Keith Haring, still from PAINTING MYSELF INTO A CORNER, video, 1979 (© Keith Haring Foundation)
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, July 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org
The Brooklyn Museum sends off its “Keith Haring: 1978-1982” exhibit with a late-night celebration this weekend as part of its monthly First Saturdays program. (The show officially closes on Sunday.) The free evening will feature live performances by Mon Khmer, Mickey Factz, the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory, City Kids, and Plastiq Passion, an art battle, a hands-on workshop inspired by Haring’s “Art is for everyone” motto, clips from Jim Hubbard’s documentary United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, a signing and talk with Maripol about her book Little Red Riding Hood, a participatory sidewalk chalk mural, gallery talks, Q&As, and a dance party hosted by DJ Justin Strauss. The galleries will remain open until eleven, so be sure to check out such exhibits as “Raw Cooked: Ulrike Müller,” “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company,” “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” and “Question Bridge: Black Males.”
When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine is screening July 6 at 5:45 at Anthology Film Archives as part of the inaugural CBGB Festival and will be followed by a Q&A with Metzler. The festival runs July 5-8 at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes a bevy of concerts, film screenings, panel discussions, and other special events being held in honor of the classic Bowery club that hosted cutting-edge, alternative, punk, and indie bands from 1973 to 2006. Among the other films being shown are Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, Keirda Bahruth’s Bob and the Monster, Sara Sugarman’s Vinyl, and Gorman Bechard’s Color Me Obsessed.
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s second Infernal Affairs film is reminiscent of The Godfather Part II, as the story moves back and forth through several pasts as we learn more about Ming (Edison Chen), Yan (Shawn Yue), Wong (Anthony Wong), and Sam (Eric Tsang). Some roles are played by the same actors as in the first film, and some are not, so pay close attention. As Hong Kong approaches the hand-over to Chinese rule, the Triad war is threatening to explode, with Ming and Yan caught in the middle. Infernal Affairs 2 is an unforgettable film, gorgeously shot by Lau (who cut his teeth as cinematographer on such films as Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express and Ringo Lam’s City on Fire) and Ng Man Ching (Once Upon a Time in China). Much like the second Godfather film, even though you know what becomes of many of these characters, finding out about what got them there is absolutely thrilling. We love every glorious second of this movie. Don’t miss it.
A must-see for fans of loud, fast, angry music circa 1980-86, American Hardcore looks at one of the smaller but nonetheless influential movements in American music. A basic doc in the classic do-it-yourself sensibility that informed so much of the music scene it chronicles, American Hardcore features interviews with Henry Rollins, lead singer of Black Flag; H.R., the mercurial, difficult, but brilliant lead singer for the Bad Brains; Mike Watt of the Minutemen; and various personnel from the Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, and 7 Seconds. Tommy Stinson of the Replacements and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers weigh in as well. The abundance of old concert footage is fabulous, but director Paul Rachman and writer Steve Blush discovered much of it in shoeboxes in basements during their low-budget cross-country trip while making the movie, so the overall production quality is not high ― which in some ways works better overall. The film does a good job of lovingly showing just how home-grown and amateurish the scene was and debating the importance of the scenes in Houston, Minneapolis, DC, Boston, and Southern California. The finale with a graphic artist and cover designer calling for the next generation of hardcore is a riot. American Hardcore is screening July 5 at 4:00 at Landmark Sunshine Cinema as part of the inaugural CBGB Festival and will be followed by a Q&A with Rachman and Blush. The festival runs July 5-8 at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn and includes a bevy of concerts, film screenings, panel discussions, and other special events being held in honor of the classic Bowery club that hosted cutting-edge, alternative, punk, and indie bands from 1973 to 2006. Among the groups participating in the festival are the Dirty Pearls, Agnostic Front, Richard Llloyd, Tuff Darts, David Johansen, Glen Matlock, Tommy Ramone, Sic F*cks, Eric Ambel, Xylos, Popa Chubby, Dayna Kurtz, and Mike Peters of the Alarm, and that’s just on Thursday.
In 1990, Roh Tae-woo, the thirteenth president of South Korea, officially declared war on organized crime. Writer-director Yun Jong-bin goes back to that dramatic period in the 2012 epic mob thriller Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time. Korean star Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) put on a few pounds to play the roly-poly Choi Ik-hyun, a corrupt Customs inspector who soon immerses himself in Busan’s underworld culture. A goofy, pathetic figure who drinks too much and has no loyalty to anyone but himself, Choi seems to always find a way to survive despite his infuriatingly stupid decisions. He uses his family connections to team up with his godson, Choi Hyung-bae (Ha Jung-woo), a smooth, ultracool gangster who is continually suspicious of his godfather, and to convince determined prosecutor Choi Joo-dong (Kim Eung-soo) not to lock him up and throw away the key. Things come to a head when he gets involved with Kim Pan-ho (Jo Jin-woong) and a casino hotel, leading to violence, betrayal, and whimpering. Told primarily in flashback set in the 1980s, Nameless Gangster is a potent blend of mob drama and comedy, as Yun (The Moonlight of Seoul, The Unforgiven) mixes in elements of such genre classics as Goodfellas and The Godfather while also telling the story of a changing Korea. Choi Min-sik is a hoot as Choi Ik-hyun, a putz who just keeps on keepin’ on, his round face and puppy-dog eyes somehow helping to keep him alive even as he essentially demands to get whacked. Nameless Gangster is screening June 30 at 9:00 and July 3 at 1:00 at the New York Asian Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where it is part of the sidebar event “Choi Min-sik: Mr. Vengeance,” which also includes 2001’s Failan, 2003’s