twi-ny recommended events

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — FOREIGN OSCAR HOPEFULS: THE GRANDMASTER

Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi) and Ip Man (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) battle it out in Wong Kar Wai’s THE GRANDMASTER

THE GRANDMASTER (Wong Kar Wai, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Friday, December 27, 9:00, and Tuesday, December 31, 8:00
Series runs December 27 – January 2
212-875-5601
www.thegrandmasterfilm.com
www.filmlinc.com

Hong Kong Second Wave grandmaster filmmaker Wong Kar Wai once again chooses style over substance in his latest work, the visually sumptuous but ultimately confusing martial arts drama The Grandmaster. Wong regular Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time, In the Mood for Love) stars as Ip Man, the real-life Wing Chun master who eventually taught such students as Bruce Lee. The film follows Ip Man from his early days in Foshan, where he is chosen to defend the south against the more famous masters of the north, through the Second Sino-Japanese War and his move to Hong Kong. Along the way there are gorgeously filmed fight scenes (shot by cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd and choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping) involving “The Razor” Yixiantian (Chang Chen), Ma San (Zhang Jin), and, most intimately, Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), daughter of retired master Gong Yutian (Wang Qingxiang), as challengers to Ip Man display their martial arts disciplines in attempts to defeat Wing Chun. An early battle in the rain is particularly breathtaking, bathed in alluring silver tones. But the screenplay, written by Wong with Zou Jingzhi and Xu Haofeng, never really delves deep enough into Ip Man’s character, giving especially short shrift to his relationship with his wife, Cheung Wing-sing (Song Hye-kyo), and children.

Ip Man (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) defends Wing Chun against all comers in martial arts drama

The choppy narrative makes it feel like The Grandmaster was supposed to be a much bigger, more expansive historical epic, and indeed the Chinese version is twenty-two minutes longer, so the 108-minute U.S entry seems lacking. It also comes at a time when the story of Ip Man has been experiencing a major revival, as there have been numerous productions about him over the last few years, including the theatrical releases Ip Man and Ip Man 2 starring Donnie Yen, Ip Man: The Final Fight with Anthony Wong, and The Legend Is Born — Ip Man with Dennis To as well as the television series Ip Man starring Kevin Cheng, so it’s possible that Wong’s film will ultimately get lost in the mix. Although there is still much to admire about The Grandmaster, it follows his disappointing 2007 English-language My Blueberry Nights and the head-scratching 2004 futuristic drama 2046, so it’s been quite a while since the masterful Wong’s heyday of the 1990s, which included such dazzling works as Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and Happy Together before concluding with the lush, unforgettable In the Mood for Love in 2000. Here’s hoping his next film will be more than a series of stunning set pieces that make the story secondary. The Grandmaster is screening December 27 at 9:00 and December 31 at 8:00 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” which runs December 27 – January 2 and consists of ten features that have a shot at being nominated for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, including Gilles Bourdos’s Renoir, Barmak Akram’s An Afghan Love Story, Amat Escalante’s Heli, and Danis Tanovic’s An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker.

FAMILY FILMS: THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T

THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T is the only live-action film written by Dr. Seuss

THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T (Roy Rowland, 1953)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
144 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
December 26-28, 11:00 am
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

Advertised as “the first Wonderama,” The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T is also the first — and only — film written directly for the screen by Ted Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss. Geisel famously disowned it upon its release, declaring it a “debaculous fiasco” and refusing to discuss it in his memoir. But the Technicolor fantasy is actually far from a fiasco, although it is surreal, bizarre, and very, very strange. Tommy Rettig (Lassie) stars as Bartholomew Collins, a young boy who hates taking piano lessons from the awful Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried, who played Uncle Tonoose on Make Room for Daddy and voiced such animated villains as Captain Hook and Snidely Whiplash). In his dreams, Bart finds himself trapped at the Terwilliker Institute, an evil place where Dr. T has hypnotized Bart’s widowed mother, Heloise (Mary Healy), into being his assistant and eventual bride, and where the Collins’s friendly plumber, August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes, who was married to Healy in real life), is installing sinks in cells to be occupied by five hundred kids who are being forced to perform by Dr. T on an enormous winding piano that has 480,000 keys. Meanwhile, musicians who play other instruments are imprisoned in the dungeon, leading to one of the film’s best production numbers. Lost in a German Expressionist-type world, designed by Rudolph Sternad (Judgment at Nuremburg), filled with long shadows, tilted buildings, and evil lurking around every corner, Bart tries desperately to save his mother, the plumber, and himself — and once again be part of a “normal” family. Geisel came up with the story and wrote the screenplay with Allan Scott (So Proudly We Hail); Geisel also wrote the lyrics, with music by Frederick Hollander. However, most of the songs ended up on the cutting-room floor, with only six appearing in the film, which might actually be a good thing, because the musical numbers, save for “Dungeon Shlim Shlam,” are the weakest part of the movie (even if it got nominated for an Oscar for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture). Directed by Roy Rowland with a strong hand from producer Stanley Kramer, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T also features some ingenious set pieces and engaging contraptions among its overall weirdness. The film is screening December 26-28 at 11:00 am as part of the “Family Films” series at Lincoln Center, which concludes December 29 – January 1 with Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — DOCUMENTARY OSCAR HOPEFULS: THE ACT OF KILLING

