“If I were a woman,” Rob Reiner said in a video of congratulatory messages for Annette Bening at the Plaza Hotel where this sublime actress was feted at the New York Stage & Film Gala, “I’d be jealous.” Even those of us attending, with so many who worked with her or want to work with her, including Billy Crudup, John Patrick Shanley, Peter Gallagher, Julianne Marguiles, Jennifer Westfeldt, Greta Gerwig, a who’s who of stage, television, and screen including her co-honoree David Rockwell, admired Bening’s stellar career on stage and in movies– some favorites include American Beauty, The Grifters, and The Kids are All Right. Next up she is Irina in Chekhov’s The Seagull. With her husband Warren Beatty who was also present, she is Hollywood royalty.
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Now in his twelfth year performing at the Café Carlyle, Steve Tyrell exulted in the packed house and sold out nights for the holidays. No wonder he seemed so comfortable and set the mood with “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “You’d be so Nice to Come Home To.” David Mann on flute brought the comfy mood home, and Tyrell introduced him and “the best band in the world,” including Quinn Johnson on piano, David Finck on bass, Bob Mann on guitar, Kevin Winard on drums and Jon Allen on keyboards, A dozen years is impressive, and the occasion for Tyrell to reminisce about his very first time at the Carlyle, with George Steinbrenner in the house. -
You’d think the death by suicide of a lonely teen would be a total downer. In Dear Evan Hansen, the play that opened at Broadway’s Music Box Theater on Sunday night after an ecstatic off Broadway run, we meet the troubled boy, Connor (Mike Faist), early on. He’s a bully and picks on the play’s protagonist before the tragic deed, and the rest of this exuberant, fresh, musical is about how, in the age of the Internet, something big is made of something so unknowable and private as this young man’s demise. Ben Platt plays Evan Hansen. An actor of mega talent who made a huge impression in the Pitch Perfect movies, Platt has many fans who clapped hard the minute he took stage, in his bed writing a letter of affirmation to himself: “Dear Evan Hansen,” it starts. -
You don’t have to have a passion for Pagliacci to know the life of a clown has a tragic dimension. Without going to operatic extremes, The Comedian, a movie starring Robert DeNiro as a standup potty-mouthed performer, has a dark side. DeNiro developed the project with Art Linson over eight years, he said at a panel last week for The Comedians at the Plaza Athenee. Robert DeNiro’s comic side, honed in movies like Last Vegas to name one, and his huge heart as in his wise, sensitive father in say, Silver Linings Playbook, come together in this movie, especially playing opposite Leslie Mann. -
Diversity was a serious theme at Monday’s Gotham Awards, during a night of fun and celebration. Cipriani Wall Street was chockablock with film devotees: some filmmakers and new actors, discoveries, such as Anya Taylor-Joy who was awarded Breakthrough Actor for her work in The Witch. Moonlight, A24’s critical and popular hit, was awarded for Best Ensemble and Best Feature. Natalie Portman, whose performance as Jackie will surely garner nominations as the award season progresses, presented the statue. Pregnant with her second child, the Academy Award winning actress quipped, her baby is not due soon enough. -
Even in what we now know as the last few months of Fidel Castro’s life, a hope for change in Cuba is documented in two upcoming HBO films: Olatz Lopez Garmendia’s Patria O Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland, or Death and Jon Alpert’s Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution.Patria O Muerte was featured at the recent New York Film Festival in October, with a panel discussion at screening’s end. Filmed over years with Garmendia creating clandestine ways of hiding her camera on the island known for censorship, she asked Claudio Fuentes to be her DP. Many at the panel wondered whether or not he would be allowed back into his country, as many of the interviews showed Cubans in poverty, unhappy with their lives. Getting these interviews seemed a remarkable feat. Julian Schnabel supported Garmendia’s project as executive producer. Garmentia worked with him on Before Night Falls, the 2000 film he directed based on poet Reinaldo Areinas’ book about his own great hopes for Castro’s revolution before Castro clamped down on gays.
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Verna, a beautiful young woman from Grand Rapids, Indiana wants to be a star in Paramour, the Cirque du Soleil/ Broadway show at the Lyric Theater, conceived and directed by Philippe Decoufle. AJ, a Hollywood director (Jeremy Kushnier) discovers her and renames the redhead Indigo (Ruby Lewis), but he’s a devil and his attentions come with a price. From the show’s first spectacle, a dance and acrobatic number on golden stairs, Paramour’s story is old as the Hollywood Hills, but as AJ says, extolling the virtues of magic in the extravaganza opening number, all movies should have acrobats, and presto, Paramour does what Cirque du Soleil does best, create a dazzling show with juggling, gymnasts, and aerial stunts. -
Two excellent films bring a dark day to life: Peter Berg’s Patriots Day and Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s Marathon The Patriot’s Day Bombing.Peter Berg’s Patriots Day, a new feature on the Boston marathon bombing refreshes us on the details of terrorism through the eyes of a policeman working that day. Mark Wahlberg stars, portraying a composite character in a film hewing so close to the facts, that in a shootout with the two brothers who are known to have committed the horrendous act of planting homemade bombs in knapsacks along the race route finish line, he counted the gunshots and explosions in the soundtrack to make the explosive scene as authentic as possible. The result is thrilling, as nail biting and exciting as Berg’s Lone Survivor, or any film he’s made to date, enacting the bombing, carjacking, shootout, and capture of the younger bomber. At the Lotos Club on Monday, former NYC police commissioner Mike Kelley and many others joined Berg, Wahlberg, and Kevin Bacon, who plays FBI Special Agent in Charge of Boston, Richard DesLauriers, for a passionate discussion of Boston’s solidarity.
