Strange Films I've Seen: NADJA

I'd stumbled across Michael Almereyda's '90s indie gem Nadja whilst planning out my LIST film features related to BAM's "Bela Lugosi's Dead, Vampires Live Forever" series. The venue began this ingeniously curated program at the beginning of August and Nadja was set for the 31st — and all I had to do was check that one gorgeous b&w promo photo and read the description (Pixelvision! 90s rock! David Lynch cameo!) to get hooked. Then the Chicago Review's summation: "Hal Hartley meets David Lynch", and well the fact it's like a redo of Dracula's Daughter (1936) set in the East Village and Brooklyn at twilight and, well... so why, really, have I not see this already?? So I did the only suitable thing, Netflix it ahead of its BAM screening.

(caution: just like my previous "Strange Films" entry, this one is spoiler-laden. Suffice it to say here: Nadja is a beauty, TOTALLY worth seeing at BAM, plus there's a Q&A w/ dir. Almereyda and editor David Leonard, moderated by New York magazine's film critic David Edelstein. Hell, I might see it again — it screens 7p at BAM on Tuesday the 31, but you knew that already since you read my LIST)

I was literally at Almereyda's mercy like two minutes into the film. It opens w/ the typically Lynchian black screen w/ simple, clean sans serif white titles, followed by a liquidy b&w flame (the entire film is shot in b&w), then a shot of anonymous Manhattan nighttime cityscape as scene from a taxi, and Nadja's (Elina Lowensohn) monologue begins:
"Nights / nights without sleep / long nights in which the brain lights up like a big city..."
Segueing straight into the guitar riffs of My Bloody Valentine's "Soon", the city lights smear and, after the bassline drops, they hit the distortion pedals and we're off.
This is one of the best film intros I've ever experienced. Maybe it's b/c "Soon" is my favorite MBV track (absolutely massive live), but that w/ Nadja's words and the night-scene, it all worked wonderfully. We meet Nadja, in some late-night cafe, riffing on Europe v. America (specifically New York) to a guy she picked up, about her rich dad, while she chainsmokes and looks stunning in a headband keeping her bob in place. Her cheekbones could cut glass. Cut to taxi (or back of some car), where Nadja and dude are making out, that is until her necking turns into chomping down on his neck, either sucking his blood or ripping his throat out b/c it's quite hard to tell here. This is the Pixelvision effect, a signature toy of Almereyda's, created via the PXL-2000 (the Fischer-Price camcorder), and enacting this smoky, pixellated effect not unlike surveillance cameras. I found it quite effective throughout, as it lends a creepy voyeuristic angle, either distancing us from the action or putting us much closer, pressed up against the glass but unable to proceed any further. We learn here (if you weren't hip to it already) that Nadja is indeed a vampire and dad is none other than the recently smote Dracula.

Next scene introduces I guess the "hero", a Ben Affleck predecessor named Jim (Martin Donovan) and his wife Lucy (the remarkably named, Warhol Superstar-ish Galaxy Craze), and she informs him that his uncle Van Helsing (Peter Fonda, classic!) was just arrested for murdering a man via stake to the heart. Any ideas who this Van Helsing is, or who he killed? Jim rushes off to spring his uncle, but not before reminding Lucy to "keep the bed warm", which sounds totally out of place b/c Lucy is probably (or was once probably, and not just b/c of the flannel) a lesbian, and Jim is quite possibly gay, again like Ben Affleck from Chasing Amy, gay. Anyway, Nadja and her leather-trousered boy-toy Renwick (at first I thought it was this was Nadja's twin brother — like the Dracula's Daughter thing goes, even though he speaks here w/ an Irish accent) at the morgue, speaking w/ a tousle-haired David Lynch (the morgue guard, naturally) for her father's body.

Elsewhere, Jim springs crazy uncle Van Helsing from the clink, this long-haired batty old guy very, very much like Christopher Lloyd circa Back to the Future II, and they catch up at another cafe. The whole while, Van Helsing, perennially sunglassed (his special vampire-seeking shades), discourses on his theories on Dracula and how he would kill for a drink right now, all the while making the waitress very very nervous. When I think about it, everyone in this film has long hair (even Jim, in a shaggy way) in that, proportionally anyway, the shortest hair is Lucy's, which sort of fits w/ the next scene: she's alone at some bar and picks up Nadja (!) after some confiding back and forth (Nadja is upset her brother — the twin — hates her, though she must visit him anyway; Lucy's brother killed himself at age 21). Right, this scene was immediately preceded by another soundtrack bonus: Portishead playing as Nadja floats towards that bar, wiping away tears, drawing a cigarette, cloaked in black. They relocate to Lucy's flat. The Pixelvision commences once again as the women photograph themselves, then make love.

