If you’ve watched The Studio‘s third episode, you’ll have seen clips from an Anthony Mackie and Dave Franco movie Alphabet City, and some fans have been wondering how to watch the actual movie (not seen the episode yet? Here’s how to watch The Studio).
The Studio episode 3, called “The Note” is about the efforts of Seth Rogen’s Matt Remick to give a studio note to legendary director Ron Howard about the movie Alphabet City (with Howard making up one of the several The Studio cameos in the episode). It’s a chaotic and exciting ride, the likes of which we loved in our The Studio review.
But can you watch Alphabet City yourself? It’d be great, with the movie looking atmospheric, dramatic and exciting (except that final scene, of course!). Unfortunately, it’s a fictional movie created just for The Studio, one of several similar projects recurring through the season, like the Kool-Aid Movie from the first episode and Sarah Polley’s project from the second.
That must be a disappointment, especially for fans of the neo-noir look of the movie. However if it’s inspired you to watch something similar, I’ve got three alternative picks that are all linked to The Studio‘s third episode.
Sugar
I’ve picked Sugar first because, if you’re already subscribed to Apple TV Plus, then you can already watch it. It was a neo-noir mystery show released in 2024 which has a second season on the way.
Sugar stars Colin Farrell as a beleagured private investigator looking into the disappearance of the grand-daughter of a legendary movie producer in Hollywood, though it has a few startling plot twists which some loved and some hated. Because of its setting, it’s full of references to the movie business and has plenty of classic movie nods throughout, which will undoubtedly appeal to fans of classic film just like much of The Studio does.
Ransom
For the second pick, I wanted to find a Ron Howard movie for fans of the director who can’t see Alphabet City. He hasn’t directed any neo-noirs like Alphabet City before, but the closest movie is arguably the 1996 thriller Ransom, which is available on Netflix in the UK but isn’t streaming in the US.
Starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo and Gary Sinise, Ransom is about a millionaire businessman whose son is kidnapped and offered back for a large ransom. The businessman takes action into his own hands in order to get his son back unharmed. The movie was generally well-received and was one of its year’s biggest box-office hits, though it’s often overshadowed in Howard’s filmography by Apollo 13 which came out the year prior.
Altered Carbon
For my third pick, I wanted to include an Anthony Mackie project for fans of the actor, and it just so happens that Altered Carbon fits the bill as an Alphabet City stand-in in more ways than that: it’s a cyberpunk series which has a faintly-similar neo-noir look.
Released on Netflix in 2018, with a second season two years later (which is the one Mackie is in), Altered Carbon is set in a future world in which consciousness is uploaded onto personal discs, and bodies are just ‘sleeves’ for these consciousnesses. The series follows the survivor of a rebel group who is brought back to life years after being thrown in prison, in order to solve a murder and earn his freedom.