Michael Cera and Abbi Jacobson in Person to Person.
Ilana Glazer, star of raunchy comedy Rough Night, isn’t the only one from Broad City who’s stepping it up to the big screen. Her co-star Abbi Jacobson is set to add film star (and podcaster!) to a resume that already includes writer, actor and illustrator. Next month she’ll appear in a Brooklyn-set indie drama Person to Person and launch a new podcast exploring MoMA’s art collection.
First, the film. Out July 28, Person to Person is the latest one from Dustin Guy Defa, the Brooklyn director who made for a convincing vampire in Onur Tukel’s Summer of Blood. Jacobson plays a newbie journalist who, on her first day of work for a New York tabloid, has to overcome her shyness to chase down information about a murder. Her boss, a not-exactly-hardened reporter winningly played by Michael Cera, desperately tries to impress her, blasting his band’s over-the-top metal music (sample song: “Suck On Greed”) as they drive from the house of the victim’s widow (Michaela Watkins) to a clock repair shop where the tight-lipped owner (Philip Baker Hall) might be holding a clue. Jacobson, again playing the type of character whose happy place is Bed Bath & Beyond, suspects her previous life as a quiet librarian might be better suited for her, but she tries her best to fight off a rival reporter and piece together a scoop without completely humiliating herself.
Unfolding, Spike Lee-style, over the course of a day in Brooklyn, the film’s other plotlines involve wunderkind editor and “it” girl Tavi Gevinson as a teenager coming to grips with her social awkwardness and budding sexuality, and real-life Red Hook record-store owner Bene Coopersmith as a vinyl junkie buying what might or might not be the rarest of Charlie Parker records. Person to Person is worth watching if only for an awesome chase through the maze-like record stacks of The Thing, in Greenpoint.
Now, the podcast. A Piece of Work, premiering July 10, is a production of WNYC Studios and the Museum of Modern Art, and each episode will feature Jacobson talking about a couple of artworks from MoMA’s collection. Her guests will include Gevinson (her Person to Person costar) and Hannibal Buress (her Broad City costar) as well as Questlove, RuPaul, and some actual artists and art experts. Here’s the episode rundown from WNYC, starting with the July 10 premiere:
Monday, July 10: Everyday Objects
Explore how art made of utilitarian objects transforms our experience of the everyday.
- Features the following works:
o Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel. 1951 (after lost original of 1913)
o Meret Oppenheim. Object. 1936
Wednesday, July 12: Abstraction
Why would so many artists abandon representation in favor of abstraction?”
- Features the following works:
o Cy Twombly. Untitled. 1954; Tiznit. 1953
o Jackson Pollock. One: Number 31, 1950. 1950
Monday, July 17: Monochromes
Why would an artist make a painting in—or even devote their career to—a single color? Does simplicity make room for more creative thought?
- Features the following works:
o Yves Klein. Blue Monochrome. 1961
o Kazimir Malevich. Suprematist Composition: White on White. 1918
Wednesday July 19: Light
Explore the skill, craft, and variety of art made with light, from neon tubes to an artist-enhanced sunset.
- Features the following works:
o Dan Flavin’s light works of the 1960s
o James Turrell. Meeting. 1980–86/2016
Monday, July 24: Minimalism
Explore the simplified forms and rich ideas behind Minimalist art.
- Features the following works:
o Jo Baer. Primary Light Group: Red Green Blue. 1964–65
Wednesday, July 26: Performance
Artists use their bodies to create to work that is both interactive and fleeting.
- Features the following works:
o Carolee Schneemann. Meat Joy. 1964
Monday, July 31: Video Art
Artists use video in very different ways—from sweeping shots of public monuments to intimate confessionals.
- Features the following works:
o Howardena Pindell. Free, White and 21. 1980
Wednesday, August 2: Pop Art
Pop art uses mass culture to blur the lines between art and artifice—and even advertising.
- Features the following works:
o Andy Warhol. Campbell’s Soup Cans. 1962
o Beatriz Gonzalez. Zócalo de la comedia.1983; Zócalo de la tragedia. 1983
Monday, August 7: Design
How are little things we use every day—even our text messages—designed to be both functional and beautiful?
- Features the following works:
o Shigetaka Kurita. Emoji, 1998–99
Wednesday, August 9: Text-Based Art
Explore how artists use text in many ways, from writing art-making instructions to using text as the image itself.
- Features the following works:
o Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #1144, Broken Bands of Color in Four Directions. 2004
o Glenn Ligon. Untitled (How it feels to be colored me…Doubled). 1991
Correction: An earlier version of this post misidentified the director of Person to Person.