The Only Living Boy in New York

Review by Pamela Zoslov

Simon and Garfunkel are having a pretty good year, with two movies named after their decades-old songs  “Baby Driver” and “The Only Living Boy in New York,” a tune that was a thinly veiled message from Paul Simon to Art Garfunkel, who had flown to Mexico to film Catch-22 (“Tom, get your plane right on time/I know your part'll go fine”). The erstwhile pop duo may actually hold a record for songs used in movie soundtracks.

The “boy” in THE ONLY LIVING BOY IN NEW YORK is Thomas Webb (Callum Turner), a recent college graduate and aspiring novelist. He lives in a squalid flat on the Lower East Side, in rebellion against his rich parents' upper Manhattan lifestyle. He is beset by young-man woes: his father, Ethan (Pierce Brosnan), an influential book publisher, is pressuring him to get his career on track; his mother, Judith (Cynthia Nixon) is depressed and dependent on pills and cigarettes; and his pretty love interest, Mimi (Kiersey Clemons), has consigned him to the dreaded “friend zone.” What's a boy to do?