Introduction -- 1920-1929: The gaudy spree, mass media, and The Jazz Singer -- 1929-1939: The crash, the Depression, and King Kong -- 1940-1949: The war, the boom, and The Naked City -- 1950-1959: The power brokers and Sweet Smell of Success -- 1960-1969: Fun city, John Lindsay, and Midnight Cowboy -- 1970-1979: Fear city, blackouts, and Taxi Driver -- 1980-1989: Two cities, Ed Koch and Wall Street -- 1900-2000: City in transition, the Indie movie boom, and Kids -- 2001-2020: 9/11, recover, and 25th Hour -- 2011-2020: Wealth, bohemia, and Frances Ha.

Fun City Cinema' gives readers an in-depth look at how the rise, fall, and resurrection of New York City was captured and chronicled in ten iconic Gotham films across ten decades: The Jazz Singer (1927), King Kong (1933), The Naked City (1948), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Taxi Driver (1976), Wall Street (1987), Kids (1995), 25th Hour (2002), and Frances Ha (2012). A visual history of a great American city in flux, Fun City Cinema reveals how these classic films and legendary filmmakers took their inspiration from New York City's grittiness and splendor, creating what we can now view as "accidental documentaries" of the city's modes and moods. In addition to the extensively researched and reported text, the book includes both historical photographs and ephemera, as well as still-frames, behind-the-scenes photos, production materials from each film and original interviews with Noah Baumbach, Larry Clark, Greta Gerwig, Walter Hill, Jerry Schatzberg, Martin Scorsese, Susan Seidelman, Oliver Stone, and Jennifer Westfeldt. Extensive "Now Playing" sidebars spotlight a handful of each decade's additional films of note.