Alphabet City (1984)

At 19, they gave him the streets and everything on them. Tonight they want it all back.

Johnny (Vincent Spano, Baby It’s You and Over the Edge) controls the drug trade in New York’s rough Alphabet City neighborhood—as long as his mob bosses let him. But, when he refuses to follow orders to torch the tenement building he grew up in, Johnny puts himself and his loved ones in their unforgiving crosshairs. No Wave filmmaker Amos Poe’s (The Blank Generation and Subway Riders) neo-noir cult favorite oozes ‘80s neon-lit, punk-tinged style.

The innovative and vividly colorful visuals spring from the lens of cinematographer Oliver Wood (TV’s Miami Vice, The Honeymoon Killers and Face/Off). Chic co-founder and dance music legend Nile Rodgers’ supremely catchy synth-pop score propels the action. The cast of rising and veteran talents includes Kate Vernon (Pretty in Pink), Jami Gertz (Less Than Zero and The Lost Boys), Michael Winslow (the Police Academy series), Kenny Marino (Prince of the City and Death Wish 3) and Zohra Lampert (Let’s Scare Jessica to Death and Splendor in the Grass).

Restored and available on Blu-ray for the first time, Alphabet City is an evocative cinematic snapshot of a New York City that has long since vanished.

Directed by: Amos Poe
Starring: Vincent Spano, Michael Winslow, Jami Gertz, Kate Vernon
1984 / 85 min / 1.85:1 / English mono