Gallery of the Week
07.29.09
1. Deitch in SoHo, the Lower East Side, and LIC
2. John Cazale and Cary Grant at BAM
3. A new look at Noguchi in Queens
4. Lincoln Center moves out of doors
Volume 9, Number 9
July 29 — August 12, 2009
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Site Design/Subway Photo:
Fred Gates Design, New York.
twi-ny/mdr
Os Gemeos display their mad skillz on Houston St.
76 Grand St. at Wooster & Greene Sts.
18 Wooster St. between Grand & Canal Sts.
Through August 15 (Tuesday through Saturday, 12 noon - 6:00 pm)
Deitch Studios, 4-40 44th Dr., Long Island City
Through August 9
Admission: free
212-343-7300
os gemeos houston st. slideshow
Labeled "the Wonderful Wizard of Art" in a 2000 Harper’s Bazaar profile, Jeffrey Deitch is known for putting together daring and complex multimedia gallery shows that are part of the scene while also creating a scene. His roster of artists ranges from Jonathan Borofsky and E.V. Day to Barry McGee and Ryan McGinness, from Mariko Mori and SWOON to Miranda July and Keith Haring. But it’s been a tough July for the gallery. First, they held a benefit auction for fashion designer Tara Subkoff, who has a benign brain tumor that must be removed. And now they’re staging what they’re calling "A Community Memorial" for artist and rebel Dash Snow, who died of a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-seven. Through August 15 at the Grand St. location, people can pay their respects to Snow by visiting the gallery, checking out the show, and adding their own thoughts and memories of the bigger-than-life figure who some revered and others detested. Flowers are encouraged.
Kazumi Asamura
Snow is remembered in open memorial exhibit
Around the corner in the gallery’s Wooster St. space, Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman have installed "Black Acid Co-Op," transforming the large gallery into a series of abandoned rooms reminiscent of Mike Nelson’s "A Psychic Vacuum." You’ll have to sign a waiver before walking through a labyrinth of set pieces seemingly destroyed by an explosion in a crystal-meth lab, wandering into a kitchen, a library of books with new names, an Asian storefront, and a display of odd items encased in jars. Lowe and Freeman fill in nearly every nook and cranny of the dark spaces as they examine the cross-pollination of counterculture and industrial society in the underbelly of the urban environment. Meanwhile, the latest addition to the Deitch empire, the cavernous Deitch Studios on the river in Long Island City, is hosting "Pig," a group show of painting and sculpture curated and installed by the artists, which include Jim Drain, Paul Chan, Jeff Koons, Gelatin, and Paolo Pivi, among others. There are also two more sessions of Summer Sunday School, the gallery’s weekly examination of the world of contemporary art; on August 2, Takeshi Murata will discuss tweeked animation from the 1970s and 1980s, while the series concludes on August 9 with House Rules: Ben Jones and Dan Nadel Explain the Rules, comprising a lecture, slideshow, and workshop, along with Trinie Dalton discussing Bruno Munari’s ORIGINAL XEROGRAPHIES and THE XEROX BOX.
twi-ny/mdr
Lowe & Freeman’s "Black Acid Co-Op" is not for rent
As if that weren’t enough, Deitch has collaborated on a new work on the rectangular cement block on the corner of Houston St. and Bowery where last year they reinstalled a Keith Haring mural in honor of what would have been the artist’s fiftieth birthday. Brazilian twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, who go by the name Os Gemeos, have created another colorful fantasy land of bizarre characters and engaging scenes, reminiscent of their wonderful 2005 mural on Stillwell Ave. in Coney Island. In the new piece, the brothers also pay tribute to Dash Snow as well as Michael "Iz the Wiz" Martin, the famed train-graffiti master who died in June at the age of fifty.
Fredo is about to get a special kiss from brother Michael in GODFATHER PART 2
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
July 29 — August 2
718-636-4100
While James Dean achieved legendary status by starring in three monster hits before his tragic death in a car accident at the age of twenty-four, a strong case can be made that John Cazale has the best track record in movie history. The Boston-born actor had supporting roles in five of the best films of the 1970s — and arguably of the century — appearing in THE GODFATHER, THE CONVERSATION, THE GODFATHER PART 2, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, and THE DEER HUNTER, going five for five with three Best Picture Oscars. Cazale, who got his start in New York theater with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, often played quirky, awkward characters who were not quite right, from the troubled Fredo in the GODFATHER films to the nervous Sal in DOG DAY AFTERNOON and the offbeat Stanley in the DEER HUNTER. Cazale, who died of bone cancer in 1978 at the age of forty-two (with his fiancée, Meryl Streep, at his bedside), is being celebrated at BAM with a full retrospective of his too-brief career, centered around Richard Shepard’s new documentary about Cazale’s life.
Wednesday, July 29 DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Sidney Lumet 1975), preceded by I KNEW IT WAS YOU: REDISCOVERING JOHN CAZALE (Richard Shepard, 2008), 7:00
Thursday, July 30 THE CONVERSATION (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), preceded by I KNEW IT WAS YOU: REDISCOVERING JOHN CAZALE (Richard Shepard, 2008), 7:00
Friday, July 31 THE DEER HUNTER (Michael Cimino, 1978), 3:00 & 7:00
Saturday, August 1 THE GODFATHER (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), 3:00 & 7:00
Sunday, August 2 THE GODFATHER PART 2 (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974), 3:00 & 7:00
Cary Grant fans can find the awful truth and much more at BAM
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
August 3-20
718-636-4100
In many ways, Archibald Leach was the polar opposite of John Cazale. After BAM’s five-day tribute to the latter, the former, better known as Cary Grant, moves into BAM for the first of a two-part celebration that will continue in 2010. The handsome, suave, debonair Grant (1904-86) made more than seventy films before suddenly retiring from acting in 1966. The oft-married actor — his off-screen partners included Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, and, perhaps, Randolph Scott — was a glamorous sex symbol and the epitome of the Hollywood movie star. It didn’t hurt that he appeared in some of the greatest films ever made, from THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and NOTORIOUS to HIS GIRL FRIDAY and GUNGA DIN, from AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER and NORTH BY NORTHWEST to BRINGING UP BABY and THE AWFUL TRUTH. And through it all, no one really cared that the charming Cary Grant pretty much always played the charming Cary Grant, no matter what the role. He might not have had range, but he sure had style.
Monday, August 3 BLONDE VENUS (Josef von Sternberg, 1932), 6:50, 9:15
Tuesday, August 4 I’M NO ANGEL (Wesley Ruggles, 1933), 6:50, 9:15
Wednesday, August 5 HOLIDAY (George Cukor, 1938), 6:50, 9:15
Friday, August 7 MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (H. C. Potter, 1948), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Saturday, August 8 THE TALK OF THE TOWN (George Stevens, 1942), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Sunday, August 9 SUSPICION (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Monday, August 10 LADIES SHOULD LISTEN (Frank Tuttle, 1934) and BORN TO BE BAD (Lowell Sherman, 1934), 7:00
Tuesday, August 11 TOPPER (Norman Z. McLeod, 1937), 6:50, 9:15
Thursday, August 13 PENNY SERENADE (George Stevens, 1941), 6:50, 9:15
Friday, August 14 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (George Cukor, 1940), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Saturday, August 15 TO CATCH A THIEF (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Sunday, August 16 THE AWFUL TRUTH (Leo McCarey, 1937), 2:00, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15
Monday, August 17 BIG BROWN EYES (Raoul Walsh, 1936), 6:50, 9:15
Tuesday, August 18 ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (Howard Hawks, 1939), 6:50, 9:15
Wednesday, August 19 PEOPLE WILL TALK (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1951), 6:50, 9:15
Thursday, August 20 THAT TOUCH OF MINK (Delbert Mann, 1962), 6:50, 9:15
twi-ny/mdr
Much of Noguchi’s work is seen in a new light in reinstallation
The Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Rd. at Vernon Blvd.
Closed Monday and Tuesday
Through October 24
Admission: $10
Weekend shuttle service: $10 round trip
718-204-7088
As we have noted before, the Noguchi Museum is one of the most peaceful, beautiful, spiritual, and moving places in New York. Master sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed the Long Island City space himself; it previously was a photo-engraving plant. The museum has recently undergone a major reinstallation, so the complete permanent collection is on view for the first time in seven years, including many gems that have not been seen in a long time. The beautiful main floor and the spectacular garden are essentially the same, but you’ll find a whole slew of newly displayed work in the side and upper galleries, including numerous plaster, bronze, wood, and/or paper models of realized and unrealized projects such as "Archaeology," "Memorial to Buddha," the Lily and Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the U.S. Pavilion for Expo ’70, the politically tinged "This Tortured Earth," a swimming pool for Josef von Sternberg, and playgrounds for the UN and Riverside Park.
twi-ny/mdr
Noguchi sculpture garden is peaceful and relaxing
In addition to "Noguchi ReINstalled," the small but fascinating "From Plaster to Stone" is on view through August 30, in the room where "Memorial to the Dead of Hiroshima" used to reside. Several citrines are filled with Noguchi’s miniature plaster maquettes (and some in stone) of his sculptural work, models for many pieces that are on display in the other rooms as well as in other parts of the city. Offering a unique glimpse into his creative process, the exhibit includes early renderings of "Grey Sun," "Spirit of the Lima Bean," "Red Cube," "Double Red Mountain," "The Seeker," and many more. As always, end your visit by relaxing in the gorgeous Sculpture Garden, which will revive your body and soul. We especially recommend taking a seat on the rocks by "The Well (Variation on a Tsukubai)," following the water as it comes out of the top and glides down the rough and glistening sides and through Noguchi’s initials. And don’t forget to stop by Noguchi’s burial marker, signifying where part of his ashes were laid to rest.
Friday, August 7 Summer in the Garden: Free First Fridays, open until 8:30
Sunday, August 9 Summer in the Garden: Second Sundays — Music in the Garden, featuring ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) playing J. S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue, Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F, Op. 80, and the world premiere of a new string quartet by ACME violinist Caleb Burhans, free with museum admission, 3:00
twi-ny/mdr
Bernard Williams’s "Socrates Ply-Teck Barn" reveals skyline in sculpture park
Socrates Sculpture Park
Broadway at Vernon Blvd.
Admission: free
718-956-1819
http://www.socratessculpturepark.org
Whenever we got to the Noguchi Museum, we always visit Socrates Sculpture Park as well, which is right down the street. The current installation, "State Fair," is scheduled to end August 2, but some of the work often hangs around a little longer, so you still might get to see William Stone’s "Remote Arm Wrestle," Jennifer Cecere’s "Mom," Bernard Williams’s "Socrates Ply-Teck Barn," and other site-specific pieces after that. There are also four more screenings left in the park’s annual Outdoor Cinema series, which includes a movie preceded by music, dance, and food related to the film’s country of origin; the festivities begin every Wednesday night at 7:00. And finally, Hip to Hip Theatre Company will be presenting two nights of free Shakespeare in the Queens park.
