twi-ny recommended events

AN AUTEURIST HISTORY OF FILM: BARRY LYNDON

The sumptuous BARRY LYNDON is a treat for the eyes and ears

BARRY LYNDON (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
July 16-18, 1:00
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Stanley Kubrick’s lush, romantic epic, Barry Lyndon, is one of the most elegantly visual pictures ever made. Based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 serialized picaresque novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Kubrick’s extravagant three-hour tale follows the shenanigans of one Redmond Barry, played with endless charm by Ryan O’Neal. The man soon to be known as Barry Lyndon has a remarkable knack for survival — or maybe it’s just plain old Irish luck — as he rises in English society via a series of duels (with epees, guns, and bare knuckles), military battles (the Seven Years’ War), and, most prominently, sexual conquests. Consisting of two sections, “By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon” and “Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon,” the film features glorious music by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, and the Chieftains in addition to absolutely divine locations that lay the groundwork for the sumptuous Oscar-winning art direction by Ken Adam, Vernon Dixon, and Roy Walker and cinematography by John Alcott; virtually every scene contains beautiful shots based on famous paintings, a treat for the eyes and the ears. (Leonard Rosenman took home an Academy Award as well for his adapted score.) The overly long story does drag at times, but it flows better once you get used to O’Neal in the title role. The underappreciated film also has a great supporting cast, with Marisa Berenson as Lady Lyndon, Patrick Magee as the Chevalier de Balibari, Hardy Krüger as Captain Potzdorf, Steven Berkoff as Lord Ludd, Leonard Rossiter as Captain John Quin, and Gay Hamilton as Nora Brady. Barry Lyndon is screening July 16-18 at 1:00 as part of MoMA’s ongoing series “An Auteurist History of Film,” which continues July 23-25 with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and July 30 – August 1 with Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

THE GYRE: ENTER AT FOREST LAWN

Jack (Mark Roberts) proves to Jessica (Sarah Lemp) that there’s no business quite like show business in ENTER AT FOREST LAWN (photo by Russ Rowland)

Walkerspace
46 Walker St. between Church St. & Broadway
July 14 – August 9, $40 ($65 Gyre ticket package with The Qualification of Douglas Evans)
www.theamoralists.com

Last year, playwright Mark Roberts and director Jay Stull teamed up with the Amoralists for one of 2013’s best shows, the outrageously funny black comedy Rantoul and Die, which we called “a brilliantly conceived and executed play that examines the darker side of human nature in beautifully bizarre ways.” Pretty much the same can be said about their latest collaboration, Enter at Forest Lawn, which opened at Walkerspace on July 14, kicking off the Amoralists’ (HotelMotel, The Bad and the Better) eighth season as part of “The Gyre,” which is being billed as “a two play repertory exploring man’s vicious cycles.” (The second work is Derek Ahonen’s intricately self-reflexive and complex The Qualification of Douglas Evans, which opens July 15.) In Enter at Forest Lawn, Roberts delves into something he knows rather well, network television — he is the creator of the CBS comedy Mike & Molly — starring as Jack Story, the show runner for a hit comedy on the verge of a major syndication deal. But the program’s star, Uncle Danny, a Charlie Sheen-like madman prone to violence, drugs, alcohol, and underage women, is out of control, turning publicist Stanley (David Lanson) into a whimpering fool. Jack sends his mousey assistant, Jessica (Sarah Lemp), to get Danny’s signature on the syndication contract, giving her explicit instructions on how to approach him. Meanwhile, Jack’s former assistant, Marla (Anna Stromberg), now a network executive, wants Jack to find a job for her nephew, Clinton (Amoralists cofounder and associate artistic director Matthew Pilieci), which turns out to be a little more complicated than expected, leading to a surprising conclusion for all involved.

