Sara Vilkomerson

Strangers, AMC Village VII, 2 p.m.

It could be a setup for some sort of awesome romantic comedy: a man and woman lock eyes on a train while both traveling to Berlin for the World Cup finals before accidentally switching backpacks. But, of course, things get more complicated, as the couple in question is an Israeli man, and the woman hails from Ramallah but has been living in Paris, trying to escape the daily terrorism that comes with life in the Palestinian territories. Brace yourself for relationship metaphor for political conflict! Directed by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv. (Watch the trailer above.)  read more »

Everywhere at Once, Village East Cinema, 1:15 p.m.

can’t help but think that inspiration for Everywhere at Once must have been born during a late-night heavy-talking/drinking session…in this film photographer Peter Lindbergh and “experimental filmmaker” (uh-oh) Holly Fisher collaborated to “weave together a tapestry of images” using Mr. Lindbergh’s photographs and clips from the 1966 Tony Richardson film Mademoiselle starring Jeanne Moreau. Ms. Moreau narrates using a poem by Kimiko Hahn. Got it?

Donkey in Lahore, Village East Cinema, 3:45 p.m.  read more »

Theater of War AMC Village VII 1 p.m.

Doesn't it seem like just yesterday (or 2006) that Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep were rehearsing for the great summer outdoor production of Mother Courage and her Children? John Walter (How to Draw a Bunny) brings the behind-the-scenes drama of staging the bleak Bertolt Brecht play (try saying that three times fast!). Mr. Walter also examines Brecht's life and career, and the includes moments with his Brecht's daughter, his collaborator Carl Weber, and vintage footage of Brecht's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  read more »

At the after party for Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s documentary, Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot, it was pretty easy to recognize who was in the movie … just look for the giants! The film documents a 2006 game between 24 of the best high school basketball players in the country at Rucker Park in Harlem (referred to many manytimes by players as a “Mecca”). A few of the players—including Michael Beasley, whose name is constantly followed by the extended sobriquet "expected to be the No. 1 draft pick this year"—were in attendance, and the almost-seven-footers looked shy and big-footed among an adoring, rain-frizzled crowd. (During the Q and A after the film, many in the crowd kept asking Mr. Beasley if he’d come to New York. Wishful thinking).  read more »

All hail Tina Fey! The lady we are forever indebted to for making smarts, sass and eyeglasses sexy propelled Baby Mama to the No. 1 spot last weekend with over 18 million smackeroos, beating the stoner set who chose Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. What does this mean for you? That between this and last year’s Knocked Up and Juno, expect Hollywood to start spawning (hee!) tons of pregnant-y flicks, which will get less funny with each trimester.

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Whoo-hoo, we’re a week into the Tribeca Film Festival and we can hardly remember a time when it wasn’t Tribeca Film Festival time. We’ve now learned how to avoid the blinking-light madness of the red carpet, how to navigate the (sorta crazy) long lines outside the theaters, and that our laminated pass gets entree into clean East Village restrooms. Oh, and the movies!  read more »

Savage Grace, AMC 19th Street, 3 p.m.

It’s a good thing the filmmakers of Savage Grace make sure to throw the “based on a true story” tag everywhere they can, because this film is bananas. Julianne Moore (who continues to surprise us with roles like this one), plays Barbara Baekeland, a beyond eccentric and certainly troubled socialite. As her husband Brooks (Stephen Dillane, a.k.a. Thomas Jefferson for all you John Adams fans) starts to become more aloof, Baekeland becomes, er, inappropriate with her son Tony (played by Eddie Redmayne, who was quite the Sundance superstar this year). We won’t give away the ending, except to say it is based on a real story, one that ends in murder, and has a scene in it that still has us feeling traumatized.  read more »

In just a few hours, Gunnin’ For that #1 Spot, a documentary from Adam “Beastie Boy” Yauch (aka MCA), will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The film records the “Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic" from September 2006, an event that brings 24 top high-school basketball players from all over the country to play at famed Rucker Park on 155th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard in Harlem. The park has had plenty of previous basketball greats grace it—including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dr. J.

“I think it’s really cool that they do this game up there,” said Mr. Yauch. “They could have done it in some gymnasium like other All-Stars type games. It’s cool that they do it at Rucker—a place with so much history.”  read more »

The Wackness, AMC Village VII, 7 p.m.

This funny and sweet coming-of-age film was a crowd-pleaser when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and should no doubt do quite well for itself when it opens up this July. Jonathan Levine directed and wrote the clever script that follows Luke Shaprio, a smart alecky New York City kid waiting out his last summer before college, dealing pot in Washington Square Park, and listening to Notorious B.I.G. A few things to know about this movie: Sir Ben Kingsley is hilarious (though we kept wondering how Dustin Hoffman didn’t get cast in this role), and—disturbingly—has an onscreen makeout with an Olsen twin. Method Man shows up briefly, and Olivia Thirlby (best known as Juno’s bestie) takes on lead female love interest. Oh, dear. First Squeezebox, and now this. (And keep reading for a Beastie Boy cameo!) The 1990's are not too recent for nostalgia. (Watch the trailer above.)  read more »

"It’s not just another psychological horror film—it has some other issues it deals with as well,” said Phedon Papamichael, director of From Within, which premieres tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival. The stars of the film—Mad Men’s Elizabeth Rice, celebrity-spawn Rumer Wills, and Thomas Dekker will sashay down the red carpet outside of the AMC movie theater at 19th Street and Broadway.  read more »

JUVENILE DELINQUENTS!

