21 X New York (2016) - full transcript

(joyless ambient music)

(train screeches)

(train trundles)

(suspenseful electronica music)

(moves into brooding
electronica music)

(train trundles)

- [Man] Woman kissed dog,
dog never brushed teeth.

There's 2 billion
people, and 50,000 mob.

There's no end to this quarrel.

(boys singing)

* Sitting in comfort, our
boss'll make a conclusion



- Get 'em!

* Stuck on the theory, then
comes that crazy confusion

* Thinking critically, but
he cannot peek the illusion

- Police are your friends.

Because the police
are your friends,

you'll expect friendly fire.

Like they say at
headquarters, "Point blank!"

(chuckles)

Or as they like to say
in the police report,

"There was a struggle
for the gun."

(chuckles)

- [Subway Operator]
Ladies and gentlemen,

because of inclement weather,

the train to Mount
Vernon has lower speeds.



(melancholy cello music)

- [Jacob] She's from
Northern Nigeria.

Muslim girl, her family's
very conservative.

But she was in her
underwear on a table

with a rope around her
neck, her vagina was showing

a little bit, and maybe
one of her nipples was out,

and just like, "Holy
shit, this is crazy."

(hauntingly menacing music)

- [Subway Operator] There
is an Uptown Express Three

train to Harlem.

Our number 3H train
approaching the station.

Please stand away from
the platform edge.

(contemplative cello music)

- [Jacob] She pulled
me over to the table

after a few minutes and just
started talking really quickly,

like, "What's your
name? (blathers)"

I told her Jacob Cohen, and
she said, "Oh God, a Jew?"

And, "I can't talk to you."

(deep, mournful cello music)

I've been dating
her for three years,

which I think is pretty
rare in New York.

(bleak, troubled ambient music)

(train whooshes)

- [Subway Operator]
34, stand back,

stand clear of the doors.

(train whooshing)

(train trundles)

- [Carol] When I
was in high school,

I used to dream a
lot about mermaids.

They were never good mermaids,
they were always evil.

They were always doing
something terrible, like...

They were keeping
children in cages,

and they were tasering
me and trying to get me

to stay away from my family
so they could kill my family.

(moves into throbbing
electronica music)

(subway operator
speaks on intercom)

- [Subway Operator]
Your next station stop

will be Franklin Avenue.

Stand clear of the
closing doors, please.

(train whooshing)

- [Elijah] I love this girl.

Once I first met her, 'til
today, I still love her.

But, she didn't want to be
with me, so we broke it off.

(train whooshes)

(people chattering)

(crowd chanting)

To this day, if she wants
me back, I'll go to her.

- [Crowd] Two, four, six, eight!

(crowd chants)

(Elijah cheers)

- [Yvette] The last, I
wanna say, 15, 20 years,

I've kept a journal.

It helps me to reflect,
it helps me to go back

and see what I can fix, and
I always write down mistakes

so I won't keep repeating them.

I trusted Rasheem,

but he totally betrayed
me from everything.

He told me he
wanted to marry me,

he wanted to have children;
it was all bullshit.

The apartment and
everything, he was gonna try

and take it away from me
and move somebody else in.

Yesterday, I realized
that the two times

I found myself
pregnant by Rasheem,

they were on purpose,
and he had already gotten

two other women
before me pregnant.

I told the universe
something has to change.

I got on my hands and
knees and I yelled out,

"Please, I need to be released."

Jesus, there is nothing
like being alone.

(train whooshes and trundles)

(people chattering)

(moves into pulsating
elerctronica music)

(moves into haunting
ambient music)

(subway train screeches)

(train tracks clanking)

- [Ethan] Life is a game where
there's a constant supply

of players and time.

It goes on forever.

Life is a game.

The purpose for all of
the players as a whole

is to get a vast knowledge
of what everything is like

in the universe.

(train crossing bell rings)

("Preludium cis-moll Opera 28
Number 10" by Frederic Chopin)

(subway train trundles)

(heavy, uneasy ambient music)

(subway train screeches)

- [Marcelo] The first date,
I'll take her to wine bars

and talk a lot, and now at
the end, it's just like,

"Damn, this 'be
you' is expensive."