Wednesday, July 29 United States: LOU REED’S BERLIN (Julian Schabel, 2007)
Wednesday, August 5 Israel: WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Ari Folman, 2008)
Wednesday, August 12 Kazakhstan: TULPAN (Sergei Dvortsevoy., 2008)
Zeitgeist Films
Un Certain Regard winner at Cannes is on its way to free Queens screening
Critics darling TULPAN has won prestigious festival awards in Cannes, London, Zurich, Karlovy Vary, Tokyo, India, Reykjavic, and Montreal, was selected for the 2008 New York Film Festival, and, following a recent limited engagement at Film Forum, now comes to Socrates Sculpture Park for a free outdoor screening. The first feature-length narrative by Sergey Dvortsevoy (who was previously hailed for such short documentaries as HIGHWAY and PARADISE), TULPAN is shot in the vast, empty landscape of the Hunger Steppe in southern Kazakhstan, where a former sailor, Asa (Askhat Kuchinchirekov), is living with his sister, Samal (Samal Yeslyamova), her ornery shepherd husband, Ondas (Ondasyn Besikbasov), and their three young children. Ondas is trying to marry Asa off to the last young woman in the territory, Tulpan, but her rude parents want no part of the sailor — and Tulpan, who is hiding behind a curtain, supposedly has a problem with the size of Asa’s ears. An extremely disappointed Asa returns to the family yurt, determined to win Tulpan’s heart with the help of his best friend, the gold-toothed Boni (Tulepbergen Baisakalov). Meanwhile, Ondas can’t wait to get rid of Asa, whom he believes to be a lazy good-for-nothing taking advantage of Samal’s kindness and generosity. With lambs being born dead and the health of the flock in jeopardy, tempers begin to flare as the future seems as desolate as the dusty steppes that surround the nomadic family. TULPAN, beautifully shot by Jola Dylewska, is a wonderfully engaging slice-of-life drama in which traditions battle modernity and loneliness is everywhere — even in a mother camel concerned when a vet shows up to try to take away her ailing offspring in what turns out to be one of the funniest scenes of the year. The kids are a riot as well; daughter Nuka (Nurzhigit Zhapabayev) can’t stop singing loudly, son Beke (Bereke Turganbayev) can recite the news from the radio verbatim while picking blackheads off his father’s back, and baby Maha (Mahabbat Turganbayeva) just wanders around, as cute as can be. TULPAN is a special little treat.
Saturday, August 15 Hip to Hip Theatre Company: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, 5:00
Wednesday, August 19 Italy: GOMORRAH (Matteo Garrone,. 2008)
Saturday, August 22 Hip to Hip Theatre Company: ROMEO & JULIET, 5:00
twi-ny/mdr
Buika and Urban Bush Women will dance into Damrosch Park on August 20
Several locations throughout Lincoln Center complex
August 5-23
Admission: free
Lincoln Center’s annual outdoor series of free shows is another wide-ranging collection of international sounds held at locations all around the complex, including Damrosch Park, Josie Robertson Plaza, and Broadway Plaza. For nearly three weeks, jazz, soul, pop, folk, bluegrass, hip hop, and more will be on display; among the highlights are the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew, the Derek Trucks Band, and a tribute to Odetta.
Wednesday, August 5 Asphalt Orchestra, Broadway Plaza, 7:00
Wednesday, August 5 Amir Elsaffar’s Two Rivers Large Ensemble and the Dave Brubeck Quartet with special guest soloist Simon Shaheen, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Thursday, August 6 Hip Hop Generation Next: Community Cipher led by Brandon "Peace" Albright/Illstyle & Peace, Josie Robertson Plaza, 6:00
Thursday, August 6 Asphalt Orchestra, North Plaza, 7:00
Thursday, August 6 Hip Hop Generation Next: dance performances by Full Circle (NYC), Footworkingz with Creation (Chicago), Chinese American Arts Council Martial Arts Society (NYC), Last for One (South Korea), And Lee In Soo Dance Project (South Korea), and live music by Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew (Sierra Leone), Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Friday, August 7 Asphalt Orchestra, Josie Robertson Plaza, 7:00
Friday, August 7 Raul Midon and Rokia Traore, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Saturday, August 8 Asphalt Orchestra, South Plaza, 7:00
Saturday, August 8 Wordless Music: Rhys Chatham’s Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars and Liquid Liquid, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Sunday, August 9 La Casita: A Home for the Heart/Un Hogar Para El Corazon, North Plaza, 12 noon
Sunday, August 9 Asphalt Orchestra, Broadway Plaza, 7:00
Sunday, August 9 Contra-Tiempo and Abakua Afro-Latin Dance Company, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Wednesday, August 12 Red Baraat Festival!, Josie Robertson Plaza, 7:00
twi-ny/mdr
Brooklyn Qawwali Party will bring da funk on August 12
Wednesday, August 12 Brooklyn Qawwali Party and OuterIndia presents Susheela Raman, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Thursday, August 13 Snehasish Mozumder & Som, Jake Shimabukuro, and the Derek Trucks Band, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 6:00
Friday, August 14 Slavic Soul Party!, North Plaza, 7:00
Friday, August 14 Auktyon with Vladimir Volkov and John Medeski and Plastic People of the Universe, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Saturday, August 15 Family Day: Puppet Pageant: Beautiful Princess Rat of the MTA, North Plaza, 2:00
Saturday, August 15 Family Day: Bubble Do Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 3:00
Saturday, August 15 Ben Munisteri Dance Projects and Dendy Dancetheater, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Sunday, August 16 Heritage Sunday: La Mora’s Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Dance, Sidiki Conde and Tokounou, and Caracumbe, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 3:00
Sunday, August 16 Ba M’buta: Ancestral Connections from the Kongo to the Americas: Africa Aye, Ibboru, and Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Wednesday, August 19 Tanya Tagaq and Stew & Heidi present: The Broadway Problem, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:00
Thursday, August 20 Harlem Samba, Josie Robertson Plaza, 7:00
Thursday, August 20 Buika and Urban Bush Women, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Friday, August 21 Frevo Bombastico, South Plaza, 7:00
Friday, August 21 Blind Date with DJ Dolores & Siba and Otto, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30
Saturday, August 22 Twenty-sixth annual Roots of American Music: In the Spirit of Odetta, featuring Tommy Sands and Fionan and Moya, Calypso Rose, the Holmes Brothers, and others, North Plaza, 2:00
Saturday, August 22 Twenty-sixth annual Roots of American Music: Lizz Wright and others, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:00
Sunday, August 23 Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls Summer Revue, North Plaza, 2:00
Sunday, August 23 Twenty-sixth annual Roots of American Music: BRC Orchestra: Four Women: A Tribute to Odetta, Miriam Makeba, Odetta, Abbey Lincoln, and Eartha Kitt; the Louisiana Renegades featuring Christine Balfa, Dirk Powell, Kevin Wimmer of Balfa Toujours, and other Creole artists; Texas Tornados: A Tribute to Doug Sahm; and Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos: The Lost World of Latin-Jewish Sound featuring Arturo O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Sextet with special guests Larry Harlow, Andy Gonzalez, Irving Fields, Anitbalas Horns, and Jeremiah Lockwood, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 4:00
Courtesy Rialto Pictures
THE THIRD MAN kicks off fab Brit noir series at Film Forum
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
August 7 — September 3
212-727-8110
Nearly five years ago, Film Forum presented "Essential Noir: Classics of American Film Noir, 1941-1958," consisting of seminal work by Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak, Nicholas Ray, Jules Dassin, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and others. FF now ventures across the pond for four weeks of the best of British noir, forty-two films cast in dark shadows, filled with double crosses, femmes fatales, and mystery galore. The series, which includes numerous double features, kicks off with the most entertaining film ever made, Carol Reed’s THE THIRD MAN, and continues with classics by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Marc Allégret, Edward Dmytryk, Joseph Losey, and Dassin — whose NIGHT AND THE CITY (paired with Robert Hamer’s IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY in a magnificent double bill on August 14-15) is part of both festivals. Noir regulars Richard Widmark, Ray Milland, and especially James Mason are on hand, as well as Donald Pleasence, Horst Buccholz, Victor Mature, Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Patrick McGoohan, Herbert Lom, and Richard Basehart — and let’s not forget Gloria Grahame, Joan Collins, Diana Dors, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, Ann Todd, and Hayley Mills.
Friday, August 7
and
Saturday, August 8 THE THIRD MAN (1949, Carol Reed), 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50
Carol Reed’s thriller is quite simply the most entertaining film we have ever seen, twi-ny’s absolute all-time fave. Set in divided post-WWII Vienna amid a thriving black market, THE THIRD MAN is heavy in atmosphere, untrustworthy characters, and sly humor, with a marvelous zither score by Anton Karas. Joseph Cotten stars as Holly Martins, an American writer of Western paperbacks who has come to Vienna to see his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), but he seems to have shown up a little late. While trying to find out what happened to Harry, Martins falls for Harry’s lover, Anna (Alida Valli); is told to get out of town by Major Calloway (Trevor Howard); meets a stream of Harry’s more interesting, mysterious friends, including Baron Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch) and Popescu (Siegfried Breuer); and is talked into giving a lecture to a literary club by old Mr. Crabbin (Wilfrid Hyde-White). SPOILER: The shot in which Lime is first revealed, standing in a doorway, a cat brushing by his feet, his tongue firmly in cheek as he lets go a miraculous, knowing smile, is one of the greatest single shots in the history of cinema.
