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“BS High” Cuts the BS

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

The Miranda Rights state that you have the right to remain silent.

Apparently Coach Leroy Johnson didn’t get the memo. 

“BS High” explores the story behind the viral blowout high school football game that aired on ESPN between Bishop Sycamore and powerhouse IMG, where the former lost 58-0. What were they doing playing one of the top teams in the country? Turns out, like the school’s acronym BS, the high school is a total fraud, with a football team coached by a self-proclaimed fraudster.

Much of the documentary is Coach Johnson sitting down, looking straight into the camera, telling you his lies right to your face. The most interesting thing about the film is that we have a villain soliloquizing on how he did it while looking in your eyes, peering into your soul. It’s like sitting down with a Scooby Doo bad guy revealing his master plan. The school part of BS High School was an elaborate ruse to field a football team. To find out how our villain pulled it off, you have to watch the doc.

We have a particularly loathsome character at the center of the film. He makes admissions with zero remorse for his misdeeds. And his misdeeds were exploiting kids – mere high schoolers – mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds. It’s as bad as you get. He freely incriminates himself for the allure of the spotlight, proud of his villainy.

But, I wish the film more deeply explored the lives of Coach Johnson’s victims. When the story of BS High School first broke, the Twittersphere responded with a whirlwind of jokes. A fake high school playing on national television? What a riot! The documentary reveals the suffering behind the joke. But we hear these players’ testimonies sitting down in static settings. We don’t get snippets from a day in the lives of these kids. I felt too removed from the heart of the story.

While BS High tells an interesting story that at times is funny and heartbreaking, with a compelling sociopath at its center, it lacks depth – in that we’re told about the lives of the victims, but we don’t get to dig deep by experiencing their lives with them. But the story, and its antagonist, is so wild you have to check it out.

It’s certainly worth a watch, especially if you want to know the full story behind that ESPN high school football game everyone was talking about for a few days a few years ago.

The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and will be available on HBO this summer.

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EntertainmentEventsThe LatestUncategorized

“Richland” Tribeca Review: An Enriching Watch

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

Richland has all the trappings of a picturesque American small town.

It has diners, high school football, town parades and a smattering of hometown heroes and their kids and their kids’ kids. All this rests on contaminated land, from improper nuclear waste storage from the power plant that has driven the economy for the past half century. As it happens, the plant supplied plutonium for the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.

Director Irene Lusztig’s documentary “Richland” takes a look at the legacy of the nuclear history in the eponymous town.

Pierce under the facade of many towns in America and you’ll find a radioactive underbelly. There are unsavory and complex histories to contend with, dominating industries with questionable practices and deep ideological rifts between its denizens. So this isn’t a film just about a nuclear town. It captures a disturbance felt all over the country. Its subject town’s focal point, uranium enrichment, happens to be a great metaphor: it brings energy, death, destruction, longevity, decay, prosperity, blight, advancement, regress. You can use that array of terms for plenty of institutions that backbone the history of many towns in this country.

Richland carries baggage that sounds familiar to many places. Beyond the scope of nuclear debate, there are salient moments to today’s public conversation writ large. For example, high schoolers and their parents debate the appropriateness of having a mushroom cloud mascot for their school team “The Bombers.”

The film captures so well the universal essence of small industry town life. And it gives breath to all its nuances and perspectives by letting its inhabitants speak for themselves. We’re not subjected to lectures from proselytizing pro or anti nuclear talking heads. Instead, we sit down at a diner table or a high school quad or living room and hear what people have to say about Richland, until we get an illuminating mosaic of thoughtful positions and the people behind them.

“Richland” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival June 11.

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FilmThe Latest

“Smoking Tigers” Tribeca Review: Liminal Spaces

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

“Smoking Tigers” is about liminal spaces. The spaces in between. 

Between American and Korean. Rich and poor. Mom and Dad. In and out. 

A lonely Korean-American teenage girl enrolls in a test prep bootcamp, where she befriends wealthy in-crowd students. She’s not like the other students; she’s from much more modest means. Despite this, her Mom shells out for the program – nothing is more important to her than her daughter getting into an elite college. Her father, on the other hand, is more aloof. They’re divorced. He’s in and out of the picture. 

The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, and is the feature directorial debut from So Young Shelly Yo.

Much of the movie is spent in these in between places: hallways, unfurnished rooms, dark nondescript outdoor spaces. And in between languages, going back and forth from Korean to English. 

