break up the relationship, Thomas ends up being seduced by Johanna, launching a chain of events that will change everything he thinks he knows about himself and his family.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'It's just this perpetual cycle of expectations and disappointments. The farthest distance in the world, is between how it is and how you thought it was going to be.' - Judith Webb Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Thomas Webb: Well, I’m crazy about you.
Mimi Pastori: I’m crazy about you, but…
Thomas Webb: But don’t say “as friends”.
Mimi Pastori: Why? Why is that so bad?
Thomas Webb: Because pretty girls like to recruit their rejections and then call them friends.
W.F. Gerald: W.F. Gerald. I just moved into 2B.
Thomas Webb: Thomas Webb.
W.F. Gerald: Why so troubled, Thomas?
Thomas Webb: Excuse me?
W.F. Gerald: I know that color of stress. It’s much brighter than job issues, more subdued than possible disease. Sorry, I’m being rude.
Thomas Webb: No. I mean, I’m having a bad day.
W.F. Gerald: Oh. What’s her name?
W.F. Gerald: What you need to do, just make her afraid of something more than being with you in that way.
Thomas Webb: Which is?
W.F. Gerald: Not being with you.
Thomas Webb: But how? How am I supposed to do that?
W.F. Gerald: Let life take over. Find a window, then pounce.
'I know that color of stress. It's much brighter than job issues, more subdued than possible disease.' - W.F. Gerald Click To Tweet
W.F. Gerald: You’re not giving life enough credit. The unpredictable forces of humanity.
Thomas Webb: My life is not unpredictable. My life is conventional. My life is boring.
W.F. Gerald: No. It’s as random as it is deliberate. You know, as funny as it is tragic. Yours is no exception.
Mimi Pastori: So, what, you’re going to use your father’s affair as a confirmation of your own inadequacies?
Thomas Webb: No, Mimi. I have you for that.
W.F. Gerald: I live in Brooklyn.
Thomas Webb: You have two apartments?
W.F. Gerald: I’m rich. I’m a f***ing duke.
Life, it's as random as it is deliberate. As funny as it is tragic.' - W.F. Gerald Click To Tweet
W.F. Gerald: What do you want?
Thomas Webb: I want my father to stop seeing this woman.
W.F. Gerald: No, no, no. No, in life. In your life. You want more money? You want more respect? You know? What is it that you want? Think about it. Really think about it.
Thomas Webb: I want to be better.
W.F. Gerald: Better? Than what?
Thomas Webb: Than them.
Mimi Pastori: [to Thomas, referring to Johanna] Oh, my God. That’s her. The other woman.
Thomas Webb: We should be together together.
W.F. Gerald: “Should” is a dangerous word.
Thomas Webb: I’m serious, man. If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be here.
W.F. Gerald: I don’t buy it.
Thomas Webb: You don’t buy what?
W.F. Gerald: I don’t buy that this is just about your mother’s health. You want something more here.
Thomas Webb: Something more what?
W.F. Gerald: Provocative.
'“Should” is a dangerous word.' - W.F. Gerald Click To Tweet
Thomas Webb: You don’t know who I am.
Johanna: Yes, I do.
Thomas Webb: You do?
Johanna: You’re the boy who follows me.
Thomas Webb: Yeah, well, I have a good reason.
Johanna: You’re also Ethan’s son.
Thomas Webb: Okay, Johanna, how long you been f***ing my father?
Johanna: Is that kind of vulgarity entirely necessary here?
Thomas Webb: What kind of vulgarity would you prefer?
Thomas Webb: You think you’re going to steal him away from my mother?
Johanna: How do you know your mother isn’t giving him to me?
Thomas Webb: What’s that supposed to mean?
Johanna: I mean that people do things all the time without realizing. Your mother may be giving me Ethan without comprehending it. I mean, you’re doing something right now without realizing it.
Thomas Webb: Yeah? And what am I doing?
Johanna: You’re trying to make love to me.
