Results tagged “review”

       

He materializes upstage wearing dark skirts, some sort of plastic tube stuffed in his mouth, his hair tied in a spiky pony-tail, a plastic duck in a birdcage hugged to his chest. The classic Chordettes oldie Mr. Sandman is playing, and in a flash we're once again transported to Foremanland, a singular dimension of feverish theatrical provocation, devoid of conventional narrative but rich with humor and deliciously inspired tableaux.

          

Click on the film stills for more details and reviews for this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which include Precious, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Fourth Kind, A Christmas Carol, The Box, Collapse, Turning Green, That Evening Sun, And Now For Something Completely Different, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

This week in the Times, Sam Sifton reviews the newly-opened midtown outpost of French mini-chain Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, which serves just drinks, salad, fries, steak, and dessert. "Women in French maid outfits serve the stuff as if they were characters in an early Preston Sturges film," says Sifton. "And you know what? It’s terrific." Meanwhile, the Times's Oliver Strand is in Williamsburg to rave about the gourmet sandwich shop Saltie, from veterans of Marlow & Sons and Diner: "It’s a lot of talent for one cramped kitchen. So they overachieve." (He also has kind words for Crosby Connection and Barros Luco.)

For his third review as the chief dining critic for the New York Times, Sam Sifton strays far from the usual fine dining galaxy occupied by first-string critics, keeping his street cred with an enthusiastic review of Imperial Palace, in Flushing, Queens. Sifton insists, "The Palace is riding high, at the zenith of Cantonese cooking in New York City... it is possible to eat brilliantly there, in the manner of an improvised Cantonese banquet. It is not a formal restaurant nor in any way a perfect one; service can be slapdash, particularly if you speak no Chinese. But the cooking is extremely sophisticated." Sifton also blows the cover on Rocky Sullivan's Friday night lobster feast in Red Hook, catered by the Red Hook Lobster Pound, calling it "worth a detour."

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Antichrist, (Untitled), Astroboy, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant , Saw VI, Eulogy for a Vampire, Motherhood, Night and Day, Ong Bak 2: The Beginning, Rembrandt's J'Accuse, Wild River, The Lost Boys, and Life of Brian.

New York's Adam Platt files a twofer on twee West Village restaurant Joseph Leonard and Civetta, an Italian restaurant on Kenmare Street. Each gets a measly one star out of five; "Joseph Leonard’s very standard bistro menu isn’t inspired enough to add to this festive atmosphere, but neither is it so horrible that it detracts from the proceedings." At Civetta, "if you choose wisely, it’s possible to have a decent meal." Meanwhile, Jay Cheshes at Time Out finally gets around to reviewing Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar, giving it three out of five stars and noting that, "There are still some rich people in New York City, and they eat here."

           

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Black Dynamite; Law Abiding Citizen; New York, I Love You; Food Beware; The Little Traitor; The Maid; Adela; Splendor in the Grass; Beetlejuice; and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

This week the new chief dining critic at the NY Times, Sam Sifton, debuts with a rave for DBGB, Daniel Boulud's casual sausage/beer/etc. joint on the Bowery. The first review from the former NY Press reporter boasts references to The Ramones, Talking Heads, and a declaration that "[Boulud's] food game, as they say in rap precincts, is tight... one bite of the crispy lamb ribs that were served in the bar area when the place first opened — sweetly glazed, grassy meat, with a dab of creamy mint-flecked yogurt sauce — ended all snark: Boulud has opened a very good restaurant. The lamb was sublime, earthy and spicy and rich, evidence of superb technique, the sort of snack that separates his empire from others in the celebrity firmament."

       

For whatever reason, Vice Magazine is totally in bed with director Spike Jonze, and last night they invited some people to an advance screening of Where the Wild Things Are. Before it started, we told a friend that we'd heard the film was "unwatchable" and, afterward, we heard a bewildered audience member gripe, "What the hell did I just watch?" But earlier our friend had declared, "I have faith in Spike Jonze," and he was absolutely right. We never doubted you Spike, and those suits at Warner Bros. can go play in traffic.