So now, let's have coffee first,

'cause nobody takes
more than two coffees.

Now you are now connected,
and it's so easy

to know what you
want, what you have.

When I'm spending too
much time on internet

or researching for something
that's not meaningful,

like follow someone's
gossipy porn websites,

(radio announcer speaking
in foreign language)

anything that now I can spend
two, three hours on the end,

I stop to click, and
then just like, "Damn."

It's like I have a
big bowl of ice cream.

I feel like I want
to throw up now.

(rhythmic chillwave music)

- [Ethan] One day,
we're gonna be all gone.

Our ideas will die,
'cause there'll be nobody

to think them and pass them on.

And

in a way, we won't
exist anymore,

because nobody will remember us,

nobody

will have any proof
of our existing.

(moves into unsettling
ambient music)

(mechanical gears clicking)

(train whooshing)

(subway operator
speaking over intercom)

- [Subway Operator] 2030 line
next, stay clear of the doors.

(deep, uneasy music)

(pulsating electronica music)

- [Vitalik] Excuse
me, my friend told me

that I can fuck any girl around
Coney Island, is it true?

Hi, can I talk to
you for a minute?

Please?

Any of you?

- How can we help you?
- Huh?

- How can we help you?

- I think you're really cute,

so can I get
someone's number here?

- Yeah alright, no,
that's not good.

- No? Okay.

(moves into tribal,
percussive chillwave music)

(train whooshes)

(sparkling electronic music)

- There's some girls, but...

I could deal with it, but
another thing is that they're 13

and there's nobody
who's truly pretty.

- Really?

- Yeah, it's a problem.

- None of the girls are pretty?

- Yeah.

Not really.

- How about in the eighth grade?

Well, I guess they'll
be in the ninth grade,

but you won't see them anymore.

- And above that.

Above seventh grade,
there probably are, but...

- So, something happens
when they hit that age?

- When they hit high school,

they're probably gonna
be pretty, but I don't...

- You see any of the pretty
girls in high school now?

How about around
our neighborhood,

you see any girls
who are pretty?

Walking around?

- There are definitely girls
with a lot of confidence,

but confidence doesn't
necessarily make them pretty.

- Good point.

- And too many men
confuse the two.

- Men follow their penis.

(Ethan laughs)

- Nothing could be
more true than that.

Men follow their penis.

- [Man In Black Shirt] Like
their penis leads the way.

(birds chirping)

(heavy, troubled music)

- [Ethan] The only
place I feel really free

is in my mind, alone.

That's why I love
being in nature,

because there's
nobody else with me

and nothing's gonna happen,
I can just think up free.

I can just be.

(moves into electronic
reggae music)

- [Sal] My definition of
love is not about woman.

It is about humility.

If you got the humility in you,

love is easy, you
love everybody.

* But the woman

* She's just

* Want to dance

* She has grateful in her eyes

(moves into pulsating
electronic music)

- I'm a hustler.

I sold drugs, I been to jail,

then it was homicide.

I couldn't understand when
people do something like that

and they throw up.

Didn't bother me.

Damn, I ain't got no woman,
I got a part-time girl.

- So do I.

That's what I got,
a part-time girl.

- And she's too far
away to even talk about.

She mighta sewed her shit.

(men chuckle)

She mighta sewed
her thing up, man.

We talk on the phone,
she's in North Carolina.

Put it this way,
that's my babymomma.

- Okay.

Well, I got the same
issue, 'cept for my lady,

she in Ohio.

- See, all our
womens are far away.

Except for him, his is...

But yo, (blows raspberry)

his love life is
worse than ours.

(men laugh)

(subway train trundling)
(deep, uneasy music)

I was incarcerated, she
sent me divorce papers.

I paid a dollar to get divorced.

That's my life.

- [Alex] I've been single
for a while now, and I,

(moves into brooding
ambient music)

I wasn't really
happy with the people

that I was meeting organically
at bars or parties.

I just wanna meet someone
that I can connect with,

it doesn't have to
be that serious,

I just want to meet
someone that I enjoy.

I filled out my profile and was
browsing through the matches

they found for me.

