Schmaltz dilutes a potentially bloody good time BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN | The British-Irish fantasy thriller “Byzantium” tells the story of  Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) — who, with her mother Clara (Gemma Arterton), forms a tight-knit vampire duo. They are both two centuries old, yet look not a day older than 16 and 35 (Clara had Eleanor [...]

Year-round programs nurture next gen filmmakers BY RANIA RICHARDSON  |  “Our main struggle is that we are always considered to be just a festival,” said Beth Janson, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI).  “The Institute is a 501(c)(3) and the Tribeca Film Festival, owned by Tribeca Enterprises, is not.” The confusion is understandable [...]

‘Reaching’ doesn’t quite get Bishop right BY SAM SPOKONY  |  Brazilian director Bruno Barreto’s 19th feature film tells the based-on-truth tale of Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop (played by Miranda Otto) and her unexpectedly amorous sojourn to Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s and ‘60s — where she pursued a fiery but ultimately failed [...]

Third collaboration offers more ‘naturally eloquent conversation’ BY RANIA RICHARSON  |  Set among the Cypress groves of the southern Peloponnese, the third installment of this indie romance continues the story of Jesse, a writer and Celine, an activist, who are now the domesticated parents of twin girls. Like director Richard Linklater’s predecessors, “Before Sunrise” (1995) [...]

Ail’s impact documented, in dance and on film BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  In the eyes of many sports fans, political activists and religious observers, the arc of history long ago issued the verdict that Muhammad Ali was standing on firm moral ground when he refused to serve in Vietnam. But those who weren’t living witnesses [...]

Annual fest chronicles neighborhood life, lore BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  Documenting the evolution of its surrounding neighborhood through fiction based on historical facts as well as word-for-word fidelity to those living in the here and now, Metropolitan Playhouse’s East Village Theater Festival mines  those perspectives as a way to shed light on art, activism, immigration [...]

Trav S.D. makes the case for wordless mirth, then and now BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  Performer, playwright, producer, author and all-around troublemaker Trav S.D. — who until recently served as this publication’s beloved Downtown theater columnist — is one of the best friends comedians, musicians and uncategorizable stage performers ever had. He proved that with [...]

THE MANNAHATTA PROJECT In this free lecture, landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson will discuss his work at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as well as how recent storms have impacted the Manhattan landscape. Sanderson will also talk about Manhattan’s early history — harkening back to when Henry Hudson sailed his ship, the Half Moon, up the river [...]

Director Antonio Campos relies on the eye to get into the brain of his title character   BY GARY M. KRAMER  |  Simon Killer” is a fascinating, slow-burn character study. Simon (Brady Corbet), an American student who studies the connections between the eye and the brain, heads to Paris after breaking up with his girlfriend. [...]

BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | On April 24, 1913, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C. that fired up dynamos in the basement of the newly finished Woolworth building at 233 Broadway in New York City. The lights in the building flashed on all at once as thousands of people in City [...]