Sunday, August 9 THE SMALL BACK ROOM (1949, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger), 3:30, 7:30, and SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (1950, John Boulting), 1:30, 5:30, 9:30
Monday, August 10 THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1938, Arthur Woods), 3:35, 7:15, and ON THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE (1939, Brian Desmond Hurst), 1:45, 5:20, 9:00
Tuesday, August 11 BLANCHE FURY (1948, Marc Allégret), 3:15, 6:50, and FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG (1955, Arthur Lubin), 1:30, 5:05, 8:40
Wednesday, August 12 HELL IS A CITY (1959, Val Guest), 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
Thursday, August 13 SO EVIL MY LOVE (1948, Lewis Allen), 1:30, 5:40, 9:50, and THE BROTHERS (1947, David MacDonald), 3:40, 7:50
Friday, August 14
and
Saturday, August 15 NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950, Jules Dassin), 2:45, 6:25, 10:05, and IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY (1947, Robert Hamer), 1:00, 4:40, 8:20
Sunday, August 16 VICTIM (1961, Basil Dearden), 3:30, 7:25, and TIGER BAY (1959, J. Lee Thompson), 1:30, 5:25, 9:20
Monday, August 17 VICTIM (1961, Basil Dearden), 3:30, and TIGER BAY (1959, J. Lee Thompson), 1:30
Monday, August 17 I MET A MURDERER (1939, Roy Kellino), 7:50, and THE SEVENTH VEIL (1945, Compton Bennett), 6:00, 9:30
Tuesday, August 18 SO LONG AT THE FAIR (1950, Antony Darnborough & Terence Fisher), 1:00, 4:30, 8:00, and THE CLOUDED YELLOW (1951, Ralph Thomas), 2:40, 6:10, 9:40
Wednesday, August 19
and
Thursday, August 20 THE OCTOBER MAN (1947, Roy Baker), 1:00, 4:35, 8:00, THE GREEN COCKATOO (1937, William Cameron Menzies), 3:05, 6:40, 10:05
Friday, August 21
and
Saturday, August 22 HELL DRIVERS (1957, Cy Endfield), 1:30, 5:20, 9:10, and NEVER LET GO (1960, John Guillermin), 3:35, 7:25
Sunday, August 23 GASLIGHT (1940, Thorold Dickinson), 1:00, 4:40, 8:20, and HATTER’S CASTLE (1941, Lance Comfort), 2:40, 6:20, 10:00
Monday, August 24 GASLIGHT (1940, Thorold Dickinson), 1:00, 4:40, and HATTER’S CASTLE (1941, Lance Comfort), 2:40
Monday, August 24 THE UPTURNED GLASS (1947, Lawrence Huntington), 6:45
Monday, August 24 OBSESSION (1948, Edward Dmytryk), 8:30
Tuesday, August 25 APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME (1946, John Harlow), 1:00, 4:45, 8:30, and GOOD TIME GIRL (1948, Donald MacDonald), 2:55, 6:40, 10:25
Wednesday, August 26 THE LONG HAUL (1957, Ken Hughes), 1:30, 5:30, 9:30, and THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (1954, Lewis Gilbert), 3:30, 7:30
Thursday, August 27 CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS (1948, Terence Young), 1:30, 5:30, 9:30, and WANTED FOR MURDER (1946, Lawrence Huntington), 3:30, 7:30
Friday, August 28
and
Saturday, August 29 BRIGHTON ROCK (1947, John Boulting), 1:00, 4:40, 8:20, and THE FALLEN IDOL (1948, Carol Reed), 2:50, 6:30, 10:10
Courtesy Rialto Pictures
Bobby Henrey only wants to protect his snake in noir classic
Immediately following WWII, British director Sir Carol Reed pulled off one of the great hat tricks in cinema history, with 1947’s ODD MAN OUT, 1948’s THE FALLEN IDOL, and 1949’s THE THIRD MAN. The middle film, often overlooked but recently released in a fully restored 35mm print, is an absorbing Hitchcockian thriller as seen through a child’s eyes. Based on Graham Greene’s short story "The Basement Room," THE FALLEN IDOL stars newcomer Bobby Henrey as Phile, the eight-year-old son of an ambassador who lives in a Belgrave Square mansion, where he is taken care of by the quiet butler, Baines (Ralph Richardson), and his shrewish wife (Sonia Dresdel). After Phile walks in on Baines having a tearoom rendezvous with Julie (Michèle Morgan), the boy becomes enmeshed in lies, betrayal, and deception, none of which he understands. All he cares about is keeping Mrs. Baines from finding his prized pet, a snake named MacGregor that he hides behind a brick on the guest-room balcony. But when a tragic accident leads to suspicions of murder, Phile runs away, trying to escape from a dangerous adult world he is far from ready for. Shot in elegant black and white by cinematographer Georges Périnal and featuring a script by Greene (with additional dialogue by Lesley Storm and William Templeton), THE FALLEN IDOL actually faced American censorship because of sexual innuendo, including a hysterical line marvelously delivered by Dora Bryan as a prostitute, which Reed thankfully refused to delete. William Alwyn’s score is unnecessarily overwrought and Phile’s persistent wining will get on your nerves up to the very end (Henrey made only one more film after this, the little-known THE WONDER KID), but Richardson’s wonderfully subdued performance and Reed’s astute direction make the return of THE FALLEN IDOL very welcome indeed.
Sunday, August 30 YIELD TO THE NIGHT (1956, J. Lee Thompson), 1:00, 4:45, 8:30, and THE CRIMINAL (1960, Joseph Losey), 2:55, 6:40, 10:25
Monday, August 31 THE CRIMINAL (1960, Joseph Losey), 1:00, 4:45, and YIELD TO THE NIGHT (1956, J. Lee Thompson), 2:55
Monday, August 31 THE MAN BETWEEN (1953, Carol Reed), 7:00, 9:00
Tuesday, September 1 THE SNORKEL (1958, Guy Green), 2:50, 6:25, 10:00, and SHE PLAYED WITH FIRE (1957, Sidney Gilliat), 1:00, 4:35, 8:10
Wednesday, September 2 PEEPING TOM (1960, Michael Powell), 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
Thursday, September 3 PEEPING TOM (1960, Michael Powell), 1:30, 3:30
Thursday, September 3 NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (1948, St. John L. Clowes), followed by a Q&A with cast member Richard Neilson and original U.S. distributor Richard Gordon, 6:30
Thursday, September 3 NOOSE (1948, Edmond T. Gréville), 8:50
East Shore of Turtle Pond, Central Park, enter at East 79th St.
Admission: free
Friday, July 31
through
Sunday, August 2 TimeSpace Theatre Co. presents THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, directed by Jeremy X. Halpern
West Side Community Garden Floral Amphitheater
West 89th St. between Columbus & Amsterdam Aves.
Admission: free
212-245-7498
http://www.westsidecommunitygarden.org
Saturday, August 1, 8
and
Sunday, August 2, 9 A MINI-MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, directed by Morna Martell, with music by Ralph Martell, 5:00
Multiple locations
Through August 14
All performances at 8:00 pm
Admission: free
http://www.cityparksfoundation.org
There’s lots of free Shakespeare to be seen in park throughout the city this summer, but the CityParks Foundation is also presenting new plays in such locations as Herbert Von King Park and Marcus Garvey Park, giving theater lovers the opportunity to see new productions in some very cool spots. This year’s lineup includes the first original commission for the annual series, Chisa Hutchinson’s DIRT RICH.
Wednesday, July 29
and
Thursday, July 30 DIRT RICH by Chisa Hutchinson, Marcus Garvey Park
Friday, July 31
and
Saturday, August 1 I DREAM A LITTLE DREAM, Theater in a Box: Essential Shakespeare, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Continuum Company, Marcus Garvey Park
Tuesday, August 4 I DREAM A LITTLE DREAM, Theater in a Box: Essential Shakespeare, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU Continuum Company, East River Park
Wednesday, August 5 DIRT RICH by Chisa Hutchinson, East River Park
Thursday, August 6
and
Friday, August 7 CHAUTAUQUA!, performed by the National Theater of the USA, East River Park
The Drilling Company
Municipal Parking Lot across from 85 Ludlow St. at Broome St.
Thursdays through Saturdays through August 15 at 8:00
Admission: free
212-414-7717
http://www.drillingcompany.org
Thursday, July 30
through
Saturday, August 15 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, directed by Hamilton Clancy
Fort Tryon Park, pine grove area
Ft. Washington Ave. at Margaret Corbin Dr.
Thursdays through Sundays at 8:00
Admission: free
212-252-5258
Through August 2 The Gorilla Repertory Theater Company presents Robert Ackerman’s new version of JOAN OF ARC, with scenes moving through Fort Tryon Park
Riverside Park
North Patio of Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
West 89th St. & Riverside Dr.
Thursdays through Sundays at 6:30
Admission: free
http://www.hudsonwarehouse.net
Through August 2 HAMLET, directed by Jerrod Bogard
Thursday, August 6
through
Sunday, August 30 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, directed by Richard Harden
Central Park (68th St. & Central Park West)
Prospect Park (at Fifth Ave.)
Saturdays & Sundays at 5:30
Admission: free
917-620-7024
http://www.theatreplayground.com
Through August 29 A One-Man Outdoor Spectacle, an interactive theater piece for families, based on Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, written by Ugljesa Sajtinac, and starring Samuel Kirk and Jason Vance on a rotating basis
Jonathan Slaff
Theater for the New City musical will play numerous parks this summer
Multiple locations
Admission: free
http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net
Saturday, August 1
through
Sunday, September 13 Theater for the New City’s thirty-third annual summer street theater tour features a new musical about two men dealing with the financial crisis, with book, lyrics, and direction by Crystal Field and musical score by David Tice; performances begin August 1 (2:00) at TNC at East Tenth St. at First Ave., August 2 (2:00) in Morningside Park, August 8 (2:00) in Tompkins Square Park, and August 9 (2:00) in Herbert Von King Park
Gripping WWII drama examines Danish underground resistance
Opens Friday, July 31
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, 1886 Broadway between 62nd & 63rd Sts., 212-757-0359
http://lincolnplaza.moviefone.com
In Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1944, the Holger Danske resistance is fighting back against the Gestapo. Flame (Thure Lindhardt of LOVE IN THOUGHTS) is the underground gang’s master executioner, eliminating traitors and Danish collaborators with cold-blooded precision, accompanied by his driver, the nervous and twitchy Citron (Mads Mikkelsen of PUSHER), a family man who has never killed anyone. But after getting romantically involved with Ketty Selmar (Stine Stengade) — a mysterious courier who could be a spy — and being ordered to execute some possibly innocent people, Flame starts questioning the motives of his superior, Aksel Winther (Peter Mygind), leading to a complex web of intrigue and double crosses. Based on a true story, FLAME & CITRON is a thrillingly told tale, gorgeously shot by cinematographer Jørgen Johansson. Despite a handful of awkward cuts and close-ups, director-cowriter Ole Christian Madsen (ANGELS IN FAST MOTION) skillfully keeps the suspense moving in what is a fascinating melding of Jean-Pierre Melville’s ARMY OF SHADOWS and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s THE LIVES OF OTHERS. There’s been a spate of film about the Nazis and WWII over the past few years; FLAME & CITRON, the highest-grossing movie in Denmark’s history, is one of the best of the bunch.
Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin) and Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) get involved in multiple sins
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Opens Friday, July 31
212-330-8182
http://www.landmarktheatres.com
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST is a different kind of vampire movie. Inspired by Émile Zola’s novel THÉRÈSE RAQUIN, the creepy Korean flick stars Song Kang-ho (THE HOST) as Sang-hyun, a friendly priest who volunteers to participate in a dangerous experimental program that is attempting to develop a vaccine for a deadly virus. Unfortunately, he succumbs to the disease, his body covered in nasty boils, but he surprisingly arises, reborn, with a deep desire to suck some blood. However, he still is the same friendly priest with a moral soul, so he is unwilling to kill to fill his belly. As he gains superhuman strength, he grows closer to Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), the virtually imprisoned adopted sister / wife of a goofy childhood friend (Shin Ha-kyun) who is cared for by his doting mother (Kim Hae-sook). But as Sang-hyun and Tae-ju get hot and heavy — one particular sex scene is among the hottest in a good movie since Jean-Jacques Beineix’s BETTY BLUE in 1986 — their thirst threatens to overwhelm them and everyone around them. Eschewing standard vampire lore — don’t look for garlic, crucifixes, bats, wooden stakes, or a Van Helsing-like character — Park (JOINT SECURITY AREA, the Vengeance trilogy) examines the complex spirituality and sexuality of a man of the cross, a figure always dressed in black (reminiscent of Count Dracula) who is forced to challenge his faith and humanity. At 133 minutes, THIRST is a half hour too long, with several scenes that could have served as an ending, but hang in there; no one can tell a story like Park Chan-wook, even if he is an acquired taste — like, say, blood.
