Thursday, July 23, 2015

rock tha boat



Du Tonc re-works Aaliyah's classic "Rock the Boat."

How can you go wrong?





Wednesday, July 22, 2015

blue boys from spring '16 menswear collections





I'm always feelin' blue.




Saint Laurent






Brioni






Gucci











Hermes





Katie Eary





Bally






Marni





Ami






Calvin Klein






Richard James







Sibling






Acne





via Style

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

roses & rose

I will be reading poems at this lovely event on Saturday in Long Island City. It's for a good cause: Roses from Linda.

Article from Queens Courier here.


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

while we're young


The doldrums of adulthood and the yearning for youth isn't new territory for film, especially lately. Hit-or-miss but always interesting Noah Baumbach, who created the effervescent, sweetly affecting Frances Ha returns to the prolonged adolescence of gentrifying Brooklynites in While We're Young set to the same Vivaldi ditty from Kramer vs. Kramer. Ben Stiller (of Baumbach's tart Greenberg) and Naomi Watts (more free and funny than usual) are naturals at the helm, respectively playing a struggling documentary filmmaker and the daughter of a respected one (a solid, gruffly straightforward Charles Grodin), who ditch their baby-saddled couple friends for two put-upon hipsters Jamie (Adam Driver) and the suitably-named Darby (Amanda Seyfried) who live in a Bushwick apartment stocked with vinyl and VHS. At first glance, the youths seem relatively harmless and indifferent but once their devious natures are revealed, somewhat predictably, the aging couple re-examines their relationship.


For a comedy, it's imaginatively edited by Jennifer Lame with quick cuts of ironic, pop culture touchstones (Baumbach is good at those--like the paper sleeve of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot CD or the rippling, red-screened FBI warning of the Howling video--another film about innocents who fall prey to a circle of predatory cult-ish individuals). Veteran costumer Ann Roth's apparel is vividly pitch perfect (those hats and coats! Naomi's sleek, black Lincoln Center get-up!). Overall the film doesn't feel that original and occasionally the jokes fall flat (a rambling foray into an ayahuasca ceremony feels more like sloppy Apatow than acute Allen), nor does it soar to the heights of picaresque Ha, but when the movie hits some complex notes (the ending especially), it's a sharp blade. ***

-Jeffery Berg