Yearly Archives: 2011

MICHAEL TULLY PRESENTS BAD RONALD

Scott Jacoby is up to no good in cult classic BAD RONALD, screening July 5 at 92YTribeca

BAD RONALD (Buzz Kulik, 1974)
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Tuesday, July 5, $12, 8:00
212-415-5500
www.92y.org

There are certain movies that are impossible to get out of your head, lingering there for years, rooting through your brain, imbedding itself in your subconscious, affecting every step you take. Buzz Kulik’s 1974 cult classic, Bad Ronald, is just such a film. For those who have seen it, Bad Ronald leaves an indelible memory imprinted on their very being. We know, because we have never been the same since first seeing it oh those many years ago. Made during the tail end of the Nixon era as a new kind of mass paranoia ran rampant across the country, Bad Ronald captured the zeitgeist of the post-Woodstock generation, with Ronald Wilby (the beautifully fro’d Scott Jacoby) the ultimate awkward latch-key kid, living behind a wall after committing a terrible act. In many ways Ronald, a childlike Rupert Pupkin, can be considered a guru to those minions currently residing in their parents’ basement, creating art and music on their laptops. In that room, Ronald immerses himself in the fantasy world of Atranta, a land of princesses and demons, with danger lurking around every corner, especially when the Woods (father Dabney Coleman, mother Pippa Scott, and three daughters) move into Ronald’s house after the death of his mother (Kim Hunter).

One of the strangest television movies ever made, Bad Ronald is getting a rare public screening tonight at 92YTribeca, where it is being presented by indie filmmaker Michael Tully. Tully cites the crazy tale as a major influence on his most recent feature, Septien, which opens at the IFC Center tomorrow. “Bad Ronald isn’t a ‘horror’ film, per se. Unless you’re a five-year-old watching television in the mid-1970s, that is,” Tully writes on the 92Y Tribeca event page. “That’s how I first encountered it, and I’m still haunted by the experience. Buzz Kulik’s ABC Movie of the Week tells the bizarre tale of high school outcast Ronald Wilby (Scott Jacoby, not just looking but sounding like Matthew Modine), who accidentally kills a girl. His overprotective mother proceeds to build a secret room in their house in order to hide him from the world. That setup works just fine, until Mom dies unexpectedly and a new family moves in. . . . Though they are very different, one of our primary goals in making Septien was to capture that same ‘five-year-old-discovering-a-movie-that-he-probably-shouldn’t-be-watching’ spirit that I felt when I stumbled upon this strangely alluring gem.” Bad Ronald is more than just a movie, more than just a 1970s oddity; it is nothing less than a life-changing experience.

(For our twi-ny talk with Tully, click here.)

RIVER FLICKS — WEDNESDAYS FOR GROWN-UPS: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg are a couple of high-profile whiz kids in David Fincher’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (David Fincher, 2010)
Pier 63 Lawn, Hudson River Park
Cross at West 22nd or 24th St.
Wednesday, July 6, free, 8:30
www.hudsonriverpark.org
www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com

Nominated for eight Oscars and winner of three, The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland) as computer whiz kid Mark Zuckerberg, the boy genius who developed what became Facebook while attending Harvard. The film is told primarily in flashback as Zuckerberg is being sued for having allegedly stolen the idea from the Winklevoss twins (both played by Arnie Hammer). Zuckerberg is depicted as a spiteful, mean-spirited, self-indulgent person trying to prove to his ex-girlfriend (Erica Albright) that he will amount to something. Justin Timberlake is outstanding as the fast-moving, smooth-talking Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who loves living the high life. For a young man who created a social media platform where people collect friends, Zuckerberg made a lot of enemies on his way to the top. The film was written by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The West Wing), who makes an appearance as an ad executive meeting with Zuckerberg, and directed by David Fincher, who has made such other terrific films as Fight Club, Zodiac, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Social Network is screening July 6 in Hudson River Park, kicking off the free Wednesday night RiverFlicks for Grown-ups series, with free popcorn; the upcoming schedule, which features 2010’s blockbuster hits, includes Easy A (July 13), The Kids Are All Right (July 20), The Other Guys (July 27), The Fighter (August 3), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (August 10), and The Town (August 17). For a complete list of free outdoor summer films throughout the city, click here.