They ask you what kind of
relationship you're looking for,

what's the longest
relationship you've been in,

what are your religious views,

what are your political views.

And they ask you questions
about your sex life.

(moves into dark,
sparkling piano music)

Kenny was the
fifth person I met.

I met five people in one week.

I'm in a new galaxy,
a land of Kenny.

Is it even allowed to be
happy like this again?

(moves into brooding
ambient music)

(subway train trundling)

- [Subway Operator] 72nd
Street, Central Park West.

The A train to 207
Street, Broadway.

81st Street next, the A train
to 207th Street; stand clear.

(moves into drifting,
nostalgic ambient music)

(subway train trundling)

(man clapping)

- Get it, girl!

Yeah!

Be safe!

(train screeches)

- [Justin] I am legally blind,
and the condition I have

is called Stargardt
macular degeneration.

(people chattering)

(dreamy, mysterious
ambient music)

(train whooshes)

And basically, I see
better peripherally,

which means on the
sides of my eyes.

(birds chirping)

Everyone I've dated so
far has not wanted to be

in a committed relationship,
but I haven't dated that much.

They don't seem to be looking
for anything committed.

(subway train screeches)

(moves into brooding
ambient music)

- [Julka] You see
only one picture,

and if you're interested, you
can click on that picture,

and then, you can
see other pictures,

and then if he went
fishing with a friend,

or if he did something funny.

I can check about 20
guys in one minute.

(video game bleeps)

I met Adam two days ago.

First we went to have
a drink in a club

and then we went to his place.

We were both complaining
that everybody cares

only about sex.

(subway train whooshes)

And then we went
to bed. (chuckles)

But we agreed that
it was an exception

and that it's a building block
for our future relationship.

Then I woke up at
two in the morning

and I saw Adam couldn't
help it and he was checking

if any other girl
wrote him back.

(moves into beaming,
echo-ilke ambient music)

(electronic circuitry whines)

(woman chuckles)

(subway train trundling)

(throbbing electronica music)

(subway operator
speaks on intercom)

(subway train whooshes)

(deep, uneasy music)

(cat hisses)

(subway train whooshes)

- [Bob] I tried to
deny sexual feeling,

because I thought if I
express myself sexually,

a woman would not want me.

(subway operator
speaks on intercom)

- [Bob] I had a patient
who was a biologist.

She wasn't very attractive,

and she talked about her
husband and she talked

about her work and she
worked in a laboratory.

I had an erection
in the session.

So the session's
over, she leaves,

I go to the bathroom, I relieve
myself, and I just thought,

"You know, my body is
telling me something

"that I have to be alive
to, I have to consider it."

(discomforting ambient music)

(moves into calm, soothing
electronica music)

And it turned out
that this patient had

all of these sexual activities,
rendezvous with strange men

in hotels and motels
all over town,

behind her husband's back.

She would be a prostitute,
and it was a secret life

that my body picked
up the information on

before she ever told me!

(subway operator
speaks over intercom)

(train doors chime)

(train rumbles)

(faint voice echoes)

- I never had enough sex, I
never had enough relationship.

Out of 365 days in the year, I
think I was in a relationship

for maybe seven days
every two or three years.

I have spent all my life
trying to find a way

to catch that again, to catch
that feelings of excitement.

So many times, I used
to go out to the disco;

so many times, I used
to go to the clubs,

looking, searching,
to meet somebody.

So many times getting dressed,

so many times putting
on the cologne,

so many times coming home
feeling lonely and empty.

* Happy birthday to you

* Happy birthday to you

(group applauds)

Every night, I go
to bed thinking

I may never meet
another woman again,

I may never be close
to another woman again.

Never.

I would send out 100 messages
to 100 different women

and I wouldn't get any response.

Nothing.

And every time I would
check the messages

and see nobody responding
to me, I'm thinking,

"There's something with me?

"This is terrible."

And finally, after a couple
hundred that I sent out

and so exhausting, maybe I
would get five or six responses.

Out of all that, when
I finally got the date,

it took months, months and
months to try to get a date,

when I finally got the
date, it was a disaster.