Proud mass murderers envision themselves as movie stars in Joshua Oppenheimer’s THE ACT OF KILLING

THE ACT OF KILLING (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Thursday, December 26, 1:30
Series runs December 20-26
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.theactofkilling.com

Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing is one of the most disturbing, and unusual, films ever made about genocide. In 1965-66, as many as a million supposed communists and enemies of the state were killed in the aftermath of a military coup in Indonesia. Nearly fifty years later, many of the murderers are still living in the very neighborhoods where they committed the atrocities, openly boasting about what they did, being celebrated on television talk shows, and even being asked to run for public office. While making The Globalization Tapes in Indonesia in 2004, the Texas-born Oppenheimer met some of these self-described gangsters and, struck by their brash, bold attitudes, decided to create a different kind of documentary. In addition to following them around as they go bowling, play golf, sing, and dance, proudly showing off how happy their lives are, Oppenheimer offered them the opportunity to tell their story as if it were a Hollywood movie. The men, whose love of American noir and Westerns heavily influenced the stylized killings they perpetrated, loved the idea and began to restage torture and murder scenes in great detail for the camera, getting in period costumes, putting on makeup, going over script details, reviewing the dailies, and playing both the violent criminals and their victims. The leader is master executioner Anwar Congo, who is perhaps the only one haunted by his deeds; although on the surface he is proud of what he did, he is tormented by constant nightmares. Such is not the case for the others, who laugh as they go over the gory details, especially paramilitary leader Herman Koto, Congo’s protégé and a man seemingly without a conscience. Meanwhile, fellow executioner Adi Zulkadry wonders whether telling the truth will actually negatively impact their legendary status. “Human rights! All this talk about ‘human rights’ pisses me off,” Congo says in one scene. “Back then there was no human rights.” Oppenheimer also depicts how frighteningly powerful the three-million-strong, government-connected Pancasila Youth is, ready to fight for the very same things that led to the genocide in the first place. It’s hard to comprehend how these men continue to walk free, and one can argue whether Oppenheimer should indeed be giving them the platform that he does. Watching these gangsters — or “free men,” as they like to call themselves, since the Indonesian word for gangster is “preman,” derived from the Dutch “vrijman” — artistically re-create scenes of horrific violence is both illuminating and infuriating on multiple levels that will leave viewers angry and incredulous. A selection of this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, The Act of Killing is screening December 26 at 1:30 as part the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls,” which consists of all fifteen nonfiction features that have made the Academy Awards short-list; the festival will be followed December 27 – January 2 by “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” comprising such international fare as Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds, and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — DOCUMENTARY OSCAR HOPEFULS: DIRTY WARS

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill uncovers some frightening secrets in DIRTY WARS

DIRTY WARS: THE WORLD IS A BATTLEFIELD (Rick Rowley, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Thursday, December 26, 6:30
Series runs December 20-26
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.dirtywars.org

