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Mo' Better Blues

9/6/2016

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by Joseph Houlihan
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Mo’ Better Blues, the 1990 film by Spike Lee, still crackles with an enduring intensity. Set in a world of black Brooklyn at the beginning of the 1990’s, the film follows Denzel Washington, a working jazz trumpeter, as he approaches maturity. Wesley Snipes plays Washington’s foil as a Saxophone arbiter of New Jack sensibility against Post-bop traditionalism. Spike Lee plays a friend, and his sister Joie Lee plays against Cynda Williams as the women who would love Washington.
 
Coming after She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), and the sensational hit Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo’ Better Blues captures the ferment of the Fort Greene Brooklyn creative elite at its fever pitch.
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Trylon microcinema
June 10-12


​Director: Spike Lee
Producer: Spike Lee
Writer: Spike Lee
Cinematographer: Ernest R Dickerson
Editors: Samuel D Pollard
Music: Bill Lee, Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard
Cast: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Cynda Williams, Dick Anthony Williams, Samuel L Jackson, Rubén Blades, Flavor Flav

Runtime: 129m.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

US Theatrical Release: August 3, 1990
US Distributor: Universal Pictures


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They Live

20/5/2016

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by Frank Olson
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​American B-movies have a long and distinguished history of smuggling subversive sociopolitical commentary into crowd-pleasingly tawdry scenarios. Eagle-eyed viewers can get an extra level of enjoyment out of certain cult classics by, for example, following the homoerotic subtext of The Bride of Frankenstein or taking note of the various ways that Night of the Living Dead reflects the turmoil of its time. They Live upends the usual priorities of the politically-minded midnight movie. Rather than hiding its criticisms of ‘80s social values, the film’s plot literally revolves around exposing the subtextual messages that reinforce the prevailing ideologies of our culture. 
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Trylon microcinema
May 23-24

​Director: John Carpenter
Producer: Larry Franco
Writers: John Carpenter (as Frank Armitage), Ray Nelson (story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning")
Cinematographer: Gary B. Kibbe
Editors: Gib Jaffe, Frank E. Jimenez
Music: John Carpenter, Alan Howarth
Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster, George "Buck" Flower, Peter Jason, Raymond St. Jacques

Runtime: 93m.
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: November 4, 1988
US Distributor: Universal Pictures


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Keanu

30/4/2016

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by Matt Levine
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​Continuing the tradition of sublime ridiculousness established by sketch-comedy classics such as The State and Mr. Show, Key & Peele provided some of the best comedy on television from 2012 to 2015. Even when the show’s ideas fell flat (an inevitability for any show that whips up so much content from week to week), it was enlivened by the presence of its stars and creators: tall, lanky, often-manic Keegan-Michael Key, who can be laugh-out-loud funny simply with the tone of his voice; and droll, stocky Jordan Peele, a master of straight-faced absurdity. Whether the show was embracing its love for the truly ludicrous, tackling controversial subjects, or lampooning elements of black culture, the duo’s chemistry and willingness to embrace any half-baked idea was ingratiating at worst and euphoric at best.
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Area Theaters

Director: Peter Atencio
Producers: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Peter Principato, Paul Young, Joel Zadak
Writers: Jordan Peele, Alex Rubens
Cinematographer: Jas Shelton
Editor: Nicholas Monsour
Music: Steve Jablonsky, Nathan Whitehead
Cast: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Tiffany Haddish, Nia Long, Method Man, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Jason Mitchell, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Luis Guzmán, Will Forte, Rob Huebel

Runtime: 98m.
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: April 29, 2016
US Distributor: Warner Bros. 


