What do Mario Cantone (pictured), Demetri Martin, Ice T, comic book writer Garth Ennis, Duncan Jones, Depeche Mode, Insane Clown Posse and buzz band The Smith Westerns have in common? They’re all part of our “20+ Things to Do in NYC This Week.” (Alternate answer: They’re all going to be in next season’s “Dancing With the Stars”…IN OUR MINDS)
![It’s Easter on steroids as bunnies and bonnets take over Fifth Avenue!
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It’s Easter on steroids as bunnies and bonnets take over Fifth Avenue!
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(Source: fuckyeahnumnums)
Chris Evans has played The Human Torch (twice!) in “Fantastic Four,” and this summer he’ll be seen wielding the iconic patriotic shield of Captain America. Apparently, the guy can’t resist playing superheroes, and in “Puncture,” which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, he tackles one more crime-fighting role: Erin Brockovich! (Minus the busty corsets and big hair.) His nemesis: Big Bad Corporation that picks on the little guy.
In the film, Evans plays a flawed (aka drug-addicted) but determined lawyer who takes on a case involving a nurse who, after accidentally getting pricked by a needle while working the ER, contracts HIV. As he investigates the case with his law partner Paul (Mark Kassen, who also co-directed the film), he uncovers a deep-rooted conspiracy between needle manufacturers and hospital-product buyers to prevent a new line of safety needles from being used in hospitals.
It’s a decent, solid do-gooder story that pits greedy corporate bullies against idealistic crusaders, and although the movie won’t win points for pushing the envelope, you do wanna give it props for pushing its agenda out there. The movie is also going to be an interesting test for Evans, who’s no doubt out to prove that he’s more than just a beefcake in superhero tights. If it weren’t for all the attention Evans is getting from his Captain America gig, “Puncture” would have been just another genre story starring another pretty-boy actor. Keep an eye out to see if “Captain America,” which opens in July, helps raise his profile enough to juice up grosses of “Punctured” when it finally hits theaters. —Alexis L. Loinaz
Check out our picks for must-see films at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival
If “Sideways” made you want to pop a bottle of Pinot Noir after seeing it, then “The Trip”—the new buddy-road-trip mockumentary starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan—will make you want to pop into wd-50 or Gramercy Tavern.
The movie is practically a foodie redo of “Sideways,” down to the plot about two middle-aged men who travel the English countryside while sorting out some personal issues. But instead of vineyards, the guys swing by fancy-schmancy restaurants and gorge on all sorts of emulsions, foams and molecular gastronomy-esque what-nots. In other words, food porn galore! Plus, cameos from restaurant biggies like Michelin-starred L’Eclume.
But the main course, of course, is the hilarious combo of Coogan and Byrdon, who previously teamed up in “Tristram Shandy” (which was directed by Michael Winterbottom, who also helmed “The Trip”) to play loose versions of themselves. Surprise! In “The Trip,” they again play fast-talking, loopy versions of themselves—Coogan as a morose actor in a rocky relationship who’s tapped by The Observer to be a guest food critic, and Brydon as his happily married buddy along for the ride.
It’s a wickedly delicious movie filled with loads of improv, zippy repartee and some of the most hilarious impersonations this side of SNL—the duo parody Brit mainstays from Sean Connery to Hugh Grant to Michael Caine. (Oh, poor, poor Michael Caine, who gets the most brutal send-up.) But let’s max out the food puns, shall we? These guys are like peanut butter and jelly! Or mac and cheese! Or pickles and ice cream (if we were preggers, at least)! Coogan and Brydon just go well together.
Toward the end, the film goes a bit overboard with the impersonations, which get tired. (You’ll probably not want to hear Michael Caine’s voice for a while). But overall, “The Trip” gases up for one memorable road trip, and indeed it’s a gas.—Alexis L. Loinaz
Check out our picks for must-see films at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival
Gubler… pulling off his finger!
Two Hollywood players have taken their love of music—and their passion for specific musical acts—and turned that into two rock-and-sock-’em documentaries that left me drumming my fingers nonstop on my seat’s armrest while watching these films unspool.
