BY KAREN KEMMERLE |

Allan Moyle’s ‘Times Square” Features an Inspired Use of Lou Reed

We’ve got Lou Reed on repeat all this week which encouraged a re-watch of the 1980 cult classic ‘Times Square.’

Music and movie fans alike are still in mourning over the passing of Lou Reed.  Reed’s music has been the soundtrack to some memorable cinematic moments — like Danny Boyle’s use of “Perfect Day” in Trainspotting’s famous drug sequence, or David Lynch’s pairing Reed’s cover of “This Magic Moment” with Patricia Arquette’s slow motion seduction of Baltazhar Getty in Lost Highway. However, one film and one classic song is often left out of the list of Reed’s greatest cinematic contributions.

Directed by Allan Moyle, Times Square stars Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson (the greatest star that never was) as Pamela Pearl and Nicky Marotta, two girls who meet by chance undergoing treatments for presumed mental illness. However, they’re not crazy, they’ve just rebels. The girls bust out of the hospital and escape to Times Square. Taking odd jobs and committing petty crimes, the girls form a punk band called The Sleez Sisters and are determined to make it big on their own.

David feels the lyrics about the depravity of the NYC junkie/hustler existence wash over him, and he reaches out to his daughter to try to save her.

Though the movie is filled with memorable songs and artists, Lou Reed’s "Walk on the Wild Side" is used at a crucial scene in the film. After searching for weeks Pamela’s father, David, a city commissioner who has vowed to clean up the streets, finally finds her working at the fictional Cleo’s Club in Times Square. Not recognizing her at first, David watches her with a strange combination of relief and horror as she dances with herself in the mirror to the famous Lou Reed anthem.

Moyle could not have picked a more perfect song for this sequence. Both Pamela and David are obviously out of their element, taking a walk into the unknown. Contrastingly, though, as Pamela grows more comfortable in her surroundings, David feels the lyrics about the depravity of the NYC junkie/hustler existence wash over him, and he reaches out to his daughter to try to save her. However, Pamela escapes, dashing into the streets, clearly not ready for her “walk” to end. Reed’s song is the perfect backdrop for this or this pivotal and poignant scene

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