Like many a high school protagonist, this one doesn’t quite fit in. She lives in those spaces. And “Smoking Tigers” invites us in with her. 

The film invites us to feel the loneliness of being somewhere and nowhere at the same time. We get the feeling that it’s not that we don’t belong here. We belong nowhere. 

In these spaces are quiet conversations and quiet moments. It’s uncomfortably dark and quiet and joyless. And the movie does a good job putting us in that headspace. But it never lets us out. Doesn’t give us a big, loud moment. Or take us to someplace fun. I was wanting that breath of fresh air, but never got it. “Smoking Tigers” is a bleak time. And if that’s not your thing, steer clear, because you’re trapped. 

It was missing those profound and moving moments. But maybe that’s the point. These liminal spaces aren’t the place for those types of moments. You’re stuck in neutral. You’re not making big strides one way or the other. And those story inflection points, that felt slight to me, in a liminal space, maybe, they are big time. Ultimately, though, I wasn’t moved. But those with sensibilities more attuned to these quiet, awkward, uneventful, dimly lit places may very well be.

The screening was presented by the AT&T Presents: Untold Stories.  “Smoking Tigers,” is the first ‘Untold Stories’ film to make it the festival’s U.S. Narrative Competition.

 

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CoversFilmThe Latest

Cinema Center To Activate During Tribeca Film Festival Week With Event Lineup Featuring Cindy Lauper, Judy Greer, Michael Shannon, Alicia Silverstone and More

by Staff
written by Staff

The Cinema Center Event Programming Runs Opening Weekend of June 10th through June 18th, 2023 

Roxstar Entertainment, a Hollywood-based Event Group specialized in the film space who’s executive team has produced dozens of red-carpet premiere events for top selections at the Tribeca Film Festival, will be bringing their newest hospitality platform, the Cinema Center, Sommsation, to New York City after activations at both Sundance and SXSW.

During the Tribeca Film Festival 2023 run, the schedule of high-profile red carpet premiere parties will be held across multiple New York City restaurant and nightlife destinations including Bar Feroce at the Moxy Chelsea, Serafina at Upper West 77th Street, and Common Ground NYC for a selection of the top films in competition at the annual Festival. Full lineup of programming  below.

 

Saturday, June 10

Bar Feroce in the Moxy Chelsea hosted by Tao Hospitality Group

“eric larue” directed by Michael Shannon and starring Judy Greer, Alexander Skarsgård, Alison Pill, Tracy Letts, and Paul Sparks.

 

Sunday, June 11

Common Ground NYC

IFC celebrates films “Suitable Flesh” + “The Perpetrator” with Heather Graham, Barbara Crampton, Johnathan Schaech, Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Reeder, and Kiah McKirnan.

 

Monday, June 12

Common Ground NYC

Sony Pictures Classics celebrates “TheMiracle Club” with Director, Thaddeus O’Sullivan and  cast Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Agnes O’Casey, Stephen Rea.

 

Wednesday, June 14

Serafina Upper West Side

Sony Music celebrates “Let The Canary Sing” with Director, Alison Ellwood and music icon Cyndi Lauper and other special guests. 

 

Sunday, June 18

Common Ground NYC

Sony Pictures Classics celebrates “SHORTCOMINGS” with Director, Randall Park and  cast Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki, Debby Ryan, Tavi Gevinson, Sonoya Mizuno, Jacob Batalon, and Timothy Simons.

 

Each venue will feature libations by the Cinema Center’s generous partners. The all-important wine services for the program will be provided courtesy of Sommsation, a trusted wine experience brand and an online wine shop, including hard-to-find wines from top independent wineries and sommelier-selected limited production wines. On-site, Sommsation will provide guests with a tasting experience.

 

Sommsation is a modern wine experience platform and online marketplace connecting consumers with world-class sommeliers and top-tier winemakers around the world. Artfully arranged wine tastings feature premium wines from independent wineries, paired with expert insights from their team of engaging sommeliers. The marketplace provides seamless access to a wide range of exquisite wines not easily sourced or found. Sommsation’s Concierge handles all the details, making it easy to experience the hidden gems of wine from anywhere.   www.sommsation.com

Beer sponsor, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Italy’s premium lager, will be served as well as Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%— a premium non-alcoholic lager.  