Roberts and Stull (The Capables) pack a whole lot into seventy edge-of-your-seat minutes, highlighted by the actors’ heavily stylized, exaggerated movements that define their characters. Roberts, a former stand-up comedian, is sensational as Jack, dancing around David Harwell’s spare set — essentially an odd desk surrounded by doors — like a herky-jerky boxer, ready to throw proverbial punches at every chance, willing to do whatever it takes to get the syndication deal done. The rest of the cast also works with oversized physical presentation and quirky motion: Stanley is bent over protecting his balls and looking like he has to go to the bathroom; Jessica holds her hands like little paws, evoking a frightened forest creature, and occasionally twirling like a young innocent; Clinton is stooped as if ready to pounce at any moment; and Marla sinuously winds about the set, a strong sexual being who knows the power her body holds and is not afraid to use it. Enter at Forest Lawn is a biting, cynical behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood, confirming some of our worst nightmares about what really goes on backstage. “Stanley, I have been in this business, man and boy, for over twenty-five years,” Jack says early on, “and one of the few undeniable facts I’ve learned is that if it ain’t on the screen, it never fucking happened.” Thankfully for those of us not in the business, Roberts, Stull, and the ever-adventurous Amoralists have brought this frantic craziness to the stage for all of us to experience.

THE HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS FILM FESTIVAL: BROTHERS HYPNOTIC

Documentary follows Hypnotic Brass Ensemble as brothers travel the world sharing their artistic vision

SUMMER OF MUSIC: BROTHERS HYPNOTIC (Reuben Atlas, 2013)
Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell
148th St. & Bradhurst Ave.
Thursday, July 17, free, music 7:45, film 8:45
212-582-6050
www.maysles.org
www.hypnoticbrassfilm.com

A real family affair, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble includes eight sons of jazz musician Kelan Phil Cohran, a trumpeter who played with such legends as Jay McShann and Sun Ra, cofounded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and started the Affro-Arts Theatre in Chicago. HBE’s compelling story is told in Reuben Atlas’s spirited feature documentary debut, Brothers Hypnotic. Atlas followed the band for four years, from its hometown of Chicago to Amsterdam, from Ireland to London, and to numerous spots in New York City, a kind of second home for the group, which consists of siblings Gabriel “Hudah” Hubert on trumpet, Saiph “Cid” Graves on tenor trombone, Amal “Baji” Hubert on trumpet, Tycho “L.T.” Cohran on bass/sousaphone, Jafar “Yosh” Graves on trumpet, Uttama “Rocco” Hubert on euphonium, Seba “Clef” Graves on bass trombone, and Tarik “Smoove” Graves on trumpet (in addition to Christopher Anderson on drums). Atlas shows the band playing its unique blend of funk, jazz, and hip-hop at major festivals, in clubs, on the street, in the subway, and in the studio. Their music comes together organically, as evidenced onstage and on such albums as Flipside, Bulletproof Brass, and The Brothas, highlighted by such original songs as “War,” “Balicky Bon,” “Touch the Sky,” “Black Boy,” and “Party Started.” The members of HBE talk about what it was like being raised by two mothers on Chicago’s South Side (the eight brothers come from three different women; their father has nearly two dozen children total) and a father who would get them up at six in the morning to start rehearsing in what became the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble. They discuss their father’s legacy and their career strategies, in particular an offer from Atlantic Records; meet with managers Knox Robinson and Mark Murphy; and, later, hang with Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who runs the independent label Honest Jon’s. Along the way, they get to play with Yasin Bey (Mos Def) and Prince while striving to maintain their artistic integrity and high moral values. It’s a feel-good tale that turns poignant when they reconvene with their father near the end of the film. Brothers Hypnotic is screening for free in Jackie Robinson Park on July 17 at 8:45 as part of the Historic Harlem Parks Film Festival, in conjunction with Maysles Cinema’s Summer of Music series, and will be preceded by a “Horn Section” DJ set with DJ Laylo. The Historic Harlem Parks Film Festival continues July 23 in St. Nicholas Park with The Night James Brown Saved Boston.

