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Mr. Gaga: Going Gaga Over Ohad Naharin

January 31, 2017

Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann gesticulates wildly talking about Ohad Naharin, a much-awarded choreographer, the artistic director of the Tel Aviv based Batsheva Dance Company. In town in early January with his exceptional, evocative documentary, Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance, a highlight of this year’s Jewish Film Festival, Heymann exudes, “Ohad is an amazing character, perfect for a movie. I met him 25 years ago when I was a waiter; here was a sexy man with a beautiful Japanese woman, his wife, dancer Mari Kajiwara, a very unusual couple. They gave me a big tip.”

“I knew a “hora;” said the filmmaker who made Mr. Gaga with his producer and brother, Barak, “that’s what I knew of dance. When I was offered a free ticket to “Kyr,” a Batsheva Dance Company performance, it changed my life forever.” Eight years in the making, Mr. Gaga will premiere this week at Film Forum and the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in tandem with Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company’s premiere of “Last Work” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Just prior to these openings, I had a chance to speak to Ohad Naharin, indeed handsome, with a quick and ironic wit, about the film, the birth of Gaga, Natalie Portman, and the vagaries of politics and art.

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Discovering John Cohen–Again

January 27, 2017

At a wall-to-wall packed opening at the Grey Art Gallery, photographer/ filmmaker / musician John Cohen held court in front of a video installation of some vintage photographs he took at the heyday of artist owned galleries on 10^th Street. Talk about a fascinating pocket of art history! “Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City 1952-1965” features paintings by Alex Katz, Jim Dine, Jane Wilson and other noted artists of the midcentury, Dan Flavin, George Segal, exhibited in the context of the galleries: Tanager, Hansa, Brata, Delancey Street Museum, to name a few. A John Cohen photograph graces the handsome exhibition catalogue’s cover: Red Grooms crossing Third Avenue, transporting artwork in what looks like a baby buggy to the Reuben Gallery in 1960.

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August Wilson’s Jitney in its Broadway Debut: A Review

January 21, 2017

Now, a dozen years after his death, August Wilson is on a roll. Maybe the wide release of the movie of his stage play Fences will bring him a posthumous Oscar for Best Screenplay, but more, because Denzel Washington has vowed he would see all 10 plays of this bard of Pittsburgh’s Hill District produced. A new Manhattan Theater Club production of Jitney, a 1982 drama at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater, a Broadway debut for this early play, is a must-see.

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Becoming Warren Buffett on HBO: Portrait of a Good Man

January 20, 2017

On inauguration eve, a different man of wealth was feted at MoMA, at a special screening of Becoming Warren Buffett. HBO’s Richard Pepler described the film’s subject as a man of decency, integrity, and character. Directed by Peter Kundhardt, this riveting film illuminates the life and work of Buffett, born in the depression in Omaha, to become one of the richest men in the world. And yet, he seems the opposite of many men of means: humble, self-effacing, humanitarian, without any posturing or affect of wealth. In an initial sequence, we see him driving himself to work, stopping at McDonald’s, weighing in on his breakfast choices. Many viewers of this essential documentary will look for his wisdom on how to amass wealth and make profitable investments. While few have his genius, his tips are of value. But even more vital is the realization that the ability to live as he does is within everyone’s reach, rich or poor.

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Jill Kargman Climbs a “Stairway to Cabaret” at the Café Carlyle

January 19, 2017

Not sure whether or not Jill Kargman would riff on the Led Zepplin classic “Stairway to Heaven,” I had to admit, the comedienne, creator of Bravo’s Odd Mom Out, and author of Sprinkle Glitter on my Grave brought something different to the Café Carlyle. The set list, for example, featured only eight songs. Kargman is gifted at stand up, weaving songs and stories together into a funny, entertaining evening, spoken from the perspective of an East Side mom at odds with the prevailing ethos. Tales of a Southern nanny named Sue, a Bulgarian make up artist, and a trip to Disneyworld gave new meaning to Jon Bon Jovi/ Richie Sambora’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” the Alice Cooper, Desmond Child, John McCurry hit “Poison,” and Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee’s “Girls, Girls, Girls.”

