Jonathan Lethem Selects BAM Cinématek Starting next Monday and running through the middle of November, Brooklyn author and Friends of BAM chairperson Jonathan Lethem will be programming the cinématek with some of his favorite movies. Fans of his writing know that Lethem loves pop culture but this series doesn't really have more of an over arching theme than that it features some of the author's most beloved films and plain ol' good movies. There are......

Arnaud Desplechin in Focus Museum of the Moving Image When Gothamist saw cinematographer-turned-director Arnaud Desplechin's film Kings and Queen two years ago, we knew we were watching something unique. His movie about a French woman and the three important men in her life—her adorable son, her crazy ex-husband and her dying father—unfolds so organically you get completely caught up in the complex characters, utterly forgetting that Desplechin is expertly telling his story in a very......

The New Decade: Hong Kong Film BAM Cinématek A pervasive theme in the films coming out of the prolific national cinema of Hong Kong has been their transfer over to China in 1997. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is putting a spotlight on this preoccupation in their current series The New Decade: Hong Kong Film. Running through the end of next weekend, the series offers a number of intriguing prospects made in the last 10......

Dans Paris at IFC Center For some reason in French film even the stupidest fights between couples or siblings or ex-spouses seem oh so romantic. In Dans Paris, an entry in last year's Cannes Film Festival, director Christophe Honore attempts to capture a small sliver of the manic life for two bickering brothers living with their argumentative father in a small apartment in Paris. Romain Duris plays Paul, the elder brother, who's recently returned to......

Asian American International Film Festival July 19 - 28, Asia Society Founded in the '70s by Asian American activists wanting to capture with hand held VHS cameras the lives of their Chinatown neighbors, Asian Cinevision celebrates the 30th birthday this year of their annual Asian American International Film Festival. Held at the Asia Society (on Park Avenue and 70th Street), the AAIFF features quite a bit of notable and intriguing programming over the next two......

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (directed by Eric Zala) It may be hard to imagine what hardcore movie fans did before the advent of the Internet's forums, blogs and YouTube videos, but you can take a trip down the Betamax memory lane with Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation playing tonight and tomorrow at 8 pm at Anthology Film Archives. A group of preteens in Mississippi over the course of seven years......

30 Years of Kino International Film Society of Lincoln Center In the creation of great cinema, a far-thinking and nurturing distributor is almost as important as the artists they're supporting. This year one of those historically important movie companies, Kino International turns 30 years old and in celebration of their fine work over the years the Film Society is showing two weeks worth of films all originally released by Kino. The movies featured in the......

It's Only A Movie: Horror Films From the 1970s and Today Museum of the Moving Image, Queens Boo! It's time to hide your eyes and scream with delight over at the Museum of the Moving Image, as they'll be showing six weeks worth of old and new horror films starting tonight. You could say that scary stories are always about what metaphorical bogey men society fears most, but that became particularly evident in the horror......

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (directed by Mary Jordan): It's not such an uncommon story—a misunderstood, sensitive, artistic boy moves from the sticks to Manhattan seeking creative and sexual freedom. However, Mary Jordan's documentary, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, paints Jack Smith, the avant-garde photographer, filmmaker, actor and performance artist as hardly a common person. Influential on such filmmakers as Federico Fellini, John Waters and Andy Warhol, Smith's most notorious movie......

Don't you just love that feeling of "discovering" a new artist that no one else knows about yet? The New Directors/New Films festival curated by the Film Society at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art's Film department have been keeping New Yorkers ahead of the cinema curve for 35 years now with their annual series. In the past they've showcased such newbies as Chantal Akerman, Pedro Almodóvar, Héctor Babenco, Terence Davies, Guillermo del......

THEATER: There’s a growing cultural phenomenon in Japan called hikikomori, in which young people (as many as 1 million) withdraw into their rooms and refuse any contact with the outside world, sometimes for years. (In America, it’s called adolescence.) The Attic, by acclaimed Japanese playwright Yoji Sakate, is about “a mysterious company that sells tiny ‘attics’ over the internet to people who want to withdraw from society. One man embarks on a quest to find......

Billy Bob Thorton sets aside his raunchy Bad Santa persona with his new family movie The Astronaut Farmer about a man building a rocket in his backyard. This family drama looks cheesy like Velveeta from the previews, but hey, that's what you expect with these "ordinary Dad does extraordinary thing" movies. They're always heavy on the sentiment. Jim Carrey senses the universe may be trying to communicate mysteries to him through numerology and a book......

THEATER: It’s “go time” for The Butane’s Group’s Operation Ajax, which ingenuously sets the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s first democratically-elected government in the context of a casino. “Constructed from no less than 25 text sources (memoirs, documentaries, plays, poetry, novels, films, reality tv shows), the densely-layered performance explores how the addiction to risk and gambling has become a potent metaphor for U.S. foreign policy.” (For an enhanced theater experience, explore the show’s thorough bibliography,......

There's two majorly horrific films coming out this weekend, though only some of the frights are intentional. Gaspard Ulliel seemed like such a nice boy in A Very Long Engagement, but that was before he decided to take on the psycho killer character Hannibal Lecter in the prequel, Hannibal Rising. Apparently in this installment of the series we'll find out what led the Doctor to become a creepy dilettante with a taste for fava beans,......

Just a thought as we look ahead to this week's new releases. Someone should really take Diane Keaton aside to tell her that this series of increasingly painful looking romantic comedies where she plays an over-the-top meddling mom aren't good for her cinematic legacy. The newest installment is the Mandy Moore romantic comedy, Because I Said So, where Keaton plays a mother desperate to marry off her headstrong youngest daughter. Please Diane, after loving you......