Calvito Leal’s SIMONAL is one of highlights of Brazilian fest
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St.at Laight St.
August 2-7, $10
646-827-9333
http://www.brazilianfilmfestival.com
The summer movie season heats up with the arrival of VII Cine Fest Petrobras Brasil — New York, five days of the best of Brazilian cinema, with many of the screenings being followed by Q&As with the filmmakers. Things kick off on Sunday, August 2, with a free live performance by Sílvia Machete, followed by screening of IF I WERE YOU 2 (Daniel Filho), at Central Park SummerStage at 7:00. This year’s festival consists of fifteen narrative dramas and documentaries, including Laís Bodanzky’s THE BALLROOM, Leandro HBL and Wesley Pentz’s FAVELA ON BLAST, Julio Bressane relationship flick THE HERB OF THE RAT, Cláudio Manoel, Micael Langer and Calvito Leal’s controversial racial investigation SIMONAL — NO ONE KNOWS HOW TOUGH IT WAS, and Guel Arraes’s love story simply titled ROMANCE.
Talat Bulut, Murat Han, Ozgu Namal travel across murky waters in BLISS
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, August 7
212-924-3363
Abdullah Oguz’s MUTLULUK (BLISS) is a harrowing tale of misguided family honor and tradition. Ozgu Namal gives a rich, deep performance as Meryem, a seventeen-year-old who is discovered half-naked by a lake. It is assumed that she has just lost her virginity, dishonoring her family — it doesn’t matter whether through love or by rape — so tradition demands that she be killed, a deed assigned to her cousin, Cemal (Murat Han). But Cemal ultimately cannot pull the trigger, and the two of them run away, soon finding escape aboard a boat piloted by Irfan Kurudal (Talat Bulut), a college professor enjoying the freedom of the sea. Meanwhile, Meryem’s family is trying to track her and Cemal down — and kill them both. Based on the novel by Zulfu Livaneli, MUTLULUK (BLISS) is a tense thriller with strong emotional power, pitting long-standing tradition against the modern-day world.
Larry Fessenden and Dominic Monaghan get goofy in fun horror throwback
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Opens Friday, August 7
212-255-8800
Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD is an old-fashioned fun horror movie, paying homage to the Hammer films of yore. After his grave-robbing partner, Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden), is guillotined, Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) awaits his turn. With five hours to go before his execution, Blake is visited by Father Francis Duffy (Ron Perlman), who wants to know all the details of Grimes and Blake’s business, especially as it relates to harvesting the undead. So with a bottle of whiskey by his side, Blake recounts the pair’s eerie adventures through foggy eighteenth-century England and their battles with the House of Murphy, a rival outfit that also gathers corpses for a living. Writer-director-editor McQuaid imbues the film with a graphic-novel feel, with many scenes ending in colorful freeze-frame panels; although I SELL THE DEAD is an original story (based on his own short), the director did adapt the script into a comic book before shooting in order to capture the mood and visual style he was after. And cinematographer Rick Lopez, production designer David Bell, and art director Beck Underwood nail that atmosphere, along with Jeff Grace’s ambitious score. The cast also includes Phantasm Tall Man Angus Scrimm as a creepy violin-playing doctor in desperate need of body parts, Brenda Cooney as Blake’s boisterous girlfriend, and Joel Garland as a burly tavern owner after his own piece of the action. The film was shot in Staten Island, Long Island, and Manhattan; if the Fortune of War bar looks familiar, that’s because it’s actually the Scratcher in the East Village.
Sacha Baron Cohen is up to new tricks in BRÜNO
Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to the brilliant BORAT (Larry Charles, 2006) and the crazy ALI G INDAHOUSE (Mark Mylod, 2002) is the chaotic gayfest BRÜNO, a muddled mess that overcomes its lack of a much-needed narrative with some of the funniest scenes seen on-screen since, well, BORAT. Baron Cohen’s Brüno character is a nineteen-year-old flaming homosexual fashion journalist who wants to take America by storm — after being kicked out of Milan for causing trouble on the catwalk in an all-Velcro suit. But America doesn’t seem quite ready to embrace the rather absurd, way-over-the-top Austrian (who is seeking to be as famous as Hitler or Schwarzenegger), especially at a focus group that is judging a TV show he has created — which features one of the most hysterical moments ever put on film (and one that will never be able to be shown on television). The structure of the film, directed by Charles, follows the general format of BORAT as Brüno and his right-hand man, the much-maligned Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), travel the world getting involved in raunchy, bizarre stunts that often put his physical well-being in jeopardy, whether running from angry Hasidim, insulting Osama bin Laden to a terrorist’s face, trying to seduce Ron Paul, or flaunting his black child on a Dallas talk show. It’s more a series of vignettes than an actual movie — in some ways it has more in common with the JACKASS flicks than with BORAT — and not all of the set pieces work, but the ones that do, including the grand finale in a wrestling cage, are an absolute riot. But Baron Cohen’s investigation of the superficiality of celebrity and haute-couture culture often gets lost in the mix. We’re already looking forward to the DVD release, hoping it has some of the deleted scenes mentioned in the film’s press notes as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary that shows just how out of his mind social critic / daringly risqué comedian Baron Cohen is as he risks life and limb to reveal the dark underbelly of contemporary American society.
Sam Raimi returns to horror with DRAG ME TO HELL
Michigan-born writer/director/producer Sam Raimi makes a welcome return to the horror genre with DRAG ME TO HELL, his first thriller since 2000’s THE GIFT and only his second legitimate scarefest since 1987’s EVIL DEAD II. (In the interim, he has made such films as A SIMPLE PLAN, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, ARMY OF DARKNESS, DARKMAN, and the SPIDER-MAN trilogy.) Battling for a promotion, loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) decides not to give old, decrepit Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) a third extension on her mortgage. But the vile-looking woman won’t give up that easy, getting into a frightening physical fight with Christine that ends when the craggy old bat casts a wicked spell on her. Christine tries to return to her safe, conventional life with her boyfriend, Clay Dalton (Justin “I’m a Mac” Long), but she is haunted by an evil creature that just might drag her to hell in three days if she can’t find a way to stop it. Written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, DRAG ME TO HELL is a potent mix of horror and humor, ire and irony, always ready with a funny joke or two, its tongue firmly imbedded in its cheek — when it’s not rolling out of Mrs. Ganush’s absolutely disgusting mouth.
Iraq War drama puts viewers in the middle of the action
http://thehurtlocker-movie.com
Based on embedded journalist Mark Boal’s experiences in Iraq, THE HURT LOCKER follows a three-member Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit as they are called in to defuse a series of dangerous situations involving various kinds of bombs, including IEDs and other life-threatening explosive devices. Team leader Will James (Jeremy Renner) is an expert bomb defuser and maverick who doesn’t follow protocol and likes to live on the edge. Spc. Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is a greenhorn who just wants to survive the last forty days of their rotation. And Sgt. J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) likes to go by the book and take no unnecessary chances, which puts him in constant conflict with the unpredictable James. Recalling the second half of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam drama FULL METAL JACKET (1987), THE HURT LOCKER unfolds in a series of harrowing set pieces in which the EOD unit is called in to either safely detonate or defuse explosive devices while under the eyes of local Iraqis, any of whom could potentially be the bomber or a sniper. Director Kathryn Bigelow (BLUE STEEL, POINT BREAK) masterfully builds suspense scene after scene, beginning with the edge-of-your-seat opener through to the gripping conclusion. The experiences of the EOD unit serve as a microcosm for modern warfare in general and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East specifically, placing viewers in the midst of a tense, bitter, psychologically and emotionally draining battle that can never be won. The outstanding cast also features Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Evangeline Lilly in small roles; many of the Iraqis were played by actual war refugees. Shot in Jordan not far from the Iraq border, THE HURT LOCKER is a remarkable story, one of the best war films of the decade.
Johnny Depp plays it cool as Dillinger in gangster flick
In the early years of talkies, around the time of the Great Depression, Hollywood — and America — fell in love with gangsters and gangster pictures. Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, and James Cagney became stars in such films as LITTLE CAESAR, SCARFACE, and PUBLIC ENEMY. In 1967, right around the Summer of Love, the ultraviolent, highly stylized BONNIE AND CLYDE reinvigorated the genre, casting the notorious thieves as the can’t-miss glamorous duo of Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, followed two years later by the can’t-miss glamorous duo of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the title characters in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. Now, with the country deep into a recession and hot off the success of Ridley Scott’s AMERICAN GANGSTER, powerhouse writer-director-producer Michael Mann (THE INSIDER, MIAMI VICE) goes back to the 1930s for PUBLIC ENEMIES, a superb, exciting retelling of legendary bank robber and people’s hero John Dillinger.
Based on the book by Bryan Burrough, who recently praised Mann in the L.A. Times for getting so many — if not all, of course — of the facts, details, and even nuances right, PUBLIC ENEMIES begins with a prison break engineered by Dillinger in 1933, revealing him to be a sly, clever, and extremely smooth criminal, a violent villain impossible not to love, especially as played by Johnny Depp. (Dillinger has previously been portrayed by such actors as Warren Oates, Lawrence Tierney, and even Mark Harmon.) Dillinger puts together his crew, which includes John “Red” Hamilton (Jason Clarke), Harry Pierpont (David Wenham), and Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff), and falls in love with coat-check girl Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) as he proceeds on his well-publicized crime wave. A blustery J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) sics master G-man Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) on Dillinger, and the two play a cat-and-mouse game through the Midwest, with appearances by such other notorious gangsters as Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum), Frank Nitti (Bill Camp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham), and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi). The bullets keep flying as Dillinger grows bolder and bolder and Purvis gets closer and closer. PUBLIC ENEMIES is a classy, handsome gangster picture for the modern age, a fun trip back to a time before billion-dollar bank bailouts, when certain thieves were more like Robin Hood than Bernie Madoff.
