In the age of streaming, I forgot what it was like to watch a movie in a sold-out theatre. That was until I found myself sitting next to actor Christopher Abbott while watching actress Margaret Qualley hold a knife to his neck on screen. Qualley was sitting behind us with her fiancé Jack Antonoff.
Habstrakt, or Adam, is a French-born LA-based “dj music producer or something” as he describes himself on his Twitter. Currently, he is on the second leg of his U.S. tour for his new album Heritage. The album is a blade-running, synth-driven musical journey with a blend of hard EDM and slower ambient tracks.
Applause fill the Django as Alex Borstein, the Emmy-winning star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Family Guy, steps onto the stage with a cheeky smile shouting “Yes! Look at me! Look at me!” Corsets and Clown Suits is Borestin’s newest hysterical brain child airing on Amazon Prime on April 18th. To celebrate its upcoming release, Borstein along with Eric Mills and Salva Rey put on a sidesplitting 30-minute set at the infamous jazz club.
Presented by Atlantic Theater Company, Elyria tells the story of two immigrant women, their families, and their interweaving lives. Staged in the round at the Linda Gross Theatre, the play begins at a festival where Vasanta (Nilanjana Bose) and Dhatta (Gulshan Mia) unexpectedly run into each other after. They exchange tense words in Gujarati, Swahili, and English with a slight British accent. Their conservation is stiff, there’s a two-decade-old secret these women share, and all will be revealed in an unlikely place: Elyria, Ohio in 1982.
If I could describe Ashely Kutcher in three words it would be “Cool as Hell.” Last week the Balitmore-born now New York-based singer-songwriter delivered an electric set at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right. Her story begins on TikTok, where Kutcher was most known for posting clips of her singing in her bathroom. After posting the chorus of “Love You From a Distance,” TikTok users fell in love with Kuthcer’s sound. The song now has 71 million Spotify streams. Most recently, in January of this year, she released an emotional single entitled “Everyone and No One.”
It’s Tuesday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day. The Alice Tully Hall hums with giddiness. Suddenly, the screen is molten red and a thunderous crack rings from the speakers. Yet I could only think of one thing: what will be the stories told of us when we pass? Directed by Sara Dosa, Fire of Love tells the unique love story of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Kraft. It’s documentary, romcom, and tragedy wrapped up in the most breathtaking footage of volcanic activity.
There’s a crowd buzzing with anticipation in the intimate Manhattan Theatre Club. On the stage sits three guitars, a banjo, four chairs, and microphones. The lights dim, four people enter, and a man grabs the mic and smoothly lists basic french conjugations. The man is Billy Eugene Jones, the star in Where the Mountain Meets the Sea.
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody and written by Jeff Augustine, the play tells the story of Jean (Billy Eugene Jones), a Haitian schoolteacher that immigrates to Miami for more opportunities. He lands a job as an airport baggage handler and falls in love with Natalie who is also a Haitian immigrant. Natalie becomes pregnant, and the couple takes a cross-country road trip from Miami and Los Angeles. Later, their son Jonah (Chris Myers) makes the same trip in reverse to collect his father’s ashes. Jean and Jonah’s stories are told like two twirling parallel lines. They interrupt each other and are bound by a fondness for folk music.
If you’ve never seen a person bust down and totally lose themself to a folksy toon by The Bengsons, you’re missing out. Jones and Myers deliver wonderfully vulnerable performances that would make any child of immigrants call their dad and tell them how much they love him. Jones imbues whimsy and optimism into Jean, who got the big American dream. Myers’s sarcastic performance of Jonah is hilarious and conveys the dissatisfaction of realizing the dream is a fluke. As the two stories collide, the actors perform a duet of“Sonjé M.” The song beacons the listener to “remember me, when I am gone” and allows Jean and Jonah to make amends in their previously distant relationship. It’s a bittersweet tune that’ll leave you with tears in your eyes and a smile on your lips.