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The mesmerizing scandal of Amanda Knox, the young American student on trial in Perugia for killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, returns in a documentary on Netflix by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn called Amanda Knox. What more could we possibly need to know about this case of media mediated justice? I met the filmmakers on the morning after our American election to talk about their film, and suddenly the Amanda Knox story and the events in Italian courts since 2007 had immediate resonance. -
The timing of Benjamin Ree’s documentary Magnus is pure genius. What can be better than watching a film about Magnus Carlson while the 2016 World Chess Championship is being contested at the South Seaport in New York City?A vivid portrait of the 25-year-old world chess champion’s life, talent and dedication, the film offers a glimpse into his background. A child prodigy, Magnus’ incredible mind and memory are vividly displayed. At age 13, he drew with world champion Gary Kasparov. Albert Einstein, after discussions with the Russian chess great Mikhail Botvinnik immediately saw the infinite variations in chess and was puzzled why Botvinnik’s great mind put all this thought in this game. After seeing this film I had the same thought about Magnus. Why didn’t Magnus put his amazing mind to work curing cancer instead of touring and playing the eccentrics and other greats addicted to the game?
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The new documentary Uncle Howard is an inspired compilation of recovered footage, interviews, a story of discovery by Aaron Brookner, a filmmaker who followed in his uncle’s craft. A passing of a baton, you could say, Uncle Howard reflects Aaron Brookner’s determination to ensure his uncle’s legacy. Aaron was seven when Howard Brookner, died of AIDS in 1989. Some family films show them together, a handsome, charming young man with a cute little boy. -
The riveting documentary Disturbing the Peace takes a hard look at the Middle East conflict from the perspective of former enemy combatants, some of whom have spent significant prison time, who are now challenging the status quo and finding ways to shatter a destructive narrative of war. You’d think forging a path toward peace would be a boon to all. Last month, at the Hamptons International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to sit down with a delegation, filmmakers Stephen Apkon and Marcina Hale, and several of their subjects from Combatants for Peace: Sulaiman Khatib, Palestinian co-founder, Chen Alon and Avner Wishnitzer, Israeli co-founders, and Mohammed Ouedah, Palestinian General Director. Middle East politics arouse intense passions, but to engage with this group it became imperative to look beyond my own given history. -
In the movie Arrival, Amy Adams plays Louise, a linguist dealing with some creatures from outer space in Denis Villaneuve’s parable bringing into our world beings from the beyond. They appear to be giant floaty plasma mushrooms and arrive in an ovoid structure with one part flat. An academic with some sorrow in her past, Louise is enlisted to communicate. Amidst a world of aggressive action against the unknown, the message in how she figures out their language is to behave with gentle caution, with heart open, and optimistic courage. In a movie that values the pleasures of compassion, Amy Adams is not your usual action hero. -
Judy Collins ended her set at the Café Carlyle yesterday with Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” a bittersweet homage to the Canadian novelist, composer, and performer—as it turned out. Of course “Suzanne,” from her 1966 album In My Life, is a standard part of her repertoire; it was only after her opening night that guests learned of Leonard Cohen’s death at 82, and looking back, this encore had special resonance. -
Documentary filmmakers gathered at Criterion offices the day after presidential election 2016 to celebrate Kristen Johnson’s Cameraperson, a compilation of her work shooting for prominent directors like Laura Poitras (Citizen Four) and Michael Moore (Trumpland), who were slated to join Johnson on a panel. Given the election results the night before, the event was nearly cancelled but the participants decided to proceed, modifying the agenda to include discussion of the proverbial elephant in the room. Readers of Moore’s blog since July were well aware of this premier satirist’s warnings, that disenfranchised white men would swing for Trump, and they did, shaking up even the most astute pollsters. Now, suffering election hangover, everyone wanted to know, what do we do next? -
Warren Beatty, Hollywood legend and famed boulevardier, starred in or directed and wrote the movies Splendor in the Grass, Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Shampoo, Bulworth, and Reds, to name a few, so now that he has his first film in many years, the long awaited Rules Rules Don’t Apply, it is fitting that the Museum of the Moving Image Image honor him. From this great night of speeches and clips this week, an observation beyond Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” was evident: eccentric, beyond the pale, this man is much beloved. -
The movie Captain Fantastic sounds like an action adventure, and it is, if you consider parenting a thrilling sport. The opening shows bare chested young people making their way through the forest, foraging for food, dismembering prey, a primitive tribe. But no, the movie takes place in the “so-called” present civilized world, in a family whose father played with handsome hippie looks by Viggo Mortensen, home schools his six children in the ways of the wilderness, that is, if you call a teepee a home. Beautifully acted with a stellar cast including Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, and the great Frank Langella, as written and directed by Matt Ross, Captain Fantastic is the best movie about parenting I’ve ever seen.