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Daniel Craig and David Oyelowo in Othello: The Moor Goes Down

January 16, 2017

At the much celebrated New York Theatre Workshop production of Othello, Andrew Lieberman’s austere set looks like the inside of a packing crate as the audience files in, taking seats on three sides; mattresses are strewn about the floor, as if we are inside a military barrack. Under the imaginative direction of Sam Gold, the play starts in the dark. This is Shakespeare’s play, after all, and the black fixes you immediately on the bard’s poetry. By the time lights go on, you are prepared to witness Iago’s (superb Daniel Craig) cunning, brutal betrayal of the naïve, besotted Othello (David Oyelowo, equally Craig’s match in excellence). Jane Cox’s lighting creates the intimacy of a bedroom for vigorous lovemaking, and an arena for fierce man-to-man combat. You are not likely to find theater this engaging, this terrific, this season.

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Cinema Eye Honors Non-Fiction Films

January 12, 2017

At the Cinema Eye Honors luncheon celebrating documentary films and the filmmakers who make them, Otto Bell exulted: his The Eagle Huntress had just received a BAFTA nod, and one from the Directors’ Guild of America, but more exciting to him was a tea last week at the Plaza Athenee where Robert Kennedy Jr. had a conversation with him about falconry, and brought his own eagle. Successful with this first-time feature, Bell makes commercials for CNN. Blown away, he asked, “Can you believe it: “Robert Kennedy, Jr.!”

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Meryl Streep Cautions at the Golden Globes: Disrespect Incites Disrespect

January 9, 2017

This is a sign of things to come in the next four years: Meryl Streep outspoken about the performance of the year, the one that stunned her, and it wasn’t even in a fiction film. It was a real life public figure—unnamed—who mocked a disabled reporter. “Disrespect incites disrespect.” We need the press to hold power to account and out every outrage. I am paraphrasing from Streep’s powerful message from the podium of the Golden Globes, as she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement . Streep singled out only one outrage among so many she could have chosen from this public figure, the one who will now become the leader of the free world. Feel The Big Chill.

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Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar: Celebrating Lion at The Monkey Bar

January 5, 2017

Sunny Pawar, in case you have not yet seen this movie, is “Lion”’s secret weapon. Pint-sized and precocious, Pawar, now eight, was six when he inhabited the role of Saroo as a young boy separated from his mother in a remote area of India. When he began his acting career starring in this movie, he did not know English, but this week at a special screening of the film and dinner at The Monkey Bar, he was happy to talk about “Lion,” how director Garth Davis cast him, selecting from 2000 boys, and his next movie, “Love, Sonia” co-starring Demi Moore. In short, and no pun intended, he’s a natural with a big career ahead of him. I can still hear his whiskey voice.

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New York Film Critics Circle Spreads the Love

January 4, 2017

Why is this night different from all other [awards] nights? New York Magazine film critic and emcee for this annual awards fete David Edelstein had some answers about honoring the storytelling but Mark Ruffalo, on hand to present the Best Screenplay award to Kenneth Lonergan for “Manchester By the Sea,” put it succinctly: the speeches are fresh. This being the beginning of the long slog to Oscars, everyone can let loose. And “Manchester”’s lead, Casey Affleck did, reading one-liners from negative reviews, especially from the night’s emcee. Edelstein, for his part, was ruffled and began to praise Affleck for just about everything, until that wore thin. But it was all in good fun. Had the awards been televised as the Globes and Oscars are, this would have been a different night indeed.

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Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson: Poetry for the New Year

January 3, 2017

The quiet charm of Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, his latest movie, about a poet evoking the time and place of predecessor wordsmiths William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, impresses with vitality, a life force. So much, that two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress, Sylvia Miles, quipped, she paid her academy dues just to nominate this work for a Best Picture Oscar: “It’s the best film I’ve ever seen on a creative person.” In a season of noisier films, will academy voters notice this gentle work of art?

Adam Driver stars. Paterson is ensconced in the workaday life of a bus driver in Paterson, picking up his vehicle at the depot, picking up passengers on his route. He enjoys a happy home life with Laura (Golshifteh Farahani obsessed with circles or maybe orbs, and his neighborhood bar where he ties up his dog outside and retreats for a nightly beer, his routines as regular as the movements of the planets. Even his most casual observations, visions realized onscreen in a clever scrawl, recast all in the language of the eternal.

