Beatles tribute show comes to Carnegie Hall on Saturday night (© 2008 Steven Gardner)
Saturday, January 15, Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Ave. at 57th St., $17.50-$80, 212-247-7800, 8:00
Saturday, January 15, 6:00, and Sunday, January 16, 12 noon, Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Wythe Ave. at North 11th St., $10
www.carnegiehall.org
www.1964thetribute.com
www.brooklynbowl.com
Back in May 1977, the Beatles took over Broadway. Well, not exactly. Actually, BEATLEMANIA opened at the Winter Garden, declaring itself to be “not the Beatles but an incredible simulation.” Beatlemania is back on the rise with the recent release of the Fab Four’s catalog on iTunes, and although a Beatles reunion is an impossibility, perhaps the closest you can come these days is “1964” . . . the Tribute. For nearly thirty years, “1964” has been re-creating every aspect of a Beatles concert, from the look and the sound to the feeling and the energy. The mop-topped quartet will be shaking it up, baby, at Carnegie Hall on Saturday night, but remember that this is 1964, so don’t go expecting to hear songs from SGT. PEPPER, ABBEY ROAD, the White Album, etc. For a very different kind of Beatles experience, Roger Greenawalt will be leading a host of musicians, including Nellie McKay, Danny Ross, the Ramblers, Thinking in Pictures, Nat & Alex Wolff, Julian Velard, Deni Bonet, Terry Radigan, and unannounced special guests, through the complete Beatles catalog on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Brooklyn Bowl — with all songs played on ukulele. If you have a uke and want to participate, just show up an hour before showtime and you get in free as part of the uke mob.
Declaring this to be “the Plastic Age,” Viennese filmmaker Werner Boote travels the globe in PLASTIC PLANET, seeking answers that are not very easy to come by about the mysterious material. Boote grew up around the plastics boom, his grandfather an early manufacturer of the non-biodegradable synthetic. Boote meets with former president of PlasticsEurope John Taylor, Italian judge and politician Felice Casson, environmental scientist Susan Jobling-Eastwood, Japanese artist Hiroshi Sagae, American biophysicist Scott Belcher, Austrian environmental analyst Kurt Scheidl, European Commission vice president Margot Wallstrom, German plasticization specialist Gunther von Hagens, and others, each of whom has a different relationship with plastic, some citing its many virtues, others emphasizing its myriad dangers. Perhaps the most important thing Boote discovers is the power of the plastics industry in maintaining secrecy over the exact chemicals that go into their products, claiming that the release of such information could ruin their businesses. Thus, people might know the specific ingredients in their food, but they are not privy to what goes into the packaging, and there’s nothing they can do about it. One Chinese press representative almost spills the beans, but the interview is cut short before she can give away any of her company’s secrets. Unfortunately, Boote is not quite as interesting a character as he thinks, and he tries too hard to remain relatively neutral about plastics in general, straddling a line that leaves viewers somewhat disengaged from his personal journey. Although the film does reveal some frightening facts and scary predictions, it lacks a continuous narrative flow, meandering much as Boote does around the world, with some segments filled with confusing or difficult-to-follow scientific data. Ultimately, PLASTIC PLANET wants to be more important than it is, which is a shame, because it had the potential to be so much more.
After making METHADONIA, which was selected for the 2005 New York Film Festival, Emmy Award-winning documentarian Michel Negroponte (JUPITER’S WIFE) did not want to make another movie about drug addiction. But when he was introduced to the intriguing story of Dimitri Mugianis, ibogaine, and West African shamanism, he couldn’t help himself. Leader of the hardcore band Leisure Class, Mugianis had gotten off heroin by using ibogaine, an experimental, natural hallucinogen that is illegal in the United States. Mugianis was so impressed with the treatment that he immediately became part of the underground network that dispenses the drug, helping others detox much the same way he did. Negroponte follows Mugianis as he treats patients in Mexico and Canada, even taking the hallucinogen himself so he can experience its mind-altering effects (and add a groovy dream sequence to the film). And when one treatment goes terribly wrong, Mugianis starts questioning his mission and heads to Gabon to meet with Bwiti shamans and learn more about ibogaine and its unique properties. Mugianis is a compelling subject: open, honest, and strong, he dominates the screen, holding nothing back as he wonders whether he has merely replaced one addiction with another. Negroponte’s droll, often humorous narration counterbalances Mugianis’s determined, aggressive manner. The director avoids talking-head experts, instead letting the compelling story play out on its own, taking him and the audience on a very different journey than he first imagined. I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, named after a Leisure Class song, is a passionate look at addiction, rehabilitation, and one man’s intense dedication to help others. The film opens January 12 at the IFC Center, with Negroponte on hand for the 8:20 screenings tonight and tomorrow.