Savoir Adore will be serving up some sweet sounds at Cake Shop late Thursday afternoon (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The musical maelstrom that is the CMJ Music Marathon is heading into its third day, and once again there are hundreds of shows to choose from, as well as some cool movies. So we’ve narrowed down your choices, making our picks for the best bets as the weekend approaches. And yes, we strongly suggest twi-ny’s own CMJ showcase, taking place October 21 at 12 noon at Fontana’s.
Class Actress, Puma Store, 2:30
Savoir Adore, Cake Shop, 5:00
Pearl and the Beard, the Woods, 6:15
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (Michael Rapaport, 2011), followed by a Q&A with director Michael Rapaport, Clearview Chelsea Cinema, 7:00
Coasting, the Woods, 7:45
Alberta Cross, Terminal 5, 8:45
Psychic Ills, Cake Shop, 10:00
Dinosaur Feathers, Rock Shop, 10:30
Tall Tall Trees, Rockwood Music Hall, 11:00
BNLX, Rebel, 11:30
Much like the end of the silent film era itself, the last horse-drawn trolley is doomed in Harold Lloyd’s final silent film. Big business is playing dirty trying to get rid of the trolley and classic old-timer Pop Dillon. Meanwhile, Harold “Speedy” Swift, a dreamer who wanders from menial job to menial job (he makes a great soda-jerk with a unique way of announcing the Yankees score), cares only about the joy and wonder life brings. But he’s in love with Pop’s granddaughter, Jane, so he vows to save the day. Along the way, he gets to meet Babe Ruth. Ted Wilde was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, Comedy, for this thrilling nonstop ride through beautiful Coney Island and the pre-depression streets of New York City. A restored 35mm print of Speedy is being shown October 16 at 3:00 at the Museum of the Moving Image with live accompaniment by pianist Donald Sosin, preceded by an illustrated lecture about the making of the movie by film historian John Bengtson, author of Silent Visions: Discovering Early Hollywood and New York Through the Films of Harold Lloyd (Santa Monica Press, May 2011, $27.95), and will be followed by a book signing.
Created by an overflow of the Colorado River in 1905, the highly salinic Salton Sea became a fashionable vacation destination in the 1950s, “the new recreational capital of the world,” as archival footage announces at the beginning of Alma Har’el’s feature-length documentary, Bombay Beach. “The future is now,” a promotional film proclaims, but over the years the “miracle sea in the desert” has instead come to represent the underside of the American dream. Currently an environmental disaster resembling a postapocalyptic landscape, the area is home to a motley crew of people just trying to get by. Har’el, a video director for such bands as Beirut, focuses her handheld camera on three protagonists: Red, a grizzled old white man who makes money by purchasing cigarettes at a nearby Indian reservation and selling them for a profit to his friends and neighbors and who doesn’t hide his racist upbringing; CeeJay, a black high school student who left the gang-ridden streets of South Central L.A. for Bombay Beach, where he hopes to star on the football team and make it to the NFL; and Benny Parrish, a young white boy who is fed medications to control his mood swings and whose parents recently served time for various weapons charges. Har’el intercuts scenes of the community’s daily life, from heartwarming stories to invasive moments, with choreographed dance vignettes that range from charming to manipulative, set to original music by Beirut’s Zach Condon and two songs by Bob Dylan. Har’el’s cinema verité style sometimes feels like it’s straining its neck out the window, gazing on a car wreck on the highway as it tells the story of these very poor people who have extremely limited resources, education, and access to health care. Winner of the Best Documentary Feature award at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, Bombay Beach opens October 14 at the IFC Center, where Har’el will attend the 8:20 shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.