The Tenants

Harkening back to a time when race relations in New York City were even worse than they seem today, Danny Green's adaptation of Bernard Malamud's earnest 1971 novel about art and the clash between black and white feels, thankfully, about as anachronistic as the New York City rents cited in the film. Brooklyn, 1972. Novelist Harry Lesser (Dylan McDermott) is the last tenant in his rundown building in a particularly bad end of the borough, despite the tireless efforts of his landlord, Levenspiel (Seymour Cassel), to buy him out so he can sell the property to a developer. Levenspiel keeps sweetening the deal, but Lesser refuses to budge until he's finished work on his t...