“Filmmaker & star Apolla Echino is engaging as Delphine, an assertive intelligent woman, yet at times desperate for affection, in this gripping story of what may seem at first glance to be a promising romance. Her love interests referred to as Painter, is played charmingly, seductively and deceitfully by Richard Short. It is made clear that other interests from Painter permeates their dating, therefore preparing the groundwork for what will progressively devolve into a destructive and addictive relationship. The only spectators who seem to fully comprehend her compromising situation are her friends, who through bitter feuds and quasi interventions, attempt to help her see the reality of the terminally damaging relationship she has created for herself. By allowing painter to continue to “hook her” with his sweet nothings as she is lead to increasingly more embarrassing moments of disillution, Delphine slowly begins to realize painter may not be the best suitable candidate for her affections.
Upon arrival to a place of resignation where frustration and resentment are interwoven with the lust and the unrequited love Delphine feels for painter, it’s too late to control the outcome or sever ties to this addicted and suffocating reality. Unable to separate these feelings, even during her romantic seductions by painter, Delphine will propel the eventual decay of not only her hopes for a possible exclusive relationship with this unsuitable candidate, but will also chip away at her self esteem leaving it hollow inside and in a place of submission where her willingness to keep this destructive addictive relationship alive will overshadow any good reasoning and common sense. By the time she realizes the damage that has been done to herself by submitting to painter’s promises and half hearted compromises, she is left with nothing more than empty promises of more. However, as a viewer you will find it hard-pressed to resent painter for his honesty, for he has made his intentions clear and the desired results from what he perceived as only a sexual situation from the inception even though he may remind her in his own authentic ways of his supposed love for her. Her progressive tirades will eventually force him to admit to unrealistic expectation in order to keep his sexual options open and available for his own personal pleasure and self interests. Delphine has obviously made other plans that may have overlooked painters position on their intimate matters as well as relationship status, therefore creating a unilateral expectation of a situation doomed for failure.
Solid performances by both Richard Short and Apolla Echino make the stirring circumstances real and affecting. The gritty cinematography gives the New York setting an allure that works well with the story.”
A New York Love Story scores an excellent 4/4 with Jorge Ameer of the Hollywood Independent – Source