Cate Blanchett channels Bob Dylan in 'I'm Not There'
(Credit: Jonathan Wenk/TWC 2007)
For a full list of scheduled screenings and locations, visit cmj.com/marathon.
For fans of new indie music and shaggy-haired musician types, October offers an embarrassment of riches at the CMJ Music Festival. But don’t let all the chatter about the new Band of Horses album distract you from the equally noteworthy lineup of movies also playing at CMJ.
Seventeen films will be screened over five days at the Tribeca Cinema, the Tribeca Grand and the IFC Center—everything from documentaries to comedies to musical tributes. It’s enough to rival the music festival’s own formidable performance lineup.
The film festival starts with a jolt of radio goodness—public radio that is—when “This American Life”’s bespectacled smartie, Ira Glass, leads a post-screening discussion for the opening film, “Frank & Cindy.” He’ll chat with director G.J. Ekternkamp about his yearlong experience filming his parents’ battles over stepfather Frank Garcia’s one-hit-wonder band OXO and Frank’s delayed return to the recording studio. It may look like voyeurism and sound like cheap therapy, but that’s showbiz.
Fans of Bob Dylan should get enough of a fix: CMJ offers two views of the artist—a nonfiction look with documentarian Murray Lerner’s “The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965” and a more fanciful, poetic impression via Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There,” which played to great reviews at the recent New York Film Festival.
The excellent track lists of both movies should provide ample opportunity to soak up the sounds of Dylan as he transitioned from Greenwich Village folk legend to cutting-edge electric maverick. Seeing both, you’ll be able to weigh in confidently on whether or not actress Cate Blanchett—who, in a bold casting move, plays a version of Dylan in “I’m Not There”—accurately captured the artist’s effete mannerisms.
If passing by the memorial mural on Seventh Street and Avenue A in the East Village ever piqued your interest in musician Joe Strummer, formerly of The Clash and The Pogues, CMJ pays homage to the late punk iconoclast with a Clash Film Marathon.
Director Julian Temple examines Strummer’s life and art—from “London Calling” to his untimely death from heart failure in 2002—in a new documentary, “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten.” Or, to get a stronger dose of Strummer’s work with The Clash, CMJ is screening “Rude Boy,” a 1980 “rockumentary” that intersperses footage of the band performing with the story of a fictional punk fan, as well as “The Clash: Westway to the World,” a more traditional talking-heads doc about the band’s rise to fame.
Not all of CMJ’s film offerings, however, are music-centric. After 10 years on “Friends,” actor-turned-director David Schwimmer should have a pretty good idea what makes for a belly-aching scene. Now he’s behind the lens telling British actor Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) how to score the laughs in “Run Fat Boy Run,” a light farce about a deadbeat Dad (Pegg) who signs up for the London marathon to woo the mother of his kid (the ever-lovely Thandie Newton) away from her new perfect boyfriend (Hank Azaraia).
Suicide may not seem as rife with comedy as fat losers running marathons, but first-time writer-director Goran Dukic manages to find the hilarity in it with “Wristcutters: A Love Story.” Patrick Fugit, the young rock critic in “Almost Famous,” is Zia, a guy who committed suicide and now resides in a purgatory-like place that strongly resembles dusty Bakersfield, Calif. With the help of a friend and a cute hitchhiker, the three set off on a road trip to find Zia’s ex, a new resident of the afterlife.
Additional nonfiction films on the slate include Anderson Cooper’s global-warming warning, “Planet in Peril,” and the documentary “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show,” about the actor's 30-day comedy tour for up-and-coming stand-ups, including Justin “The Mac Guy” Long.
Add a comment