Jim returns, possibly the next morning after a bender w/ the uncle, and finds Lucy listless and bleeding, zombie-like. So he's obviously concerned but then Van Helsing pulls up, announces that he's actually Jim's father and they can't bother w/ Lucy right now b/c Dracula's body is missing and the twins took it! (so Van Helsing assumes) Jim finds the polaroids of Nadja and Van Helsing deduces that Lucy's zombie mode is b/c she's under Nadja's spell so they have to locate her. And she's gone to Brooklyn to visit her ill twin brother Edgar, whose nurse Cassandra is also apparently his blond human lover. Nadja tricks Cassandra into moving Edgar back to her spacious Manhattan prewar building, where she feeds him her own blood on the sly while Renwick dopes Cassandra w/ some laced milk (but not before dissing her for not being on psychosomatic meds and why the hell won't she move from his favorite chair?? It's one of the best exchanges in the film) Van Helsing, Jim and Lucy show up, Nadja gets Lucy to attack Jim while Cassandra flees and Najda flees after her.

More Portishead. Slo-mo Nadja run/glide (like Anna Magnani in Mamma Roma, the night-walking scenes) w/ a slower-mo Lucy et al right behind her. Nadja corners Cassandra in an auto repair garage and seduces her, but then gets shot in the stomach by some random police officer. The wounded Nadja (w/ starry-eyed Cassandra in tow) flee back to Transylvania, the "good guys" (incl. Edgar now, apparently) follow suit. Choice line from Van Helsing on Nadja: "Cassandra's soul is in mortal danger. She'll suck her dry!! Blood is like...chewing gum, to these creatures..." Jim and Lucy fend off Renwick whilst Van Helsing and Edgar hammer a stake into Nadja's chest while she looks on, her huge eyes locked on her brother as he kills her (everything here, the fight w/ Renwick and the staking, except for Nadja's eyes, is under Pixelvision). Jim and Lucy talk about having a baby. Edgar and Cassandra get married. And we get a final Nadja monologue here, enlightening us that she infused her blood into Cassandra's body (we see her remove the IV after Nadja gets staked), so now she lives on inside Cassandra (as Cassandra? or a new Nadja?). This, w/ the shimmery sea-like sky, reminded me a bit of the blissed-out denouement to Being John Malkovich, and I mean that in a good way. Beautiful film, Nadja, lots of tongue-in-cheek dialogue but that's the artsy intent. It's great to look at and I found it incredibly engaging (and violent, when necessary). Only thing to have made it more over-the-top would be a Robert Smith cameo.

fee's LIST (through 8/31)

WEDNESDAY
* "Le Amiche" (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955) screenings @ Film Forum / 209 W Houston St (1 to Houston, ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). Before my favorite Italian Modernist director dove into his long-take suite w/ muse Monica Vitti (beginning of course w/ 1960's "L'Avventura"), he was already working up themes of the petite bourgeoisie (and casting gorgeous women) in 'The Girlfriends'. THRU AUG 31

* Cosmetics @ Home Sweet Home / 131 Chrystie St (F to 2nd Ave), 12a. Get a taste of the nocturnal seduction of Cosmetics before the barn-burning Captured Tracks party on Saturday (check new single "Sleepwalking" to hear why I'm so jazzed). It's OK to wear sunglasses indoors at this show. I just might.

* Ducktails + Family Portrait @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow St (FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8. Take it easy. Chill out to Matt Mondinale's ever-mesmerizing Ducktails (he leads the shimmery guitars in Real Estate) w/ a psychedelic toke from Underwater Peoples' makers Family Portrait. w/ Tennis

* Your 33 Black Angels + Darlings @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave), 7:30p/$10. Ah, this is solid. I love Darlings: their compositions sound a bit cute and fun on album ("Yeah I Know") but they full-out shred live, do not underestimate them! And Your 33 Black Angels (I like to think the name is inspired by Banks Violette) have an addicting paisley underground sound, but firmly set in NYC. w/ Caution Candy

* Nobunny + Jacuzzi Boys @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 10:30p/FREE. I missed out on seeing this volatile pairing, Florida's tripped-out Southern rockers Jacuzzi Boys and one-man freakout Nobunny, at this venue a few months back when the show SOLD OUT. This one's free, and I advise you mind the doors' time and show up early.

