By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Screening Gotham: June 23-25, 2006
A few of this weekend’s worthwhile cinematic happenings around New York:
–Indulge me for a second: Remember when Quentin Tarantino made transcendent cinema rather than just staple his brand name on any half-assed genre exercise or trash label that came calling? More specifically, remember Reservoir Dogs? Imagine (maybe some of you were there): He walks into Sundance pretty much penniless almost 15 years ago and blows up every screen in town with this insanely graphic, profane (and derivative, sure) macho-gunplay chamber drama. He gleefully alienates everybody but his peers and endorses movie violence to the good-liberal contingent that cannot believe what it just saw. He loses the Grand Jury Prize but gains almost instant cult immortality. His partnership with Miramax is born. For better or worse, we are talking about possibly the last seismic moment of the independent film movement–and it barely even made it to theaters. Now the Sunshine is bringing Reservoir Dogs back with midnight showings tonight and tomorrow, which, no doubt, will put that anniversary DVD to shame even as it conjures a wrenching nostalgia for the day when “Quentin Tarantino presents” meant something. All right, I am done.
–I hate having to put choices like this to you, but cruel fate insists: Film meets rock twice Saturday night as MoMA’s Douglas Gordon: Timeline exhibit features an appearance by Gordon and Chicks on Speed, while the Continental (near Astor Place) hosts Eamonn Bowles’s barnburning quartet The Martinets. Talk about tough calls: “Chicks On Speed urge you to come overdressed to this ‘living sculpture,’ where they will perform their new Eurotrash hit single ‘Art Rules’ for the very first time,” MoMA’s Web site tells visitors. Meanwhile, you know Bowles better as the boss at Magnolia Pictures, at least until his reckless, concussion-inducing stage abandon lands him in the hospital. I think you know where my allegiances lie, although I admit these decisions never ever get any easier. Now they are yours. Sorry.
–If you have not yet checked out the New York Asian Film Festival, quit fucking procrastinating and go. This weekends highlights include the Grady Hendrix-endorsed Funky Forest: The First Contact, the Ram Gopal Varma-produced Ab Tak Chhappan and the Miike-directed fantasy The Great Yokai War, and the festival finally goes multitheatrical with schedules at Anthology Film Archives and ImaginAsian Theater. Click will still be there next weekend, I promise.