Kevin Spacey has a bit of a drug problem in SHRINK
Clearview’s Chelsea
260 West 23rd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Jonas Pate’s SHRINK sets itself up to be hated. The Hollywood-set drama features annoying, unlikable people doing annoying, unlikable things, often with annoying, unlikable motives. Blame a lot of it on CRASH (Paul Haggis, 2004), one of the worst films to ever win an Oscar for Best Picture. The multiple story arcs that eventually come crashing together center around a pot-crazed self-help psychiatric guru (a subdued Kevin Spacey) who recently lost his wife and has some very bizarre patients, including a manic big-time agent (Dallas Roberts) with a cleanliness thing who sends his underlings out to do number two on his competitors’ steps; an aging, grizzled movie star and sex addict (Robin Williams) promoting his latest overblown flick with his drug-addled costar (Jack Huston); a former successful actress (Saffron Burrows) looking to get back in the game after finding out some hard truths about her rock star husband; and a young student (Keke Palmer) who spends her days going to movies instead of high school. Meanwhile, a wanna-be screenwriter (Mark Webber) is searching for his muse. There’s a whole lot of self-loathing and self-obsession, but somehow director Pate (DECEIVER) and writer Thomas Moffett (FROST) bring it all together against all odds. We particularly love the intervention scene. Given a chance, SHRINK will grow on you.
Spock and Kirk go back to the beginning in newest STAR TREK flick
Just as Kirk has his Khan, Spock gets his Nero in J. J. Abrams’s immensely entertaining time-traveling STAR TREK movie. Abrams (LOST) goes back to the very beginning, with the tumultuous birth of one James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), whose father was a legendary member of Star Fleet. Soon he winds up aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, surrounded by a crew that includes a logical Vulcan named Spock (Zachary Quinto); Uhura (Zoe Saldana), a hot language specialist; Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), a goofy doctor; seventeen-year-old helmsman Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin); engineer extraordinaire Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg); and rookie pilot and swordsman Hikaru Sulu (John Cho). In this sort-of Star Trek Babies tale, the young cadets are suddenly thrust into action with Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood), on a mission that involves evil villain Nero (Eric Bana), a rogue Romulan with an ax to grind. STAR TREK fans will love all the little homages to the series and the previous films, with both obvious and obscure references every step of the way as we learn how this famous crew first met one another and developed their extremely familiar relationships.
Juliette Binoche stars in Olivier Assayas’s latest
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
212-255-8800
At their annual family gathering, Frédéric (Charles Berling), Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), and Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) are celebrating their mother’s seventy-fifth birthday. But Hélène (Edith Scob) does not care about the present; instead, she is more concerned with preserving the past and preparing for the future. She pulls aside her oldest, Frédéric (Assayas’s on-screen alter ego), to tell him what to do with her belongings after she’s gone, but he is not ready to think about that. Her house is more like a museum, filled with valuable works of art and furniture that were collected by her uncle, a famous painter who died thirty years before. Frédéric would prefer to keep the house intact, donating a few items to the Musee d’Orsay and saving the rest for the next generation, but Adrienne and Jérémie don’t necessarily feel the same way, and Frédéric’s and Jérémie’s kids fail to see any value in the pieces, including two oil paintings by Camille Corot, begrudgingly noting that they’re from a different era. While Frédéric, a professor who has written a controversial book about the state of the economy, attaches personal memories to each object, Adrienne, a successful designer in New York, is more interested in the functionality of things, and Jérémie, who manages a company that profits from cheap labor in China, sees only monetary value. As the three siblings discuss what to do with their mother’s estate, relationships come into focus, and a long-held secret emerges.
Written and directed by Olivier Assayas (LES DESTINÉES SENTIMENTALES, DEMONLOVER, IRMA VEP), SUMMER HOURS, which was selected for the 2008 New York Film Festival, is a thoughtful, intelligent slice-of-life story that avoids overbearing cliches and melodramatic moments; there are no blow-ups or overemotional scenes. Instead, the family deals with its situation directly and matter-of-factly, a sort of French CHERRY ORCHARD for the twenty-first century. However, Assayas does include far too many red herrings, little flourishes of cinematic language that seem to set something up that never comes full circle. The project was initiated by the Musee d’Orsay, which had commissioned a group of international directors to make short films related to the institution’s holdings. Assayas’s friend and colleague Hou Hsiao Hsien ended up making the full-length FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON, which also starred Binoche. Although the project later fell apart, Assayas combined the idea with the worsening condition of his mother, resulting in a bittersweet and very personal work.
Courtesy of ADF / photo by Sara D. Davis
Pilobolus will perform 2b as part of its summer season at the Joyce
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
Through August 8, $19-$59
212-645-2904
Since 1971, Connecticut-based Pilobolus has stretched the athleticism of modern dance, extending the limits of what the human body can seemingly do while eschewing traditional dance movement and technique. Less kitschy than their half-sibling, prop-heavy Momix — Moses Pendleton founded the wildly popular Momix and cofounded the wildly popular Pilobolus — Pilobolus is in the midst of a month-long season at the Joyce, presenting three programs that include one world premiere and two New York City premieres. We attended program 3 on July 20, which began with “2b”, a new collaboration with Israeli choreographers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, who previously worked with Pilobolus on 2007’s RUSHES. In the surreal, obscure narrative, Matt Del Rosario, Andrew Herro, Jun Kuribayashi, and Annika Sheaff move amid a circle of black balloons and a tiny red door as a lizard-man seeks to relieve himself of his heavy burden, set to a calypso song by Elvis Presley, a musical saw instrumental by Tom Waits, and a pair of Prelude & Fugues by Bach. Pilobolus reaches far back next with Jonathan Wolken’s stunning 1973 work, PSEUDOPODIA, in which a male dancer (alternately Del Rosario or Kuribayashi) twists and somersaults across a barren stage as if a tumbleweed blowing in the wind, creating ridiculously remarkable moves. The first half of the program ends with 2008’s RAZOR:MIRROR, choreographed by Wolken in collaboration with the five dancers, who put on a kind of burlesque show within a show, bordering on the fine line between sanity and insanity.
Following an intermission, Pilobolus returns with a grand pair of numbers, 2001’s SYMBIOSIS, danced by Jenny Mendez and Jeffrey Huang to music by the Kronos Quartet, and Pendleton’s 1980 piece for all seven dancers, DAY TWO, set to music by Brian Eno and David Byrne. In the former, Mendez and Huang twist, turn, and meld together in seemingly impossible positions, leaving the audience breathless, while in the latter, the five men and two women of the company, all topless and wearing thongs, bring to life the second day of creation through a series of thrilling movements, exciting pairings, and, well, butts in the face. Pilobolus’s season at the Joyce continues through August 8 with two other programs as well, one including the New York premiere of Wolken’s REDLINE, with music by Battles and Autechre, along with DARKNESS AND LIGHT, WALKLYNDON, and RUSHES, while the other is highlighted by the world premiere of DOG*ID, a collaboration with “SpongeBob SquarePants” head writer Steven Banks, in addition to PSEUDOPODIA, GNOMEN, LANTERNA MAGICA, and MEGAWATT.
twi-ny/mdr
Look for Jon Langford to get a bit rowdy at Mekons gigs
Friday, July 31, the Bell House, 149 Seventh St., Gowanus, $15
Saturday, August 1, the Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston St., $15
http://www.mercuryloungenyc.com
When last we saw the Mekons, in October 2007 at the Gramercy, they were celebrating their thirtieth anniversary with what was billed as a Quiet Evening with the Mekons. Nonsense. For two hours, the raucous, bawdy British band invited the audience into an intimate, sometimes embarrassing, always infectious party filled with dirty jokes, self-deprecating humor, lots of booze, great music, and wild dancing. As the eight-member group played songs from throughout their career, including such seminal late-’80s numbers as "Hard to Be Human Again," "Last Dance," "(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian," and "Ghosts of American Astronauts" in addition to seven songs from their new record, the excellent NATURAL, various band members swooped up to the front-stage mic, taking vocal turns, playing solos, swizzling tequila, or just bopping around madly. Like any thirty-year relationship, there was a bumpy patch in the middle, with Sally Timms acting as mother, scolding the others for drinking too much, disappearing from the stage, or not being able to tune their instruments properly. The Mekons are back in town, playing an acoustic set July 31 at the Bell House with Horse’s Ha, followed by an electric show August 1 at the Mercury Lounge with Horse’s Ha again and the always welcome Megan Reilly. The Mekons have made some of the greatest records of the past several decades, from 1985’s FEAR AND WHISKEY and 1988’s SO GOOD IT HURTS to 1989’s THE MEKONS ROCK’N’ROLL and 1994’s RETREAT FROM MEMPHIS; if you’ve never experienced the crazy joy of Tom Greenhalgh, Jon Langford, Steve Goulding, and the rest of the crew, then make sure to see at least one of these shows. The Mekons never fail to amaze.
twi-ny/mdr
Animal Collective gets the crowd going at inaugural 2008 fest
Liberty State Park, Jersey City
July 31 — August 2
Tickets: $89 (roundtrip ferry $20 in advance)
At last year’s inaugural All Points West fest, a huge crowd packed Liberty State Park to see dozens of the best in indie music spread across three stages over three days. Fans wandered from one stage to the next, spread just the right distance apart, to see such groups as Radiohead, Kings of Leon, Grizzly Bear, Girl Talk, Animal Collective, and Jack Johnson, playing in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The park is also filled with site-specific art installations, a food court, and other amenities that make for a great experience, especially if you don’t just wait around for the top names and instead check out the lesser-known bands at the smaller stages, where you can get up close and personal with some pretty cool groups, particularly earlier in the day. This year’s headliners are Jay-Z on July 31 (replacing the Beastie Boys, who had to cancel because of Adam Yauch’s cancer), Tool on August 1, and Coldplay on August 2; among other bands to watch for over the long weekend are Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, Gogol Bordello, the Gaslight Anthem, the Ting Tings, Fleet Foxes, the Knux, Arctic Monkeys, Silversun Pickups, and Akron/Family.
twi-ny/mdr
Crowds slowly settle in at beautiful Liberty State Park
Although it’s pretty easy to get to — the ferry runs regularly from the Battery Park Pier — getting back was a nightmare last year. The festival organizers didn’t seem to realize that while everyone arrived at different times, the crowd pretty much left all at once, causing a serious safety hazard as thousands piled uncomfortably together for hours trying to get home. The fest promises that this year it will be better. Before going, make sure to carefully read the rules about what can and can’t be brought into the park; medium-size backpacks, cell phones, chap stick, and empty Nalgene bottles are allowed, while umbrellas, chairs, blankets, and outside food aren’t. (They’re serious about this; last year we couldn’t get in a sad-looking small pita buried in a bag.) Oh, and all food and drink is cash only, though there will be ATMs on-site.
twi-ny/mdr
Mike Watt was part of hot show in Central Park
Central Park Summerstage
Rumsey Playfield
Central Park (enter at Fifth Ave. & 69th St.)