RIVERFLICKS — BIG HIT WEDNESDAYS: AMERICAN HUSTLE

All-star cast has a ball keeping the twists coming in David O. Russell’s 1970s-set AMERICAN HUSTLE

AMERICAN HUSTLE (David O. Russell, 2013)
Hudson River Park, Pier 63 lawn at 23rd St.
Wednesday, July 16, free, dusk
www.riverflicks.com
www.americanhustle-movie.com

Combining cast members from his previous two hits, Silver Linings Playbook and
The Fighter, which garnered fifteen Academy Award nominations and three wins between them, David O. Russell scores big again with American Hustle. Inspired by a true story — the film opens by playfully declaring “Some of this actually happened” — American Hustle is set in 1978, focusing on smarmy con man Irving Rosenfeld (a dynamic Christian Bale), a paunchy small-timer with a spectacular comb-over and ultra-cool, ever-present shades who is pulling off low-level dirty deals first by himself, then with a new partner, the sexy-beautiful Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams, channeling a young Nicole Kidman), who also goes by the name Lady Edith Greensly. Soon the Feds come calling, and FBI agent Richie DiMaso (a superbly coiffed Bradley Cooper) gives them little choice but to take part in a sting involving Camden mayor Carmine Polito (a wonderfully wigged Jeremy Renner), a fake Arab sheikh (Michael Peña), several congressmen (including one played by longtime character actor Anthony Zerbe), and a major mobster (a surprise, uncredited appearance by a two-time Oscar winner doing what he does best). While Richie falls for Edith — they have one heckuva night at Studio 54 — Irving has to deal with his shrewish, demanding wife (a scene-stealing Jennifer Lawrence) as he develops a real fondness for Carmine. As in the best caper flicks, Russell (Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings), who rewrote Eric Warren Singer’s original script (there is also substantial improvisation by the outstanding cast), keeps the twists coming, leaving the audience guessing who’s conning who up to the very last minute. Linus Sandgren’s cinematography, Michael Wilkinson’s fab costumes, Judy Becker’s spot-on production design, and the period-heavy soundtrack (featuring songs by Elton John, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Tom Jones, America, Wings, and others) capture the late 1970s in all its bizarre glory, with no detail overlooked. Bale is sensational as Irving, giving the role a heartfelt depth, while Adams, in boob-baring dresses, and Lawrence, in gorgeous, upswept blond hair, are superb as the strong women he is caught between. An expertly made movie that celebrates the art of filmmaking itself, American Hustle might be a fictionalized version of what really went down, but everything about it rings absolutely true. Nominated for ten Oscars but shut out of the winners circle, American Hustle is screening July 16 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks: Big Hit Wednesdays series, which continues through August 20 with such other 2013 movies as This Is the End, Lone Survivor, and Captain Phillips. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings throughout New York City, go here.

THE LONG SHRIFT

Ally Sheedy and Brian Lally play the parents of a son imprisoned for rape in THE LONG SHRIFT (photo © Joan Marcus)

THE LONG SHRIFT
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Pl. between Eleventh & Perry Sts.
Thursday – Tuesday through August 23, $20-$30
866-811-4111
www.rattlestick.org

