Next Stop, Greenwich Village

The great writer-director Paul Mazursky’s memory piece, Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), weaves the poignant yet often funny tale of his own youth as a nascent actor in early 1950s New York. It’s a long way from Brooklyn to the Village for Mazursky surrogate Larry (Lenny Baker), who – even as he meets and hangs with a sparkling array of new friends (incarnated gorgeously by the likes of Ellen Greene, Lois Smith, Christopher Walken, and (in a tiny début film role) Bill Murray – remains haunted by his larger-than-life, echt-Jewish mother (the indelible Shelley Winters).