Lykke Li will light up the night at Central Park SummerStage benefit on August 1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
Monday, August 1, $30-$35, 6:30
212-360-2777
www.summerstage.org
www.myspace.com/lykkeli
We caught Swedish sensation Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson lighting up Webster Hall back in May, returning to New York City to celebrate the release of her long-awaited second album, Wounded Rhymes. An intoxicating blend of Stevie Nicks and Sinead O’Connor, the twenty-five-year-old Li and her band were all dressed in black, Li in a shawl covering a bodysuit, her hair tightly pulled back like one of Robert Palmer’s backup singers. On a stage with long black strips of filmy cloth hanging from the ceiling, smoke machines pouring out cloudy mists, and lights continually flashing, Li put on a dazzling seventy-five-minute set that included songs from Rhymes, 2008’s Youth Novels, and such singles as “Possibility,” from the New Moon soundtrack, music steeped in synthesizers and percussion. She played autoharp on the lovely “I Know Places” and added her own percussion to “Rich Kid Blues.” Although far from a melancholic evening, many of her songs deal with loneliness and heartbreak; “Sadness is a blessing / Sadness is a pearl / Sadness is my boyfriend / Oh, sadness, I’m your girl,” she opines on “Sadness Is a Blessing,” and in “Unrequited Love” she wails, “Oh my love, I’ve been denied it / Oh my love is unrequited.” But long before she tore into the set-closing “Get Some,” from the new record, she had the crowd wrapped around her finger like a lonely lover’s charm. Li is back in town on Monday night, August 1, playing a sold-out benefit show at SummerStage, with Montreal trio Timbre Timbre, touring behind its latest release, Creep on Creepin’ On.
Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better.
For The Interrupters, director, producer, and editor Steve James (Hoop Dreams, At the Death House Door) teamed up with journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) to hit the dangerous inner-city streets of Chicago with the men and women of CeaseFire, a grass-roots organization of former gang members who are now trying to stop the violence. Inspired by Kotlowitz’s New York Times Magazine article, the two men concentrate on three primary stories. Ameena Matthews, the Muslim daughter of notorious gang leader Jeff Fort, is working with a deeply troubled young woman who’d rather fight than flee, even if it means being sent back to prison. Cobe Williams has his hands full with the angry, recently released Flamo, who thinks the whole world is against him. And Eddie Bocanegra is attempting to come to grips with a cold-blooded revenge murder he committed when he was a teenager by visiting schools and talking about turning his life around. One of the most poignant moments of the film occurs when Williams brings Lil Mikey back to the barbershop he and several of his cohorts robbed at gunpoint as he again faces some of his victims. Matthews, Williams, and Bocanegra are paid employees of CeaseFire, which was founded by Dr. Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist who believes that violence is a disease that can be treated in similar ways, and is run by Tio Hardman, who handles his extremely tough task with intelligence and dignity as he deals with what he calls “the madness.” But in a society in which “words’ll get you killed,” as Matthews says early on, these tireless violence interrupters put their own lives on the line every day, battling a sickness that seems to have no end in sight. The award-winning film, a hit at numerous film festivals, felt a bit long at its original 144 minutes, but James has since edited it down to a more streamlined 124 minutes for its theatrical release, which begins July 29 at the IFC Center. James, Kotlowitz, Williams, and coproducer Zak Piper will be on hand for several opening-weekend screenings to talk about the film and CeaseFire. In conjunction with the release of The Interrupters, the Maysles Institute is hosting “
