''City News'' is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

, written and directed by

David Fishelson David J. Fishelson (born July 24, 1956) is an American producer, playwright, and director for film, theatre, television and radio, based in Manhattan since 1982. He is best known for being the lead producer of '' Golda's Balcony'', the longest-r ...

and Zoe Zinman in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1983, which was nationally

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in 1984, exhibited theatrically in the U.S. and Canada in 1983, and selected for 12 international

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

(winning at 3) in 1983-4.

Plot

The film is about "Tom Domino", a riffing, self-styled, noir-like

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

who runs an East Village alternative newspaper by day, but who struggles by night when he gets home and tries to create a cartoon strip. A verbal sparring match with a sexy woman in a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

bar one evening enables him to snap his cartoonist's

writer's block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

, leading him to dash home after the encounter, and set down in cartoon form everything that just happened between him and the girl (whose name is "Daphne"). The cartoon strip (later named "City News") becomes a local hit, boosting his newspaper's sales. Now, with the newspaper finally a success, Domino finds himself in a conundrum: does he love Daphne genuinely for who she is, or only because she is the muse who has enabled him to become a success?

Style

The style of ''City News'' owes a debt to various

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

sources, including the cartooning of

R. Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

Harvey Pekar Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a ...

, 1950s film noir narration, and the use of silhouettes to make the film's reality look more cartoon-like. Several sequences are modeled on early-1980s MTV music videos, including a seduction scene that unfolds during the playing of an arcade driving game, and an automobile wreck that intercuts live footage with comic strip imagery of the accident.

Theatrical and festival release, critical reception

''City News'' was first reviewed at a private screening in December, 1982, by '' Variety'' critic Lawrence Cohn. Soon after the review's publication, the film was selected for the 1983 Film Festivals of Atlanta, Edinburgh, Houston, Munich, Florence, Athens, Santa Fe, Seattle, Vancouver, Dallas, Göteborg and Antwerp — winning "Best Dramatic Film" at Atlanta, "Best Low-Budget Feature" at Houston, and "Best Feature (Narrative)" at Athens. ''City News'' was then acquired for theatrical exhibition by

Cinecom Pictures Cinecom Pictures was an independent film company founded in 1982 by Ira Deutchman (a former member of United Artists Classics), Amir Malin and John Ives. Its first release was Robert Altman's '' Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy D ...

(which distributed the film to movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada), where it received positive reviews from

Judith Crist Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic. She appeared regularly on the ''Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...

and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', and a mixed review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. By 1989, ''City News'' had been curated for the permanent collection of the

Museum of Television & Radio The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

, as well as listed in the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

's Catalog of Feature Films.

PBS broadcast, TV critics' reception

''City News'' was nationally broadcast on the third season of PBS'

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

-winning television series '' American Playhouse'' in April, 1984. It received mostly favorable reviews (except from ''

'', which was mixed) from newspaper critics around the U.S., including those of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', the '' New Orleans Times-Picayune'', the '' Milwaukee Journal'' and the '' Cleveland Plain Dealer''. While the film never enjoyed a transfer to commercial video following the PBS broadcast, it was eventually published to YouTube in 2013.

References

External links

* * * {{tcmdb title, id=461847, title=City News American independent films 1984 television films 1984 films 1980s American television series American Playhouse Films set in New York City 1980s English-language films 1980s American films