Saturday, August 1, free, 7:00
212-360-2756
We’ve been waiting for this one all summer. On August 1, SummerStage is presenting what they are calling "a trio of songwriting innovators on one noteworthy evening line-up." First, Floored by Four will make its live debut, featuring the great Mike Watt, the original bassist in such seminal bands as the Minutemen and fIREHOSE and who has more recently toured with Iggy Pop and the Stooges and has been one of indie music’s good guys since the mid-1970s; guitar prodigy Nels Cline, who has played with Wilco, Thurston Moore, the Bad Plus, Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins, and many others in addition to Watt several times; keyboardist Yuka Honda of the late, lamented Cibo Matto; and her drummer ex, former Lounge Lizard Dougie Bowne. (Cline will also be playing [le] poisson rouge on August 4 with Jenny Scheinman, Jim Black, and Matt Penman).
twi-ny/mdr
M. Ward held time in Central Park with crack band
Critical darling M. Ward, the "Him" to Zooey Deschanel’s "She" in the duo She & Him, is on the road in support of his latest album, 2009’s HOLD TIME, which includes a sweet little cover of Buddy Holly’s "Rave On" among originals that veer between catchy indie folk and blues ("Never Had Nobody Like You," "One Hundred Million Years") and annoying experimental twee pop ("Hold Time," "Stars of Leo"). This gathering should make for a very interesting night of eclectic music.
twi-ny/mdr
Fiery Furnaces will take it outside for Williamsburg waterfront show
East River State Park, Williamsburg waterfront
90 Kent Ave. at North Eighth St.
Sundays at 2:00 through August 23
Admission: free
The Pool Parties continue at their new venue in East River State Park with a stellar lineup on August 2, featuring the ambient punk of Atlanta’s Deerhunter, the SoCal punk of No Age, and the electronic-noise Americana punk of Baltimore’s Dan Deacon, a trio that should know one another well, as they also shared a bill back in October 2007 at the Bowery Ballroom during the CMJ Music Marathon and are currently on the road together. Deerhunter, a veteran of the New York City free summer music scene, always puts on a trippie show, led by the gangly Bradford Cox. We caught a cool set by No Age last year at the South Street Seaport, when they played with L.A. Smell brethren Abe Vigoda. And although Deacon’s jumpy experimental sounds probably come off better in a club scene, he reported that his Coachella appearance was a surprise success, so after that, East River State Park should be a breeze. We can’t wait for the August 9 show, which includes one of our fave bands, Brooklyn’s Fiery Furnaces, who just released the outstanding I’M GOING AWAY (Thrill Jockey, July 2009). Drummer/composer Matt Friedberger and his sister, lyricist/singer Eleanor, are being hailed for their most "accessible" album yet, but don’t let that scare you off; on the record, they are as eclectic as ever, playing off the beat just enough to keep you on your toes. You never know where they’re going to go with their live performances, which is part of the fun. Also on the bill is the Athens psychedelic acid tribe Dark Meat / Vomit Lasers / Family Band / Galaxy, Brooklyn’s own loud and heavy Netherlands, and a DJ set by London’s inimitable Simian Mobile Disco.
twi-ny/mdr
Black Lip Jared Swilley gets a lift from Pool Parties crowd
It’s been a great season so far at the new venue for the Pool Parties, which were previously held at the McCarren Park Pool. The two craziest shows were on July 12, when the crowd nearly broke down the front barriers during Fucked Up’s wild set, and the Black Lips on July 26, when the barriers were indeed pushed up against the stage, leading to much diving by both the audience and the band members. Unfortunately, a lightning storm on July 26 forced the cancellation of the highly anticipated headlining set by . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, but twi-ny was still able to snap a few pictures of the band earlier in the day, when they were checking out the beautiful views behind stage. You can check out our summer music photos for those shots and many more from the Pool Parties, the Seaport Music Festival, SummerStage, the Siren Festival, and other shows.
Old Crow Medicine Show headlines Big Surprise at the Beacon
Beacon Theatre
2124 Broadway at 74th St.
Saturday, August 6, $39.50-$49.50, 7:30
212-465-6500
The Nashville sound comes to the Big Apple in the form of the Big Surprise Tour, which features roots rock, Americana, alternative folk, and down-home country from the Old Crow Medicine Show, the Dave Rawlings Machine featuring Gillian Welch, the Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle. We caught upstate New Yorkers Simone and James Felice and their band last summer at the inaugural All Points West Festival, and they put on a solid show that included a memorable "Rockefeller Druglaw Blues." We’ve been listening to Earle’s latest CD, MIDNIGHT AT THE MOVIES, over and over, which displays his eclectic songwriting chops and a musical taste reminiscent of his dad’s, the great Steve Earle. Rawlings and Welch have been longtime musical partners who have played with Ryan Adams, the Old Crow Medicine Show, and many others. And as far as the OCMS go, they’re a five-piece Nashville-based string band featuring banjo, guitar, harmonica, fiddle, and upright bass.
Scott H. Biram is bound to get wild and crazy in Brooklyn
Union Hall
702 Union St. at Fifth Ave.
Thursday, August 6, $10-$12, 7:30
212-220-1460
http://www.myspace.com/scotthbiram
It takes more than a head-on collision with an eighteen-wheeler to keep the Dirty Old One Man Band himself, Scott H. Biram, from playing his unique brand of bluesy country punk. Biram, who was back onstage a month after the fatal accident, will be at Union Hall on August 6 touring behind his latest killer of an album, SOMETHING’S WRONG / LOST FOREVER (Bloodshot, May 2009). Over the course of a dozen guitar-drenched songs, Biram lures listeners to "come back, baby, to the wild side," because "time flies when you’re going down slow." The Austin-based musician, who often sounds like he’s singing through a garbage disposal (he actually uses an old bullet mic that distorts his voice), throws in an occasional organ and harmonica along with elements of Steve Earle ("Draggin’ Down the Line"), Eddie Cochran ("I Feel So Good"), and even Bruce Springsteen ("Sinkin’ Down"), although it’s basically just him tearing it up on his guitar. Among the highlights of the new disc are the angry punk of "Judgement Day"; "Ain’t It a Shame," a gospel blues about race and war; and "Hard Time," which finishes with a crazy freak-out. Brooklyn’s own bluesy twangin’ janglers Boss Tweed open up.
Norway’s Casiokids help celebrate Moshi Moshi anniversary at seaport
River to River Festival
South Street Seaport, Pier 17
Friday, August 7, free, 6:00
212-945-0505
http://www.rivertorivernyc.com
http://www.moshimoshimusic.com
UK label Moshi Moshi is celebrating its tenth anniversary (a wee bit late) with a summer tour featuring three of its current acts, landing at the South Street Seaport on August 7. Formed in 1998, the very DIY Moshi Moshi started getting serious six years later, when they began releasing work by such groups as Hot Chip and Bloc Party, followed by Au Revoir Simone, Mates of State, Architecture in Helsinki, Kate Nash, Friendly Fires, Matt and Kim, and Lykke Li, among others. The label will be represented at the River to River Festival by the techno Afro-beat of Norway’s Casiokids, the clever lyrics of East London’s the Wave Pictures, and the joyful duo of Sheffield’s Slow Club, three buzzworthy groups that have been making a name for themselves overseas and are now ready to make a bigger splash here in the States.
The Pretenders headline benefit gala at SummerStage
Central Park Summerstage
Rumsey Playfield
Central Park (enter at Fifth Ave. & 69th St.)
Monday, August 10, $47.50 - $65, 6:00
212-360-2756
This year’s final benefit show for the City Parks Foundation is a gala that places girl power center stage. Actress Juliette Lewis — whose father, Geoffrey, played many a bad guy in Clint Eastwood Westerns — has been carving out a musical career for herself, first with the Licks and now with the New Romantiques, touring behind her upcoming album, TERRA INCOGNITA (The End, September 2009). Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, has battled stage fright and psychological problems while releasing a mix of original songs and cover tunes on such records as WHAT WOULD THE COMMUNITY THINK? (1996), THE GREATEST (2006), and JUKEBOX (2009). The Pretenders, led by grand dame Chrissie Hynde and the return of longtime drummer Martin Chambers, have been making some of the best music of the last thirty years — heck, they’re one of the creators of alterna-punk power pop — from their early, seminal albums to last year’s stellar BREAK UP THE CONCRETE. Don’t be bad boys and miss this show or you’re liable to get spanked. While tickets range from $47.50 to $65, several special packages start at $250 and go up to $15,000, including a cocktail party with the artists and other amenities.
TV on the Radio play their home boro for benefit show
Celebrate Brooklyn!
Prospect Park Bandshell
Tuesday, August 11, $30, 5:30
718-855-7882
http://www.celebratebrooklyn.org
TV on the Radio is not an ordinary band, nor one that is easy to understand. Their melodies are drenched in noise, and they sing about the apocalypse and orgasmic hippies. On June 4, they took their peculiar sound (and bushy beards) to Central Park SummerStage to play a benefit in front of two thousand wet fans who stuck out the torrential downpour that made up a large portion of the show. Opening with the soft chords of “Love Dog” from their epic 2008 dance-rock masterpiece DEAR SCIENCE, they wowed for an hour and half full of hits and some surprising tracks. The standout tracks included the opener, “Golden Age,” “Dancing Choose,” and three tracks from 2006’s RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN: the offbeat “Blues from Down Here,” “Dirtywhirl,” and the band’s unofficial anthem, “Wolf Like Me.” But before they called it quits to send the crowd, with its abundant umbrellas, home happy, they had one last trick up their sleeve warfare — “A Method,” an a cappella masterpiece that had singer Tunde Adebimpe and the rest of the band jumping around the stage with an assortment of exotic instruments. And even though a power failure occurred three minutes into the song, Gerard Smith, Dave Sitek, Kyp Malone, Jaleel Bunton, and Adebimpe kept on trucking like a well-oiled machine on a mission. And as the house lights went up and the band thanked the audience and left the stage, their mission was clear: To find a clear, concise method for making unique indie rock with lots of noise and lots of heart warfare — and they have got it down to a damn good science. On August 11, TVOTR will be playing another local benefit, this one for Celebrate Brooklyn! in honor of their hometown. Also on the bill are local groups Gang Gang Dance and Chin Chin.
twi-ny/mdr
Puppet installation offers bizarre debauchery at Here Arts Center
HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
Entrance fee: $7
212-352-3101
Wednesday, July 29
through
Sunday, August 2 Barcelona-based Peruvian artist Ety Fefer brings her bizarre collection of automated puppets and music to HERE Arts Center for a special five-day performance installation featuring mechanized monsterish miniatures singing and dancing in glass cases and a house where the creepy figures are enjoying drink and debauchery, 4:00 - 11:00 (Sunday 1:00 - 6:00)
Alps Shoji, Yoku Tanaka Collection
Chrysler New Yorker Four-Door Sedan, 1957
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. between First and Second Aves.
Through August 16
Admission: $5
212-715-1258
Immediately following the end of WWII, Japanese toy manufacturers and the general public developed an akogare, or yearning, for certain American products and the country’s general way of life. Toy designer Matsuzo Kosuge hit the jackpot when, in 1945, he used empty tin cans to create a small model of a jeep, and that success led to a resurgence of the Japanese toy industry, which made miniature reproductions of sporty American vehicles and luxury sedans throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, all carefully painted and as faithful as possible to the real thing. In 1961, Yogu Tanaka began buying the toy cars. “I can still recall how excited I was to see them,” he recalls in the Japan Society exhibition catalog. “I would stand there for hours, oblivious to the passage of time, transfixed by the serried ranks of foreign model cars.” His collection of postwar tin toys, consisting primarily of automobiles but also including speedboats, buses, jets, an airplane, and a helicopter, is on view at the Japan Society through August 16, a fun and ultimately enlightening display that is about a lot more than just cool objects.