Actor and native New Yorker Michael Rapaport (you might remember him best from his memorable guest stint on “Friends”—at least I do) has been a lifelong fan of hip-hop pioneers A Tribe Called Quest, who started out in Queens. He now makes this directorial debut with “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest,” a trippy, funk-laced excursion that tracks the group from their childhood days to their booming success in the ‘80s and ‘90s to their abrupt dissolution in 1998 to their tense reunion tour 10 years later. It’s a captivating survey of the impact the group has had on future generations of hip-hop artists, and big names like Pharrell Williams, Mos Def and the Beastie Boys pop up to give due props to them. Admittedly, I was only marginally familiar with ATCQ before this screening (I first came across a song of theirs in 1992 on the “Boomerang” soundtrack—go figure!), but I left it fully hooked on their story, and their sound. No doubt die-hard fans will get a real kick out of this reverential tribute.
Over on the West Coast, filmmaker Cameron Crowe trained his camera on Elton John and iconic rock keyboardist Leon Russell and chronicled their recent collaboration on the critically acclaimed album “The Union,” which is also now the title of his new documentary on them. (It opened the festival this year.) In a way for Cameron, it’s a return to his roots—he famously got his start as a young music reporter for Rolling Stone, and his experiences there formed the basis of his Oscar-wining screenplay for 2000’s “Almost Famous.” The guy sure knows how to craft a rock ‘n’ roll story, and “The Union” is a fascinating ballad, keying in to Elton John’s creative process (this is the first time the singer allowed cameras to capture him writing songs) while paying homage to the inspirational genius of Leon Russell, whose wild keyboard riffs (and even wilder mane and beard) are legendary. The result is a toe-tapping creative summit of two keyboard savants that brims with affection, nostalgia and abundant doses of shoop-shoop exuberance. —Alexis L. Loinaz
Check out our picks for must-see films at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival
This type-on-cover trend is not going away….
(via paranoidandr0id--deactivated201)
The festival doesn’t officially kick off until tomorrow, with a free public screening of Cameron Crowe’s new Elton John docu “The Union,” but several films have already been generating advance buzz based on early press screenings in the week leading up the fest.
One of the films that I’m predicting will hit big, and connect big time with audiences, is “The Bully Project,” an alarmingly topical and heartbreaking documentary that follows five families whose children were victimized by vicious bullying. In two cases, those youngsters committed suicide.
The movie is devastating. It left the audience I saw the screening with in tears, and afterward everybody shuffled out in stunned silence. It’s a lump-in-your-throat kind of film that cuts across race, gender and sexual orientation. Among others, we meet a 16-year-old lesbian whose schoolmates struck her with a car, and an incarcerated 14-year-old black girl who, fed up with being bullied, threatened her tormentors with a gun she found in her mom’s room.
With compassion and conviction, director Lee Hirsch (whose apartheid-themed docu “Amandla!” won an Emmy) maps the geography of childhood cruelty and hate, presenting schools as battlefields, children as casualties, and apathetic school officials as complicit collaborators. Front and center are the youngsters who bravely chose to share their stories, as well as families dealing with the inconsolable grief of losing children who will never be able to tell theirs.
—Alexis L. Loinaz
Check out our picks for must-see films at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival
Watch Prince William get hitched…and eat like a prince, too! Lotsa street parties, special menus and after-parties coming up.
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The 10th annual fest kicks off tomorrow night with a free outdoor public screening of Cameron Crowe’s new documentary “The Union,” about the creative collaboration between Elton John and iconic keyboardist Leon Russell, to be followed by a free performance by Elton John. Double whammy!
It starts at 8:15 p.m. at the World Financial Plaza, at the north end of the World Financial Center. Admittance is first-come, first-served, and all attendees will need wristbands to get in. They’ll be handed out starting at 4 p.m., and you can get them at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, at 199 Chambers St. along the West Side Highway. Godspeed getting those wristbands!
For highlights of other notable films screening at the fest this year, check out our preview. —Alexis L. Loinaz
What’s new on-stage, from ‘Black Watch’ to ‘Future Anxiety’
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The scoop on Seasons, Macaroni Macaroni, Greensquare Tavern, Queens Comfort, Bad Horse, Queens Kickshaw.
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The Lincoln chef gives us a tour of his sleek kitchen and an exclusive preview of a new spring dish.
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![The Black Swan Experience: tutus and twirls at a dress-up send-up of the Oscar-winning flick at Landmark Sunshine Cinema. Brava!
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The Black Swan Experience: tutus and twirls at a dress-up send-up of the Oscar-winning flick at Landmark Sunshine Cinema. Brava!
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