Mystic Pizza Box
A slice of heaven
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
Brooklyn Internatioonal Theater Reading of "Our BK" at Brooklyn Museum 6-14-2012
After the 7 PM reading of the play, which was partly inspired by "Our Town" and featured Annabella Sciorra as the narrator, Angel, a gum-chewing, wisecracking Brooklynite, I met Annabella and chatted with her a bit. She is a life long Brooklynite, born in Crown Heights and currently living in Williamsburg, not far from me, but she's moving soon. Coney Island is one of Annabella's favorite places to visit and she does so on a weekly basis (she even saved some pieces of the old wooden planks from the original Coney Island Boardwalk, which are being replaced with plastic-ugh!) I was flattered when I first introduced myself to Annabella and she looked at me carefully and asked "Have we met?" Of course this was my first time ever meeting her but it was so cool that I reminded her of someone she knew. :)
I'll have lots more to add to this post later today. It's late and I must sleep now. More news and pics coming! Good night.
The reading of "Our BK" featured several actors familiar to LOCI fans, including Annabella herself, of course, who starred in Season 5 as Detective Barek, the first of Logan's three partners at the MCS. Another LOCI veteran is Mr. Reg. E. Cathay, who played Professor Sanderson on the Season 2 episode "Anti-Thesis" which introduced us to Nicole Wallace, Detective Goren's greatest nemesis.
Following the reading was a Q&A featuring all four founders of the Brooklyn International Theater-Alix Lambert, Daniel Simmons, Nelson George and Annabella Sciorra. Although the theater company does not have a permanent home as yet, several sites in Brooklyn are being considered, including locations in Bedford Stuyvesant and downtown Brooklyn. Another event will take place on December 10, 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and will feature readings of short plays by Brooklyn playwrights, some well-known and some up and comers.
Pawn Shop Chronicles-New VDO film
DVD Review: "Don't Go In The Woods"-D'Onofrio Dazzles and Confuses
Vincent D'Onofrio's "Don't Go in the Woods" seems to have no larger ambitions than to be a very strange and entertaining trip in the backyard of both D'onofrio's house and his artistic brain. The film doesn't want to delve into deep philosophical Kubrick like conversations about the purity of art and some people's utter obsession with it (though the film does touch on this). No. What "Don't Go in the Woods" wants to be is a horror musical that never feels tongue in cheek, but also never feels cliched. "Don't Go in the Woods" is even driven by the most hackneyed, unoriginal and simple horror movie set up story in the world. That being said, "Don't Go in the Woods" takes that simple story, flips it on its head, then its side, then sucker punches it in the face, buries it and then challenges us to find it.
"Don't Go in the Woods" is about a second rate band that decides to ditch modern day technology and isolate themselves in the woods in order to conjure up some real originality. The problems start when their girlfriend groupies have followed them into the woods and everyone falls back into their lazy partying ways. This is much to the chagrin of their lead singer. After discovering that their cars will not start, they realize that they are all stuck in the woods together. The issue being that there is a mysterious man wandering the woods picking their singing little asses off one by one in some very strange and grotesque ways.
D'onofrio has decided to go beyond independent with this film. He uses non actors and literally filmed the entire thing in the woods behind his house. He used his friend, Sam Bisbee, to compose the songs for the film and lets his imagination run free. Presenting the film warts and all works in its favor. The acting is actually good and more realistic than most horror movies of today. This is because actors in modern horror movies feel the need to overact. Watching a modern horror movie can be like sitting through an awful late night acting class at your local community college. The actors here work as do their voices, which are also presented warts and all. Everyone here can sing, but D'onofrio never gives the singing or the film the false feeling that most musicals carry. A lot of the singing feels like it was recorded while filming as opposed to most musicals in which we watch an actor lip sinc to something computerized and recorded in a studio later on.
The music is also surprisingly good. Bisbee creates highly original tunes that feel like real hits. This gives the band in the film a much more real aura about them. The music works, and that makes the film work for the most part.