Boy A., Pace University, 5 p.m.

Boy A. is about Jack Burridge, recently released from a British prison after serving a 14-year sentence for a crime he committed as a child. From director John Crowley, also known in the theater world (he was nominated for a Tony for directing Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman). Oooh, and oh also! According to the notes on the film provided by the festival, “this story also sheds light on the vast difference between the American and British criminal justice systems”—we’re guessing the British jails are much more polite. Lots of people have buzzed around on this one, and Harvey Weinstein’s company is releasing it so take from that what you want.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A DANE

Worlds Apart, Village Cinema East, 5:30 p.m.

Is Danish film where it’s at these days? In 2006 we had Susanne Bier’s excellent After the Wedding (she went on to do the stinker Things We Lost in the Fire, but we don’t blame her really for that one). At this past Sundance there was the excellent Just Another Love Story (which so far is being released here around ... let me check my calendar ... never), and now at Tribeca there’s Worlds Apart. Making its North American premiere this evening, this film gets into the murky waters of Jehovah Witnesses, following a devout 17-year-old who falls in love with a nonbeliever. Based on a true story! Expect lots of men named Niels.  read more »

Tribeca has officially begun! The festival gets going with public screenings this afternoon. Our picks:

Trucker, Village East Cinema 1, 9 p.m.:

One of the 12 films in competition (and the only American offering), this movie has a shot at being the elusive high-profile sale out of Tribeca this year. Michelle Monaghan, who has shown up as the pretty girl in movies like Mission Impossible 3 and Gone Baby Gone (and is the star of next weekend’s Made of Honor) takes on a different kind of role: badass truck driver. When her estranged son—whom she hasn’t seen since he was an infant—shows up to stay with her, things begin to change … but not, perhaps, in the predictable ways. As one acquisition executive told us, “You can already see the poster!”  read more »

Baby Mama opened the 7th annual Tribeca Film Festival last night at the Ziegfeld Theater, and the temple of Hollywood in New York was packed full of celebrities tramping a red carpet that snaked down 54th Street almost to Sixth Avenue.

It was a comedy-loving crowd, judging from the laughs that started even before the film did, during the pre-movie Tribeca Film Festival promo short about a man as a film junkie (it’s actually funnier than it sounds), and when the lights went up you could see the proof: Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Chris Kattan, and Molly Shannon were all there to bask in the easy charms of Tina Fey's slight comedy.  read more »

The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off its seventh year tonight at the Zeigfeld Theater with the big sparkly premiere of Baby Mama. The movie is about a single and successful businesswoman (Tina Fey) who hires a working-class woman (Amy Poehler) to be her surrogate. Can you believe we’ve gotten this far along in life without a wacky surrogate movie?  read more »

We woke up Monday morning to a pretty big surprise: the funniest-naked-breakup-scene movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall did not take top box office honors last weekend. That spot went to The Forbidden Kingdom (Tag line: “The path is unsafe. The place is unknown. The journey is unbelievable.” Read: boy movie), which features Jet Li and Jackie Chan co-starring for the first time. Kung fu kicked Apatow ass!  read more »

There will be 120 feature films screening at the Tribeca Film Festival between April 23 and May 4, among them the documentary Run for Your Life, about the origins of the New York City Marathon and its founder, Fred Lebow. “[The marathon] was about trying to bring everybody, all five boroughs, together,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the film festival. “I found—as someone who’s put on this event—watching someone else create this major cultural event … fascinating.” Ms.  read more »

We could go into an oh-so-increasingly-familiar rant about the fact that Prom Night—a movie whose tag line is “It’s midnight. Everyone’s ready to go home … but someone has other plans”—was the most popular amongst audiences last weekend (lesson learned: people cannot resist the horror flicks) … but what’s the point?  read more »

Last Friday, the windows of various H&M outlets across the city were transformed into a brain-boggling, Austin Powers-dazzle of color. Orange, yellow, red, and grape soda-purple, exploded in 60s-esque chaos: a swingy hot-pink-and-orange trapeze dress, an ankle-length high-waist skirt in olive green with tangerine lava-lamp bubbles, a canary yellow and purple tunic.

Marimekko has officially arrived to the masses.  read more »

Hollywood types are scratching their heads over George Clooney’s Leatherheads, which only brought in $13.5 million when Universal reportedly had been hoping for something closer to $20 million. How could this be? Didn’t the moviegoing public realize this was George Clooney?  read more »

Every time we think the weekend box office can’t surprise us, something comes along to make us say … really? Last weekend, the surprise prize went to 21, the blackjack movie we know, logically, we can’t truly judge without seeing, but yet we still feel like we kind of can. Doesn’t the preview tell us all we need to know?  read more »

Guess who (yuk-yuk) cleaned up again at the box office this weekend?  read more »

The name Rose McGowan calls many things to mind—red lips, curves, porcelain skin, Charmed, Scream, Grindhouse or that unforgettable barely-there chain-mail dress she wore to the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards with then-boyfriend Marilyn Manson. But old movie buff … who knew?