After a two year study, a commission evaluating the State Liquor Authority has concluded that the SLA is highly dysfunctional. It's no shocker; the SLA has been mired in scandal forever, with investigations into alleged bribery and questionable favors doled out by the Governor to the top commissioners. In May, SLA chairman Daniel Boyle was ousted, weeks after the SLA Harlem office was raided by investigators on orders from the state Inspector General.

After two entertaining yet vicious slams on Hotel Griffou and Gus & Gabriel, interim Times dining heavy Pete Wells throws a one-star bone to The Standard Grill, which has been winning over critics despite the grotesquely exclusive velvet rope scene at the door. Wells declares that "it is not the place I would send friends who want to study the latest contortions of the yoga masters of haute cuisine. But it is exactly where I would direct anybody who needs to recharge by plugging straight into the abundant, renewable energy source that is downtown Manhattan." And yet! "The tiled, barrel-vaulted ceiling makes for treacherous acoustics. At times conversations across the room are beamed directly to your table. Sitting by the open kitchen one night, we heard an expediter shouting out orders as if he were communicating with cooks in Jersey City." Still, "with 100 seats in this room, another 100 in an even noisier antechamber, and 85 more on the sidewalk, it is a marvel that the kitchen reliably bangs out solid, flavorful food."

This week the Times's Pete Wells (filling in before incoming chief dining critic Sam Sifton takes the reins) reviews Hotel Griffou, the trendy speakeasy-style restaurant from veterans of the Waverly Inn, Freemans and La Esquina. He finds the plating "scattershot" and the service "wildly inconsistent." But the place "does have its allures. Each dining room has a different motif, as if the restaurant were trying to ignite a collect-them-all frenzy. A friend described the Library as 'very man-cavey,' outfitted with wooden ducks, a manual typewriter, a fiddle, a saddle, shelves filled with law books, a football that looks as if it was in play when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at Princeton, and four fox pelts." The Times also has a roundup of the new street food vendors, just in time for the Vendys this weekend.

On an old steam-propelled, decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard vessel docked at Pier 40 on the Hudson, 2009’s most exhilarating theatrical achievement (thus far) can still be experienced, and it doesn’t cost a dime. Called The Confidence Man and inspired by Herman Melville’s 1857 novel of the same name, this enthralling production is the work of Woodshed Collective, a company that specializes in immersive, site-specific performance. Last year they filled the vast, empty McCarren Park pool with their acclaimed play-with-music Twelve Ophelias, and their new venture is even more ambitious: The show's comprised of multiple, intertwined narratives performed simultaneously on all four levels of the rusty, labyrinthine vessel, named the Lilac. Like life, it’s impossible to see the whole story from every angle, and what you see is up to you.

             

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Jennifer's Body, Bright Star, Harmony and Me, Disgrace, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, The Burning Plain, Love Happens, Paris, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Made in Jamaica, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Fat City.

This week the Times's interim chief dining critic Pete Wells takes a hammer to deservedly acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis, whose latest venture, Gus & Gabriel, is inspired by the culinary tastes of his son, TGI Friday's, and whiskey. Wells's review is disastrous, which means it's a fun read: "When three children under age 10 leave their milkshakes almost untouched, you know there’s trouble." The restaurant's "colossal misfires are almost impossible to believe and harder still to explain." Specifically: "Almost every chef in town is experimenting with techniques for building a better burger. Mr. Psilakis may be the only one to have perfected a new technology that magically strips out all the taste. The skin on what is advertised as 'crispy chicken' was as crisp as a balloon, and the biscuits on the plate were wet and doughy, as if the cook had decided halfway through that he would rather make dumplings."