TWI-NY TALK: MICHAEL TULLY

Michael Tully wrote, directed, and stars in the creepy southern Gothic dysfunctional family drama SEPTIEN

SEPTIEN (Michael Tully, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
July 6-14
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.septienfilm.com

We first met Michael Tully eleven years ago, when he was an aspiring filmmaker working with us at an informational movie database company. A good-natured guy who loves talking about sports and films, Tully has gone on to direct the gritty Cocaine Angel (2006), the documentary Silver Jew (2007), about David Berman and his band, the Silver Jews, and the Web series Superego (2010). In his latest feature, the southern Gothic Septien, Tully is a triple threat, serving as writer and director as well as star. Tully plays Cornelius Rawlings, a prodigal son who walked away from his family eighteen years earlier and suddenly returns home, to the delight and concern of his two brothers, Ezra (executive producer Robert Longstreet), who has become the small clan’s rather odd and obsessive matriarch, and Amos (Onur Tukel), a hairy, shirtless artist whose weird drawings just might be predicting the future. Cornelius, in a hoodie and sporting out-of-control facial hair, is hiding a dark secret as he wanders around behaving oddly, challenging strangers to one-on-one sporting contests and pretending he’s floating dead in a lake. Darkly atmospheric and extremely funny, Septien is not afraid to take chances, much like Tully himself, who discussed the film, basketball, and more with us as he prepared for its theatrical release July 6 at the IFC Center; he will participate in a Q&A following the 8:00 screening on Wednesday night.

twi-ny: You’ve been writing about film for many years, including when we worked together back in 2000. What’s it like on the other side of things, being the interviewee instead of the interviewer, the filmmaker instead of the critic?

Michael Tully: Those were the good ol’ days, weren’t they? Actually, no they weren’t. Seriously, Mark, you were a genuinely cool boss and so many fun people worked at that company that life wasn’t as bad as it could have been. But looking back on those years now, I am down-on-my-knees happy to have escaped my confused, frustrated twenties with nothing more than too many hangovers and too much thumb-twiddling. Back then, I didn’t think I’d ever actually have the courage to make a film. But by doing this interview, I guess that means that the wheels have finally been set in motion!

As for the question of existing on two sides of the camera, it really all comes down to the fact that I love movies. I don’t have an extreme, clinically diagnosable attention deficit disorder, yet I find that I tend to get restless in a general sense, so this floating from filmmaker to film writer is simply a way for me to stay connected to things and, frankly, not be bored. Getting interviewed is fun, and I would be a liar and an idiot if I didn’t say that it’s more personally rewarding to attend a festival wearing a filmmaker badge as opposed to a press badge. That said, this year at Sundance I walked around Park City wearing a double-sided lanyard (filmmaker and press), and I made it a point to spend as much time seeing and talking about other movies as I could. I find that knowing what it’s like to be both an interviewee and an interviewer helps to keep me humble and grounded. The world needs more somewhat well-adjusted, less wholly self-absorbed filmmakers in it.

twi-ny: Silver Jew premiered at SXSW, Cocaine Angel at Rotterdam, and now Septien at Sundance. What were those film festival experiences like?

MT: I learned early on that if you’re seeing the glass as half empty at any stage of the filmmaking process, you’re looking at the wrong half of the glass. This certainly applies to the film festival experience as well. Merely getting accepted into a film festival—not just the more prestigious ones that you mentioned but any festival—is a real honor, so I look at everything as icing on the cake. If only three tickets are sold for a 150-seat theater, my view is, “Cool, three people showed up to watch our movie!” At that point, the film is finished, which is really all one can control, so to have the legitimacy of presenting it on a big screen to friends and strangers . . . that’s more of a victory than one could ever hope for. Of course, people don’t ever tell you the depths to which they did not like your movie, but you can tell when someone has an especially positive reaction. If I can leave each festival with one of those, I consider it a smash success. At the above fests, that happened to some extent at every screening I attended.

MIchael Tully, Onur Tukel, and Robert Longstreet play the severely dysfunctional Rawlings brothers in SEPTIEN

twi-ny: You’ve worked on a number of films with your good friend David Gordon Green. What have you learned from him on and off those sets?

MT: David is such a helpful and positive energy source. An outlandish brainstorm over Irish coffees at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival turned the seed of Septien into a pretty sturdy skeleton, so he actually had a direct creative impact on this particular project. But in a personal sense, David’s consistent need for laughter, as well as his boundless, childlike enthusiasm for movies, is always infectious and inspiring. In a professional sense, he likes to keep his sets as casual and fun as possible, and I am 100% in support of that as well. Working on those early films—George Washington, All The Real Girls—helped me to realize that there doesn’t have to be fighting and tension and high stress in order to make a good movie. David treats everyone the same way, and that tends to create an enthusiastic atmosphere that becomes especially helpful on a particularly rough day, or especially at the tail end of a shoot. I’ve never understood directors or producers who look down upon the PAs. (Mind you, I felt this way before I had the humiliating experience of being a looked-down-upon PA.) We’re all there for a reason. Of course, there’s a hierarchy, but if everybody didn’t do their job, these movies would never get made. Any set of David’s I’ve either worked on or visited, I’ve never felt that ugly tension.

twi-ny: In Septien, you are shown to be an exceptional athlete even though you look like the Unabomber. Were you a high school star, and if so, in what sports? Do you still play any sports today?

