Don’t forget to see Miquel Barceló’s “Gran Elefandret” before it leaves Union Square on May 20 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Union Square Triangle
Median, Park Ave. at 15th St.
Through May 29
www.marlboroughgallery.com
gran elefandret slideshow
Union Square Park can be a bit of a crazy circus at times, filled with musicians, street performers, activists, tourists, poets, vendors, and, well, its fare share of downright crazy people. Mallorca-born artist Miquel Barceló pays tribute to the park’s unpredictability with the playful bronze statue “Gran Elefandret.” The monumental sculpture features an enormous elephant balancing on its trunk, rising up more than twenty-five feet on the Union Square Triangle between the park and the nearby Daryl Roth Theatre, where a circus of a different kind, Fuerza Bruta, has been attracting visitors for several years now. The elephant’s ears droop toward the ground as its legs spread apart toward the heavens; be sure to walk all the way around it to get its full wrinkly grandeur as the background changes from tall buildings to green trees to clear blue sky. Although the 2008 work was not created for this specific location, it wonderfully captures the hectic but fun aspect of the historic Union Square neighborhood, especially with cars, taxis, and buses zooming by. Part of the Union Square Art in the Park program, “Gran Elefandret” will keep up its improbable balancing act through May 29.
At a huge gang meeting in the Bronx (actually shot in Riverside Park), the Warriors are wrongly accused of having killed Cyrus (Roger Hill), an outspoken leader trying to band all the warring factions together to form one huge force that can take over the New York City borough by borough. The Warriors then must make it back to their home turf, Coney Island, with every gang in New York lying in wait for them to pass through their territory. This iconic New York City gang movie is based on Sol Yurick’s novel, which in turn is loosely based on Xenophon’s Anabasis, which told of the ancient Greeks’ retreat from Persia. Michael Beck stars as Swan, who becomes the de-facto leader of the Warriors after Cleon (Dorsey Wright) gets taken down early. Battling Swan for control is Ajax (Dexter’s James Remar) and tough-talking Mercy (Too Close for Comfort’s Deborah Van Valkenburgh). Serving as a Greek chorus is Lynne (Law & Order) Thigpen as a radio DJ, and, yes, that young woman out too late in Central Park is eventual Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl. Among the cartoony gangs of New York who try to stop the Warriors are the roller-skating Punks, the pathetic Orphans, the militaristic Gramercy Riffs, the all-girl Lizzies, the ragtag Rogues, and the inimitable Baseball Furies. Another main character is the New York City subway system. The Warriors is a gritty, tense, violent, funny, romantic, wholly absorbing movie, a brutal yet tender tale that will quickly work its way into your heart. The Warriors is screening May 25-27 as part of the IFC Center’s Wild Hill: Walter Hill at Midnight series, celebrating the career of the director of such films as 48 Hrs., Streets of Fire, and The Long Riders. The IFC Center will also be showing Hill’s underrated bare-knuckle drama Hard Times, with James Coburn and Charles Bronson, on June 1-2, followed on June 8-9 by the Hill-scripted Hickey & Boggs, starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp (who directed the film), and June 15-16 by Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway, which Hill wrote and stars Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw.
Wes Anderson takes viewers on a wild ride through India aboard the Darjeeling Limited in this black comedy that opened the 2007 New York Film Festival. Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody), and Jack (cowriter Jason Schwartzman) are brothers who have not seen each other since their father’s funeral a year before, after which their mother disappeared. Having recently survived a terrible accident, Francis — looking ridiculous with his face and head wrapped in bandages — convinces them to go on a spiritual quest together to reestablish their relationship and help them better understand life. Peter and Jack very hesitantly decide to go along on what turns out to be a series of madcap adventures involving bathroom sex, bloody noses, jealousy, praying, cigarettes galore, running after trains, and savory snacks. Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, 
