The 1974 Anniversary Collection at the Paris Theater
From March 22 to 28, the Paris Theater is featuring a series of milestone movies from 1974, and I'm totally here for it.
Seven Minutes with Jerry Seinfeld
A month ago, if you had told me I'd be interviewing Jerry Seinfeld on television for a national entertainment news show, I'd say you were crazy. But life is weird (or at least mine is), and it actually happened.
The Teaser for the Final Season of “House of Cards”
The final season of "House of Cards" streams this fall on Netflix.
New Trailer for Marvel’s The Defenders
Netflix just released a new trailer for the show. It looks like a blast.
“The Keepers” on Netflix
A new true crime series about the unsolved murder of Baltimore Catholic school teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik in 1969.
Brad Pitt Is Coming to Netflix in “War Machine”
Brad Pitt's latest project is a satire set in the war in Afghanistan.
September 2016 Playlist: The Get Down
“The Get Down” was a warm breeze of late summer fun on Netflix. Against the backdrop of a broke (and broken) Bronx in the summer of 1977, “The Get Down” tells a story at the crossroads of disco and hip-hop. This was a time when New York City was severely in debt and was denied federal assistance to avoid bankruptcy under President Gerald Ford, yielding the famous New York Daily News 1975 headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” The Bronx and its residents were really suffering.
The show was created by Baz Luhrmann, who also directed the pilot. I’ve heard from a few friends who had lukewarm feelings after watching the very densely packed first episode, which I completely understand, since watching a Baz Luhrmann project is like eating a really rich, over-sweetened layer cake with frosting made of ecstasy and sprinkled with cocaine, then washing it down with Red Bull. You almost need to chase a Luhrmann movie with an Ingmar Bergman film just to come down. He starts off his new Netflix series, “The Get Down,” with a similar three-ring circus fervor, though it’s not his usual boisterous pageant of bells and whistles. Fortunately for “The Get Down,” the remaining five episodes are helmed by other directors who allow the story to breathe with more finesse and nuance. And it’s a pretty fabulous story.
One of the best best features of the 8-episode show was the music. Wow. Like, fuck me wow. It’s an early-to-mid ’70s aural orgy of soul, R&B, disco and even some rock in a beautiful blend of the popular and the more esoteric. My September 2016 playlist is a curated selection of some of my favorites that appeared in the series.
Making the American Man
As described by the filmmakers, Making the American Man is “a documentary film about modern American masculinity through the eyes of makers of U.S. based goods for men.”
On the surface, the new documentary Making the American Man almost plays like an 70-minute promotion of niche, made-in-America bro brands – a virtual who’s-who of companies you’ll find at Pop-Up Flea. That’s a superficial assessment that would be grossly unfair. The truth is that we are bludgeoned by advertising and promotion from the huge mega-brands with mega-budgets, and it’s nice to see some of these smaller outfits get some long overdue time in the sun.
The Get Down
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Baz Luhrmann’s brand of screen story. My memories of Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby recall cocaine-paced tapestries colored in a muted Skittles palette and laced with ecstasy. Audio/visual orgies for the attention-deficit set, pumping at 130 beats per minute.
The Get Down, Luhrmann’s new project for Netflix, looks like something infinitely more interesting to me. Set against the backdrop of the broke and broken New York of the 1970s, the show is a Bronx tale of a different flavor, telling the story of the birth of disco, punk and hip-hop.