Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Robert Pattinson in Damsel, a twisted Western at the Strand

Damsel
Strand Theatre
Saturday, September 1
at 7 PM
Official Selection:
2018 Sundance Film Festival – World Premiere
68th Berlinale 2018 – Competition 
2018 SXSW Film Festival 

First he was Cedric in the Harry Potter films, then he was Edward Cullen in the Twilight films, now Robert Pattinson is Samuel Alabaster, a different kind of "hero". in a different kind of Western.

Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson), an affluent pioneer, ventures across the American Frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). As Samuel traverses the Wild West with a drunkard named Parson Henry (David Zellner) and a miniature horse called Butterscotch, their once-simple journey grows treacherous, blurring the lines between hero, villain and damsel. A loving reinvention of the western genre from the Zellner brothers, DAMSEL showcases their trademark unpredictability, off-kilter sense of humor, and unique brand of humanism.

The Bros. – David and Nathan – don’t see things the same way the rest of us do. They are, it turns out, great aficionados of westerns. “We’re HUGE fans,” David enthuses. The brothers began churning around ideas for one, but he notes, “We didn’t want to do an ersatz version of the classic western. We knew we wanted to come up with an approach that would be interesting to us and do something different.” They looked not simply to the beloved Sergio Leone spaghetti western classics of the 60s, but also to the films of another favorite, director Budd Boetticher, whom, David notes, “They bridge the classic John Ford type of western into the Leone or Sam Peckinpah era, almost a merging of those two. On the surface they can seem wholesome, with a simple black and white morality, but underneath it’s much more complex and murky.” In other words, right up Zellner alley.

So what’s the classic western setup? How about a damsel in distress? And maybe one whose degree of distress depends on who’s telling the story. “We liked the idea of taking some of the tropes that are all too common – the hero and the villain, the damsel in distress – and giving them more levels, making it more complex,” David explains. Damsels, he notes, are so often weak and simplistic in these films, or they’re just there to supplement the heroic male character. “So we wanted to come up with a dynamic that would honor the tropes of the genre, but have it be more relatable on a human level, instead of these one-dimensional archetypes.”

See the trailer: 

Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse: $5
At the door: $7

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Incredible True Story - The Man Who Saved the World

The Man Who Saved the World
New Film at the Strand
Saturday, August 25 at 7 PM

Few people know of Stanislav Petrov… yet hundreds of millions of people are alive because of him."

The Man Who Saved the World (Starring: Walter Cronkite, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon and Kevin Costner) tells the gripping true story of Stanislav Petrov - a man who single-handedly averted a fullscale NUCLEAR WORLD WAR, but now struggles to get his life back on track… before it is too late.

An epic and grand Cold War thriller that sends shivers down your spine and shows us just how close we came to Apocalypse … and it’s not over yet! With a NEW COLD WAR rising and thousands of nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, we still live under the same catastrophic danger that Stanislav faced back then.

"...this account of a Cold War near miss deserves a wide audience." - Daniel Gold, New York Times

Watch trailer 

$5 Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse
$7 at the door

Monday, August 6, 2018

Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 - live onstage at the Strand

As the play begins:: the creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious "Stage Door Slasher") assemble for a backer's audition of their new show at the Westchester estate of a wealthy "angel." The house is replete with sliding panels, secret passageways and a German maid who...and then stuff happens...

The audience is treated to a sidesplitting good time and a generous serving of the author's biting, satiric and refreshingly irreverent wit.
An ingenious and wildly comic romp which enjoyed a long and critically hailed run both on and Off-Broadway. Poking antic fun at the more ridiculous aspects of "show biz" and the corny thrillers of Hollywood's heyday, the play is a non-stop barrage of laughter as those assembled (or at least those who aren't killed off) untangle the mystery of the "Stage Door Slasher."

"…a kind of crossbreeding of Charles Ludlam The Mystery of Irma Vep and Terrence McNally It's Only a Play seasoned with a soupcon of NOISES OFF." —NY Times. 

"…enormous fun…Its strength comes in part from the sheer diamond wit and diamante showbiz glitter of Bishop's writing. Even his corn is succulently served." —NY Post.

"…Bishop gives us a nakedly silly and relentlessly convoluted murder-mystery plot, with twist piled on twist till you have to give way and start laughing at the silliness…it's hugely enjoyable." —Village Voice.

"MURDERS is the intelligent person's kind of nonsense." —NY Magazine.

Performances: Friday & Saturday: August 10, 11, 17, 18. All performances at 7:30.

Advance tickets at Highway 61 Coffeehouse or online are $10

At the door: $15