The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival begins April 23rd and runs through May 4th, with over 200 feature length narrative films, documentaries and shorts from around the world. This year also features discussions with filmmakers, music events, a family film series, an ESPN Sports Film Festival and other special presentations. Check out last week's preview of some of the narrative feature films in the festival, or brave the entire program of films.) American Express cardholders have......

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival begins April 23rd and runs through May 4th, with over 200 feature length narrative films, documentaries and shorts from around the world. This year also features discussions with filmmakers, music events, a family film series, an ESPN Sports Film Festival and other special presentations. (Peruse the entire selection of films.) American Express cardholders will be able to buy tickets starting this Saturday April 12th. On Friday April 18th, tickets will......

© MURAKAMI, a retrospective of the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, opens Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, where it was on view until February, the exhibit primarily focuses Murakami's work between 1991 and 2000, when the artist began exploring "his own reality through an investigation of branding and identity." (One additional work, Murakami's 6,613 pound, 18 foot-tall Oval Buddha sculpture, will be on......

Will 2008 be the year frustrated artists stop whining about the Whitney Biennial for being too cliquey, too scattershot, too short on women, minorities, and criminally overlooked artists like the ones doing all the griping? Hardly, but this year’s themeless Biennial, which opened last night, goes a long way toward appeasing the disgruntled hipster artist crowd with a big, rowdy slate of installations and events at the Park Avenue Armory through March 26th. Curators Shamim......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Fox Fall Preview 2007 (Sunday, 7:00 p.m., WNYW 5) A pre-season look at the Fox fall line up. Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost and Found (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNBC 4) A look at SNL in the 80s with clips and interviews. The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon 2007 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WWOR 9) The long running telethon marks twenty years on WWOR who picked up the......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Grease: You're the One That I Want (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) This fakeality show finally ends tonight. Masterpiece Theatre - Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) Helen Mirren stars in one of her best roles – Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. Despite being on PBS, the Prime Suspect series do tend to be a bit bowlderized from the British original thanks......

It’s Fall Preview week at the Times. Flo Fab’s got the upcoming restaurant openings, both for this month and the rest of the year. Adjust your diets accordingly! Bruni covers last year’s hits and misses. The hits: A Voce, Buddakan, Cookshop, Fatty Crab and Telepan. The misses: Charlie Trotter’s Restaurant (which never opened), Craftsteak, Sascha, The E.U., and Ninja. Michael Ruhlman talks to Gordon Ramsay, whose new place Gordon Ramsay at the London is set......

EVENT: The only thing better than a tag sale is a swap sale. It's pretty much like going through a friends closet and taking what you fancy. Tonight, free up some of your own closet space and bring down all the clothes you want to get rid of to Thrift On! Others will do the same, and you'll likely go home with some goodies to fill up all that newly found closet space of yours.......

The Village Voice has announced some of the bands that will be playing at this years Siren Festival. We've enjoyed going to these for the past few years, and are always excited to start hearing about who's going to play. Here's what they've got so far: Stars Tapes 'N Tapes The Stills The Cribs Celebration She Wants Revenge Aside from those last two, that's the foundation for a pretty good lineup. Actually, we don't......

We're not just talking about the outsiders who come in to the city via public transportation every weekend (we do love that painting of the MetroNorth trains though!) The Outsider Art Fair is this weekend - and of course taking place in our crazy little city, it's dedicated to catering to the painfully "so hip they're unhip" art world. While the Fair runs Friday through Sunday, there is a preview starting tonight, as part of......

While it's all about the season premieres this month, there's one season finale tonight that we're excited about. Gothamist has really gotten into watching Rescue Me, catching up on this season by watching the first season DVD, and we've been loving it. Rescue Me is profane, racist, questionable, hilarious, sweet and tragic, with characters that seem like real people and less like stereotypes networks revert to because that'll make advertisers happy (probably why it's on......

It's Gothamist's second favorite Times Arts & Leisure feature of the year (after the Fall Preview, which, even though "Fall" is less of an event in film and TV, just seems to be an exciting way to ring in the best season), when all the critics give their favorites and hateds of the year. The film critics list their best, with Elvis Mitchell calling Pirates of the Caribbean his top movie (Merry Christmas, Jerry......

Even though Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (see the trailer) looks silly, it has Kate Bosworth and Topher Grace, for that alone Gothamist will be first in line. A Connecticut native, Grace, as most know, is not only funny on That 70s Show but on talk shows, especially the Daily Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, where he discussed debating whether or not to bring a date to a wedding (his friend......

The new trailer for Shrek 2 offers the delightful addition of Puss-in-Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas (and we say delightful because we do like to see animals in clothes). In an interview with USA Today, Banderas describes how he shakes up things between Shrek and Donkey: "Shrek thinks he's cute. Donkey feels threatened. He doesn't want to be replaced by this idiot." Cute, idiotic, animal in (some) clothes - we love Puss-in-Boots. See the trailer......

The eagerly anticipated collaboration between Joshua Albertson, Lockhart Steele, and Jonathan Van Gieson, Book of Ages 30, is out in bookstores (free same-day delivery in Manhattan from Barnes and Noble with purchases over $25), on the shelves of Amazon (and other online retailers), and perhaps even at a library near you. And naturally, the website goes live with a blog about all things 30. You can also explore more about the book which promises to......

It'll be a while before we see Tim Burton's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, but till then, there is Big Fish, about a young man trying to understand his dying father's life (more at Greg's Movie Preview). Albert Finney plays the father, with Ewan McGregor playing the father as a young man, and Billy Crudup as the son; Jessica Lange and Alison Lohman play the mother......

CNN has a pretty good piece about annoying movie blurbs from unknown critics being used relentlessly by movie studios. There are some mainstream ones as well (Peter Travers, Gothamist is talking about you) and the biggest conundrum of them all, Roger Ebert who is simultaneously smart and stupid. Variety's Timothy Gray tells CNN, ""It's always 'a roller coaster ride' or 'the feel-good movie of the summer.' Sometimes I think, not only have I never heard......

It takes an Oscar on top of pretty much unananimous critical praise (98% Fresh on the Tomatometer) to convince Disney that anime great Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away should get a wider release. Run, don't walk, to see it. Forgive the cliches, but it is truly dazzlingly beautiful, incredible funny, eye-opening, and a warmly told story. The Daily News' Jack Matthews is thrilled, as it was his favorite film of 2002. The official site from......