Feed

Kristin Anderson

By Kristin Anderson 8/15/12 1:13pm

screenings

Savannah Wise. (Andrew Toth/PatrickMcMullan.com)

At a Tense Screening of Fast Food Psychological Thriller Compliance, Celebs Dish on Their Worst Food-Service Gigs

Director Craig Zobel doesn’t look like the kind of man capable of making a movie so disturbing and uncomfortable that it would drive people from the theater. He’s lanky, sweet and unassuming. Hell, he was a co-founder of millennial Flash sensation Homestar Runner! But at last night’s Psychology Today and Peggy Siegal Company screening of Mr. Zobel’s latest film at the IFC Center, Compliance, all that seemed secondary.

No fewer than eight people walked out. One woman across the aisle from us shouted, “Give me a fucking break! This is a fucking joke!” before indignantly slinging her tote bag over an irate shoulder and storming out.

During Compliance’s grueling 90 minutes, Becky, a 19-year-old “Chick-Wich” fast food worker is stripped nude, debased for hours, and ultimately sexually assaulted. It’s a lot to deal with. Folks laughed incredulously and shifted uncomfortably in their seats, all of which was in keeping with Compliance’s tense Sundance reception. Pre-screening, Mr. Zobel told us, “I was very scared about the movie, I think as much as an actor who would want to do any of the roles. It did not come easy to me, but I felt like there was so much to talk about.” Read More

By Kristin Anderson 7/19/12 10:00am

democracy now?

TKTKTK.

Dustin Yellin’s Hipster-Laden Anti-Tea Party Fundraiser Light on Politics, Heavy on Artisanal Ice Cream

By evening’s end, Dustin Yellin was shirtless, grooving pretty heartily to the tunes of friend Adam Green (formerly of the anti-folk band the Moldy Peaches), in Yellin’s lately acquired 24,000 square foot Red Hook warehouse arts complex called the Intercourse. He looked to be enjoying himself.

The occasion was the first night of Downtown for Democracy’s (alias D4D) foodie fundraiser series, the aptly named Dining for Democracy. D4D crystallized in 2003 on the eve of the Bush/Kerry election. Since then they’ve served as the crossroads of hip, creative types, progressive politics, and parties. And this year, the organization takes on what they refer to as the “Tea Party 10,” ten of the most radical (and per a D4D affiliate, the most vulnerable) members with a hand in the upcoming election.

For a $50 entry fee, Mr. Yellin had offered up the Intercourse to a bevy of diners, Mr. Green and a handful of Brooklyn eateries. The vibe was not unlike any typical backyard barbecue—albeit with more maxi dresses and stilettos. Outside a dog ran around, and guests negotiated melting ice cream cones and reclined in the grass. Others stood in the Intercourse’s main gallery space (currently occupied by Mr. Green’s series “Cartoon and Complaint”), necks craning for a look at the space’s lofted studios. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 7/13/12 11:30am

movie screenings

Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan. (Andrew Toth/PatrickMcMullan.com)

Paul Dano Too Nervous to Actually Watch Screening of His New Movie Ruby Sparks

Wednesday night at Sunshine Cinemas was another of the indie lovefests we’ve come to look forward to (and only partially thanks to the apple cinnamon popcorn dust they have at the concession stand). This time it was for Ruby Sparks, the latest from Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, the husband and wife director team behind our favorite cuteferno Little Miss Sunshine. Ruby Sparks is the story of a creatively anguished young writer (Paul Dano) who physically manifests and falls in love with one of his characters, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of the title, played by Dano’s real life squeeze Zoe Kazan. Ms. Kazan also wrote the screenplay. Of its inception, Ms. Kazan (in a peekaboo Dolce & Gabbana number) told The Observer, “I was walking home from work one night, and there was a mannequin discarded in a trash can in our neighborhood. I thought it was a person, and it scared me! And I thought of the Pygmalion myth about the sculptor who falls in love with his statue. I had a flash of the sculptor alone in his studio, turning his head and thinking he sees the statue move. I thought, ‘Oh, I bet that’s sort of how that myth came to be!’” Per Mr. Dano, “When [Zoe] was about five pages in, she showed it to me, and I said ‘Is this for us?’” Read More

By Kristin Anderson 6/22/12 5:50pm

Movie premieres

Michelle Williams and Luke Kirby, stars of Take This Waltz.