 

Follow for updates: @CinemaCTR #CinemaCenterTribeca

Photos courtesy of each film and Sommsation.

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Jennifer Elster David Bowie Installation Take Heed (2022)
ArtEntertainmentEventsLifestyle

Art Review: Jennifer Elster Taps Into Visceral Memory With New Show at The Development Gallery

by Benjamin Schmidt
written by Benjamin Schmidt

Jennifer Elster has always been a deeply reactionary artist. Whether it is rebutting (or accepting) seismic shifts in the culture or simply responding to a question posed or a happening taking place, her multi-modal replies are always candid and fizzling with raw, determined energy.

Elster has always consumed with world as anyone else does- receiving and interpreting on an on-going basis. But rather than letting things happen to her passively, she posits and responds urgently and instinctually. Stepping into the Take Heed show, now on view at The Development Gallery in Tribeca, one feels as if they’re stepping outside for the first time after an apocalyptic event.

Crystalizing the flurry of cultural norms that have been introduced in the past two years, Take Heed is the first honest retrospective of work that was created or heavily reconsidered under the shadow of an on-going global pandemic and an affronting war.

Taking shape amid the soaring columns and roiled tin roof and wood of the Tribeca space, the show feels like a shell of what once was and a space being repopulated once more. The dust has settled but hasn’t yet been swept away. A mount of KN95 masks, a signature element of the deepest valley of the COVID-19 pandemic, are positioned on a pedestal, taking on the performance of a future relic. In fact, preservation seems particularly important to Elster in this show, with many works being encased in plexiglas or wood.

A series of large-scale self-portraits, originally executed in 2016, featured Elster in military fatigues and gas masks. The works, faraway and innocuous at the time of their execution, are revisited within the collective gasp and gaze of an egregious war taking place in Ukraine. Have no doubt, conflict rages globally. But distance can breed unfounded comfort.

Elster’s instinctual quips, done in chiseled marker, are not flailing in conspiracy, but are bright-red warning lights. “Warhead” (2022) is one of the most delicate and thought-provoking pieces the artist has completed in recent memory, adding to an ongoing series of “head” works that address, in the most abstract way, the awe-inspiring dynamism of the human condition.

 

When Is It Enough?, 2015, 2020, Acrylic on paper with hands and no body, 44.5h x 44w x 44d inches

Unlike previous shows, Elster is no longer angry. She’s done defending herself. Now she is a communicator. Her prophesies have come true and she’s been prepared for a long while. Now she invites the broader world to involve themselves. Of course, there is humor. There is realism. Elster remains as buoyant as ever, motivated by- believe it or not- absolute optimism.

Bowie as the character of Ramona in a photograph taken by John Scarisbrick for Bowie’s 1995 1. Outside album. Styled by Jennifer Elster

Viewers will relish in the opportunity to revisit one of Elster’s most remarkable achievements: the styling of the late David Bowie. In a new installation, the image, which is celebrated for its deeply collaborative and improvised instant, enters into a new territory of multi-dimensional bliss by way of cut web around the enlarged image. “Bowie and I went very deep. I wanted to pay tribute and incorporate but not overwhelm the show.”Elster’s work are available to purchase for the first time at ChannelELSTER.com/art-gallery and on Artsy. Most of the show has sold, but there are collectible Limited Editions Gaeclee canvases and Digital C-Prints that will be available upon proposal.

Take Heed will be on exhibition through January 5, 2023 at The Development Gallery in Tribeca, NYC.

Shop the J. Elster collection here.

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LifestyleThe Latest

Restaurant Review: Filé Gumbo Bar

by Megan D'Souza
written by Megan D'Souza

Ever wonder where to get your gumbo fix in Manhattan? We found the answer: Filé Gumbo Bar. The freshly debuted restaurant, brainchild of Chef Eric McCree, is a unique concept offering an “educational feast of the subtleties of Cajun and Creole food.” They opened 4 weeks ago and are taking the neighborhood by storm!

 

We stopped by on a rainy Wednesday evening, seizing the perfect opportunity to enjoy some warm gumbo, to check out their operation and sample some of their offerings. The bar-style restaurant harnesses a steam kettle cooking system, and is operated by two chefs who each take charge of four gumbo kettles. Currently since they’re brand new, Chef Eric operates all eight – which they’ve had going at once despite their novelty. Named after the essential ingredient that thickens gumbo, Filé (french, pronounced fee-lay) is made out of dried and ground sassafras leaves and was introduced to the Cajuns by the Choctaw Indians. Chef Eric was inspired by Cajun and Creole food on a trip to Louisiana – the rich history of the cuisine and the patient process required to capture the flavors.