MT: I was never even somewhat close to being a “star” in sports. I always played backyard football but I was too much of a wimp to play for real. I was on the basketball traveling team as an adolescent and showed more potential to be something special when I was younger, but everyone grew beyond and ran past me by tenth grade or so. Sports were always recreational for me. I still play co-ed bball on Sunday mornings in the winter in Carroll Gardens, and I try my best to play as much tennis as possible in the spring, summer, and fall, though I’ve refused to buy a tennis permit this year since they raised the fee 100% from $100 to $200.

With regard to Septien, let me make two things clear: 1) The actors I hustled in the sports scenes in the movie would have absolutely destroyed me if we had played for real. That said: 2) I did actually make those trick shots!

Should the Knicks have let Donnie Walsh go?

MT: I have lost my affinity for the NBA and I don’t have an opinion either way, except to say that my usual natural aversion to the Knicks—I know, shame on me, but don’t worry, it’s nowhere near comparable to my disdain for the Lakers—has been softened by their reigning inadequacy on the court. They’ve fallen so low recently that I’ve actually begun to feel sorry for them. The real sports question that has been consuming me this summer is what will it feel like to not see Gary Williams on the bench next season as head coach of my beloved Maryland Terrapins, and will Mark Turgeon be able to forge a better bond with the coaches and kids in the Baltimore/DC area to land some more top-notch recruits. It’s gonna be so weird to watch the Terps next season. But the record had begun to skip, and I applaud Gary for getting out before his heart and brain exploded on the court during one of his especially raucous tirades.

(On July 5 at 8:00, the night before Septien opens at the IFC Center, Tully will be at 92YTribeca presenting a rare public screening of Buzz Kulik’s 1974 cult classic Bad Ronald, which stars Scott Jacoby as the deeply troubled title character. “Though they are very different,” Tully explains on the Y’s website, “one of our primary goals in making Septien was to capture that same ‘five-year-old-discovering-a-movie-that-he-probably-shouldn’t-be-watching’ spirit that I felt when I stumbled upon this strangely alluring gem.” And the artwork that Onur Tukel created for his Septien character will be on display at the Pennington Gallery at 355 West Broadway from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm through July 14.)

TIME AGAIN

“Novel” examines different modes of storytelling as part of “Time Again” at SculptureCenter (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SculptureCenter
4419 Purves St.
Thursday – Monday through July 25, suggested donation $5, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-361-1750
www.sculpture-center.org

Playing off of Walter Benjamin’s theory of the vanishing point in the here and now, curator Fionn Meade has put together an intriguing collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture, installation, and video for the two-floor show “Time Again.” On view at Long Island City’s SculptureCenter through July 25, the show consists of works that self-consciously examine and manipulate imagery, representation, gesture, narrative, and the past through repetition and sequencing. In “Image of Absolon to Be Projected Until It Vanishes,” Matthew Buckingham continuously projects a single slide of Christian Gottlieb Vilhelm Bissen’s 1901 statue of Copenhagen founder Bishop Absalon atop a horse; over the course of the exhibition, the heat from the projector will cause the image to fade into nothingness, taking the history it embodies with it. Uli Hohn’s six cast plaster and wood reliefs are each slightly different, creating their own time line that feels like it is still in process. Evoking Andy Warhol’s 1960s Screen Tests, Rosalind Nashashibi’s “This Quality” cuts from a series of shots of a woman staring into the camera to cars covered by fabric on the streets of Cairo; rather than protecting the automobiles from the elements, it appears that the sheets are hiding their past, especially as people walk by. In a separate area, pieces by Sergej Jensen, R. H. Quaytman, Paul Thek, and others make up “Novel,” which provides a unique look at storytelling.

