New York, I Love You is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama anthology film consisting of eleven short films, each by a different director. The shorts all relate in some way to the subject of love and are set among the five boroughs of New York City. The film is a sequel of sorts to the 2006 film Paris, je t'aime, which had the same structure and is the second installment in the Cities of Love franchise, created and produced by Emmanuel Benbihy. Unlike Paris, je t'aime, the shorts of New York, I Love You all have a unifying thread, of a videographer who films the other characters. The film stars an ensemble cast, among them Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Anton Yelchin, Hayden Christensen, Orlando Bloom, Irrfan Khan, Rachel Bilson, Chris Cooper, Andy García, Christina Ricci, John Hurt, Cloris Leachman, Robin Wright, Julie Christie, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, James Caan, Shu Qi, and Eli Wallach. New York, I Love You premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008, and was released in the United States on October 16, 2009. While the TIFF premiere of the film featured 14 novellas, distributors later decided to cut two of them: Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut "These Vagabond Shoes" and Andrei Zvyagintsev's novella "Apocrypha". The decision was taken after a focused screening in New York, where these two shorts were met with unfavorable reactions.

Cast and crew

Following is the cast and crew of ten segments of New York, I Love You with the transition segment directed by Randy Balsmeyer:

Release

The film grossed $1,588,087 in the United States, and $8,136,973 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $9,725,060.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 37% approval rating based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Like many anthologies, New York, I Love You has problems of consistency, but it isn't without its moments". On Metacritic it holds a score of 49 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B regarding the film "takes the wrinkle-free, easy-travel concept first executed in the 2007 Gallic compilation Paris, je t'aime to a new city and styles itself..." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars saying in his review, "By its nature, "New York, I Love You" can't add up. It remains the sum of its parts." A. O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film a mixed review claiming "Not that the 11 shorts in New York, I Love You are all that bad. It's a nice-looking city, after all, even if the interstitial skyline and traffic montages assembled by Randy Balsmeyer are about as fresh as the postcards on sale in Times Square." Erica Abeel of The Hollywood Reporter writes: New York, I Love You continues the Cities of Love series that began with Paris, je t'aime far surpassing it... The vignettes are tied together into a single feature through a recurrent character, a videographer who interacts with the other characters. And transitional elementschoreographed by 11th director Randy Balsmeyermove the viewer from one world to another, uniting all these intimate stories into a single shimmering fabric. Heidi Patalano of Metro New York gives the film a 4 grade out of 5.With younger, less-tested directing talent, the film plays down the delineation between one director's work and another, opting to blend them through loosely interconnected characters here and there. As opposed to its directing roster, however, the cast boasts quite a few big names, all of which lend a surprising amount of authenticity to these funny, imaginative little stories. Claudia Puig of USA Today explains that anthologies are by their very nature an uneven entity and adds:The multicultural emphasisboth in characters and in the unusual selection and collaboration of filmmakers and artistsis one of New York, I Love You's main assets. And there's no question that Manhattan looks ever-vibrant and beautiful.

In popular culture

An episode of the Netflix series Master of None is named and structured after New York, I Love You. Like the film, the episode follows the intersecting lives of various New Yorkers, although the stories are not exclusively about romance.