FRIDAY
* "Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara" (dir. Koji Sakabe, 2007) screening + Q&A @ Asia Society / 725 Park Ave (6 to 68th St), 6:45p/$11. Are you as jazzed about Nara's upcoming stateside retrospective "Nobody's Fool", which opens Sept 9, as I am? Tide yourself over w/ this: Sakabe's documentary on the artist, followed by a discussion w/ Nara and exhibition curator Miwako Tezuka.

* "The Last Exorcism" (dir. Daniel Stamm, 2010) in wide release. So much of my mainstream film hyping channeled toward Alexandre Aja's "Piranha 3D" (and deservedly so, it was dope), but secretly I've been biding my time for this chilly beauty, produced by Eli Roth (uhoh!) and centered on the faith of disillusioned minister (Patrick Fabian), who's making an exorcism documentary, instead of a derivative projectile-vomit number like so many related films. Though that's not to discount the potential for real, bone-shaking terror. I'm just betting it's done in a very calculating, thorough way.

* The Scamps + Heliotropes @ Matchless / 557 Manhattan Ave, Greenpoint (G to Nassau), 8p/FREE. Album release party for Brooklyn's bluesy rockers The Scamps (check the organ-fueled new single "Sack Lunch"). Show up early for personal faves Heliotropes, who add a good dose of sludge to their compositions (and that riff in new track "True Love's Knot" is mad heavy). w/ The Courtesy Tier

* Dance Magic Dance UK @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow St (FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8.Oh this just sounds like loads of poppy fun. Three London girls who run these wicked dance parties named after my favorite track from Jim Henson's "Labyrinth", see, bring that energy to stodgy ol' NYC. w/ a host of local lovely talent incl. Girlfriends, Slow Animal, Sweet Bulbs + DJ Peggy Wang (of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart). Can you dance, NY?

* Bare Wires + Liquor Store @ Monster Island / 128 River St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/. San Francisco Bay Guardian does a better job describing Oakland's Bare Wires than I think I ever could: "the Stooges on too much caffeine and other stimulants". Basically, they're raw, fast and fun. Pair 'em w/ Liquor Store and it's a winner.

SATURDAY
* "Chloe in the Afternoon" (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1972) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 2p. The 6th & final film in Rohmer's "Contes moraux", about a successful but dissatisfied married lawyer who falls for Zouzou (HELLO, in her most famous role). Trivia: the English-language remake was Chris Rock's "I Think I Love My Wife" (2007).

* "Pauline at the Beach" (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1983) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 8:30p. One of Rohmer's "Comédies et Proverbes" + the one I know the best: Amanda Langlet plays the titular teenager and moral core, holding her friends together on a coming-of-age summer trip to Normandy.

* Wild Nothing + Blank Dogs + Cosmetics + MINKS @ Bowery Ballroom / 6 Delancey St (F/JMZ to Delancey), 8:30p/$15. These bands, all on NY's Captured Tracks label (of which Blank Dogs helms) are incomparably fierce, and by fierce I mean it in the chic, glamorous sense, specifically in a tattooed, leather and cigarettes way. They channel the darkest, coolest parts of the '80s. MINKS are my new loves.

* Rock the Bells Festival 2010 @ Governors Island (take a NY Water Taxi ferry from Pier 11 at South Street Seaport (23/45 to Wall Street, J to Broad St) or from Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park (AC to Jay St, 23/45 to Borough Hall), 2p/baller prices (I'm not going to lie, tix range from $99 standard to high roller VIP at $400+ — all include ferry fees). You don't mess with the Wu, and even though the festival began in San Bernadino CA in 2004, it only feels "right" in the Big Apple, now in the show's 7th iteration. I got into Wu-Tang Clan a bit late, back in '97 when "Wu-Tang Forever" dropped (hell, I was stuck in Texas, what do you expect?) but I was a believer from then on. They lead the festival, themed "Classics" this year, which promises totally bonkers sets from A Tribe Called Quest ("Midnight Marauders"), Snoop Dogg ("Doggystyle"), Rakim ("Paid in Full"), KRS-One ("Criminal Minded"), loads others, and special guest Lauryn Hill. Oh you read that correctly, brother: the ineffable Lauryn "Fugees" Hill. I will never forget with "The Score" dropped w/ that single "Killing Me Softly" back in '96: I was a freshman in high-school, had a crush on a girl, had another crush on Lauryn Hill in that unforgettable music video. If you're doing to drop a benjamin on live music, it better be a stellar affair like this one.

