The Yes Men will try to fix the world in NYC this week
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD (Mike Bonanno, Andy Bichlbaum, and Kurt Engfehr, 2009)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Opens Wednesday, October 7
212-727-8110
http://www.filmforum.org
http://www.theyesmen.org
In 2003, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno revealed their unique form of anti-corporate performance art with THE YES MEN, a documentary in which they go to elaborate lengths to pose as spokespersons for major international companies, making ridiculous announcements that are often taken for fact at conventions and press conferences around the world. Bichlbaum and Bonanno are back fighting corporate crime in THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD, employing what they refer to as identity correction to bring to light wrongs perpetrated on the public by Exxon, HUD, Halliburton, and Dow. They often start by creating fake Web sites that ultimately get them invited to speak at conferences and on business-related television shows, where they make statements and announce new products and programs that are both absurd and revelatory, especially when they apologize for companies that care more about profits than people. The Yes Men have elements of Sascha Baron Cohen’s Borat character, only better dressed and with less bathroom humor, making important points about the state of the world. THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD was the closing-night selection of this year’s Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and will be followed by a reception.
THE YES MEN AND ARTIST REBECCA MIGDAL
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway between Houston & Prince Sts., suite 401
Admission: free
212-254-3511
Wednesday, October 7 The Yes Men themselves — Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno – will be on hand to sign free copies of their brand-new comic book, JUDGEMENT DAY, along with artist Rebecca Migdal, 5:00 – 6:00
HIJINX WITH THE YES MEN
The Delancey
168 Delancey St. between Clinton & Attorney Sts.
Thursday, October 8, $10 (free with ticket stub from 8:00 pm screening at Film Forum), 9:00 pm – 4:00 am
212-254-9920
On September 21, the Yes Men infiltrated New York City, distributing thousands of fake copies of the New York Post in which the newspaper seemed to be telling the truth about global warming and the economic crisis, and now they’re back again. In celebration of the opening of THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD at Film Forum, Earl Dax and the Delancey will be throwing a party hosted by Penny Arcade and Justin Bond, featuring a special performance by Reggie Watts, visual art by Jessica Rosen, a free vodka bar from 9:00 to 10:00, and “three stories of performance, music, and insurrection.”
We love this flick. Takashi Miike incorporates claymation and musicals into this terrific tale of the Katakuris, a family that moves to the middle of nowhere to run a country inn. The only problem is that when guests finally arrive, they all end up dead — in bizarre, ridiculous ways — and the father decides to bury them instead of reporting the incidents, in order to protect the inn. Miike (ICHI THE KILLER, AUDITION, THE GREAT YOKAI WAR) masterfully mixes comedy, romance, music, murder, and mayhem in this enormously entertaining and highly original movie that is filled with a never-ending bag of surprises. Don’t miss it. These screenings are part of the 92Y Tribeca’s Takashi Miike series, which includes AUDITION on October 16 and ICHI THE KILLER on October 23 and 29. 
Davis Guggenheim follows up his Oscar-winning AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH with the awe-inspiring IT MIGHT GET LOUD, an intimate look at three guitar heroes and the instrument that has made them famous. On January 23, 2008, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s the Edge, and the White Stripes’ Jack White held a summit on an L.A. soundstage, where they shared stories about their love of music and, more specifically, the guitar — and, yes, they do eventually make beautiful music together. But IT MIGHT GET LOUD is much more than that; Guggenheim traces each six-string slinger’s personal history, joining them as they take fascinating, revealing forays into their past, returning to childhood places that influenced their career directions. White discusses how having a van led to his receiving his first guitar, the Edge goes back to the school where he, Bono, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. formed a band as young teens, and Page invites the cameras into his home, where he puts on old LPs and even plays air guitar (!) to Link Wray’s “Rumble.” In addition, White writes and records a song in a Tennessee farmhouse on the spot; the Edge, whom Page calls a “sonic architect,” explains his use of technology to arrive at his unique, expansive sound; and Page talks about how John Bonham’s drumming in the hallway of Headley Grange revolutionized rock-and-roll records. Guggenheim supplements the film with amazing archival footage of the three guitar heroes, including extremely early performances that have never been seen by the public before. But at its heart, IT MIGHT GET LOUD is about the creative process, as three generations of very different, massively talented musicians — the ultracool Page, the techno-geek Edge, and the cynical White — share their secrets, their inspirations, and their deep, profound love of the guitar. Oh, and make sure the theater turns the speakers all the way up to 11.
Expanded from his six-minute short, ALIVE IN JOBURG, Neill Blomkamp’s heavily hyped DISTRICT 9 is a sci-fi tale that incorporates elements from numerous genre classics (and clunkers) to create a tense, entertaining thriller that is not quite the cinematic breakthrough many are claiming it is. Sharlto Copley stars as Wikus van der Merwe, an awkward government bureaucrat in charge of moving a ghetto of nearly two million aliens out of one fenced-in area and into another. But the task is far more difficult and dangerous than he anticipated, and after discovering a makeshift lab under alien Christopher Johnson’s (Jason Cope) shack, Wikus is accidentally sprayed with a chemical that starts changing him. Soon he is on the run from the government, which wants to experiment on him, and the crazed leader of a Blackwater-like private military organization headed by the villainous Koobus (David James). Meanwhile, the aliens’ spaceship hovers ominously over Johannesburg. A parable that evokes apartheid in South Africa (the film was shot in and around Soweto) as well as the violence along the Mexico-America border and other xenophobic hotspots, D-9 has plot holes you can launch a rocket through, and the final scenes spiral way out of control, but it’s still a strong debut by an up-and-coming filmmaker being mentored by Peter Jackson.