In 2007, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill published Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, which detailed his reporting for the Nation on the controversial private military force hired by the U.S. government to fight in Iraq. Six years later, Scahill has written Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, a scathing indictment of another secretive fighting force, the Joint Special Operations Command. Director Rick Rowley (The Fourth World War, This Is What Democracy Looks Like) follows Scahill through Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Washington in this eponymous documentary accompanying the book as Scahill uncovers startling information about JSOC and the White House involving kill lists, mysterious night raids and drone strikes, attacks on U.S. citizens, and other controversial elements of the War on Terror. Rowley meets with former operatives who discuss JSOC’s rising power, villagers in Afghan and Yemen who claim U.S. forces murdered innocent women and children based on faulty intelligence, the father of targeted Islamic militant Anwar al-Awlaki, and U.S.-backed warlords who have no regard for the international rules of engagement. Every time Scahill appears to have reached a dead end in his investigation, he uncovers something that keeps him going, knowing it could get him into deep trouble. At one point a clip shows Jay Leno asking Scahill on Bill Maher’s Real Time, “Why are you still alive?” As inappropriate a question as that is, it is loaded with truth. No matter what your political bent, it is extremely difficult to watch Dirty Wars, as it reveals many unsettling facts about America and the War on Terror that will have even the most left-leaning viewers wondering whether Scahill should just have just left well enough alone. Photographed by Rowley and written by the director with Scahill and David Riker, Dirty Wars is screening December 26 at 6:30 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls,” which runs December 20-26 and consists of all fifteen nonfiction features that have made the Academy Awards short-list, including Blackfish, The Act of Killing, Life According to Sam, The Crash Reel, First Cousin Once Removed, and Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The festival will be followed December 27 – January 2 by “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” comprising such international fare as Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds, and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda.

Nominated for one Academy Award: Best Documentary Feature

TWELFTH NIGHT / RICHARD III

Mark Rylance is simply spectacular as Olivia in old-fashioned version of TWELFTH NIGHT on Broadway (photo © Joan Marcus)

MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARES TWELFE NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL /
THE TRAGEDIE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through February 16, $25 – $165
www.shakespearesglobe.com

Shakespeare’s Globe makes its Broadway debut by turning back the clock some four hundred years with stellar versions of Twelfe Night, or What You Will and The Tragedie of King Richard the Third. Running in repertory at the Belasco through February 16, the productions hearken back to the Bard’s time, featuring onstage candlelight, hand-stitched costumes made out of authentic materials, such period instruments as the rauschpfeife, the sackbut, the cittern, and the theorbo, and men playing all the roles, highlighted by a pair of spectacular performances by two-time Tony winner Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing, Jerusalem). Rylance is a riot as Olivia in the mistaken-identity comedy Twelfth Night, wearing a dazzlingly detailed full-length gown that makes it look as though the character is gliding across the floor like a true noblewoman, rather than doing anything as common or manly as merely walking. Near the beginning of a seven-year mourning period for her father and brother, the Countess Olivia is being courted by Duke Orsino (Liam Brennan) and Sir Toby Belch (Colin Hurley) while developing the hots for Cesario (Samuel Barnett), who is in the service of Orsino — but the youth Cesario is actually the shipwrecked Viola in disguise, twin sister of Sebastian (Joseph Timms), who survived the disaster as well, although each sibling believes the other to be dead. In the meantime, Olivia’s gentlewoman, Maria (the deliciously wonderful Paul Chahidi, baring impressive cleavage), has conspired with Sir Toby, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Angus Wright), and servant Fabian (Jethro Skinner) to dupe Olivia’s loyal and dedicated steward, Malvolio (the wickedly funny Stephen Fry), into thinking that Olivia is in love with him, leading to lots of mayhem and surprise discoveries. But at the center of it all is Rylance, whose every movement is a joy to behold. Director Tim Carroll keeps it all light and lively on a relatively sparse stage backed by an oak screen with two-level stalls on either side where members of the audience can sit — and even become part of the show.

Rylance is playfully malevolent as the Duke of Gloucester in Richard III, although it’s all just a bit too lighthearted for Shakespeare’s dark tale of a power-hungry deformed creature murdering friends and family on his way to the throne. With a stiff left hand hanging lifeless against his body, the ultra-paranoid Richard woos the freshly widowed Lady Anne (Timms), whose husband he killed; betrays his brothers Clarence (Brennan) and Edward (Colin Hurley); disparages Queen Elizabeth (Barnett); falsely accuses Lord Hastings (Chahidi) of treason; and orchestrates other lies and deception as the crown dangles within his grasp during the winter of his discontent. Rylance has a ball uttering devilishly humorous asides and offering a white rose to an audience member in the multilevel stage seating, repeating a charming laugh that belies his deviousness. The supporting cast, consisting of many of the same actors appearing in Twelfth Night — including lone American Matt Harrington playing multiple small roles in each work — is outstanding in both productions, playing their parts, whether male or female, with a robust gusto. Among the other stars are Claire van Kampen’s score and Jenny Tiramani’s sleek stage design and period-specific costumes, which the audience can watch being put on the actors by their expert dressers, starting about twenty minutes before curtain time. If you have a choice, the marvelously inventive Twelfth Night is the one to see, but if you can manage it, you should try to see both, preferably as close together as possible.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION — DOCUMENTARY OSCAR HOPEFULS: BLACKFISH