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Out of the Past

26/4/2016

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by Michael Montag
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It’s with some reservation that I call Out of the Past a textbook film noir. All of the signature noir iconography is in the picture, of course: a virulent femme fatale, a terse detective, complex narrative structure, poetic voice-over narration, an overwhelming sense of doom, expressive photography, doppelgangers, and so on. But it's only in retrospect that we identify all of these motifs as being indicative of a “noir” style. What’s most fascinating about Out of the Past is its darkening mood and tone. By 1947, the fate of noir detectives had grown increasingly grim. In pictures like The Maltese Falcon (1941), Laura (1944), and The Big Sleep (1946), the characterization is, as always, in the hard-boiled, anti-heroic tradition, but the noir hero is mostly in control in these films. The Sam Spades and Philip Marlowes prevail. As the years passed, however, the noir hero became more unhinged and self-aware. Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past is one of the pictures that helped pave the way for the crazed, heated-up noirs to follow in the coming years. One notable exception is Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944), which could contend with any noir picture for being the darkest and most sardonic.
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The Heights Theater,
April 28, 7:30 pm
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Warren Duff

Writer: Daniel Mainwaring
Cinematographer: Nicholas Musuraca
Editor: Samuel E. Beetley
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Webb, Steve Brodie, Virginia Huston, Paul Valentine, Dickie Moore, Ken Niles


Runtime: 97m.
Genre: Crime/Drama/Film-noir
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: November 13, 1947
US Distributor: Warner Bros.

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Fireworks Wednesday

26/4/2016

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by Matt Levine
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If you’re wondering why Asghar Farhadi’s acclaimed third feature, Fireworks Wednesday, hasn’t gotten an American release until now—ten years after its original release in Iran—the answer is unsurprising, if depressingly familiar: money. In 2006, Asghar Farhadi was a less recognized name to international movie lovers than Jafar Panahi, whose Offside was released the same year. So while Fireworks Wednesday’s original American release was limited to the festival circuit, its belated distribution ten years later—after A Separation (2011) and The Past (2013) have cemented Farhadi as one of modern cinema’s great humanist filmmakers—amends that mistake, proving why Farhadi deserves to be mentioned alongside his compatriots Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami (though his style, tone, and subjects often differ markedly from them).
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Lagoon Cinema

Director: Asghar Farhadi
Producer: Jamal Sadatian
Writers: Asghar Farhadi, Mani Haghighi
Cinematographer: Hossein Jafarian
Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari
Music: Peyman Yazdanian
Cast: Hamid Farrokhnazhed, Hediyeh Tehrani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Pantea Bahram, Sahar Dolatshahi, Hooman Seyadi, Matin Heydarnia

Runtime: 102m.
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran
Premiere: February 8, 2006 - Iran
US Theatrical Release: March 16, 2016
US Distributor: ​Grasshopper Film


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A Hologram for the King

21/4/2016

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by Nick Mangigian
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​There are a lot of things going right with A Hologram for the King, Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel of the same name, in terms of its story moves, its sweetness, and its constant desire to surprise us. So why did it leave me feeling a little cold? The film is strong when it reckons with the challenges and hauntings of a life lived, but a little glib in moving its protagonist beyond all those troubles. At 90 minutes, the film feels long where it should be short, and short where it should be long. 
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Lagoon Cinema
Director: Tom Tykwer
Producers: Stefan Arndt, Gary Goetzman, Arcadiy Golubovich, Tim O'Hair, Uwe Schott
Writers: Tom Tykwer, Dave Eggers (novel)
Cinematographer: Frank Griebe
Editor: Alexander Berner
Music: Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer
Cast: Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury

Runtime: 97m.
Genre: Drama
Countries: UK / France / Germany / USA
US Theatrical Release: April 22, 2016
Premiere: April 20, 2016 – Tribeca

US Distributor: 
Roadside Attractions

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Sleeping Giant

17/4/2016

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by Matt Levine
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Great coming-of-age movies make us feel the wistful beauty of youth, its sense of invincibility and vulnerability at once. Bad coming-of-age movies make us grateful we’ve matured past such a banal, self-obsessed period of our lives. Sadly, Sleeping Giant fits into the latter category. This Canadian film has won a handful of festival awards, but it’s hard to see why; the ensemble (both young and old) contributes grating, unsubtle performances, and writer-director Andrew Cividino (extending his own 2014 short film) doesn’t know how or when to rein in their performances for the sake of something more visual and mysterious. The actors were encouraged to improvise heavily, but in this case that results more in overstated theatrics than unflinching honesty.
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MSPIFF
Sunday, April 17, 8:50 pm
Saturday, April 23, 9:55 pm


