Allan Moyle, US, 1980, 35mm, 110 min.
A drama from the era before the “Disneyfication” of New York City’s Times Square, when the neighborhood was an infamous red light district with sex and drugs lurking around every corner. When prominent city commissioner David Pearl vows to clean up Times Square, he irks the charismatic radio DJ Johnny LaGuardia (Tim Curry), who broadcasts from a studio that overlooks the titular neighborhood. Meanwhile David’s daughter is forced to enter a mental health facility for evaluation. She meets rebellious rocker Nicky, who ends up breaking her out of the hospital in a stolen ambulance. On the run and causing chaos, the girls become the Sleez Sisters, a punk band that catches the attention of LaGuardia. He eventually broadcasts their defiant anthem live on WJAD. With a soundtrack that features some of the key punk and new wave acts of the 1980s, Times Square is a girl power manifesto that prefigures the Riot Grrrl movement by almost a decade.
