Let's just say that M. Night Shyamalan is to Philadelphia what Martin Scorsese is to New York. work with me here. They're both the favorite cinema sons of their respective cities. They both almost exclusively shoot their films in and around those cities. And yes, they both draw heavily on the themes and motifs of those cities. Scorsese's got The Rolling Stones and Robert De Niro, we've got dead historical figures and Mel Gibson. In a fight, I think we all know who would win. In fact, a little gold referee named Oscar decided that one just last year.
The point is, we've got one hell of an entertainment identity crisis. There sure are a lot of films about Philadelphia. Yeah, that one about the boxer! You mean Raging Bull? It's not like we don't have the mob here, we just can't decide which immigrants are running it. The Irish? The Italians? EuroPenn? The Departed skipped right over us, and the man who never leaves NYC left it for. Boston? Really?
We do have one movie named after us. They even filmed in Fisher Fine Arts! Which leaves our signature movie about a dude screwing Antonio Banderas. Not exactly Gangs of New York. Meanwhile labs around the country are confirming scientifically that it is impossible to be any more awesome than Daniel Day Lewis right now. Can't we get him to run up some stairs somewhere?
But I digress. I love this city, and this city loves its brothers. So please, someone - not Kal Penn - make a movie with some of that love. Philadelphia is not New York. And thank God it's not L.A. Too long have these other "cool" cities been cool. Philadelphia: there's no time like the present to blow up a car, rip a lady's shirt off and walk away with the money.