BLACKFISH

BLACKFISH (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Howard Gilman Theater
Tuesday, December 24, 5:00, and Wednesday, December 25, 4:00
Series runs December 20-26
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.blackfishmovie.com

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Blackfish is a deeply disturbing, immensely heartbreaking, and intensely maddening documentary that looks into the deaths of several orca trainers killed by Tillikum, a six-ton killer whale who has been performing in captivity for a quarter of a century, at such locations as Sealand in San Diego and SeaWorld in Orlando. Inspired by Tim Zimmerman’s “The Killer in the Pool” article in the July 2010 issue of Outside magazine, Cowperthwaite meets with current and former SeaWorld trainers, OSHA representatives, family members of the trainers who were killed, and men who helped capture orcas in the wild, painting a stunning portrait of mistreatment and straight-out cruelty of the highly intelligent and sensitive mammals who have been put on display for decades, continuing to perform for tourist audiences even after they kill. No one blames Tillikum for what happened; it’s the brutal system, and SeaWorld’s lack of response, that is called into question. “A lawyer for OSHA asked me what I thought we’d learned, and I’m sitting in the courtroom, and I’ve got the Kelty Byrne case file in one hand and I’ve got Dawn Brancheau in the other and they’re almost to the day twenty years apart and I’m looking at these two things and my only answer is nothing,” OSHA expert witness and whale researcher Dave Duffus tells Cowperthwaite. One of the most heart-rending parts of the film occurs when diver John Crowe, choking back tears, relates the story of capturing orcas in Puget Sound in 1970, stealing the young ones away from their crying mothers. Cowperthwaite (City Lax: An Urban Lacrosse Story) includes promotional videos, news reports, court transcripts, and new and old interviews, getting every side of the story but one — SeaWorld refused to make any statements on camera, although the company has publicly disputed many of the claims following the film’s release. The controversy is far from over, as such musicians as Barenaked Ladies, Cheap Trick, Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Heart, and others have recently canceled concerts at SeaWorld Orlando in support of the film, which also features a mournful, elegiac soundtrack by Jeff Beale. Blackfish is not an easy film to watch, centering on humanity’s needless inhumanity to fellow mammals, all in the name of the almighty dollar. Blackfish is screening December 24 at 5:00 and December 25 at 4:00 as part the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “For Your Consideration: Documentary Oscar Hopefuls,” which runs December 20-26 and consists of all fifteen nonfiction features that have made the Academy Awards short-list, including The Act of Killing, Life According to Sam, The Crash Reel, First Cousin Once Removed, and Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The festival will be followed December 27 – January 2 by “For Your Consideration: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls,” comprising such international fare as Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds, and Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda.

A VERY JEWISH CHRISTMAS

Rachel Feinstein will be spending Christmas Eve at the Gotham church of comedy with Myq Kaplan, Sam Morril, Chloe Hilliard, and Gregg Rogell

Rachel Feinstein will be spending Christmas Eve praying at the Gotham church of comedy with Myq Kaplan, Sam Morril, Chloe Hilliard, and Gregg Rogell

Gotham Comedy Club
208 West 23rd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday, December 24, $25 (two-drink minimum), 7:30 & 9:30
www.gothamcomedyclub.com

Every Christmas Eve, while most of America is sitting down to their holiday dinner, Jews gather in comedy clubs, laughing hysterically as Jewish comedians tell endless jokes about goyim. Well, maybe that’s not quite the gist of it, but only those in the know really know. On December 24, the Gotham Comedy Club will host its annual Yuletide celebration “A Very Jewish Christmas,” featuring Last Comic Standing finalist and anagram specialist Myq Kaplan (“Menorah? Harm one? Her moan? More? Nah.”) March Madness 2010 Comix champion Sam Morril (“I just complained to my mom on the phone for 40 minutes about how someone wasted my time”), former journalist Chloe Hilliard (“Christmas Eve you can find me at the Jewish show @ Gotham. Oh yeah! I’m probably getting paid in Chinese food.”), New York Giants fan Gregg Rogell (“Obamacare killed Brian”), and World’s Dumbest star Rachel Feinstein.