AMERICAN HARDCORE is screening as part of the inaugural CBGB Festival
AMERICAN HARDCORE (Paul Rachman, 2006)
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Thursday, July 5, $10, 4:00
212-260-7289
www.cbgb.com
www.landmarktheatres.com
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 
The second in director Park Chan-wook’s revenge trilogy (in between Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the 2005 New York Film Festival selection Sympathy For Lady Vengeance), Oldboy is a twisted, perverse psychological thriller that won the Grand Prix de Jury at Cannes, among many other international awards. Choi Min-sik (Chihwaseon) stars as Oh Dae-su, a man who has been imprisoned for fifteen years — but he doesn’t know why, or by whom. When he is finally released, his search for the truth becomes part of a conspiracy game, as he can seemingly trust no one. As he gets closer to finding everything out, the gore and terror continues to increase. Choi is outstanding as the wild-haired Dae-su in Park’s awesome rampage of a film, which is not for the faint of heart. On the DVD, the extras include audio commentary and deleted scenes in which Park discusses how embarrassing it is doing audio commentary and showing deleted scenes, but you can hear him discuss Oldboy in person on June 30 at 1:00 with costar Yoon Jin-seo at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where it is being screened at the special New York Asian Film Festival sidebar event “Choi Min-sik: Mr. Vengeance,” which looks at the fascinating career of the popular Korean actor and activist, who left the business for several years in protest over controversial screen quotas. The series also includes 2001’s Failan, 2005’s Crying Fist, and this year’s Nameless Gangster.