It would be easy to give short shrift to The Long Shrift, the latest project in James Franco’s seemingly endless though admirable quest to rule the world. The play was written by one of his grad school professors (Robert Boswell) and stars a former girlfriend (Ahna O’Reilly) as well as a pair of longtime collaborators (Scott Haze and Brian Lally); Franco, who is currently portraying George in Anna D. Shapiro’s powerful Broadway revival of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men at the Longacre, is even on the Long Shrift promotional poster, joining the cast and Boswell. But there’s much to appreciate in the Rattlestick world premiere, which opened July 13 and runs through August 23, and not just its price, which tops out at a mere thirty bucks. Novelist, short story writer, and playwright Boswell’s (The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, The Geography of Desire) intermissionless hundred-minute drama takes too many unnecessary detours, leaving Franco to scramble, but the heart of the work is deeply compelling and involving. The story begins in 1999 as Vietnam veteran Henry Singer (a soft-spoken Lally) and his younger wife, Sarah (an underutilized Ally Sheedy), are moving into a small, disappointing new home in Houston so they can be closer to their son, Richie (Haze, who is solid if one-note here but gives a remarkable performance in Franco’s Cormac McCarthy adaptation Child of God,), who has recently begun serving a ten-year sentence for raping and beating one of his high school classmates, Lizzie (O’Reilly). While Henry is convinced that his son is innocent, Sarah is not so sure and, deeply conflicted, chooses not to visit Richie. After Richie’s been in prison for five years, accuser Lizzie (who’s now calling herself Beth, seeking escape from her notoriety) suddenly recants her testimony, becoming a town pariah. On the day of their tenth high school reunion, Beth unexpectedly shows up at Richie’s house, accompanied by giddy current student body president Macy (Allie Gallerani), who is determined to get Richie, whom she considers a local celebrity, to be the star of the reunion she’s in charge of, which she sees as a real resume builder. But the bitter Richie doesn’t want anything to do with Beth, until he comes up with a plan that is not about to make everything right.

Richie (Scott Haze) and Macy (Allie Gallerani) discuss reunion plans and more in Rattlestick world premiere of THE LONG SHRIFT (photo © Joan Marcus)

The central crisis of what really happened behind closed doors a decade ago drives the overly talky show, which is hampered by inconsistent pacing and stretches credulity when it comes to the reunion subplot. Although Gallerani (My Children! My Africa!) is utterly delightful as Macy, all smiley, sexy, and full of hope, it feels like she’s walked in from a completely different play. A late reveal of a key part of the relationship between Harry and Sarah seems forced and needlessly detrimental, and the one scene that does not take place on Andromarche Chalfant’s effective home interior set (which closely resembles a cleaned-up version of Dane Laffrey’s set for the previous Rattlestick show, The Few) borders on the edge of cringeworthy. But when Boswell and Franco zero in on Richie and Beth as they explore their inner demons and try to deal with a complex and heartbreaking past, The Long Shrift rewards your attention.

RYAN McNAMARA: MISTY MALARKY YING YANG

Ryan McNamara’s latest performance piece will explore Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Speech (photo courtesy Ryan McNamara)

The High Line, beginning at Gansevoort St.
July 15-17, free, 7:30
www.art.thehighline.org
www.ryanmcnamara.com

On July 15, 1979, President James Earl Carter gave what became known as his Malaise Speech, in which he shook a finger at the American people and said, “I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. I do not mean our political and civil liberties. . . . The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.” Arizona-born, Brooklyn-based performance artist Ryan McNamara is using the thirty-fifth anniversary of Carter’s famous speech about energy overconsumption as the starting point of his latest immersive project, “Misty Malarky Ying Yang.” On July 15, 16, and 17, McNamara will begin a choreographed procession on the High Line, beginning at 7:30 pm at the south end at Gansevoort St. and heading north to West Thirtieth St., joined by other performers along the way. “President Carter’s speech is still relevant today, and ‘Misty Malarky Ying Yang’ will provide a stark contrast to the tone of the speech,” explained High Line Art director and curator Cecilia Alemani in a statement. Admission is free, and no advance RSVP is required. The questions Carter asked thirty-five years ago — including “Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I. What can we do?” — are still clearly relevant today. It should be fascinating to see how McNamara translates that on the High Line this week.