As you first venture north across the Harlem River, comfortably ensconced in a retro charter tour bus, a voice inquires, "Are you wondering where we're going? When we get there will you think—This is nice. This is new. This is old. This is urban. These are the real people. These are the other people. This is the old New York... whatever. You shouldn't think." For such a thought-provoking journey, that's a funny instruction, but it seems intended to dispel any preconceived notions about the destination, one of the five poorest congressional districts in the United States. That would be the South Bronx, and the voice is addressing you through headphones provided by the Foundry Theatre, a company with seemingly boundless inspiration and ingenuity.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include White On Rice, Crude, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Gogol Bordello Non-Stop, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, No Impact Man, The Painter Sam Francis, Sorority Row, The Other Man, Walt & El Grupo, Give Me Your Hand,Whiteout, and The Godfather.

Developer Bruce Ratner must be relieved this morning to see that big bad Nicholas Ouroussoff at Times does not revile the latest renderings for the Nets arena planned for Brooklyn. You'll recall that Ouroussoff dissed the last designs as "a monstrosity" and "a shameful betrayal of the public trust, one that should enrage all those who care about this city." But bringing young New York firm SHoP on board may be just the lipstick on the boondoggle Ratner needs; Ouroussoff, who had embraced Gehry's vision for the project, calls this new look "somewhat more promising."

Back when antediluvian diners sought opinions without the help of the Internet, Tim and Nina Zagat built a restaurant survey and ranking empire, which grew into a sprawling international family of guides on everything from dating to dumping. Just before the financial collapse really got nasty, they tried to sell the whole enterprise for $200 million, and are rumored to have turned down offers as high as $100 million. Today, the Post finds the Zagats in deep weeds, largely due to competitors like Yelp, which now boasts more than 7 million U.S. visitors per month with reviews on all sorts of things, including Zagat! By comparison, Zagat's website, which requires a $25 annual fee, averaged just 270,000 unique visitors last month. The company laid off 16 people, and the Zagats have given up trying to sell it. As one Yelper opines, "If Zagat was the bomb, [Yelp] wouldn't exist, so thanks for sucking so bad, Zagat. I almost was forced to go to Chinese food in Chinatown due to an out-of-town colleague who had armed himself with Zagat and biblical notions of self importance... In the end, I won and we ended up at a real restaurant that didn't have to pay for a review." Well, not exactly.

Still no word from Sam Sifton, Frank Bruni's replacement at the Times, so let's turn to New York's Adam Platt, who files on Daniel Boulud's beer and sausage mecca on the Bowery, DBGB. Platt visits with his famous actor brother Oliver, and notes that "the menu contains fourteen varieties of sausage made by acolytes of the Parisian pâté genius Gilles Verot, plus a 'Tête aux Pieds' (Head to Feet) section, which includes an entire deboned pig’s trotter and little squares of crispy fried tripe, a Lyonnais offal specialty. 'This is right up my alley,' declared my giant fresser brother as he cut into the pig’s foot (I’m not touching that monster,' sniffed Mrs. Platt) and then the surprisingly delicate tripe, before working his way through the excellent sausages, which have catchy names like “Beaujolaise” (a deliciously fat, pork-stuffed link sweetened with red wine), 'Boudin Basque' (spicy, porky blood sausage over whipped potatoes), and 'Vermont' (more pork, garnished with melty curls of Cheddar and crème fraîche)."

            

Click on the film stills above for more on this weekend's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include All About Steve, Gamer, American Casino, Amreeka, Liverpool, Tickling Leo, For the Love of Dolly, Unmade Beds, Ghostbusters and The Big Lebowski.

Times dining critic Frank Bruni has finally left the building in a fusillade of publicity, and his replacement Sam Sifton didn't file this week. But in the "Dining Briefs" section, Betsy Andrews reviews the Brooklyn Star, a cozy Southern comfort restaurant in Williamsburg run by Joaquin Baca, a former partner in the Momofuku empire. She says Baca "excels at making veggies fattening, and good. His casseroles ($8) — garlicky summer squash and mushroom-rich green bean with slivered almonds — are toasted to gooey goodness in his open kitchen’s 100-year-old brick oven. Creamed corn with smoked trout ($4) and earthy black-eyed peas and rice ($4) are spoonful-by-spoonful delicious. Surprisingly for the former Momofuku partner, meats are a mixed bag."

