Too many films

Diversity is not a strength for New York, I Love You | Sam Thielman

Vivendi Entertainment

There's something naïve about making a movie called New York, I Love You, or maybe it's just redundant. Couldn't every Woody Allen movie, even the ones set in France, be called New York, I Love You? Couldn't most of the Martin Scorsese movies, even Taxi Driver?

This movie is a 10-director effort—an anthology of short films with a couple of actors making their directorial debuts. As it stands, New York, I Love You is about half-good and half-bad, and as we all remember from elementary school, 50 percent is not a passing grade.

The best sequence comes from director Fatih Akin—a story about a dying artist who falls in love with the Chinese girl who cooks up herbal remedies for him, and which could work even if the sound in the movie theater went out. Refreshingly, Akin has cast actors we've never heard of—one of the least charming things about New York, I Love You is the way it encourages you to go, "Oh, my gosh! A movie star!" every time an actor we've seen before comes on the screen.