JAPAN CUTS: UNFORGIVEN

Yūya Yagira, Akira Emoto, and Ken Watanabe play an unlikely trio of bounty hunters in Lee Sang-il’s brilliant adaptation of Clint Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN

UNFORGIVEN (YURUSAREZARU MONO) (Lee Sang-il, 2013)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Tuesday, July 15, 8:30
Festival runs July 10-20
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.warnerbros.co.jp

For more than half a century, Hollywood has remade a plethora of Asian films, from The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) to The Departed (Infernal Affairs), from Shall We Dance? (Sharu wi Dansu?) to The Grudge (Ju-On), among so many others. But there’s a relatively new trend in which Japan, Korea, and China are now remaking American films, including Ghost: Mouichido Dakishimetai (Ghost), Wo Zhi Nv Ren Xin (What Women Want), and Saidoweizu (Sideways). One of the latest, and best, is Japanese-born Korean director Lee Sang-il’s spectacularly honest and faithful remake of Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Oscar-winning revisionist Western, Unforgiven — in some ways returning the favor of Eastwood’s having starred in Sergio Leone’s 1964 spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. In Unforgiven, Ken Watanabe, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Last Samurai and starred in Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, plays Jubei Kamata, the Japanese version of Eastwood’s William Munny.

Jubei Kamata (Ken Watanabe) and Natsume (Shiori Kutsuna) are out for revenge in UNFORGIVEN

The Meiji restoration is under way, as the age of the shogunate has ended and Japan is finally opening to the West and beginning to modernize. Formerly a famous warrior and killer, Jubei is now a poor farmer living in isolation with his two young children from his sadly brief marriage to an Ainu woman. One day an old ally from his violent past, Kingo Baba (Akira Emoto), suddenly shows up, asking Jubei to join him on a manhunt to collect a reward for killing two samurai brothers (Yukiyoshi Ozawa and Takahiro Miura) who brutally cut up a prostitute (Shiori Kutsuna). Sworn to peace, Jubei at first refuses, but he relents because he desperately needs money to take care of his family. The two men are soon joined by Goro Sawada (Yūya Yagira), a wild, unpredictable Ainu who is looking to get even with all the Japanese who have abused and continue to mistreat his race. But standing in their way is vicious police chief Ichizo Oishi (Koichi Sato), a ruthless, power-mad sadist who will do anything to get what he wants. All the while, writer Yasaburo Himeji (Kenichi Takito) keeps taking notes, initially as the biographer of notorious killer Masaharu Kitaoji (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?’s Jun Kunimura), who strolls into town thinking that Oishi’s rules don’t apply to him. It all leads to a tense and gripping climactic showdown that honors Eastwood’s original while also establishing its own memorable identity.

Lee (Hula Girls, Villain) marvelously adapts David Webb Peoples’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, moving the setting to 1880s Hokkaido. The general story follows the American version very closely, with Lee adding uniquely Japanese elements, focusing on the transition from swords to guns in addition to Japanese racism against the Ainu, which also evokes the continued discrimination in Japan against Koreans born there. The film is strikingly photographed by Norimichi Kasamatsu and lovingly directed by Lee, alternating between glorious shots of the vast landscape and claustrophobic interiors where danger hovers in every corner. Unforgiven is no mere good vs. evil tale, with clear-cut heroes and villains; nearly all the men and women fall somewhere in between. Watanabe gives a mesmerizing performance as Jubei, especially when he shows and admits his fear. Sato is appropriately vicious as Oishi, putting his own spin on a character made famous by an Oscar-winning Gene Hackman, while Emoto ably recalls Morgan Freeman as the loyal but aging old friend. Taro Iwashiro’s score can get a little melodramatic, but that’s just a minor quibble with this otherwise brilliant Japanese adaptation of an American classic. The East Coast premiere of Unforgiven is taking place July 15 at Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema series, which runs through July 20 and includes such other films as Yoju Matsubayashi’s The Horses of Fukushima, the world premiere of Moko Ando’s 0.5mm, Eiji Uchida’s Greatful Dead, and a surprise screening of the Mo Brothers’ Killers.