Just last week, New York’s cinema scene looked like, well, something out of a horror movie. Movie theaters had been dark since March, and– even as New York City’s casinos, gyms, and massage parlors were allowed to operate– cinephiles had to drive to Long Island or New Jersey to watch a movie the old-fashioned style, making for a virtually unprecedented reverse bridge-and-tunnel situation. More →
At some point in Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, one of the film’s talking heads opines that perhaps the artist isn’t taken more seriously because he’s associated with the “F” word: Fun. Scharf, who came up with Basquiat and Haring in the ’80s East Village scene, was a fixture at Club 57, a church basement turned DIY cabaret where he served as a sort of “showman” and “master of ceremonies,” doing Lawrence Welk impersonations one night and cavorting in day-glo paint another. More →
While New Jersey’s indoor movie theaters were allowed to reopen earlier this month (hence this weekend’s screening of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, limited to an audience of 150), it’s still crickets inside of New York City’s cinemas, much to the chagrin of theater owners and even some local lawmakers who are calling for an alternative to #Netflixandchill. More →
Over a month after its liquor license was suspended following a news report about “pandemic parties,” Cloister Cafe reopens tonight, having won a temporary restraining order against the State Liquor Authority. More →
An East Village hookah lounge that reportedly hosted “pandemic parties” has failed to secure a temporary injunction requiring the State Liquor Authority to reinstate its liquor license, and will now petition the New York Supreme Court. More →
“Honk your horn if you’ve told someone an Action Park story and people have doubted you,” Seth Porges told an audience that had just watched his new documentary about New Jersey’s deadliest, most storied amusement park. More →
They closed down Lincoln Center and put up a parking lot.
The New York Film Festival is the latest to announce that it will screen movies a la drive-in. Film at Lincoln Center announced today that the 58th iteration of its annual festival will open with not one but three Steve McQueen premieres and will take place, in part, at the Queens and Brooklyn drive-ins that were set up by Rooftop Films earlier this summer. More →
Last week we noted that several of the New York City area’s summer film festivals are– quite delightfully– taking the form of drive-in movie theaters. On Friday, Rooftop Films started its Brooklyn Drive-In with a screening of John Lewis: Good Trouble (eerily, news of the congressman’s death broke right after the documentary’s screening) and today the consummate curators have announced the details of their forthcoming Queens Drive-In. More →
When theaters went dark in March, film festivals quickly adapted by curating content online, but let’s face it, summer has come and you’re not about to watch a movie on your laptop, with a desk fan blasting torrents of sweat off your face. Luckily the organizers of the city’s great seasonal film festivals– including Tribeca Films, Rooftop Films, and the Greenpoint Film Festival– have risen to the occasion with pop-up drive-in movie theaters. More →
Last week we reported that Rockaway Beach’s food vendors are returning, albeit only for takeout service. This week, some vendors on the other side of the peninsula, at Jacob Riis Park, have also returned, and the city’s beleaguered beachgoers will be glad to hear they can now sit down with a beer. More →