Doesn't it seem like you no sooner put down the fork at the Thanksgiving table and the Christmas themed movies have flooded the theaters? If you're ready to start ho ho hoing your way to the cineplex, the new slapstick family comedy Deck The Halls starring Danny DeVito, Matthew Broderick and Kristen Davis is out this weekend. Hopefully all of these jokes about covering your house in light effects makes more sense in the suburbs.......

It's not often that the person opening the door to let you in to a press screening is the distinctive screen personality Crispin Glover but when it happened, Gothamist knew we were in for a unique afternoon. Best known for his creep-tastic roles in Back to the Future, Charlie's Angels and Willard, Glover will be in town to host his directorial debut, What Is It? which begins a three day run at Anthology Film Archives......

With Halloween coming next week and the fall chill in the air, this is the perfect weekend to curl up with a good scary movie. The Shining or The Nightmare on Elm Street make for good rentals but if you must see a new release, the third installment in the psycho serial trickster movies, Saw III is out. This time ailing Jigsaw kidnaps a doctor and forces her to tend to him while also trying......

The New Yorker Festival is two weeks away, but there are still tickets available to some of the events:Friday, October 6: Fiction Night Monica Ali and Aleksandar Hemon 7 p.m. Ailey Citigroup Theatre 405 West 55th Street Antonya Nelson and Thomas McGuane 7 p.m. Anthology Film Archives 32 Second Avenue Andrea Lee and T. Coraghessan Boyle 9:30 p.m. Cedar Lake Dance Studios 547 West 26th Street A NewYorker Dance Party, hosted by Sasha Frere-Jones, with......

Those mother-bleeping snakes. That mother-flipping plane. You know what we're talking about. This weekend marks the premier of the film that blog buzz built, Samuel L. Jackson's action adventure Snakes on a Plane. Hopefully it will be as cheese-tastic as it seems from the trailers and the title. However, whether you're first in line tonight at a midnight screening or not, there's still loads coming up to see at the movies. As for the other......

This weekend at the movies means a bunch of overblown new releases. Clerks II is out this weekend and if Kevin Smith didn't think he was the coolest before, he does now that Joel Siegel's walked out of one of his press screenings. You can read about the whole back and forth then decide if you too will be more offended by some reference to bestiality or that Jay and Silent Bob still have cultural......

The movie releases list this week is determined to put the conception that summer is only about the blockbuster to the test. There are documentaries, foreign films and small indies about local hot button issues that are all worth a viewing. This weekend should be all about escaping the humidity with a quality flick. To get the mass market dreck out of the way first: Adam Sandler gets a universal remote to speed up and......

The 2006 Bicycle Film Festival is here, kicking off in New York today, and then traveling to nine additional cities across the globe. The BFF began in 2000, started by Brendt Barbur after he was struck by a bus and decided something positive needed to come from this experience. Brendt is also one of the founders of Critical Mass. The BFF brings people together to celebrate two-wheeled transportation, and we love festivals that provide valet......

One of the most exciting film talents working in China today, director Jia Zhangke gets a mini-retrospective this weekend at Anthology Film Archives that's definitely worth checking out. His five films -- Xiao Wu, The Pickpocket, Platform, Unknown Pleasures and The World which are all playing at various times this weekend -- deal extremely honestly with young people and modern life -- something New York movie goers can identify with even thousands of miles away......

Can't you just feel the Oscar buzz in the air? The jangling of borrowed jewels and the buzzing of nominees nerves is like a cacophony even on this coast. Gothamist is excitedly anticipating the telecast like June Carter Cash before a duet with Johnny. In the meantime though, there are movies to be watched. As for the new releases, if you like movies where Bruce Willis takes charge with his sensitive but still ass-kicking masculinity,......

With the Oscar nominations announced this week, you can expect much of the box office traffic to be people trying to cross films off of their list that they are just now realizing are "important." However, the new releases keep a coming and the New York repertory houses are programming away, so there's loads of good flicks to check out this weekend. In the wide releases category this week, Black Hollywood's new Meg Ryan, Sanaa......

Here we go: it's a huge weekend for year-end Oscar-bait and questions abound. Will audiences flock to see the "forbidden" love of Brokeback Mountain? (And was anybody else as disturbed at Focus Features' obvious attempts to downplay the male love story as much as possible and feature the relationships with the respective wives in every trailer?) Will fans who made worshipped the bestselling novel approve of Chicago director Rob Marshall's retelling of Memoirs of a......

TONIGHT: You can catch former Get A Life creator/star Chris Elliot present his semi-forgettable slapstick movie, Cabin Boy, as well as partake in a Q&A; at The Anthology Film Archives at 8PM. Featuring the likes of Andy Richter, David Letterman, and Ricki Lake, Cabin Boy is a film that people either love or absolutely can’t stand watching. Either way, we still think observing Chris Elliot is worth the trip. And if you’re planning a night......

Gothamist was supposed to spend the evening on a rooftop with friends and free drinks. Thank you rain for ruining the start to our weekend! We usually don't take a negative tone around here, but it needs to be said: Gothamist hates weather. It's also going to ruin at least one of the below events, see if you can pick which one. When you're done with that, grab your umbrella and rain boots and find......

Tonight, Comedy Central presents a special pre-premiere screening of a full episode of Stella, featuring a live Q&A; with Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain (you’ve probably seen them plastered all over town), followed by the hilariously absurd summer-camp classic Wet Hot American Summer. Not only is this event free and provide complimentary Grolsch Premium swing-tops, but you'll also be able to finally scream "I want you inside me" at Showalter. Screening......