But, time for the real question. Horror plus hipster music? Really? Well, if anyone can make it work it would be someone like D'onofrio, and he does. If the direction had been unprofessional and the script a little more ignorant and the music a little worse, it would've been easier to laugh at the actors every time they break out in song (sometimes while being killed), but D'onofrio directs with surprising professionalism and makes the film look moody and real and the transitions smooth and easy. The script also walks a fine line pretty well by never becoming a tongue in cheek work, but always being aware of the genre's cliches and playing with them in very unique ways. And, of course, the music is the biggest highlight of the film. How someone pulled off a gruesome horror movie musical with hipster tunes is a miracle.
It's surprising to see this film not look like a $10 home movie made by a crazy actor for his own pleasure, but it looks nothing like that. D'onofrio crafts a highly original and highly strange piece of Gothic art that both dazzles your mind while also leaving you dumbfounded at the how and why of everything, but never in a bad way. D'onofrio's direction is like a mix between someone who has watched endless amounts of Kubrick and Malick and decided to pull off a genre film on the cheap. It makes you wish he started directing sooner in his career.
"Don't Go in the Woods" is strange and entertaining and even a little bit confusing until the very end of its very bloody and musical 83 minutes, but alas the film is truly not for everyone. In fact, many will hate it (isn't that always the sign of great art though?). Many will not see the point. Why the music? What's with the ending? Why so bloody?...The point is simply to make something inventive. Something that works beyond the scope of the simplistic films of today. D'onofrio may never make a "Battleship," but he doesn't need to. He works in the vein of professional and highly original directors before him (Kubrick included). He makes a film that will dumbfound you, please you, disgust you, entertain you, make you dance, make you wince....hell, what's not to love?
The special features include an interview with D'onofrio that is much too brief and nowhere near enough in depth and a quick behind the scenes feature that shows you how truly independent this film really was.
D'onofrio's character of Gomer Pyle will forever be remembered in military cadence and he will always be remembered as being the actor to reinvent himself as the unforgettable Detective Robert Goren on "Law and Order: Criminal Intent." Now, here's to hoping D'onofrio has another phase left in his career to dazzle us with: that of director.
"Don't Go In The Woods" Airs on TMC 6-16-2012
Vincent D'Onofrio's 'DON'T GO IN THE WOODS' airs on TMC
June 16TH at 9pm and at 12 midnite.
Courtesy of Nantzee/Vinnie Vidi Vici
Official "Sinister" Trailer-OMG!
Vincent at Yankees/Atlanta Braves game 6-13-2012
Vincent D'Onofrio was sweet and super cute at the game tonight!
Posted by bee_bonnie
Vincent D'Onofrio at the airport 6-14-2012
Vincent D'Onofrio from Law and Order on my flight to Laguardia!! And he bought a tv at Brookstone..?
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater-3C begins June 6
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Yosemite was a shocking and emotional rollercoaster of a play, while Massacre(Sing to Your Children) was brutal and scary, not to mention LOUD! Now comes 3C, which promises to be terrifying and funny. Well, we'll see about that. I'm looking forward to seeing 3C, especially for the performances by Anna Chlumsky and Eddie Cahill. I love the Rattlestick Theater and the nearby Cherry Lane Theater, both in Greenwich Village. I'm enjoying more live theater this year than I ever have, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
Yosemite was a shocking and emotional rollercoaster of a play, while Massacre(Sing to Your Children) was brutal and scary, not to mention LOUD! Now comes 3C, which promises to be terrifying and funny. Well, we'll see about that. I'm looking forward to seeing 3C, especially for the performances by Anna Chlumsky and Eddie Cahill. I love the Rattlestick Theater and the nearby Cherry Lane Theater, both in Greenwich Village. I'm enjoying more live theater this year than I ever have, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Alberto Acevedo's Team for the 3K Walk for Autism Awareness on June 2, 2012
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