An angelic light shines behind the jean-clad bandmates, and a hymn plays over the speakers of the Irving Plaza. Matt Maeson steps on stage and the crowd erupts in cheers. Maeson is a Virginia-raised singer who has been dominating the alternative music charts for the past five years. He found success through his debut song “Cringe” which was released in 2016 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs in 2019.
There’s a strange catharsis in his music. With a blend of heart shaking drums and lyrics like “I was hearing the god lord, I was hearing the devil harmonize;” no wonder the crowd was screaming every word. It’s difficult to ignore the religious imagery surrounding Maeson; his forearm tattoos read “born a sinner, die a martyr.” This religious imagery elevates the new sounds of his latest album Never Had to Leave. The album was produced over the pandemic and it’s obvious from the crowd they are antsy to hear the tracks like “Cut Deep.” Towards the end of his set, Maeson pauses and declares he would take a shot because the show had sold out but then admits “[he] would take the shot regardless,” and then throws a shot of whiskey back. It’s a tradition that the audience revels in, especially since his last New York performance was in 2019. Even as his name skyrockets through the charts, Maeson remains incredibly authentic and allows his music to speak for itself.
In the face of rising gas prices, inflation, and a housing crisis comes Netflix’s newest original documentary Get Smart With Money. Directed by Stephanie Soechtig and produced by part2 pictures, the documentary follows four people from varying socioeconomic backgrounds facing unique financial struggles across the United States. To achieve their goals, they are paired with a financial coach who helps sort through the bills, spending habits, and modes of income to change their money mindset. The four coaches —Peter Adeny, Tiffany Aliche, Ross MacDonal, and Paula Pant— provide the subjects with guidance and advice tailored to their situation.
As a Gen Z person who doubts they will ever own a home, the documentary felt incredibly relatable. Although the subjects came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, it was easy to resonate with their frustration. Why can’t I fund my life even though I have two jobs and work 50 hours a week? Will I be running from student loans my whole life? Is my daily oat milk latte from the local cafe really the source of my financial problems? Many financial issues facing Generation Z tend to be systematic, which can feel overwhelming. But Get Smart With Money is a gentle reminder of things that can be controlled within finances. The documentary covers basic financial literacy like reducing, spending, budgeting, saving and investing. It’s an approachable first step in gaining financial literacy in a time that is oversaturated with information. The documentary follows these four individuals through a year of scrimping, saving, and setbacks. At the end of the year nobody has become a millionaire, but everyone is in a better financial place: debts have decreased and budgeting is not a traumatic experience. It’s a real ending that reassures its viewer that it can get better and the taking the first step is possible.
“It was such a shock for me to become a pop star, it’s not what I wanted. I just wanted to scream,” Sinead O’connor’s enchanting voice says through the speakers of the IFC theater. Nothing Compares by break out director Kathryn Ferguson isn’t your average biopic documentary. The film recounts the Irish musician’s exceptional rise to international fame and her sudden exile from mainstream pop. Something to note is that the film features no talking head segments with the various people interviewed. In the Q&A after with Ferguson, she reveals this was meant “to keep [the audience] there, in the moment.” This also allows for the audience to finally “hear Sinead in her own words,” Ferguson says, a counter to the reductive media O’connor battled in the 90s. Ferguson maintains this more artistic feel, especially earlier in the film. Although the film is about 70% archival footage there is very little footage of O’connor’s early life. Ferugson and her crew shot their own breathtaking archival footage to illustrate O’connor’s harrowing upbringing in Ireland and create a more cinematic experience for the viewer.
The film is able to bring O’connor into the 21st spotlight by analyzing her life through a contemporary feminist lens. The scene of O’connor’s at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert is tragic; her face is tight and the audience is a mix of boos and cheers. In contrast the film ends with a compilation of 21st activism in the US and Ireland (like the 2017 Women’s March and Appeal the 8th) as well as a recent live performance by O’Connor. Ferguson wanted to leave the audience feeling galvanized. The mission of the movie, Ferguson says, is to “inspire youngsters to stand up and make a change because, Christ, we need it right now.”