Chatting Up Michelle Williams at a Screening and Party for Take This Waltz

Thursday night’s Sunshine Cinema screening of Sarah Polley’s film Take This Waltz was sponsored by Forevermark and Crystal Head vodka. A romantic tale of infidelity and emotional rubble sponsored by diamonds and booze? By that same token, does there somewhere exist an all-you-can-eat pig roast underwritten by wet naps and burning shame? It all seemed a heartbreakingly serendipitous manifestation of the universe’s fuzzy feelings for humanity.

The film, Ms. Polley’s sophomore effort, tells the story of a young wife (Michelle Williams), lured away from her happy marriage to cookbook writer Seth Rogen by a rickshaw driver (Luke Kirby). We won’t spoil the ending for you, but Michelle Williams really is terrific, and we’re pretty sure there exists an entire market of people wanting to see Mr. Rogen emotionally decimated. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 6/12/12 2:14pm

pet causes

BIDEAWEE 2012 Gala

Well-heeled Four-legged Friends Joined the Party at the Bideawee Gala

At great personal peril, last night The Observer headed to cavernous Gotham Hall t­­o raise a glass at the Bideawee 2012 Gala. It is a rare occasion that your humble reporter has to be mindful of a melee of dog leashes around our pumps, or the all-too-real possibility of squashing a dachshund. But, being gonzo reporters in the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson, we were ready to rub elbows with whatever the Bideawee Board of Directors could throw at us.

The New York-based humane organization has existed for over a century, and Monday’s gala celebrated a hundred years at Bideawee’s 38th Street headquarters. For still obscure reasons, host Adrian Grenier dropped out at the last moment leaving animal lover Beth Ostrosky Stern to present in his stead—a move that upset her husband Howard Stern, who took to the airwaves this morning to excoriate the Entourage actor. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 6/06/12 5:15pm

Causes

Susan Rockefeller and David Rockefeller, Jr. (Photo by Shaun Vakil)

Grasping for (Eco-Friendly) Straws at Susan Rockefeller’s Mission of Mermaids Premiere and World Oceans Day Celebration

Top-billed guest Wendi Murdoch was notably absent from last night’s Mission of Mermaids film premiere/pre-World Oceans Day celebration at MoMA. Whatever engagement precluded her attendance (intercepting another airborne pie, perhaps), the evening went on mostly unhampered. Guests still turned out to celebrate the 19-minute self-proclaimed “love letter to the ocean,” written, directed and narrated by Susan Rockefeller. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 6/05/12 5:15pm

television

Mia Schaikewitz, Tiphany Adams, Angela Rockwood and Auti Angel. (Amanda Schwab/Starpix)

Lunch with the Push Girls on the Day of Their Sundance Series Debut

During yesterday’s rainy afternoon, guests trundled (damp, but stoic) into elevators and up to Robert, the Museum of Arts and Design’s in-house bistro. The restaurant, a pink pop-modernist confection on the ninth floor, was playing host to a luncheon fête for the Sundance Channel’s latest, Push Girls, which premiered last night. The docu-series, which airs Mondays at 10:00 PM, tells the stories of four paralyzed women—with professional glories amongst them ranging from competitive swimming, to professional dancing, to a bit part in The Fast and the Furious—and their lives in Hollywood. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 6/01/12 4:28pm

Talks

Iris Apfel and Dara Caponigro, Veranda editor-in-chief. (Photo by Annie Watt)

Iris Apfel: A 90-Year-Old Style Icon on Wearing Jeans and Being a Somewhat Reluctant Subject of a Forthcoming Maysles Doc

At 90 years old, Iris Apfel has not gone gentle, as Dylan Thomas (nearly) put it, into that good night of pastels, luxe but innocuous suits, and orthopedically correct shoes. At Sotheby’s Wednesday night for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club “Best Of” design lecture series, she wore a slate grey knee-length leather coat drenched in embroidery, ombre slacks, a taupe Mongolian lambskin wrap, and a froth of turquoise necklaces at her throat. But we only saw, at least initially, those glossy black fishbowl glasses and the crimson lips that have become her signature. Read More

By Kristin Anderson 5/24/12 4:02pm

Openings

The tiny downtown wunderkammer bankrolled by Andy Spade. (Photo by Kristin Anderson)

“Rudy Giuliani” Cuts the Ribbon on a Tiny Downtown Museum Called, Um, Museum

When we read on our invitation that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be cutting the ribbon at the inaugural evening of Museum, a mysterious new downtown venture, we confess we felt a certain degree of perplexity. And so, armed only with the knowledge that the evening’s main attraction somehow involved an old freight elevator, last night we headed down to lower Manhattan’s Cortlandt Alley. Read More