So far the reviews coming out for “New York, I Love You” are overall in the mixed to mixed-negative realm. There are positives (like the Berardinelli one from the other day and Roger Ebert) but the early word that it might be on par with Paris Je T’aime, seems wide of the mark.

The Playlist review picks out Natalie’s directed short as one of the two best. Here’s what they had to say:

Simple, yet well crafted and carefully observed, Portman’s surprisingly intriguing short about a single, African American nanny (non-actor Carlos Acosta) or “manny,” taking care of a little white girl (Taylor Geare) in Central Park was full of quiet inquisitive humanity. After he returns the girl to her mother (Jacinda Barrett who was not looking good), the depths of his personality outside this simple station are revealed as a passionate ballet dancer/performance artist. Not mindblowing by any means, but memorably striking and with a bit more contour than most of these facile shorts (random strangers hook up, gee thanks Allen Hughes). Portman also stars in Mira Nair’s short about the intimate experience a Hasidic bride-to-be (Portman) has with an Indian diamond seller (Irrfan Khan from “The Darjeeling Limited” and “Slumdog Millionaire”) and the imagined romance they have on her wedding day, but it wasn’t quite as eventful.