SculptureCenter examines memory and repetition in “Time Again” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The exhibit kicks into high gear in the basement, where the works are set up amid narrow concrete hallways and passages and in dark rooms. Laure Prouvost’s “It, Heat, Hit” video confronts viewers directly, demanding their attention and that they remember what they see, flash cuts of text and image that fly by in a fury as they tempt and attack all five senses. Rosemarie Trockel’s “Goodbye, Mrs. Mönipaer” consists of longer, calmer shots of a glassed-in bungalow on a beach, water lapping onto the sand as two women, one in a bikini, the other in a bathrobe, each one wearing a mask, are involved in a potential art deal. In “Untitled (David Wojnarowicz Project),” Emily Roysdon re-creates David Wojnarowicz’s “Arthur Rimbaud in New York” series, which comprised photographs of a man, most likely the artist himself, walking the streets of New York wearing a mask that replicated the only known photo of the influential French poet; Roysdon has revisited that idea by taking photos of friends wearing a mask that depicts Wojnarowicz’s visage. In “Berlin Flash Frames,” William E. Jones repurposes a 1961 propaganda film produced by the U.S. Information Agency to question history and memory as the Berlin Wall is constructed and individuals are prepared for relocation. And in “Rabbits,” Aurélien Froment details how to make various knots by using the “rabbit hole” storytelling technique about a rabbit and a snake, neatly tying everything together before taking them apart. The films, most of which are shown using old-fashioned projectors, are the star of the show at the cavernous SculptureCenter, which evokes the past itself, having taken over a former trolley factory, with various mechanical contraptions still visible, creating a kind of palimpsest. SculptureCenter is open on July 4; if you check in on foursquare, you get two-for-one admission and free lemonade. In addition, SculptureCenter will host a pair of “Time Again”-related screenings July 5-6 at 7:00 at Anthology Film Archives, including short works by Joan Jonas, Shahryar Nashat, Ursula Mayer, and exhibition artists Prouvost, Nashabishi, Buckingham, and Jones; Leslie Thornton and Lisa Oppenheim will participate in a special conversation following the July 5 show, with Jones taking part in a Q&A following the July 6 screening.

NATHAN’S FAMOUS FOURTH OF JULY INTERNATIONAL HOT DOG EATING CONTEST 2011

Championship eaters will be downing dozens of dogs at annual contest at Nathan’s in Coney Island

Sweikert Alley, Nathan’s Famous
1310 Surf Ave. at Stillwell Ave.
Monday, July 4, free, 11:30 am
Admission: free
212-627-5766
www.nathansfamous.com
www.ifoce.com

If there were a Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International French Fry-Eating Contest in Coney Island, we would seriously consider entering, because there’s nothing in the world like those fried taters. But there’s no such thing, so we’ll just have to settle for being spectators at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, where male and female champion eaters stuff their faces and fill their stomachs with all the frankfurters they can muster in ten minutes. The prize money for the 2011 event has doubled, from twenty to forty grand, so the competitors are sure to come hungrier than ever. For the first time, men and women will be judged separately; the ladies are headed by the number-five-ranked Major League Eater Sonya “the Black Widow” Thomas, while the dudes are led by four-time winner and overall #1 Joey “Jaws” Chestnut. The other women include Juliet Lee (#12), Larell Marie Mele (#32), Stephanie Torres, Michelle Lesco, Maria Suklin, Grace Lee, Laura Leu, and Lauren Gallagher, while the more colorfully named men feature Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti (#2), Tim “Eater X” Janus (#3), Bob “Notorious B.O.B.” Shoudt (#4), Matt “Megatoad” Stonie (#10), Pete “Pretty Boy” Davekos (#16), and Aaron “A-train” Osthoff (#17). The record of sixty-eight dogs was set by Chestnut in 2009, when he topped 2001-2006 champ Takeru Kobayashi by three and a half franks (followed by Bertoletti, Janus, Shoudt, and Thomas). Chestnut defended his Mustard Yellow Belt last year with a mere fifty-four, followed by Janus, Bertoletti, Thomas, and Shoudt again. There actually was a Nathan’s Famous World French Fry-Eating Championship held in March 2005 in Oceanside, which was won by Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, who downed 4.46 pounds of crinkle-cut fries in six minutes; Janus and Shoudt made it to the final four before losing. Expect a moment of silence this year for Murray Handwerker, who helped to massively expand his father Nathan’s business, which began way back in 1916; Murray passed away in Florida on May 14 at the age of eighty-nine.