 

Their menu, which features fresh seasonal catch from the Gulf of Mexico delivered 3x weekly, derives its base from those techniques. It contains a mix of traditional dishes like the gumbo, and new creations like the grilled oysters. The restaurant’s setup features a Chef’s Table for half the seating, where the gumbo kettles sit in front of. Guests can grab a spot here to see how the chefs make the gumbo: with all proteins, spices, and sauces going in to create the beautiful medley so many hold close to their hearts.

We started our meal with an Appleraq and a Filé Southern Sour, two delicious booze-forward cocktails that paired nicely with the meal. Our first appetizer was the Char-Grilled Oysters, served with thinly sliced toasted baguettes and dressed with garlic herb butter and breadcrumb. We put them on the slices and squeezed some of the charred lemon on top, which created a light citrusy-seafood flavor that was kept grounded by the bread and spices. The next appetizer we tried was the Iconic Jazz-Fest Crawfish Bread. This is their spin on garlic bread, just packed with Cajun cheese and crawfish layered on fluffy french bread and baked until the flavors infused. We loved this filling appetizer and the combination of cuisines!

 

Next we tried their Grilled Creole Caesar Salad as recommended by the Chef. Their take is a “warm, smoky spin” on the classic salad, served with whole romaine hearts and a Creole mustard caesar dressing. This tasted exactly like it sounds – delicious creamy caesar salad enhanced by the spicy flavors of Creole food, which perfectly complemented the rest of our meal. 

Now the gumbo, of course, was the star of the show. Eric talked us through their approach and where Filé’s style fits within the Gumbo world. “There’s no one right way to do it”, he told us, as he artfully put together a bowl with pinches of ingredients, eyeballing everything. We had Tiny’s Gumbo with andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp, and crawfish. Medium spice. The flavors work together wonderfully, each ingredient getting the space it deserves. The sauce is twice reduced, first with chicken stock then finished with a white wine.

We finished off with their signature Chocolate Praline Cake – do not skip this! This rich chocolate cake with candied pecans, fresh whipped cream, caramel, and hints of liqueur will end your night the right way. Take some home if you need to; this keeps well in the fridge. 


Overall, we loved our meal at Filé Gumbo Bar and can’t wait to come back! Reserve your spot here or stop by the restaurant at 275 Church St to sit at the Chef’s Table and watch the gumbo magic unfold.

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EntertainmentEventsUncategorized

On the Scene: ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ Tribeca Premiere

by Dano Nissen
written by Dano Nissen

“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” puts viewers up close and intimate with the two leads as they get, well, intimate. 

Emma Thompson plays Nancy, a widow looking to ignite a fulfilling sex life she never had by hiring a sex worker. Almost the entirety of the film takes place in one room with those two characters.

Thompson spoke to the Knockturnal at the red carpet premiere at Tribeca Festival. “That’s the thing that frightened us more than anything,” Thompson said of the limited space they had to work as actors. She continued, “We had to make this so dramatic and so interesting and exciting and dynamic and pleasurable and painful, touching — all of these things. And it has to hold the audience. If it doesn’t hold the audience, if there’s one single moment when the audience goes, ‘you know what, did I leave the oven on?’ — it’s over.”

Director Sophie Hyde also acknowledged the challenges of holding the audience’s attention in such a small and intimate setting. “You realize there’s this challenge of one room trying to make it cinematic, trying to make it pleasurable for an audience and move through that amount of time,” said Hyde. “I think we trusted the script and the actors to try to create something between them in the dialogue and also the movement and the touch that felt compelling.”

Considering the intimate subject nature of what’s on screen, she said the cast and crew took steps to create as consensual an environment as possible. “The ideas of consent that we see on the screen with this are also the way we think about the material and how to work with actors,” said Hyde. “All the time it needs to be ongoing and continuous and enthusiastic consent.”

The film depicts sex between an older woman and a younger man. Through the sexual relationship, Thompson’s character comes to terms with aging, retirement and an unfulfilled sex life. “Personally I think that all the work I’ve ever done has been leading to this movie,” Thompson said. “If I hadn’t done all the work I’ve done I wouldn’t have the skills that I needed.”

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