Lauderee (Perla Haney-Jardine) and her grandmother (Amy Madigan) look to save their family and the planet in FUTURE WEATHER
FUTURE WEATHER (Jenny Deller, 2012)
reRun Gastropub Theater
147 Front St. between Jay & Pearl Sts., Brooklyn
March 1 – 7
718-766-9110
www.futureweathermovie.com
www.reruntheater.com
Jenny Deller’s first feature, Future Weather, is an involving, if overly zealous, coming-of-age drama about a thirteen-year-old loner obsessed with saving the environment. Perla Haney-Jardine (Kill Bill Vol. 2, Dark Water) stars as Lauduree, a smart, independent girl whose flighty single mother, Tanya (Marin Ireland), suddenly bolts from their trailer on the outskirts of Philadelphia and takes off for the West Coast in hopes of becoming a Hollywood makeup artist. At first Lauderee tries to go it alone but eventually starts living with her grandmother, Greta (Amy Madigan), a tough woman who is considering moving to Florida with her longtime boyfriend, the well-meaning Ed (William Sadler). Jenny’s only solace comes in science club, where she and new kid Neel (Anubhav Jain) work on special nature projects with their understanding teacher, Mrs. Markovi (Lili Taylor). While Jenny grows more and more concerned with the disastrous changes that are threatening the planet, she has difficulty dealing with the many changes that are going on in her own ever-more-complicated life. Deller makes an impressive debut with Future Weather, serving as writer, director, and editor, and she produced the film with another first-timer, Kristin Fairweather. The narrative works best when it focuses on Lauderee’s relationship with her mother and grandmother and the teen’s unique individuality, but it tends to get overbearing when making its very serious points about the Earth’s impending man-made doom. However, Deller practiced what she preached, using special environmentally friendly cameras, props, and sets, natural light, and green offices and shot at such locations as the Schuykill Center for Environmental Education and the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust. The film will be playing the reRun Gastropub Theater from March 1 to 7, with several special events scheduled. On March 2 at 2:00, Deller, production designer Gino Fortebuono, and cinematographer Zac Mulligan will participate in the panel discussion “Collaborating on the Vision for Future Weather,” and on March 3 at 2:00, Deller, composer Erik Friedlander, and music supervisor Jackie Mulhearn will be on hand for the panel “Creating a Soundtrack.”
Park Chan-wook kicked off his revenge trilogy with Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (even though the second film, Oldboy, was the first one released in the States), a creepy, quirky tale that lays low for quite a while before busting loose with a massive splattering of the old ultra-violence. After deaf-mute Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) fails miserably in a desperate, ridiculous attempt to get his dying sister (Lim Ji-eun) a kidney, the recently laid-off Ryu is convinced by his anarchist girlfriend, Youngmin (Bae Doo-na), to kidnap the four-year-old daughter (Han Bo-bae) of Park (Song Kang-ho), the man who owned the factory that kicked him out. But when the plan goes awry, both Ryu and Park become obsessed with avenging their torn-apart lives. Although the first half of the film is too slow and heads off in too many directions, the second half brings everything together, chock full of the kind of violence promised by the title. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is screening on March 3 at 3:00 as part of a Museum of the Moving Image/Korea Society tribute to Park in conjunction with the release of his first English-language film, 
“What’s up with this song? So kitschy, yet so profound,” director and narrator Roberta Grossman says at the beginning of her rollicking documentary, Hava Nagila (The Movie). “And what’s the deal with the chair?” A staple at Jewish celebrations, primarily weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, “Hava Nagila” instantly gets friends and family members out on the dance floor, forming a circle and doing the Hora. Grossman delves into the history and mystery of the catchy song, which over the years has been performed by an unlikely crew that has included Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Johnny Yune, and Regina Spektor, all of whom appear in the film and discuss the tune’s popularity. (There are also archival performances from all around the world as well as an anti-“Hava” song from Bob Dylan.) Also putting “Hava Nagila” into perspective are Yiddish theater veteran Leonard Nimoy, communications professor Josh Kun, and KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik, a “Hava” hater who says with a more than a touch of cynicism, “It’s relentless. It’s resilient. But then again, so are cockroaches,” a statement that exemplifies Grossman’s playful attitude, exemplified by her corny captioning and clever clips from such TV shows and movies as Laugh-In, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Danny Kaye Show, A Serious Man, Wedding Crashers, History of the World Part I, and Fiddler on the Roof. But she also reveals another side to the song, as described by professor James Loeffler, who explains, “‘Hava’ is a portal into a century and a half of Jewish history.” Grossman ( Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh) sets off on what she calls a “Hava Quest,” venturing to the village of Sadagora in Ukraine, the birthplace of the song, and later meeting with two warring families battling over authorship of the words and music. She traces its impact on the development of the State of Israel and the Jewish migration to suburban America, and, yes, she lays out precisely what the words of the song mean. Like the song itself, Hava Nagila (The Movie), which sold out its recent appearance at the New York Jewish Film Festival, is a fun and fanciful frolic into the fascinating story behind one of the most famous songs that so many know so little about.
One of the most influential films of all time, Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece stars Toshirô Mifune as a bandit accused of the brutal rape of a samurai’s wife (Machiko Kyo) and the murder of her husband (Masayuki Mori). However, four eyewitnesses tell a tribunal four different stories, each told in flashback as if the truth, forcing the characters — and the audience — to question the reality of what they see and experience. Kurosawa veteran Takashi Shimura — the Japanese Ward Bond — plays a local woodcutter, with Minoru Chiaka as the priest. The mesmerizing work, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, is beautifully shot by Kazuo Miyagawa; Rashomon is nothing short of unforgettable. (What is forgettable is the English-language remake, The Outrage, directed by Martin Ritt and starring Edward G. Robinson, Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, and William Shatner.) Rashomon is screening March 1 at 9:30 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “Illusions Revealed,” consisting of films that address misperception, and will be introduced by neuroscientist John J. Sakon. The series continues with such films as Rosemary’s Baby, Cinema Paradiso, Black Moon, and Cross of Iron through April 26.