MACY’S FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS: GIFT OF FREEDOM

Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks will be held on the West Side again this year (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Televised live on NBC-TV
Broadcast live on WINS 1010
Monday, July 4, free, 9:20 pm (approx.)
212-494-4495
www.macys.com/fireworks

We’ve been selfishly hoping that the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks would return to the East Side after moving to the West Side in 2009 and 2010, since we live in a building whose roof offers spectacular views of the East River. But alas, this year Macy’s, in conjunction with SOUSA Fireworks, once again will be launching its shells from six barges situated on the Hudson River between 20th & 55th Sts. The thirty-fifth annual display pays tribute to the nation’s 235th birthday as well as the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, with thirteen computers and thirty miles of wire operating more than forty thousand shells packing some fifty thousand pounds of pyrotechnics in seventeen colors and fifty shapes. The festivities get under way at approximately 9:20 with “Fanfare,” which Macy’s describes as a “thundering rumble of cascading silver diadem chrysanthemums, before a rumbling barrage of blue, red, and white reports introduce the patriotic revelry.” The blasts continue for a total of twenty-five minutes with “Stars & Stripes Forever,” James Taylor performing “America the Beautiful,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” the All Star Marching Band’s rendition of “Down by the Riverside,” Anika Noni Rose and Karen Olivo teaming up on “Gift of Light,” the Cincinnati Pops playing “Liberty Fanfare,” LeAnn Rimes singing “Amazing Grace,” Taio Cruz exploding on “Dynamite,” Everclear warbling “This Land Is Your Land,” and Jennifer Hudson taking on “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the grand finale, set to “God Bless America.” Along the way you’ll encounter bursting red stars, ruby laces, gold comets trailing fuschia sparkles, triple interlaced rings, falling leaves, golden kamuros, silver tails, swirling stars, lemon and purple “X” fans that transform into double palm branches, blue flower bouquets, strobing red dahlias, lightning flashes, happy faces, gold and silver waterfalls, and two towers of light honoring the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Vehicular traffic will be closed on the West Side Highway between 23rd and 59 Sts. on 12th Ave., with viewing spots not available along the Hudson River Park promenade and bike path, and there will be extremely limited access to Piers 54 and 84; public access points can be found at 24th, 26th-30th, 34th, 40th-44th, 47th-52nd, and 54th-57th Sts.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Writer Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) waits to mingle with the Lost Generation in Woody Allen’s MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (Woody Allen, 2011)
In theaters now
www.sonyclassics.com/midnightinparis

In 1979, Woody Allen and master cinematographer Gordon Willis made love to New York City architecture in gorgeous black and white in the stunning opening section of Manhattan set to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Allen’s latest, Midnight in Paris, begins with Allen and cinematographer Darius Khondji getting intimate with the City of Light in lush color, scanning familiar Parisian landmarks to Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love.” In this beautifully shot love letter to Paris, Owen Wilson stars as Gil Pender, a Hollywood hack screenwriter working on his first novel, about a nostalgia dealer. He and his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), are vacationing in Paris with her parents, the wealthy, ultraconservative John (Kurt Fuller) and Helen (Mimi Kennedy), who think their daughter can do much better. Gil and Inez bump into their friends Carol (Nina Arianda) and Paul (Michael Sheen), the latter a pedantic know-it-all who begins many an observation with “If I’m not mistaken” and whom Gil can’t stand. Gil is hoping Paris will get his creative juices flowing, and that’s exactly what happens late one evening when he is walking the streets alone at midnight and is invited into an old-fashioned car and taken to what appears to be a throwback party — until he meets F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill), Cole Porter (Yves Heck), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), and fashion designer and Picasso muse Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Suddenly he feels more at ease in the swinging ’20s than the 2010s, heading out each night to the same spot, hoping to hang out more with the Fitzgeralds, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo), and, most importantly, Adriana. Nostalgia for the past and the promise of the future collide as Gil searches deep inside himself, trying to discover just what it is that he wants and needs out of life. Combining elements of such previous films as The Purple Rose of Cairo, Alice, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex*, and Everyone Says I Love You with a rather standard Twilight Zone-esque setup and a nod to his mid-’60s Lost Generation joke — in which he hangs out with Hemingway, the Fitzgeralds, Picasso, and Stein talking about art and literature, with a series of punch lines involving Allen getting punched in the mouth — Midnight in Paris is a charming, if at times overwrought and just plain silly, romantic fantasy that evokes Allen’s own fondness for nostalgia and the past. As more and more famous artists keep showing up, it gets more than a tad ridiculous, although it is also kinda fun. Midnight in Paris, which opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, follows four Allen films set in London (Match Point, Scoop, Cassandra’s Dream, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), one in Barcelona (Vicky Christina Barcelona), and only one in New York (Whatever Works) as Allen continues to travel the world after experiencing a dwindling audience and scandal back home. Wilson is excellent as the nostalgic writer, playing him with an edgy uncomfortablilty that makes him endearing, and Cotillard is sexy and alluring as the quintessential artistic muse. And in an inspired bit of casting, French first lady Carla Bruni plays a tour guide who butts heads with the smarmy Paul when discussing Rodin’s “The Thinker.”