By Jessi Rucker 7/12/12 5:30pm

The Long Goodbye

James Murphy, Nancy Whang and Pat Mahoney of LCD Soundsystem. (Andrew Toth/PatrickMcMullan.com)

LCD Soundsystem Still Reliving Their Last Show with Shut Up and Play the Hits

“The first time I saw it I felt sick all day, but it’s not so bad the second time around,” LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney told us Tuesday as he leaned against a brick wall on 12th Street.

We stood with him outside of a screening of Shut Up and Play the Hits: The Very Loud Ending of LCD Soundsystem, a rockumentary capturing the band’s epic Madison Square Garden farewell show in April 2011 and the following 24 hours in the life of frontman/mastermind James Murphy. Even though fans watched from butter-stained velvet seats and not a packed world-famous arena, there was applause after every song.

At the screening, presented by the Peggy Siegal Company, we spotted John Leguizamo, Anne Hathaway, designer Charlotte Ronson, actor Alex Karpovsky, DJ Chelsea Leyland, confirmed couple downplayed duo Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and the entire band, who was catching the film once more after a private friends and family screening a few weeks prior. Read More

By Drew Grant 6/28/12 2:45pm

Premiere parties

Zosia Mamet and Alex Karpovsky (Patrick McMullan)

Savages Afterparty: Life Imitating Girls

Okay, so they are not a real-life couple (we asked), but last night at Bagatelle NY , where The Peggy Siegal Company and The Wall Street Journal were hosting an after-party for Oliver Stone’s  Savages (sponsored by Vitamin Water: favorite  beverage of Mexican drug lords), we saw Girls‘s Alex Karpovsky and Zosia Mamet posing for pictures and totally wanted to believe that this could be a thing. Right? How cute would that be? Read More

By Drew Grant 6/21/12 9:30am

Film premieres

Mike Birbiglia invites Brooklyn to sleepwalk with him

BAMcinemaFest’s Opening Night: Sleepwalk With Me and Mike Birbiglia’s Birthday Bash

“I just want to dedicate this movie for anyone who has just moved in with their girlfriends,” Mike Birbiglia deadpanned last night after the screening of his directorial debut,  Sleepwalk With Me. Based on his one-man show that has been building up buzz for the past six or so years that he’s been performing it–resulting in a book, an off-Broadway show, and now a feature film– the cinematic version of Mr. Birbiglia’s story of strange sleep habits is full of pathos, comedy, and weird, weird imagery.

After premiering at Sundance, Sleepwalk was chosen to open the yearly BAMcinemaFest, an annual self-referential Brooklyn film festival in which the majority of the films feature characters suffering from New York ennui and the term “psychodrama” is used haphazardly in the blurbs. For this purpose, opening BAM’s movie week with Sleepwalk was a smart move by the festival’s organizers: it’s about a New Yorker who, for all the film’s comedy, has to deal with deeply distressing sociometry stemming from his night time behavior.

Without spoiling the plot, let’s just say that Mr. Birbiglia’s relationship comment was a tad…barbed.

But not to end the screening on a sad note,  the co-host for the evening, NPR’s Ira Glass, announced a special surprise: As a giant cake decorated like a pizza was brought onstage, Mr. Glass wished  Mr. Birbiglia’s a happy 34th birthday. Read More