King of New York
Synopsis
Frank White, a ruthless drug lord, is released from prison and wants to redeem his past by using his drug profits to build a hospital for underprivileged kids. He challenges his fellow criminals to participate, but when they refuse he has to do things the hard way…
This film is not currently playing on MUBI but 30 other great films are. See what’s now showing
Critics reviews
Visual tricks (combining the micro and the macro, the private and the public) will reoccur throughout the film, such as in the iconic image of White looking down at the city from his hotel room, the nocturnal city lights obscuring his face, the makeshift super-imposition simultaneously indulging Frank’s grandiose ambitions while emphasizing that his illusion of control can’t be sustained.
James Slaymaker
June 16, 2017
A dialectical masterpiece that’s even better and less silly than I remembered, King of New York is anchored by a complex moralism with a dash of fatalistic cynicism that cuts awfully deep in a year of police shootings, dashed political dreams and, of course, more of the same ol’-same ol’.
Dan Sullivan
November 30, 2016
The film never made a bid for critical respectability like gangster contemporaries like GoodFellas and Miller’s Crossing, but it deserves its place among them.
Scott Tobias
April 26, 2004
Related films
Scarface
Brian De Palma, 1983
The Funeral
Abel Ferrara, 1996
State of Grace
Phil Joanou, 1990
China Girl
Abel Ferrara, 1987
The Addiction
Abel Ferrara, 1995
Deep Cover
Bill Duke, 1992
Bad Lieutenant
Abel Ferrara, 1992
Strapped
Forest Whitaker, 1993
Kiss of Death
Barbet Schroeder, 1995
Illtown
Nick Gomez, 1996
New Jack City
Mario Van Peebles, 1991
Belly
Hype Williams, 1998