Exhuming 'Slaves of New York'

I made the arguable error of renting “Slaves of New York” this evening. The 1989 cinematic adaptation of Tama Janowitz’s celebrated novel (which I never read), “Slaves” rubs shoulders with Susan Seidelman's equally dreadful “Smithereens,” “Mondo New York” and maybe “Godspell” in the vein of New York City-centric films that are positively rife with compelling location shots (in this case, fleeting tastes of SoHo, the East Village, the Lower East Side and the Meatpacking District), but are otherwise impossible to watch without gagging.

Plot-wise, it’s abject torture (and I'm only halfway through it). Poor Bernadette Peters does her best with what’s given to her, and Steve Buscemi has a small role, but beyond that, it's a total goddmann chore.

Still, for the location shots….it’s almost worth it. Not sure if I'm going to make it the whole way through.