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David O. Russell, the director of the popular films The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Joy, is a major force behind The Ghetto Film School, an institution in Harlem dedicated to filmmaking. This year, under the tutelage of Joe Hill, the Ghetto Film School teamed up with Glenholme School in Washington, Connecticut to teach the craft of filmmaking to special needs students. Said David O. Russell, a Glenholme boardmember, this collaboration came as a surprise. Last week at Glenholme’s annual gala, at the Bryant Park Grill, Russell presented a special award to Joe Hill, a founder of Ghetto Film School. The night reflecting something of a bromance of these two men dedicated to nurturing young talent and celebrating the next generation of great American storytellers. -
In its tenth year, Stand Up for Heroes remains one of the great nights, with Bruce Springsteen performing an acoustic “Dancin’ in the Dark” spiced with dirty jokes. And after a decade of working it, Bruce’s comic timing is almost as good as his philanthropy. After Bob Woodruff was nearly killed, embedded with troops in Iraq in 2006, he and his wife Lee started this benefit celebrating the bravery of our military and raising funds to help those wounded. Working with Caroline Hirsch and Andrew Fox, the Woodruffs host this event, also the opening of the New York Comedy Festival, and last night Jim Gaffigan, Louis CK, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart, who, in the spirit of the upcoming election recounted a tale of unprovoked, unsavory, racist tweets from Trump. -
Wisdom has it, according to my dentist, the more star power a play has, the less it shines. Not so in the case of The Front Page revival at the Broadhurst Theater. Superbly cast with major Broadway veterans, Nathan Lane, Robert Morse, and Jefferson Mays, luminaries of stage and screen, John Goodman and Holland Taylor, and fine familiar faces: Dylan Baker, Dann Florek, Christopher McDonald, Halley Feiffer, Sherie Rene Scott, and Micah Stock, The Front Page is a laugh riot, with timely jibes at the print media. John Slattery, of Mad Men, as Hildy Johnson, a rising reporter about to be married, cracks everyone up when he says he’s looking at a career change, to advertising. -
At a special dinner honoring The Man Who Knew Infinity movie, and Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons at Bagatelle in the Meatpacking district this week, the discussion was on how you play a math geek. The answer: you have a secret weapon, a real math geek who can teach you how to scribble those equations effectively on a chalkboard. The man in question, Manjul Bhargava, was honored with a Fields Medal; Neil DeGrasse Tyson, “just your neighborhood astrophysicist,” as he describes himself, explained just how impressive the Fields Medal, is. It’s like the Nobel Prize. -
Fans who loved Ana Gasteyer’s Saturday Night Live teacher trip with Will Farrell will find her cabaret show at the Café Carlyle a reminder, it’s just acting, or maybe just acting out. In the intimacy of this premiere supper club, located, as Gasteyer redubbed the neighborhood SoDal, that is South of Dalton, invoking the city’s most famous prep school, you know this funny woman, –remarking “It’s very fancy up here,” –is going to violate something sacred. That may be a response to her mother’s judging she’s developed into a “handsome woman,” whatever that means, and so she explains her act: “I’ll be working out my issues with you.” -
It’s been nearly four years since the Newtown Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: 26 dead, 20 at age 6, and the memory is still green. Documentarians Kim A. Snyder and Maria Cuomo Cole went to Newtown, Ct. shortly after the event, and spoke to family, friends, and survivors to get a picture of how a community grieves. Their film Newtown barely mentions the shooter, a young man of no particular politics who was armed with an assault rifle that he took from his mother’s house after killing her. Newtown focuses on the community, detailing the aftermath for three families; we take in this tragedy’s particularity: Newtown stands out from other horrendous shootings that followed. This could be our town, our school, children we know and love. As one bereaved father asks, what did we do wrong that morning sending our children off? Nothing. The children were where they should be, safe at school. -
By the New York Film Festival’s final weekend, it felt like a French takeover: Isabelle Huppert was everywhere. Starring in two films, Mia Hansen-Love’s Things to Come, and Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, the actress went from press conference to dinner at Bar Boulud, her husband and son in tow. Elle is the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and it is safe to say, it is out of the box. For a precursor out of Isabelle Huppert’s hundred or so films, think of Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher, and Huppert’s frank portrayal of a woman’s sexuality. Elle opens with the unmistakable sounds of excessive breathing and violent wallops, in fact a rape as seen through the eyes of a cat. -
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Before the Flood, a documentary exploring this critical historic moment when we can actually do something about climate change premiered this week at the United Nations. Most compelling about this National Geographic film is its focus on the personal. Screened at the General Assembly Ecosoc Chamber with luminaries present, the film opens with Leo remembering a painting by Hieronymus Bosch from his childhood, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” a triptych that goes from rich, saturated, edenic visions to bleak, scorched landscape. The focus on Leo’s journey is an effective way for viewers to grasp the immense problem of global warming.
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