Movie buffs most likely are way, way deep into the streaming platform search lists in the hopes for that unearthed gem by this point of the second winter of our COVID-19 isolation.

We are in our living room.

So I stopped on Amazon Prime’s <em>The Only Living Boy in New York</em> and hit play one recent gray weekend afternoon.

Interesting title, that, coming from the Simon and Garfunkel song, a deep cut from their popular album <em>Bridge Over Troubled Water</em>. I’m from New York, from the start and still. Fan of that duo, then and still. Interesting actors flashed before my eyes, from then like Jeff Bridges and Pierce Brosnan and Cynthia Nixon and still … yes, them and the younger set, Callum Turner and Kate Beckinsale.

The chance we gave this 2017 drama directed by Marc Webb from the screenplay by Allan Loeb paid off. Would I call it a shiny gem? No. Better than your average point and click? By far.

The wiry Turner plays said Only Boy, a still-blooming lad growing into his ways and means in a flat on the Lower East Side. He’s got an attractive woman sometimes on his arm, but she has higher hopes and has placed him into the friend pile. He’s got a very successful father (played by Brosnan) who runs a publishing house, looks down on his location in housing and aspirations, and doesn’t act discreetly enough with his loose cannons. He’s got a sweet but unsettle mother (Nixon) who’s recovering from some sort of emotional stunt.

Then, one day, a swashbuckling drinker (Bridges) ends up literally on his doorstep. Booze and braggadocio work their way into young Thomas’ mind a lot and heart a little.

Then, another day, Thomas spots his dad smoldering in public with a younger woman (Beckinsale).

He stalks her.

Soon enough, hardly anybody or anything is quite like or what we first thought. No spoilers will I give but to say it sure is one heck of a thick web.