THE EARLY WORD: Histoire Lesson

Whenever Wednesday, February 18 @ 6:30pm Screening and Reception: Melody Institute of Contemporary Art · University of Pennsylvania 118 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 · 215.898.5911 Join Anthony Campuzano over wine and cheese to watch Serge Gainsbourg seduce nymphet Jane Birkin in Melody (1971), Jean-Christophe Averty’s kaleidoscopic 28-minute video accompaniment to Gainsbourg’s iconic and provocative concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. SERGE GAINSBOURG: Requiem Pour Un Con

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CINEMA: Dancing In The Dark

WALTZ WITH BASHIR (2008, directed by Ari Folman, 90 minutes, Israel) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Like last years’ Persepolis, the true-life mystery Waltz With Bashir delivers the West some much-needed Middle Eastern history in an easy-to-digest cartoon format. Make that “easier-to-digest” format, because even when told with this expressionist mix of flash and hand-drawn animation this difficult-to-shake tale of the toll of war lures us to stare at some truly grueling memories that would be unbearable on film. With interviews collected as documentary then sculpted and rendered in animation, filmmaker Ari Folman presents the stories of his comrades from […]

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NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t

FRESH AIR How do you make a realistic film about a notoriously “fake” sport? That was the question Darren Aronofsky faced when he agreed to direct The Wrestler, a movie starring Mickey Rourke as a gnarled professional wrestler whose glory days are gone. Both Rourke and supporting actress Marisa Tomei have received Oscar nominations for their work in the film. Aronofsky’s previous directorial credits include Pi (1998) and Requiem For A Dream (2000). RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Last week, President Obama ordered the suspension of all trials at Guantanamo Bay and signed an executive order to close the detention center […]

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THEATER: Five Reasons To See Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire At The Walnut St. Theater

1. Blanche DuBois is the first lady of the American stage. Whereas the motion picture of Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire draws attention to Brando’s gritty portrayal of Stanely Kolwalski, it seems as though Williams intended Blanche Dubois, played with gravitational pull by Susan Riley Stevens, to hold center stage for playhouse productions. The production was all of three hours long, which can be demanding even for the most ardent theater-lovers, but Stevens entertained, intrigued and beguiled effortlessly for the entire production, and could have done so longer. And this was no small feat. Stevens delivered more than […]

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CINEMA: Girl, Interrupted

WENDY AND LUCY (2008, directed by Kelly Reichardt, 88 minutes, U.S.) THE LITERARY WORLD OF FRANK & ELEANOR PERRY (This weekend at The International House) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC A film so internalized as to barely exist at all, Heath Ledger’s widow Michelle Williams mourns soulfully for her lost dog in the latest film from Kelly Reichardt, Wendy & Lucy. The plot is so slender it is almost high-concept, in its own modest way. Michelle Williams is Wendy, a twenty-something woman driving solo to work in Alaska’s fisheries when her dog disappears in a sleepy Oregon town. She feels […]

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CINEMA: You Say You Want A Revolution

CHE: PARTS 1 & 2 (2008, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 157 minutes, U.S./France/Spain) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Scattered amidst the filmography of director Steven Soderbergh are a handful of films that announce themselves as impossibly ambitious and intellectual.  You can imagine the director bragging to his peers in the industry, “Oh yeah, my next film is a fictionalized take on the life of Franz Kafka” or “I’m remaking Tarkovsky’s Solaris and I’m getting it right this time!” Che, Soderbergh’s  four-hour biopic on the life of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevera is the latest of these half-cooked dishes, delivering a […]

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CINEMA: Big Pimpin’

Notorious (2009, directed by George Tillman Jr. 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Get a jump on mid-90’s nostalgia and catch the new biopic of slain hip-hop icon Biggie Smalls, Notorious. It’s 1994, George Foreman is the heavyweight champion, Tonya Harding and O.J. Simpson dominate the headlines. West Coast-based artists Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre are at the top of the game when Sean “Puffy” Combs and The Notorious B.I.G. drop Biggie’s debut Ready To Die, drawing attention back to the rap game’s East Coast roots. Over the next few years this East Coast versus West Coast feud […]

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HEAR YE: Coconut Records Davy

Now playing on PHAWKER RADIO! Get it HERE. ALL MUSIC GUIDE: Three years after his departure from Phantom Planet, musician/actor Jason Schwartzman returned to L.A.’s pop-loving circles with the solo project Coconut Records. Schwartzman had launched Phantom Planet in 1994 and served as the band’s drummer for nearly a decade, simultaneously furthering his acting career with roles in Rushmore, CQ, Slackers, S1m0ne, and Spun. The offers increased once he left Phantom Planet‘s lineup in 2003, but Schwartzman nevertheless had trouble shaking music from his system. With Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger serving as producer, he decamped to Malibu during the summer […]

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RIP: Ricardo Montalban Dead At 88

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A Los Angeles city councilman says Ricardo Montalban has died. He was 88. The Mexican-born actor, who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV’s “Fantasy Island,” died at his home in Los Angeles, City Council President Eric Garcetti (gar-SET’-ti) said Wednesday. Montalban lived in Garcetti’s district in Los Angeles. MORE WIKIPEDIA: Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino KCSG (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican television, theatre, and film actor. He had a career spanning decades and multiple notable roles. During the late 1970s, he was the spokesperson […]

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CINEMA: The Last Train Outta Palookaville

THE WRESTLER (2008, directed by Darren Aronofsky, 105 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I know we’re in Rocky’s hometown but I’ve been taken aback at how many folks have voiced tingly anticipation about seeing ’80s tough guy heart-throb Mickey Rourke as the washed-up title character in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.  When he kickboxed with Jean-Claude Van Damme a decade ago no one cared but now that Rourke’s hit his fifties the idea of him dressing up like David Lee Roth and jumping off the top rope has big city audiences rushing to the Art Houses?  What gives? It […]

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