Jonathan Lethem Selects BAM Cinématek Starting next Monday and running through the middle of November, Brooklyn author and Friends of BAM chairperson Jonathan Lethem will be programming the cinématek with some of his favorite movies. Fans of his writing know that Lethem loves pop culture but this series doesn't really have more of an over arching theme than that it features some of the author's most beloved films and plain ol' good movies. There are......

Arnaud Desplechin in Focus Museum of the Moving Image When Gothamist saw cinematographer-turned-director Arnaud Desplechin's film Kings and Queen two years ago, we knew we were watching something unique. His movie about a French woman and the three important men in her life—her adorable son, her crazy ex-husband and her dying father—unfolds so organically you get completely caught up in the complex characters, utterly forgetting that Desplechin is expertly telling his story in a very......

Broken English (directed by Zoe Cassavetes) The pressure on a first time director is steep enough as it is, but if you're the daughter of celebrated '70s auteur John Cassavetes it's got to be extra tough. Unfortunately for the naysayers, Cassavetes delivered an intriguing character study wrapped inside a fluffy romantic comedy for her first feature film, Broken English, which comes out on DVD this week. Long time indie muse Parker Posey stars as Nora,......

SummerScreen (you know, like sunscreen) is The L Magazine's addition to the already successful summer of McCarren Park Pool events. The outdoor film series will take place every Tuesday (starting next week) through the end of August. The films start at sundown, and before that...there are bands! Oh, and it's free. Here's the schedule: July 25: Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989) with the Cold Hands Collective August 1: Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996)......

Another week, another slew of new releases available for our viewing pressure. If you've been watching TV regularly, you might think that Rent, Walk the Line or Aeon Flux are all coming out tomorrow, but no. Still, there's plenty to see such as the adaptation of Myla Goldberg's novel Bee Season; Kiera Knightly taking on Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice; and although we might not otherwise be too excited for Zathura, our interest is......

Last year, when everyone else was reading The Fortress of Solitude, we picked up Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem’s previous novel, about a South Brooklyn detective with Tourette’s. Given our general suspicion of It-books and buzzy fiction, we were pleased to find that it was good—really good, in fact, intelligent and true, more entertaining and earnest and linguistically acrobatic than anything we had read in ages. Even more surprising was the way strangers would approach us......

Sean Howe, Editor...

Liz Penn, Writer/TV Critic...