A young man walks into a meticulously clean and sterile bathroom and proceeds to shave away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene.
Though Rachel is a successful attorney and a loyal, generous friend, she is still single. After one drink too many at her 30th-birthday celebration, Rachel unexpectedly falls into bed with her longtime crush, Dex -- who happens to be engaged to her best friend, Darcy. Ramifications of the liaison threaten to destroy the women's lifelong friendship, while Ethan, Rachel's confidant, harbors a potentially explosive secret of his own.
Nares mocks up Ancient Rome by shooting in faux-classical sites including Tribeca's American Thread Building, where a decrepit penthouse loft with a peeling-paint dome serves as an echoey stand-in for the imperial palace. The latter location required ingenuity: Posing as potential renters, Nares and associates asked the manager to show them the apartment, then unlocked the windows on the way out; a few hours later, they broke back into the space, full cast and crew in tow, to shoot the necessary scenes.
Neil Lawrence is sent to a boarding school by his father. During the first days he meets T.J. who he falls in love with. After being assigned a paper on Holden Caulfield - the main character in J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" - Neil decides to go on a journey to meet Salinger, who he feels has played a huge role in his life. Neil & T.J. take off on a journey to New York City. A journey that leads to more then they both ever could have imagined - and changes both their lives forever.
Tragedy strikes when a woman named Joyce's son falls through the ice on a frozen lake and is trapped underwater for over 15 minutes. After being rushed to the hospital, the 14-year-old boy continues to fight for his life as Joyce, her husband and their pastor stay by his bedside and pray for a miracle.
Wanda wants to take care of everyone in her life. She barely has time for herself, not that she would know what to do with it anyway.
A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.
Winston arrives at NYU as a freshman, knowing he's gay and wondering where that fact will lead him. He falls hard for Tom, his temporary roommate who's soon to leave for L.A., and it's a big risk to express these feelings. Meanwhile, temptations and opportunities abound in the Village: sex in public toilets, uninhibited people at parties, and knowing Act-uppers. Plus, there are misinterpreted signals, like the ones Winston gets from a Moonie. With help from his hometown friend Anne, Winston keeps his equilibrium and finds the perfect place to meet someone: the Judy Garland rack at Tower Records.
Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.
When Harry Levine, an aging, unsuccessful Greenwich Village writer, is fired from his job as restaurant doorman, he calls on friend and mentor Jake, ostensibly to collect a long-standing debt.
Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo, and Jo's boyfriend all pile into the station wagon and go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other and meet many interesting people.
Author Ayn Rand becomes involved with a much younger and married man, to the dismay of those close to her.
A female Lyft driver navigates the night shift in New York City while waiting to hear life-or-death news from her family in Syria.
Things couldn't be going better for Harry and Grace, a young New York City couple in love, until Grace's mother turns Harry's world upside down.
Gabriel Palombra, a Venetian Punchinello Street show operator decides to move to America leaving his wife, Sorrentina, behind, with a promise to send for her. In the United States, disillusioned, he takes a job as porter in a barbershop, but when he is rewarded for returning a lost pocketbook, manicurist "Babe" Reynolds persuades him to bet on a winning horse. Under her influence he rises to wealth. Meanwhile, Sorrentina arrives in New York and takes work as a flower girl.
Two HIV-positive young men — a semi-employed film critic and a hot hustler — tear off on a cross-country crime spree.
Although Mary has little income, she still finds ways to spend her nights at clubs. After being arrested for throwing an illegal rave, she asks her aunt Judy for bail money. Judy then finds Mary a job at her library so that Mary can repay her. Initially, Mary finds the job as a clerk boring and stifling, and prefers to get to know a street food vendor whom she likes. However, Mary must refocus her life once she loses her job and apartment.
Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.
John LeTour is a recovering drug user who suffers insomnia and still deals to a high-end New York clientele, even though he’s trying to move on from the business. John’s professional midlife crisis becomes something more acute — and dangerous — when he re-encounters an old flame while a string of seemingly drug-related murders rocks the city.
With three days before his paper folds, a crusading editor tries to expose a vicious gangster.