Director: Andrew Cividino
Writers: Andrew Cividino
Cinematographer: James Klopko
Editor: James Vandewater
Music: Chris Thornborrow, Bruce Peninsula
Cast: Jackson Martin, Reece Moffett, Nick Serino, David Disher, Erika Brodzky, Katelyn McKerracher, Rita Serino, Lorraine Philp, Kyle Bertrand

Runtime: 90m.
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada


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Miles Ahead

15/4/2016

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by Peter Schilling Jr.
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For whatever reason, 2016 is seeing a glut of musician bio-pics: Hank Williams Sr., Chet Baker, Nina Simone, and Miles Davis are all getting the Hollywood treatment. Thinking back on this genre, it occurred to me that you could count the number of great movies about musicians on one hand, and that hand would have to be without fingers or clenched in a fist (though I am a sucker for Amadeus.) It makes you wonder: what do filmmakers think of when they seek to make a film about the life of a popular singer, other than dollars? Obviously, there’s an admiration of a great talent, which begs the question as to why so many of these movies seem so bereft of skill, much less imagination. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d imagine it’s the same desire that prompts people to want to make movies from books—if a musician’s life is a great story, why, by all means, transform it into a great movie.
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Uptown Theatre

Director: Don Cheadle
Producer: Robert Ogden Barnum, Don Cheadle, Pamela Hirsch, Darryl Porter, Daniel Wagner, Vince Wilburn Jr., Lenore Zerman
Writers: Steven Baigelman, Don Cheadle, Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson
Cinematographer: Roberto Schaefer
Editors: John Axelrad, Kayla Emter
Music:
Robert Glasper
Cast: Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Keith Stanfield, Christina Karis, Austin Lyon, Nina Smilow, Joshua Jessen, Theron Brown


Runtime: 100m.
Genre: Drama/Biography
Country: USA
Premiere: October 10, 2015 – New York Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: April 15, 2016
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics


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Lamb

15/4/2016

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by Daniel Getahun
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Yared Zeleke’s brilliant debut, Lamb, has set the bar extraordinarily high for the Ethiopian film industry. The semi-autobiographical tale of a precocious boy’s soul-searching after the death of his mother was the country’s first ever film to be featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Lamb’s jaw-dropping cinematography and affecting performances betray its shoestring budget and amateur cast; Zeleke leverages the breathtaking Ethiopian highlands as a silent but bonafide supporting character.
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MSPIFF
Friday, April 15, 6:45 pm
Saturday, April 16, 1:10 pm


Director: Yared Zeleke
Producers: Laurent Lavole
, Ama Ampadu, Johannes Rexin
Writer: Yared Zeleke
Cinematographer: Josée Deshaies
Editor: Véronique Bruque
Music: Christophe Chassol
Cast: Rediat Amare, Kidist Siyum, Welela Assefa, Surafel Teka, Rahel Teshome, Indris Mohamed

Runtime: 94m.
Genre: Drama
Country: Ethiopia/France/Germany/Norway/Qatar


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The High Sun

15/4/2016

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by Matt Levine
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Anthology films are a tough undertaking, often prone to a measure of unevenness and redundancy; maybe no other narrative structure is more difficult to sustain. This is true of The High Sun, a Croat-Serbian-Slovenian co-production with three parts linked by the theme of love during wartime. The same two actors, Tihana Lazovic and Goran Markovic, appear as starcrossed romantic protagonists in three different time periods a decade apart—1991, 2001, and 2011. Each story has something to do with deep-seated hatred between Serbs and Croats endangering love, and if each tale too often succumbs to predictable clichés—from snickering, gun-toting soldiers to hunky handymen to drug trips conveyed via blurry lenses and weird camera angles—they’re also enlivened by heated performances and some beautiful widescreen cinematography (by Marko Brdar).
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MSPIFF
Friday, April 15 2:10 pm


Director: Dalibor Matanić
Producer: Ankica Jurić Tilić

Writer: Dalibor Matanić
Cinematographer: Marko Brdar
Editor: Tomislav Pavlic
Music: Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz
Cast: Tihana Lazović, Goran Marković, Nives Ivanković, Dado Ćosić, Stipe Radoja, Trpimir Jurkić, Mira Banjac

Runtime: 123m.
Genre: Drama/War
Country: Croatia/Serbia/Slovenia

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