These movies are the best representation of what artsy Brooklyn is like today, even though they’re about downtown Manhattan in the ’80s.

After Hours, 1985
This is Bushwick, today. Taxis won’t drive here. Young professionals are terrified of it. Come here at 2 am and you might wander into a circle of men on high bicycles throwing fire. Or a group of artists playing hide and go seek with a countdown of photoshop commands instead of numbers. Be sure to stop by the dance party, Surreal Estate. If you get bored of artistic types, stop by The Lair on Grattan and Varick and get accosted by some gangters.

Slaves of New York, 1989
There is actually a line in this movie where Bernadette Peters says that poor artists are slaves to their roommate leaseholders in New York City because of the housing situation. This phenomenon is alive and well.

Alphabet City, 1984
This pretty much just happened to me while I was looking for my lost cat in Bushwick. I think the actor who plays his cokehead partner was just smoking a joint on the front stoop of a tenament across from the junkyard behind my apartment, and he’s named “O.”