* Satursdays @ Rock Yard w/ ZAZA / 354 Wythe Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 2p/FREE. Game plan: drink outdoors on an ideally beautiful Saturday late-afternoon and let ZAZA's shoegaze haze melt over you like a psychedelic cloud (catch Motel Motel beforehand), then get thee to the LES for the Captured Tracks party (see above) to continue the journey into the sweet nocturnal.

* The Specific Heats + Knight School @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 10p/$7. Don't let Brooklyn's retro-darlings The Specific Heats lull you too much on album, what w/ the underlying twang and dreamy refrains: they are massive (double-underline) live. But the blissful retro-vibe sticks.

* White Out + Carlos Giffoni w/ C. Spencer Yeh @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p/$12. Knitting Factory brings the heat w/ some ace experimental music (this plus Zaimph & co. tomorrow night), making me practically forget we didn't have a No Fun Fest this year. White Out's fairly analog duo are augmented here w/ Thurston Moore, wielding his Sonic Youth axe this time. Plus the bracing combo of Giffoni (electronics) and Yeh (treated strings).

SUNDAY
* "Boyfriends and Girlfriends" (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1987) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 6p. The original title, "L'Ami de mon amie", is cooler if you get the pun. Two newly fast friends, Emmanuelle Chaulet (the straight-shooter) and Sophie Renoir (the free spirit), switch lovers. The final film in Rohmer's "Comédies et Proverbes" series.

* Zaimph + Nonhorse @ Knitting Factory / 361 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 5p/$10. OK this is a chock-full experimental lineup, but the instant draw for me is noisician Zaimph, aka Marcia Bassett of Double Leopards, and if you caught her drone fury at that Thurston Moore-curated "Noise/Art" exhibition at KS Art around 2008's No Fun Fest (or seen her in Hototogisu, The Purple Haze or hell the masters Double Leopards), you know what I'm talking about. Nonhorse's G. Lucas Crane crafts eerie soundscapes from cassettes and a mixer, which just sounds dope.

TUESDAY
* "Nadja" (dir. Michael Almereyda, 1994) screening at BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins, C to Lafayette), 7p. Perhaps the most stylish Dracula legend you'll ever see, set in gritty NYC, shot in lo-fi b&w, w/ stunning Elina Lowensohn as the lead and a soundtrack of My Bloody Valentine and Portishead. Oh, and the inimitable David Lynch cameos as a morgue attendant. Q&A w/ Almereyda following the screening.

* Cosmetics @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy) 9p/$8. Pendu Disco's classic dance party takes a stroll down an every darker-than-usual road w/ the combustive Captured Tracks duo Cosmetics, their 3rd and final show in NY for the time. w/ Cult of Youth

* Telenovelas @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/. Telenovelas are quickly becoming one of my favorite local J&MC-ish wall-of-sound acts (though I doubt anyone can knock Asobi Seksu from the #1 spot). They're dope, Telenovelas, and LIST-approved.

LAST CHANCE
* "Year One" @ Ana Cristea Gallery / 521 W 26th St. One of my favorites of the summer. Four fantastic, moody C. and E. European artists who are still getting little play in NY beyond this gallery. Alexander Tinei is my immediate favorite — his strong showing at NY VOLTA this past year sealed the deal for me — and this trio of new, dreamy nudes is riveting. Same deal w/ Josef Bolf's small, streaky, darker figures. Zsolt Bodoni's large, doomsday-ish industrial scenes and Daniel Pitin's smaller renderings from film stills balance the people with setting to create an all-inclusive haunting diorama.

