Crossing Delancey Is the Pick of the Week

In terms of romantic comedies, I think late, amazing filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 charming modern classic Crossing Delancey, remains one of the best (and one of my favorites). It presents a fresh and unpredictable portrait of a modern woman living a modern life in a modern city.

The always underrated Amy Irving (in one of her most indelible roles) is Isabelle “Izzy” Grossman, a Jewish and subtly independent bookstore manager in New York City. She’s pretty content with being single and having the freedom to do want she wants on her own terms. However, she’s forced to reexamine her passions when she attracts the attention of two very different men: an egocentric novelist (Jerome Krabbe) and an amiable pickle salesman (Peter Riegert), who her loving (and often nosy) grandmother “Bubbie” (a delightful performance by Yiddish-theater icon Reizl Bozyk) sets her up with on a blind date.

Based on writer Susan Sandler’s play (which in turn was named after a street in New York), the film doesn’t follow the normal cliches of the romantic comedy. Our main protagonist is a woman who doesn’t have time for love. She wants to have more time for what the late-’80s had to offer. Yes, she can be stubborn, but you also see where she’s coming from. Crossing Delancey is also about the expectations from Jewish traditions that women like Izzy are bound to but struggle to break free from. It’s another reason why I was instantly drawn to the film when I first saw it a few years ago on TCM.

Making its long-awaited debut from Criterion on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, the film can again appreciated for being a great movie, not just lovers, but also for film enthusiasts alike. It also has a decent number of supplements, such as a new making-of program featuring Irving, Riegert, and Sandler; audio interview from 1988 with Silver; and a trailer. There’s also a new essay by critic Rachel Syme.

If you love this film as much as I do and want the nostalgia of how solid romantic comedies were back in the day, then this release is definitely worthy of being in your collection.

Other releases:

Drugstore Cowboy (Criterion): Gus Van Sant’s harrowing road movie centering on a drug addict (Matt Dillon) and his “family” (Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, and a young Heather Graham), and their eventual descent into crime.

Nosferatu (Universal): Robert Eggars’ sexy and disturbing remake of the classic tale of the ancient Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) and his erotic obsession with Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a haunted young man in 19th century Germany.

Frances (Kino): Jessica Lange’s exhaustingly unforgettable performance fuels this biopic of doomed actress Frances Farmer’s meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.

Naked Acts (Milestone): An independent, African American comedy about an aspiring actress’ personal and emotional journey after finding out that her first movie role requires a nude scene, after she just lost 57 pounds.