It can sometimes spell trouble when an Off-Off Broadway production features cast members of a certain age; seniors willing to perform for peanuts have been known to sink otherwise competent ensembles with an awkward amateurishness. It's hard to say whether Rae C. Wright is in fact an AARP card-carrier—she's in impeccable shape, for one thing—but her appearance in Tina Satter's sort-of-musical Family initially gave me pause. It shouldn't have. Far from scuttling the show into a community theater morass, she electrifies Satter's enjoyably daffy production with an incisive, intelligent humor, portraying the matriarch (Mum) of a once-prominent family in decline.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Cloud Nine, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, Bandslam, Ponyo, The Time Traveler's Wife, Grace, Earth Days, Spread, My Fuhrer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler , Taxidermia, It Might Get Loud, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Jaws.

In his penultimate review before abdicating his NY Times throne, Frank Bruni bestows four stars on Danny Meyer's Eleven Madison Park, just one week after giving Meyer's Union Square Cafe a tough-love demotion. A four star ranking from the Times is still a big deal, at least from the Times's point of view: only five other restaurants in NYC currently hold that status.

While performing in a Maine summer stock production of As You Like It back in 2006, a few theater buddies noticed a roadside greasy spoon for sale and wondered: Wouldn't it be a gas if a troupe of avant garde performance artists bought the place and turned it into an experimental "dinner theatre"? Three years later, the fantasy has been fully realized as a five course celebration of kooky transgression—they didn't buy the place but took the name (Conni's) and ran with the idea, setting up residency at the Bushwick Starr in, well, Bushwick. But last week they invaded Manhattan for a four night stand at the Ohio Theater on Wooster Street, as part of the Soho Ice Factory Festival.

              

Click on the film stills above for more on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Cold Souls, A Perfect Getaway, Paper Heart, Beeswax, Canary, I Sell the Dead, Bliss, Rolling Thunder, The Talk of the Town, Red Dawn, Barton Fink, and The Third Man.

This week the Times revisits Danny Meyer's groundbreaking restaurant, Union Square Cafe. Critic William Grimes gave it three stars in 1999, and now Frank Bruni, on his way out the door, takes one of those stars away. But it's only because he cares: "I can’t think of another New York restaurant that enjoys such acclaim, basks in such adoration and yet exhibits such humility... The courtesies explain something else, too: the blind eye many Union Square regulars seem to turn to its slippage; their silence about its drift. In my occasional trips to Union Square over recent years and in a more concentrated series of visits over recent months, I never had an experience whose caliber was consonant with the restaurant’s enduringly lofty reputation. I had a few flatly mediocre meals." The Times also has a glowing review for Bed-Stuy trattoria Saraghina.

              

Click on the film stills above for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which also include Adam, Fragments, Flame & Citron, You the Living, Lorna's Silence, Ghosted, Thirst, Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story Of OZploitation!, Gotta Dance, Raising Arizona, True Romance, and a retrospective of Ang Lee's films.

This week outgoing Times dining critic Frank Bruni files on Table 8, the new venture from California chef Govind Armstrong located in the controversial new Cooper Square Hotel, where disgruntled neighbors have hung soiled underwear on their clotheslines to undermine the cachet. "I spotted only one sad, fluttering garment on the evening when I ate on Table 8’s street-level patio," reports Bruni. "And it did less to ruffle my serenity — the patio is a pretty, breezy treat — than the door that crashed into the back of my chair when someone decided to step outside. Placing a table for diners smack in the door’s way exemplifies the curious planning at which Table 8 excels."