* Brion Nuda Rosch @ DCKT Contemporary / 195 Bowery. A stunning solo-show debut for the San Fran-based Rosch. He works w/in a tight color palette — white, chocolatey-brown and a beguiling turquoise (as signature to him as International Klein Blue, only he didn't "patent" the color as his own — and a variety of media, found book pages, angular abstract sculpture, coated figurines, to fantastic effect. Case the gallery very closely and Rosch's many interventions, like the angled sculpture and the robotic "faces" in book pages, slowly and rewardingly reveal themselves. A destination exhibition.

* "Shred", curated by Carlo McCormick @ Perry Rubenstein Gallery / 527 W 23rd St. There is quite a range to the concept of collage as fine art, from Brian Douglas' laborious cut-paper rendering that is deeply textured like an Impressionist's painting, to Jess' and Bruce Conner's interventions, to Mark Flood's portrait echoing Jean-Paul Goude, to Dash Snow's deftly impressive pairing, to Judith Supine's elaborate, enigmatic acrylic portrait.

* Andy Warhol "Rain Machine (Daisy Waterfall)" @ Nicholas Robinson Gallery / 535 W 20th St. For all the trouble in constructing this installation of eye-popping daisy panels behind a double-layer of running water (its summary destruction in Osaka in '69 and again in LACMA in '71), it's a calming, satisfying experience to see in person, finally fully-functioning and protected. Also: it's a cooling installation, what w/ the faint spray of water, depending on your proximity to it, and it's been so bloody hot out...

Strange Films I've Seen: SICK NURSES

Introducing a new, ideally regular (monthly? bimonthly?) series, in which I eschew the festival circuit and write about, as the slug reads, a strange film I've seen. This could mean via Netflix, a DVD I own, something I saw at a friend's flat or in the theatre. Whatever. The only things to keep in mind here are 1. it's got to be a strange film and 2. my take will be laden with SPOILERS. So if you've not seen the film yet and you want to see it and fear that SPOILERS will ruin your viewing experience: don't read it!

With that cautionary word, my take on Sick Nurses:

I don't know what drove me to add Piraphan Laoyont and Thodsapol Siriwiwat's 2007 Thai horror film Sick Nurses to my Netflix queue. I think I'd been inundated with Jean-Pierre Melville's noirish Nouvelle Vague films and wanted to switch it up w/ Asian slasher films. I'd added some Korean I'd been meaning to get around to and Sick Nurses ended up in the lot. Then I bumped it to the top of the queue b/c the cover (of Chol Wachananont holding a scalpel against Kanya Rattanapetch's blood-streaked face) looked sexy, albeit in a slasher-film sexy way. Whatever, it looked like mindless eye candy. While I won't totally echo Bangkok Post film critic Kong Rithdee's complaints about the exploitative nature of the film, I do wonder how a film like this gets released in Thailand, while director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (whose latest, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, won the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival) found his medical-set film Syndromes and a Century was heavily censored in Thailand and enjoyed only an extremely limited run (let alone countryman Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, whose stoned-surrealist Last Life in the Universe wowed cinema darlings but whose latest, Ploy in 2007 and Nymph in 2009, despite making it to Cannes, were hung up in all sorts of censorship issues in Thailand and have yet to enjoy ANY U.S. presence). Weerasethakul has had some stateside success (Uncle Boonmee... is showing at next month's New York Film Festival) but limited screentime beyond the festival circuit. And good luck finding ANY of Ratanaruang's post-Last Life films in the states, even the semi-sequel Invisible Waves — let alone on Netflix, which is how I found Sick Nurses.

The film opens w/ a struggle between one attractive nurse, Tahwaan (played by Wachananont) v. six other attractive nurses. What exactly is going here, I'm not sure, but she cries out to baby-faced Dr. Tar (Wichan Jarujinda) for help as the others subdue her on an operating table. We get this inkling that they, Nurse Tahwaan and Dr. Tar, are lovers, only...Dr. Tar has been having an affair w/ another nurse, Nook (Chidjan Rujiphun), and it's Nook who takes the knife and literally stabs it in Tahwaan's heart. Also! We learn Dr. Tar is in on the organ trade, selling to the black market. And now-ex-girlfriend Tahwaan is his latest victim. And he's got to jet out to this medical awards ceremony thing, since he's like so well respected at this suburban hospital and the greater Bangkok community. This is obscenely weird. Whew, that was exhausting. Cut to scene of nurses hanging out in the break room and we get to meet them all! Aeh (played by Rattanapetch) is the cutie, reminds me slightly of a Thai Choi Ji-Hyun (but that's perhaps do to her penchant for wearing ruby-red lipstick), obsessively applying her makeup while spouting myths about dead lovers and how they're supposed to revisit before midnight to avenge their deaths, or something. She points out Nook is in trouble here, as she was sleeping w/ Dr. Tar. This insult rewards a slap across Aeh's face, smearing her lipstick and dealt by Yim (Ocha Wang), the "athletic one" who has body issues and constantly does yoga and resistance training on her off-hours. Jo (Dollaros Dachapratumwan) is snacking all the while on cereal, and when Aeh knocks her out of her chair she nearly chokes on said cereal. Issues!! And I haven't even, but may as well, touched on twins Orn and Am (played by real-life twins Ampairat and Ampaiwan Techapoowapat) who have Narcissus complexes. We'll see soon enough.