(police siren wailing)

I met a girl in a restaurant
who was Italian and French,

and beautiful, the most
beautiful girl you can imagine,

and I fell in love with her

and she fell in love
with me right away.

We had the most powerful, this
sexual fantasy relationship

for two weeks in New York,
sex everyday, all day long,

and just until you cannot
stay awake anymore,

just this romantic time, and
then she moved to Los Angeles

and she disappeared
for many years.

(moves into veiled,
intimate chillwave music)

I learned that in life,
if you try too hard,

it works against you.

Why do I need the younger girl?

It's a status symbol.

It's like a car.

Do you want to have
a nice Cadillac

or do you want to have
the shitty Chevrolet?

This is the land of
fantasy, and of bullshit,

and Fantasy Island.

I can't change my
physical appearance,

I can't change my age, I
can't change my limitations,

I have to accept my fate.

I have to accept the misery
of the reality of my life.

(moves into soulless
ambient music)

(moves into pulsating
nightclub music)

- [Pat] I met him at a club.

We were together
for seven months.

He's 26, I'm 56.

He was my boyfriend and son.

He beat me.

Physically and mentally.

I was on a bed and he
whipped me with a strap.

He smacked me so hard in
my face, I got a black eye.

He already pulled a knife on me.

I wish I never met him,
'cause I went through hell

for the seven months
that I was with him.

I want you to know
that he beat me.

- Wow.

- So I want to whip his
ass before he does move.

But I don't want him to
know that I had it done.

- He don't gotta know.

They don't know me, I don't
know you, they don't know him,

they don't know nobody.

- So, the money's not the issue.

The issue is what you're doing
and what you're gonna do.

(heavy, brooding ambient music)

(plastic rustling)

(Pat exhales)

If he called me today

and asked me to go
back with him, I would.

(heavy, brooding ambient music)

- I believe that what I
do, my job in my life,

is to make people
happy when I'm at work.

(crowd cheers)

For every dollar
that you put in here,

I will definitely say thank you.

If you put five dollars
in, I will suck your dick.

(crowd cheers)

If you put $10 in, I will
suck your dick and a friend,

and ladies, I will eat
pussy for $10, everything.

I'll do it.

For $20, I will let you
stick your dick in my sofa,

I'm just saying.

(crowd cheers)

For that?

I will suck your whole
family off for that.

The last relationship I was in

was with someone
who was married.

(sensitive, bittersweet music)

And we get in his
truck, he starts driving

and he just starts crying.

And he says, "Don't
fall in love with me."

And in my mind, I'm thinking,
"Too late for that, (chuckles)

"I'm already there," but
I didn't say anything.

And the whole way,
he just kept crying.

I was like, "What
just happened?"

He was just, "Just please
don't fall in love with me,

"don't fall in love with me."

I was driving home, and it
hit me, it's like, "Oh my God,

"he just told me he loved
me and I didn't tell him,"

and when I immediately
got off work,

I hopped in the car and
was driving to his place,

and I didn't see his car.

Turns out, that
night, he packed up

and drove back to New Mexico.

That broke my heart.

When you find that
you can't sleep

when that person's not
there, it's just...

I mean, this many years later,
our relationship is over

and I still think about this
person every single day.

I had to delete the phone
number from my phone.

That's love.

(train screeches)

(children chatter)

(mechanical gears clicking)

(train trundles)

(spaced-out, floating
chillwave music)

- Your brain is gonna be
telling you that you could fall,

but you know, how many times
have you fallen walking?

- [Annabelle] I have.

- Three, four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine, 10.

Okay.

- You have a wonderful
picture of Lester.

How long has that
Lester been dead?

- Eight years.

- I was only
married eight years.

- You were married 30 years.

- To Lester?
- Yes.

- Did he leave me anything?

- Yes, he left you some money.

- Where is it?

- It's in the bank!

Let's go.

Let's sit next to
Ethan right here.

Mom, here, Mom.

(moves into unsettling
ambient music)

(train whooshes)

(train trundles)

- Time's up!

Pants off!

You wasted my fucking time!

And now I'm gonna rip
it into all of you.

Get to work!

(moves into disquieting,
humble music)

(subway train horn blows)

(tender, fragile music)