Scenes of Our Lives: Slaves of New York

This film inexplicably got panned upon its release in 1989, though God knows why because it's hilarious. I guess the country's film critics were too busy fawning over Driving Miss Daisy.

Anyway, based on Tama Janowitz's story collection of the same name, the film follows the goings on in the downtown NYC art scene in the 1980s and stars Bernadette Peters as a down-on-her-luck hat maker with a self-absorbed artist boyfriend named Stash. How can you pan a movie about Bernadette Peters as a down-on-her-luck hat maker? It just doesn't make any sense. Anyway, there are cool cameos from Steve Buscemi, Mercedes Ruehl, and Stanley Tucci, and Tama Janowitz even shows up with her big '80s hair in two scenes.

The above snippet features a performance of "Say Hi to Your Guy" performed by Johann Carlo in a bathtub. She should be a big star but isn't. Also sad.

Fun fact: the film was directed by James Ivory the year after he did A Room With a View.

Put this in your Netflix queue immediately.