'Bunny' review: Hilarious and heartfelt, this love letter to New York is a must-see

After Hours. Do the Right Thing. In the Heights. When Harry Met Sally. They're movies with very different plots and vibes, and yet all are definitively New York. Now the canon of exceptionally New York movies has grown, thanks to Bunny. 

The directorial debut of Ben Jacobson, Bunny centers on an East Village tenement resident whose very bad birthday is a tapestry of chaos, community, and characters that are undeniably the fabric of New York City. Like the iconic cinema listed above, Bunny channels the energy of this great city, while also embracing its funkier elements. This fantastic, funny, and surprising indie is also an unapologetic and unsentimental love letter to New York. 

But what's it about? 

Bunny is a story of a hustler and the motley community that loves him. 

Co-writer Mo Stark stars a Bunny, an East Village resident whose life — and tenement apartment — is very, very hectic. "Today I fucked up," Bunny explains in a voiceover over home movies of his wife Bobbie (a sizzling Liza Colby), his best friend Dino (co-writer/director Ben Jacobson), and their maternal landlady Linda (Linda Rong Mei Chen). "I upended the lives of the people I love most, my family." 

At the start of the day, this eponymous protagonist is racing down the street. His long, dirty-blond hair whips behind him as blood dribbles from his chin and goatee, down his neck, and onto a cream-colored knitted top. We won't learn what he's running from until later. But it relates to his job, being a "gigolo, like Richard Gere, but not that fancy." 

Bunny won't slow down to explain what's going on. Instead, no sooner has he washed the blood from his body than Bobbie — wearing translucent lingerie and a big smile — introduces him to his birthday present, a threesome with her friend Daphne (Eleonore Hendricks) and "the best Molly that can be found in the tri-state area." But Bunny's in no mood to party. There's business to attend to. 

For starters, an Airbnb guest named Happy Chana — never just "Chana" — is coming to rent their spare room. As an Orthodox Jew, she (Genevieve Hudson-Price) has specific needs that Bunny must meet or else lose the needed rental fee. Then, while Bobbie's out, her estranged father (Tony Drazan) drops by, only to be swept up by Dino's influence — and his edibles. Before Bunny can catch his breath, there are a couple of corpses to deal with and a murder to cover up. It's a real bad birthday, but at least he has his family to help him through. 

Chaotic comedy makes Bunny brilliant. 

This East Village tenement is stocked floor to ceiling with colorful characters who have little in common but their love for each other. Bunny and Bobbie are adored by real-talking Linda, impulsive but protective Dino, an elderly neighbor with moxie named Ian (Richard Price), and a trio of twentysomething party girls, all of whom will have a part to play in helping Bunny through the worst birthday of his life. Far from hiding a homicide from them, Bunny drops a corpse of a "bad man" on the linoleum floor for a brainstorming session. How do they dump a body in this bustling neighborhood — especially when there's a pair of chummy cops (Liz Caribel Sierra and Ajay Naidu) hanging around outside? 

Stark, Jacobson, and co-writer Stefan Marolachakis create a script that is joltingly alive. Cultures collide from scene to scene with the enthralling melting pot energy of hundreds of NYC neighborhoods. As a character-driven film, there's a panoply of minor conflicts, about birthday plans, roommate etiquette, and the best way to fold a corpse into a rolling suitcase. But when it comes to helping one of their own, these free spirits, neurotics, and weirdos all come together as the family they are, bound by years of shared space and energy. 

The superb casting of this film lends authenticity, avoiding famous faces and leaning into an effusive and even volatile chemistry amid the ensemble. Watching Bunny, New Yorkers might not only recognize figures from their own neighborhoods, but will also feel a part of this tenement, tangled in the intoxicating energy of excitement, gossip, and community. New York is a city of strangers who form families, and Bunny explores those bonds through a funny and unpredictable family drama. Because what's a corpse between friends?

Mo Stark is a star in Bunny. 

Too often, when filmmakers write and star in their movies, the result can be a bloated vanity project (Belfast) or a treacly bit of fluff that paints their character as an underappreciated genius (Cha Cha Real Smooth). Bunny avoids these pitfalls as Stark and Jacobson firmly commit to the goofball core of their characters. 

Bunny is a himbo with a heart of gold but a much messier past than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Dino is ride-or-die, but also dangerously impulsive. Together, they are a duo I'd watch go on a bodega run, just because they are so vivid and fun. Every moment together vibrates with their deep love for each other, and a broader, radiant interest in those around them. This is the New York I know and love, and it's a pleasure to see it captured, warts and all. Because yeah, for every hot baddie stomping down the sidewalk to the beat of her own drum, there's a mercurial oddball looking to fart into a cop car window or otherwise quirk up your day. 

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Yet within this swirl of eccentrics, Stark keeps his head above water, maintaining a focus and direction as Bunny forges ahead. Far from taking control of a situation like some stodgy suit or cop might, Bunny is more wrangling alley cats as he leaps from problems personal, professional, and criminal with the agility of an Alvin Ailey dancer. He's a rock to his tenement mates. And the joyful reveal of this crime-comedy is that when he needs a rock, they will be that for him, too. Stark so beautifully grounds the film in its unconventional opening of voiceover and unexplained blood that for the whole film, whatever wild shit goes down, we are bound to Bunny, rooting for him just like the rest of his circle does. We truly feel like one of them, caught up in the warmth and ferocity of their bond. 

Simply put, Bunny is a quirky, gritty indie crime-comedy/New York family drama that achieves a lot with a little. Primarily set in one location, with no major stars in its charismatic ensemble, it's an underdog story both on and off screen. You feel the hustle of Bunny in every frame. Alive, exciting, funny, and original, Bunny is gem not to be overlooked. 

Bunny opens in select theaters and will be available to purchase on Apple TV on Nov. 14. Early access screenings in New York begin on Nov. 7.