PS1’s Warm Up summer series gets under way July 2 in “Holding Pattern” courtyard (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 2 – September 3, $15
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org
holding pattern installation
The hottest, sweatiest dance-party series of the summer kicks off July 2 at MoMA PS1 as Warm Up gets under way. Situated in the sumptuous courtyard, where Interboro Partners & WHATAMI by start has installed the fun and fanciful “Holding Pattern,” which includes Ping-Pong, foosball, kiddie pools, a sandbox, oak and plum trees, white ribbons, and a cool mirror area (nearly all of which will be donated to the local community at the end of the season), Warm Up features live musical performances and DJ sets by some of the fabbest people around. The July 2 lineup consists of DJ Pierre, Beautiful Swimmers, Delicate Steve, Protect-U, and Zoovox, followed on July 9 by the amazing Four Tet, Fatty DL, SBTRKT, Bronze, Matthewdavid, and TURRBOTAX® DJs. On July 16, agnès b. presents Audio Love by Juan + Johnny, Joakim, Koudlam, and Mirror Mirror. Among the other highlights to watch out for are DJ sets by Gang Gang Dance on July 23, Das Racist on July 30, Simian Mobile Disco on August 6, and His Name Is Alive on August 13 and live sets by XXYY on July 30, Juan Maclean, Blood Orange, and Grimes on August 20, and Justin Miller on September 3. As always, the museum will be open as well, so be sure to catch the ultrahip “Ryan Trecartin: Any Ever,” Laurel Nakadate’s powerfully evocative “Only the Lonely,” Nancy Grossman’s fetishized “Heads,” and the second half of the dual MoMA/PS1 exhibition “Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception,” especially the magnificent film Guards and a collection of camera guns in the café that you are allowed to pick up.
Azazel Jacobs follows up the widely praised Momma’s Man, in which he cast his real-life parents (experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs) in a story about a married adult and new father (Matt Boren) who keeps extending a visi t to his ancestral home, with another idiosyncratic tale about growing up. Terri, adapted by Patrick deWitt from a series of his interrelated short stories, follows the trials and tribulations of the title teen, played with great subtlety by newcomer Jacob Wysocki. Terri is a grossly overweight kid who shows up late to school every morning wearing pajamas; lives with and takes care of his uncle (The Office’s Creed Bratton), who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s; becomes obsessed with catching mice; and has a secret crush on high school cutie Heather (Olivia Crocicchia). When the vice principal, Mr. Fitzgerald (a wonderfully offbeat John C. Reilly), takes a personal interest in him, Terri is at first confused, but then seems okay with it, until he finds out that he is part of a group of deeply troubled teens that Mr. Fitzgerald meets with regularly, including such loser outcasts as Chad Markson (Bridger Zadina), who likes to pull out his own hair and say very inappropriate things at inopportune moments. They are soon joined by Heather, who was nearly expelled for allowing a boy to touch her during class and is now shunned by the cool clique. The unlikely threesome, along with Mr. Fitzgerald, who appears to mean well but can’t stop putting his foot in his mouth, exemplify the difficult teenage years as they come together, and break apart, over the course of this charming, eclectic film. As with Momma’s Man, Jacobs has faith in his narrative, eschewing grand statements and teen clichés in favor of a poignant and intelligent examination of adolescence that anyone can relate to, whether they were the teased or the teaser back in those tumultuous and torturous high school days.
The award-winning documentary Dark Days takes a frightening look at a community of homeless men and women — many of them former or current crack users — who live in the Amtrak tunnels beneath Penn Station. They sleep in tents, cardboard shacks, and small plywood shanties, some of which have been painted and decorated. As the belowground residents shave, cook, play with their pets, and take showers under leaking pipes, trains speed by, and rats scavenge through the countless mounds of garbage. At times some of the men venture aboveground (“up top”) to go through trash cans, mostly looking for recyclable bottles and junk items they can resell. First-time filmmaker Marc Singer became a part of this colony for two years (he initially went down to help the people, not to film them), getting the residents to open up and tell their fascinating stories, which turn out to be filled with a surprising zest for living. In fact, all of the underground shooting was completed with the help of the subjects themselves acting as the crew when they were not on camera. DJ Shadow composed the haunting music for this strangely enriching look at a mysterious, truly terrifying part of New York City. Dark Days celebrates its tenth anniversary with a theatrical run beginning July 1 at Cinema Village in advance of the July 19 release of the special-edition DVD, which includes featurettes on the making of the film, an update on many of the characters, Singer revisiting the tunnels, a photo essay by Margaret Morton, and more. 
Following audience favorites Fish Story in 2009 and last year’s Golden Slumber, Japanese director Yoshihiro Nakamura returns to the New York Asian Film Festival with the North American premiere of the often silly but mostly charming heartwarmer A Boy and His Samurai. Based on a manga by Gen Araki, the family-friendly film focuses on single mother Hiroko (Rie Tomosaka) and her young son, Tomoya (Fuku Suzuki), whose lives get turned upside down when Kijima Yasube (Ryo Nishikido) suddenly shows up, claiming to be a samurai from the Edo Period some 180 years ago. In exchange for food and lodging, Yasube helps around the house, doing the cooking and cleaning and looking after Tomoya while Hiroko is at work. When Yasube shows a knack for making amazing desserts, he puts down his sword in favor of a pastry knife, but trouble awaits this mild-mannered samurai. Yasube adapts a little too quickly to the modern world in this fish-out-of-water tale, but every time it threatens to become too conventional, taking the easy way out, Nakamura adds just enough twist and turns to keep it fresh. Tomosaka and Nishikido are fine in their fairly standard roles, but Suzuki is the real star as the cute kid excited to have a father figure around. A joint presentation of the NYAFF and Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, A Boy and His Samurai is screening July 3 at 12:30 and July 4 at 6:30 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.