Welcome back to another week of exciting film picks by us. Again, you ask? Yes, again. Relentless? Perhaps. Hint: it will never end. So get used to this undeniable brilliance mixed with essential despair because based on what the stars are telling me, this will never subside. That is unless of course Waka Flocka Flame actually does win the Presidency. In that case, the revolution will have come and gone and only a perfect utopia will remain. At that point I can’t make any promises. Until then, we have each other.
Moments of Silence
A screening and discussion of a film created by Stockholm-based artist Mats Bigert and writer George Prochnik (New York Times, The New Yorker) that explores, as the title suggests, the moment of silence as a ritual important to collective experience, memory, and the communal consciousness. This is a topic Prochnik, as the author of In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, knows well. The filmmakers will be on hand at The Cabinet Magazine‘s headquarters for discussion and Q+A. Should be heady stuff, we’re guessing. Thursday, April 23 at 7 pm, The Cabinet (300 Nevins Street in Gowanus): FREE
Rodrigo D: No Futuro
The life of a punk kid, Rodrigo D, living in late-’80s Pablo Escobar-era Colombia (around the time Reagan was ramping up the War on Drugs) is sometimes aimless but always full of ups and downs. His mom kicks him out of the house, his brother calls him useless, but all Rodrigo wants to do is start a punk band. Rodrigo D: No Futuro is a great piece of movie on several levels– historically (it was the first Colombian film to be screened at Cannes ever) and musically (Spectacle calls the soundtrack “almost black metal in its gritty nihilism). The film captures Medellin when it was one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In fact, six members of the movie’s cast were murdered shortly after filming. Saturday, April 25 and Thursday, April 30 at 10 pm, Spectacle Theater: $5 at the door
Lost River
We heard Ryan Gosling made out with David Lynch and was subsequently inspired to make this film. Kidding! But no actually, Ryan Gosling did direct his first film and it’s called Lost River. It looks like the kid took some obvious notes from Lynch, albeit in the form of some pretty superficial interpretations, in writing this “fantasy thriller.” Critics have called the film “a mess” and apparently it was booed at Cannes. Wah wah. But there are some devil’s advocates out there hailing the film as misunderstood and isn’t that what we find so attractive about Ryan Gosling in the first place, he’s essentially a nice, brilliant, misunderstood actor dude. So to hell with the critics go see for yourself if you can really understand Ry Ry. Friday, April 24 through Thursday, April 30 at Village East Cinema: $14
Welcome to Me
A woman with borderline personality disorder who just so happens to be obsessed with Oprah wins the lottery. Rather than scratching her Oprah bone by having a life-sized Oprah real doll fashioned for her, she spends a big chunk of her $86 million windfall on creating her own talk show, Welcome to Me. Being a little off her rocker the woman, played by Kristin Wiig, doesn’t really get that talk shows aren’t necessarily 100 percent about the host. Though maybe you can’t blame her for making this mistake.
Does the show succeed in some seriously twisted way? Or does the woman fail miserably? Unclear. But the film definitely looks worth catching — let’s just hope the surreal quirkiness of the film doesn’t cross the line over into cutesy quirkiness. If a manic pixie dream girl or boy saves Wiig from herself, we’re liable to vom. Friday, May 1 through Thursday, May 7 at Angelika Film Center: $14.50