Among the seventy vehicles enclosed in glass cases are a 1950 General Motors Buick Four-Door Convertible, a 1952 Chrysler Window Deluxe Two-Door Convertible, a 1954 Studebaker-Packard Studebaker Champion Two-Door Coupe, a 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura (the model for the Batmobile), a 1956 Ford Thunderbird Two-Door Coupe, a 1962 Chrysler Imperial Four-Door Hardtop, and, perhaps most impressively, several gorgeous General Motors Cadillac Sedans. There’s also a “Noble Bus” complete with painted faces in the windows, a Ford Fairlane hooked up to a house trailer, and a 1956 Ford Thunderbird Two-Door Convertible with a goofy guy behind the wheel. Many of the autos have friction motors, a crank inertia motor, bumper-activated reversing action, a working siren, or even remote controls. Make sure to check out both the fronts and backs of the vehicles when you can, in addition to the underbody and the interior, which sometimes features detailed dashboards and other surprises. And pay special attention to the display case of boxes the cars came in, illustrating how the Japanese thought Americans lived. It’s a small exhibit, so the Japan Society has lowered its entrance fee to a mere five bucks, but that’s a meager price to pay to see such an engaging collection.
twi-ny/mdr
Calatrava’s model for WTC transportation hub is on view at Spanish Institute
Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
684 Park Ave. between 68th & 69th Sts.
Through August 31 (closed Sundays)
Admission: $10 (free Fridays 10:00 am — 8:00 pm)
212-628-0420
http://www.queensofiaspanishinstitute.org
New Yorkers are cynical about the future of the World Trade Center site, as the last eight years have been filled with starts and stops, government bureaucracy, financing problems, citizen outrage, and other situations that have kept the area barren. But that doesn’t mean that some work isn’t going on behind the scenes, as an exhibition at the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute beautifully demonstrates. In January 2004, Santiago Calatrava unveiled his commissioned design for the WTC Transportation Hub, and the show expands on that through a series of models, photographs, and a video documentary that gets to the heart of Calatrava’s "bird being released from a child’s hand." The centerpiece of the exhibit is a sculptural rendering of the spectacular white entrance, complete with tiny commuters making their way to and from work. Don’t be afraid to walk underneath and pop your head up for a very cool view. An award-winning sculptor, architect, and engineer, Calatrava, who was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1951, has designed buildings, bridges, transit stations, and other large-scale projects all over the world; also on display here are models of such commissions as the Sundial Footbridge in Redding, California; the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Chicago Spire Tower; the Margret McDermott Bridge in Dallas; and the 80 South Street Tower in Lower Manhattan and the Governors Island Gondola.
When fifteen-year-old Megumi goes missing, close family friend Shiga makes a promise to the girl’s mother, Yoriko, that he will find her no matter what. Shiga, who lives up in the mountains, ventures into the city to track down the daughter of his old mountain climbing partner, Tatsuko — for whose tragic death he feels responsible. Soon Shiga is making his way through the seedier streets of Shinjuku, risking his life as he discovers a possible conspiracy involving underage girls, the police, and a major corporation. Eisner Award nominee Jiro Taniguchi (THE TIMES OF BOTCHAN, THE WALKING MAN) combines a gripping narrative with beautiful drawings and engaging, believable characters to create a masterfully told Japanese noir thriller that will keep readers riveted from the first page until the exciting conclusion. THE QUEST FOR THE MISSING GIRL is one of the best books of 2008 — we can’t wait to get our hands on his latest, A DISTANT NEIGHBORHOOD (June 2009) and SUMMIT OF THE GODS (July 2009), both published in English by Fanfare / Ponent Mon, which is quickly becoming our favorite importer of Japanese graphic novels.
All contents copyright 2009 by Mark Rifkin and twi-ny. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission. Please note that events, dates, and prices are subject to change.
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One Seventh Ave. South
Admission: free
Through August 14 Daffy’s has set up a pop-up shop on Seventh Ave. South on the ground floor of the new One Seventh building and is holding a contest in which residents of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania have the opportunity of winning a rental lease of a $7,000-a-month fully furnished luxury apartment for only $700 by sending in a thirty-second video explaining why they deserve to be chosen
Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
260 West 23rd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Through August 2 Tenth anniversary festival featuring such stars as Benjamin Bratt in LA MISSION (Peter Bratt, 2008), John Leguizamo in WHERE GOD LEFT HIS SHOES (Salvatore Stabile, 2008), Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia in THE LINE (James Cotten, 2008), Vin Diesel in his own short film LOS BANDOLEROS, Peter Gallagher in THE WAR BOYS (Ron Daniels, 2009), Jim Jones in RED APPLES FALLING (Adam Bhala Lough, 2000), and Miguel Gutiérrez in PARAISO (Leon Ichaso, 2009)
Museum of the City of New York terrace
1220 Fifth Ave. at 103rd St.
Admission: $12 (includes one free drink and gallery admission)
212-534-1672
Wednesdays through August 26 MCNY turns its terrace, which overlooks Central Park, into a Prohibition-era speakeasy, with dancing music and old-fashioned cocktails, 6:00 — 9:00
Multiple venues
Admission: free
212-945-0505
http://www.rivertorivernyc.com
Tuesday, July 28
through
Thursday, August 13 Summer Dance at the National Museum of the American Indian, 11:00 am, 1:00 & 3:00 pm
Wednesday, July 29
and
Thursday, July 30 Sitelines — Nicholas Leichter Dance: A Space Funk Invasion, South Street Seaport, Fulton & Front Sts., 6:00
Thursday, July 30 Arlo Guthrie: Four Night of Peace, Love & Music: A Tribute to Woodstock, Castle Clinton, free tickets available two hours before showtime, 7:00
Friday, July 31 Seaport Music: Polvo with Obits and guest DJ, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, 6:00
Saturday, August 1
and
Sunday, August 2 Evening Stars: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Rockefeller Park, 6:00
Monday, August 3
through
Thursday, August 13 Sitelines — Gabrielle Lansner & Company: Turning Heads, Frocks in Flight, South Cover, Battery Park City, the Mary Miss Bridge, 3:00
Wednesday, August 5 Summer Sounds at Trinity: Jeff Newell’s New-Trad Octet, Trinity Church, Broadway at Wall St., 12:30
Friday, August 7 Seaport Music: Tenth anniversary of UK label Moshi Moshi, with Casiokids, the Wave Pictures, and Slow Club, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, 6:00
Pier 84
West 44th St. & Hudson River
Admission: free (Ringside VIP seats $25-$50
http://www.fridaynightfightsnyc.com
http://www.hudsonriverpark.org
Thursday, July 30 Outdoor Boxing on the Waterfront, 7:00
Pier 83, West 82nd St. & Twelfth Ave.
Tickets: $48.50-$52
212-563-3200
Thursday, July 30 Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, 7:00 & 9:30
Webster Hall
125 East Eleventh St. between Third & Fourth Aves.
Thursday, July 30 The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt!, HeartsRevolution, Theofphilus London, Passion Pit, Cobra Starship, Drake, and the Roots with a special guest collaboration,
Automotive High School lawn
50 Bedford Ave. at North Thirteenth St.
Tickets: $11 for both screenings
718-417-7362
Thursday, July 30 TROLL 2 (Claudio Fragasso, 1990), with live music by Teengirl Fantasy at 8:30, screening at 9:00, filmmaker Q&A at 10:30, and open-bar after-party at Matchless (free Radeberger Pilsner) from 11:30 pm to 1:00 am, $9
Friday, July 31 BEST WORST MOVIE (Michael Stevenson, 2009), with live music by Kurt Vile at 8:30, screening at 9:00, filmmaker Q&A at 10:30, and open-bar after-party at Matchless (free Radeberger Pilsner) from 11:30 pm to 1:00 am, $11 (includes ticket to July 30 event)
Dance Theater Workshop, Bessie Schonberg Theater
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Tickets: $25
212-924-0077
http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
Thursday, July 30
through
Sunday, August 2 Take Dance Company presents two premieres during its fifth annual New York season at DTW, including the world premiere of FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW with music by Arvo Part and the New York premiere of SHABON set to music by Steve Reich, in addition to LOVE STORIES and LINKED, featuring choreography by Takehrio Ueyama, lighting design by Jason Jeunnette, and costumes by Cheryl McCarron
Carolines on Broadway
1626 Broadway at 50th St.
Tickets: $31
Reservations required
212-757-4100
Thursday, July 30
through
Sunday, August 2 Stand-up comedian Louis CK, the star of the much-missed LUCLY LOUIE on HBO, is one of the funniest comics around, holding nothing sacred
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Friday nights in July at 10:30
Tickets: $12
212-415-5500
Friday, July 31 THE OUTSIDERS (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
Whitney Museum of American Art
745 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
Free with museum admission
212-570-7715
Friday, July 31 Whitney Live: Vivian Girls and These Are Powers, 7:00
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Weekends at midnight through September 12
212-924-7771
Friday, July 31
and
Saturday, August 1 RAISING ARIZONA (Joel Coen, 1987)
Friday, August 7
and
Saturday, August 8 BARTON FINK (Joel Coen, 1991)
Queens Museum of Art
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Friday nights through August 28; dance and music at 6:30, film screenings at 8:00
Admission: free for outdoor events; $5 suggested donation for museum, which is open until 8:00
718-592-9700
Friday, July 31 East Africa: Transworld Performing Arts Ensemble, Regime Change, Negus World Order, the Bataka Squad, and DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH (Brett Mazurek, 2008), introduced by the director
Friday, August 7 Jordan: Regina Nejman (dance), Shusmo (live music)and CAPTAIN ABU RAED (Amin Matalqa, 2007)
CabaretCinema
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Free with $7 bar minimum (includes admission to galleries)
212-620-5000 ext 344
Friday, July 31 NOTORIOUS (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
Friday, August 7 THE SHINING (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Webster Hall
125 East Eleventh St. between Third & Fourth Aves.
Tickets: $15-$25 ($1 entry and $1 drinks with below link)
Friday, July 31 A-Trak’s 10,000 LB Hamburger Tour, Treasure Fingers, Jack Beats + Theophilus London, resident DJs Alex English, Gavin Royce, Kids with Snakes, Gavin Royce, and Rekles, Trash! with DJ Jess & Alex Malfunction, and more, 10:00
Friday, August 7 Data + Sinden, Viking, resident DJs Alex English, Gavin Royce, Kids with Snakes, Gavin Royce, and Rekles, Trash! with DJ Jess & Alex Malfunction, and more, 10:00
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
1st fans membership: $20 per year
718-638-5000
Saturday, August 1 Spoken-word open-mic poetry, live performances by Conjunto Nuevo Milenio and Meta and the Cornerstones, carnival costume headdress workshop, screening of CALYPSO DREAMS (Geoffrey Dunn and Michael Horne, 2004), a gallery talk, book club discussion, and dance party featuring Sokalypso house DJs, 5:00 — 11:00
The Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Kobal Collection
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON helped Ang Lee's reputation soar
Walter Reade Theater
65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Aves.