Starting this month, the 34-year-old beauty is taking on the role of co-host, with beloved white-haired film historian Robert Osborne, of Turner Classic Movies’ series The Essentials. “I’m not just a complete movie geek, I’m actually a total weirdo,” Ms. McGowan said via phone from Los Angeles (where she had just returned from her brother’s Las Vegas wedding. “At a gay chapel. He’s not gay. It was awesome.”). “I’ll read someone’s out-of-print autobiography, and then I’ll go and read two more biographies about them just so I can cross-reference them. That is what I do in my spare time,” she laughed. “I don’t really like to boast about such things, and I can’t tell you what I did yesterday, but I have a strange encyclopedic knowledge and savant-esque memory of random things. Like, I can tell you all about the fantastic character actors in Shirley Temple movies, or who and how someone is related to Norma Shearer. That’s the kind of thing I love discussing.”  read more »

Last Saturday, around noon, two couples stopped in front of the JakeWalk—a new cocktail, wine and cheese bar on the corner of Smith Street and Sackett in Brooklyn—and peered at the menu. The foursome almost comprised a typical Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill tableau: Their ages seemed to range between 28 and 38; the women were fresh-faced with determinedly wavy I-don’t-do-blowouts hair, dressed in ballet flats and expensive-looking coats; and the men sported tortoise-rimmed glasses, dark jeans and mussed hair—but in a preppier, Hugh Grant-y kind of way than in a Christian Siriano one. The only things missing were a baby stroller and/or a dog.

“It’s the Stinky people,” said one of the men, running his finger down the list of cocktails, wine, 40 available cheeses, fondue and charcuterie.

“Awesome,” said his friend, peering in the darkened windows.  read more »

Get ready for lots more animated films to head our way thanks to the gigantic opening of Horton Hears a Who! last weekend, which pulled an amazing $45 million-plus at the box office, making it the biggest opening thus far of 2008 (beating Cloverfield, for which we are thankful). Prepare yourself for all sorts of puns. (Don’t believe us?  read more »

Golly, is it summer blockbuster season already?  read more »

Tulips might not be shooting through the Park Avenue median just yet, but spring has definitely arrived at your local multiplex. Over the next few weeks, comedy, action, romance, major franchises and—of course—comic-book superheroes will, ahem, spring into action on screens all over the city. In other words: wave buh-bye to the sludge that the studios have been spooning on us during the past few months, and say hello to the movies they’re hoping will pay for next year’s Oscar campaign.  read more »

Do you ever get the feeling that a good majority of the country would line up just to watch Will Ferrell eat beef jerky and read the phone book (probably in his underpants)?  read more »

On a recent blustery February morning, Jessica Lange and Joan Allen sat at a conference table, joking around with each other about the ills of fluorescent lighting. The two women co-star, along with Kathy Bates, in Bonneville, a film about three friends who drive from Utah to Southern California after Ms. Lange’s character’s husband passes away. “I have always wanted to do a road movie,” said Ms. Lange, 59, naming Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde as two of her favorites.  read more »

“My brain hasn’t really processed it. I actually can’t believe it,” said Olivia Thirlby, via phone, early in the morning of Oscar Sunday. The 21-year-old actress, in Los Angeles, was eating breakfast (“I’m sorry for the crunching”) and about to embark upon the daylong process of readying herself for the red carpet to end all red carpets at the Kodak Theatre for Hollywood’s glitziest, puffed-up night. Ms. Thirlby portrayed Leah, Ellen Page’s braid-wearing best friend in this year’s little-movie-that-could, Juno—a film that not only surpassed expectations at the box office, but was the one bright spot in a lineup of Best Picture nominees that skewed dark and heavy.

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Hey, how about those Oscars? We doubt it was just the DayQuil that had us thinking this was one of the best shows in ages … it had more to do with the fact that this year the movies were just so darn good and deserving (all those sweet foreigner acceptance speeches really helped, too). Isn’t it hard to come back to reality and realize that it’s still just February and we’ve got some time to kill before we see anything new that will be worthy of an Oscar?  read more »

In December, The Observer interviewed last night's Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis about his performance. Here is Sara Vilkomerson's account of her afternoon with the real-life Daniel Plainview.

“For the most part I try to hear the voice, which is one of the most deep and personal ways we present our very selves. It’s like a fingerprint of the soul,” said Daniel Day-Lewis. Last week, the 50-year-old actor was discussing his character, Daniel Plainview, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, There Will Be Blood, based upon Upton Sinclair’s turn-of-the-century novel Oil! “Little by little a voice started to talk in my head, and then the problem becomes how to make those sounds—to get it out of your head.”  read more »