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Remembering the Gotham Book Mart

January 1, 2017

“That’s our trouble,” said my friend Roger, “everything used to be something else.” I had just told him about meeting my brothers and their families for the third Chanukah candle, 13 relatives in all, at a glatt kosher restaurant called Taam Tov in the Diamond District, on the very site of the legendary Gotham Book Mart. On November 17, 1986, my book, Kerouac’s Spontaneous Poetics, one of the first full-scale studies on the iconic beat poet and novelist, was celebrated here. A sign, “Wise Men Fish Here,” marked the spot, a literary emporium on a bejeweled street. The James Joyce Society met here. Among many other book parties, a reissue of Junkie was feted here too, in 1977. Carl Solomon and Patti Smith attended, honoring William S. Burroughs’ work. Poet Allen Ginsberg, who had clerked here back in the day, snapped my picture.

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Pedro Almodovar’s Women: The Two Faces of Julieta

December 30, 2016

Pedro Almodovar loves women. His films feature memorable female roles: look at Kika, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Talk to Her, Volver, yet another great part for his protégé Penelope Cruz, and now Julieta, the titular protagonist penned for two fine Spanish actresses: Emma Suarez as the mature Julieta, and Adriana Ugarte, Julieta as a young woman. Based on short stories by Canadian author Alice Munro, Julieta further illustrates Almodovar’s literary bent—The Skin I Live In, for example was an adaptation of Thierry Jonquet’s revenge tale, Migale, but just right for his style, on the verge of melodrama. His women, in every case, are out there. Last fall, I had the opportunity to talk to his stars about working with this unique Spanish auteur, and how he prepared them for playing Julieta.

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Denzel Washington’s Fences: Celebrating August Wilson’s Masterpiece

December 21, 2016

How do you bring the brilliant, Pulitzer Prize winning Fences, to the screen? You stick close to August Wilson’s jazz poetry. This week Fences was celebrated with a screening at Lincoln Center’s jazz venue, Rose Hall. The movie’s director Denzel Washington led his killer hand-picked cast including Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Mykelti Williamson, Russell Hornsby —Denzel Washington wanted his actors to stand with him.

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Ride the Cyclone: A Musical at the Lucille Lortel Theater

December 18, 2016

Coney Island’s roller coaster known as The Cyclone was simultaneously alluring and terrifying. The Cyclone in Ride the Cyclone, a glorious MCC production at the Lucille Lortel Theater is no different with its premise of promising members of the Saint Cassian High School chamber choir wiped out on a single ride. Alluring, yes, terrifying, yes, but add teeming with life, despite the down cycle of death. A disembodied carny head in a box predicts the teens’ demise; the Amazing Karnac serves further to narrate their misfortune, and invite each to tell the story of a life interrupted. Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond’s book focuses on these teens’ inner lives, revealing much to sing and dance about, and they do, especially as Karnac will restore one of them to the land of the living. As directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell, each one makes his or her case: attention must be paid.

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Martin Scorsese’s Silence: An Interview with Producer Gaston Pavlovich

December 13, 2016

When I met with Gaston Pavlovich at the Ritz Carlton to talk about his work on Martin Scorsese’s Silence, the film’s producer expressed doubt: would movie goers come to this two hour plus film set in 17th century Japan about the persecution of Christians? I had just seen Silence the night before with an awe-struck audience; a panel followed, including producers Emma Koskoff and Irwin Winkler, and the Japanese actor Issey Ogata who plays The Inquisitor. From an opening procession in a shimmering mist, the film feels special. Scorsese told the rapt crowd, it was Ang Lee who suggested he shoot in Taiwan. Andrew Garfield was cast as Rodrigues because he read well for the part, but more, he wanted it so much. Scorsese wanted to film this book, Silence by Shusaku Endo, for 28 years. Many came away believing, as I did, that Silence was a game changer.

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Annette Bening: Honored at New York Stage & Film Gala/ Mother Writ-Large in Mike Mills’ Twentieth Century Women

December 10, 2016

“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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Steve Tyrell at the Café Carlyle: Home for the Holidays

December 8, 2016

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.

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Dear Evan Hansen: A Review

December 6, 2016

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.

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Robert DeNiro in The Comedian: DeNiro’s Busy Week

December 5, 2016

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.

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Gotham Awards: Moonlight Shines

November 29, 2016

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.

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Castro’s Legacy on HBO: Patria O Muerte: Cuba, Fatherland, or Death and Mariela Castro’s March: Cuba’s LGBT Revolution

November 27, 2016

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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Paramour: Hollywood Glitz and Glamor on Broadway

November 25, 2016

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.

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Mark Wahlberg in Patriots Day: Heroes at the Lotos Club and Marathon: The Patriot’s Day Bombing on HBO

November 22, 2016

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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Amanda Knox, the New President, and the Media: An Interview with Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn

November 21, 2016

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.

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