August 1—11
Tickets: $11 (series pass $40 for any five programs)
212-875-5050
Saturday, August 1, 8:30
Sunday, August 2, 1:30
and
Monday, August 3, 6:15 EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (YIN SHI NAN NU) (Ang Lee, 1994)
Saturday, August 1, 6:15
Sunday, August 2, 4:00
and
Thursday, August 6, 9:00 THE WEDDING BANQUET (XI YAN) (Ang Lee, 1993),
Sunday, August 2, 6:15
Monday, August 3, 8:45
and
Saturday, August 8, 3:35 PUSHING HANDS (TUI SHOU) (Ang Lee, 1992)
Sunday, August 2, 8:20
Tuesday, August 4, 6:15
and
Saturday, August 8, 1:00 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (Ang Lee, 1995)
Wednesday, August 5, 8:30
and
Sunday, August 9, 2:30 HULK (Ang Lee, 2003)
The Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Kobal Collection
THE ICE STORM is a tense, emotional drama
Tuesday, August 4, 9:00
and
Wednesday, August 5, 6:15 THE ICE STORM (Ang Lee, 1997)
Friday, August 7, 6:15
and
Saturday, August 8, 8:30 LUST, CAUTION (SE, JIE) (Ang Lee, 2007)
Friday, August 7, 9:15
Saturday, August 8, 5:45
and
Tuesday, August 11, 6:30 BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Ang Lee, 2005)
Sunday, August 9, 5:15
and
Monday, August 10, 2:00 RIDE WITH THE DEVIL: Director’s Cut (Ang Lee, 1999)
Sunday, August 9, 8:10
Monday, August 10, 4:50
Tuesday, August 11, 9:10 CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (WO HU CANG LONG) (Ang Lee, 2000)
Monday, August 10 RIDE WITH THE DEVIL: Director’s Cut (Ang Lee, 1999), with Ang Lee and James Schamus onstage, $15, 7:30
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle at 59th St. & Broadway
Through August 30
Tickets: $11
212-299-7777
Saturday, August 1
and
Sunday, August 2 VIVRE SA VIE (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), August 1 screening introduced by Richard Brody, author of EVERYTHING IS CINEMA: THE WORKING LIFE OF JEAN-LUC GODARD, 2:00
Saturday, August 1
and
Sunday, August 2 JULES AND JIM (François Truffaut, 1962), 4:00
Saturday, August 8
and
Sunday, August 9 CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962), 2:00
Saturday, August 8
and
Sunday, August 9 THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (Jacques Demy, 1964), 4:00
Prospect Park Bandshell
Through August 8
Keep It Great: Give $3 at the Gate
718-855-7882
http://www.celebratebrooklyn.org
Saturday, August 1 Dean & Britta’s 13 Most Beautiful and Crystal Stilts, 7:30
Thursday, August 6 Celebrate Brooklyn! Music & Movies: PURPLE RAIN (Albert Magnoli, 1984) Screening & Sing-a-long and Escort, 7:30
Friday, August 7 Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Deer Tick, and the London Souls, 7:00
Saturday, August 8 Big Daddy Kane and special guests, 7:00
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / MoMA
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave., Long Island City
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 4 — September 5
Admission: $10, includes admission to art galleries 2:00 to 9:00
718-784-2084
Saturday, August 1 Chez Damier, live and DJ sets by House of House, Kai Alce, and Stars Like Fleas
Saturday, August 8 Music Committee of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Stephan Moore and John King, Eats Tapes, Lovefingers, and special guests
Water Taxi Beach
Second St. & Borden Ave., Long Island City
Saturdays from 8:00 pm to 3:00 am
Cover charge: $5 (twenty-one and over only)
The Beach Party returns to Water Taxi Beach in Queens, featuring hot DJs getting people hot and sweaty in view of the Midtown skyline. All shows will feature residents Justin Carter, Probus, and Eamon Harkin in addition to the below special guests.
Saturday, August 1 Abe Duque
Saturday, August 8 Dublex Inc.
Paul Natale’s THE LESSON is one of six shorts in indie program
Barbés Traveling Cinema
376 Ninth St. at Sixth Ave., Park Slope
First Monday of every month at 7:00
Admission: free
347-422-0248
http://www.brooklynindependent.com
Monday, August 3 All shorts program curated by Danielle DiGiacomo, featuring LA COPIE DE CORALIE (COPY OF CORALIE) (Nicholas Engel, 2008), LES VOILIERS DU LUXEMBOURG (THE SAILBOATS OF THE LUXEMBOURG) (Nicholas Engel, 2005), WATER IN MILK EXISTS (Lawrence Weiner, 2008), DEAR JOE P. BEAR (Kiki Allgeier, 2005), THE LESSON (Paul Natale, 2009), and CASSIE (Paul Natale, 2008), presented by Barbés Traveling Cinema and pbnoj productions
Central Park Summerstage
Rumsey Playfield
Central Park (enter at Fifth Ave. & 69th St.)
Admission: free
212-360-2756
Monday, August 3 Béla Fleck and Toumani Diabaté, Rumsey Playfield, 7:30
The Slipper Room
167 Orchard St. at Stanton St.
First Monday night of every month, $5, 10:00
212-253-7246
Monday, August 3 Opening of the voyeuristic vision of Veronica Vroom!, with GiGi La Femme, Aprella, Ruby Valentine, Runaround Sue, Sapphire Jones, Madame Rosebud Ferro, Connie Baker, and Kristen Lee, 10:00
Spring St. between Varick & Hudson Sts.
Tuesdays at 5:00 from June 23 through August 11
Admission: free
http://www.citywinery.com/hudsonbbq
Tuesday, August 4 Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
Tuesday, August 11 Budos Band
Multiple locations
Admission: free
212-666-1640
Wednesday, August 5 Jazzmobile featuring Benny Powell, U.S. Grant National Park, Riverside Dr. between 120th & 124th Sts., 7:00
Thursday, August 6 Harlem Summer Stage: Harlem Gospel Concert, featuring Hezekiah Walker, Jose Figueroa, Dancing J-Soul, Youthful Praise, and Seasons of Joy, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, West 125th St. & A.C. Powell Jr. Blvd., 5:30
Friday, August 7 Jazzmobile featuring Jeremy Pelt, Marcus Garvey Park, West 122nd St. & Fifth Ave., 7:00
Saturday, August 8 C’ote D’Ivoire Diversity Week, African festival of art, food, music, fashion, and health screenings, Morningside Park, West 114th to 117th Sts., 12 noon — 6:00 pm
Wednesday, August 12 Jazzmobile featuring Jimmy Heath, U.S. Grant National Park, Riverside Dr. between 120th & 124th Sts., 7:00
Thursday, August 13 Harlem Summer Stage: The 2009 Living Legends Tribute honoring the Manhattans; Ray, Goodman & Brown, Blue Magic, Me’lisa Morgan, and Chuck Jackson, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, West 125th St. & A.C. Powell Jr. Blvd., 5:30
Bronx Museum of the Arts / Andrew Freedman House
1125 Grand Concourse at McClellan St.
Admission: free
718-681-6000
Friday, August 7 Free First Fridays program includes screenings of BRONX PRINCESS (Yoni Brook, 2008) and HOMEGROWN: HIP LIFE IN GHANA (Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, 2008) and live music by DJ Leydis and Francis Akrofi and Dynamic Band, in conjunction with the African Film Festival, 6:00
Tappen Park, SI
Canal St. between Bay & Wright Sts.
Admission: free
718-273-7331
http://www.centurydancecomplex.com
Saturday, August 8 Fourth annual event, including the premiere of BALAM Dance Theater’s humorous masked HIP-HOP HANUMAN (at 2:00) as well as performances by American Creative Dance, Tropical Image Dance Studios, Tsunami Dance Ensemble, Uptown Dance Academy, and Century Dance Complex’s Kids N Teens, with a special focus on Egyptian culture, 12 noon — 5:00 pm
Old American Can Factory
232 Third St., Brooklyn
Tickets: $25
Saturday, August 8 Indoor/outdoor music festival featuring the Juan Maclean, Young Love, 33hz, Shy Child, Designer Drugs, BELL, Jupiter One, JDH & Dave P, Free Blood, Kap10Kurt, Home Video, Adventure, the American Dream Team, Codebreaker, Awesome New Republic, DJ Ayres, Finger on the Pulse DJs, and many others, 4:00 pm — 4:00 am
Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
August 8-9, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Admission: free
718-767-1776
Saturday, August 8 Lion Dancers, 10:00am
Saturday, August 8 Queens Symphony Orchestra, 10:30
Saturday, August 8 Dragon Dancing Team, 11:30
Saturday, August 8 Lyrus Hung and her band MEOW, 1:00
Saturday, August 8 Shaolin Kung Fu, 2:00
Saturday, August 8 Jack Hsu and Hsu-Nami, 3:00
Sunday, August 9 Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, 10:30
Sunday, August 9 Cover-to-Cover, 11:00
Sunday, August 9 Edge, 12 noon
Sunday, August 9 Shaolin Kung Fu, 1:00
Sunday, August 9 Queens Theater in the Park, with musicians Simon Yu and Abdou Mboup, 2:00
Sunday, August 9 Luca Mundaca, 3:00
Sunday, August 9 Vintaje DJ and DJ Johnathan, 4:00
Saturday, August 8 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival: Queens Symphony Orchestra (10:30), Lyrus Hung and her band MEOW (1:00), Jack Hsu and Hsu-Nami (3:00), Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Sunday, August 9 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival: Cover-to-Cover (11:00), Edge (12 noon), Queens Theater in the Park with musicians Simon Yu and Abdou Mboup (2:00), Luca Mundaca (3:00), Vintaje DJ and DJ Johnathan (4:00), Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Academy Theater at Lighthouse International
111 East 59th St. between Park & Lexington Aves.
Tickets: $5
Through October 12
212-821-9251
Monday, August 10 Monday Nights with Oscar: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Frank Capra, 1939), 7:00
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse unless otherwise noted
Rose Building, tenth floor, 65th St. & Amsterdam Ave.
Tickets: $25
Monday, August 10 Mossberg, Moby, Music and More: Moby in conversations with Walt Mossberg, 7:30
RiverRocks
Pier 54, Hudson River Park at West 14th St.
Admission: free
http://www.pier54.com/riverrocks
Thursday, August 13 Yeasayer, with Amazing Baby, 6:00