Thomas Webb: I’m trying to make love to you? I’m trying to make love to you?
Johanna: You just don’t realize it.
'People do things all the time without realizing.' - Johanna Click To Tweet
Judith Webb: It’s just this perpetual cycle of expectations and disappointments. You know? The farthest distance in the world, is between how it is and how you thought it was going to be. Don’t forget that.
Thomas Webb: I won’t.
Thomas Webb: Look, you’re a very beautiful woman. You can get any man you want in this city.
Johanna: Could I get you?
Thomas Webb: What?
Johanna: You just said I can get any man in this city. So I’m asking, could I get you? Which actually begs another question, really. Are you a man?
Johanna: How am I responsible for your mother?
Thomas Webb: Because you’re f***ing my father.
Johanna: You know that crudeness doesn’t make one a man.
Thomas Webb: Stop seeing him.
Johanna: Nor do demands.
Thomas Webb: I’m not trying to be a man. I’m not trying to make love to you. I’m trying to save my mother.
Johanna: You’re getting closer.
W.F. Gerald: Would you like to make love to Johanna?
Thomas Webb: Will you give me some credit, please? This conversation’s perverse. Give me some credit.
W.F. Gerald: Answer the question. Stop drowning yourself in what you think is moral. You want to f*** Johanna.
Thomas Webb: Yes. I would.
W.F. Gerald: And you said your life was boring.
Johanna: He’s not a sugar daddy. I’m his beard. You really don’t know how the world works. You’re an innocent, Thomas. You’re a child.
Thomas Webb: I know some things.
Johanna: Oh, yeah? Like what?
W.F. Gerald: Love is hard to determine. People think they’re in love, and it’s something completely different. You know, infatuation, the righting of childhood wrongs, you know, companionship.
'At the time, I called it an adventure. But hindsight turned it into something else, which is what hindsight inevitably does.' - W.F. Gerald Click To Tweet
Thomas Webb: Have you ever been in love?
W.F. Gerald: Yeah. Once.
Thomas Webb: Who was she?
W.F. Gerald: Oh. She was this woman I knew. She was taken by someone else, a dear friend. We had a profound connection, but she was his girl. It was a mess.
Thomas Webb: So what did you do?
W.F. Gerald: Oh, I left the scene of the crime.
Thomas Webb: You ran away?
W.F. Gerald: Well, at the time, I called it an adventure. But hindsight turned it into something else, which is what hindsight inevitably does. Yeah, I ran away.
W.F. Gerald: I’m going to take this. Leave you with your heart on.
Thomas Webb: With my hard-on?
W.F. Gerald: Heart. Your heart on.
Thomas Webb: You’ve experienced the world. I just live here in New York.
W.F. Gerald: New York is the world.
Thomas Webb: I haven’t done much with my life.
W.F. Gerald: You’ve had sex with your father’s mistress. I’d say that’s something.
Thomas Webb: Am I the only living boy in New York?
W.F. Gerald: You are.
'The only way out is through.' - Judith Webb Click To Tweet
Mimi Pastori: You are just like them. They won, Thomas. God, they’ve f***ing bankrupted you.
Thomas Webb: Things have gotten messy, and I want to bail. But I can’t.
Judith Webb: Well, then you know. The only way out is through.
Judith Webb: [after Thomas finds out that she’s always been in love with W.F.] I knew that if you found out, he would come back into my life, and then everything would go to s**t.
Thomas Webb: Well, everything went to s**t on its own, so.
Judith Webb: Yeah, I guess.
Judith Webb: [referring to W.F.] Is he old?
Thomas Webb: He’s messy.
Judith Webb: Yeah, he always was. An unmade bed of a man.
Thomas Webb: “An unmade bed of a man.” I like that.
Judith Webb: You should. Your father wrote it.
Thomas Webb: You still speaking to Johanna?
Ethan Webb: No.
Thomas Webb: You lying to me?
Ethan Webb: Yeah.
Trailer:
Loved the movie. Fresh, funny, optimistic.