So: Dr. Tar receives a prize at this absurd medical awards ceremony but he's got to jet out of there — why? b/c the wrapped and dry-iced body of Tahwaan is chilling (no pun) in the trunk of his car, that's why! He's trying to deliver the body but dissociative voice on the other line claims it's not time yet. Which brings us back to the nurses. It's 11:45p-ish. Aeh, the insufferable materialist, is cutting out adverts for jewels and taping them to her body, like a necklace and earrings. Seriously. Then she parades around in heels, makeup (touched up now) and cut-out jewelry w/ her brand new, gorgeous handbag. And then: she sees something. Cut to: Yim, working out in her dorm room, showering with her clothes on (hmm...), mixing like eight shampoos together, one of which contains evil ghost hair!!

Cut to: Jo, chowing down on various snack foods in her girly dorm-room. She applies some skin cream to her face, then DRINKS it and retches that and the contents of her stomach into a trashbag. OK, she's a bulimic. Then a quick mouthwash and toothbrush and she's good as new, ready to snack. Only: she sees a creepy spectre in the mirror, which looks sort of like Tahwaan if we think of her along the lines of Steven Klein's infamous blackface fashion spread for French Vogue. This spectre — the ghost Tahwaan that Aeh had eerily predicted earlier — apparently can remote-command the girls to do her bidding. In this case, that means force Jo to brush her teeth until her gums bleed. She lets her go, but it's enough to get Jo freaked the hell out and running for her life. Cut to: twins Om and Am making out under the sheets. I'm serious. Hence the Narcissus complex: they're in love w/ their own reflection, sort of. Cut to Nook: taking a pregnancy test, and she's positive! Yes, carrying the good doctor's baby. This is not going to turn out well.

Aeh is running scared down the hall, sees someone in her peripherals and thinks its the ghost of Tahwaan, freaks out, runs a different direction, hears a crash, screams, falls to the ground in front of her favorite handbag, from which the ghost of Tahwaan is crawling out of, the handbag. Get all that? Meanwhile, Yim is attacked by hair, straight out of Sion Sono's Exte, only this time the hair turns her upside down and drowns her in her own aquarium. Nook hears a sound outside the bathroom door, returns the pregnancy test to her clutch (full of other, used?, pregnancy tests) and exits, finding Orn and Am trapped under Tahwaan's control. Instead of helping them, she screams and takes off, runs down the hall, encounters Aeh in passing (a genius technique by the directors: most of this action is occurring between the 11:45p and 11:50p time, so they edited the multiple storylines quite well), and ends up in a spookily lit operating room. THAT operating room. Complete w/ a table bearing a curled-up sobbing figure, hidden beneath a sheet.

We get a flashback here (this is how the directors operate, for like 1/2 the film I didn't know what was going on, there were these nurses who killed another nurse, who returned as a ghost to kill them, each woman has her private obsession and the doctor seems to be quite the rat-bastard — well, that much was clear before the flashbacks): apparently Tahwaan used to hide out for Dr. Tar in this operating room and they make love on the sly. Only this time, while she waits for him, concealed under a sheet, Nook enters and Dr. Tar begins putting the moves on her instead. Tahwaan watches in tearful silence as Dr. Tar pledges his love and then has sex with her. Afterward, Tahwaan attacks Nook, and we learn they are SISTERS (I wish I were making this up, but I'm not), and this incident leads to the nurses grabbing Tahwaan, pinning her down (the childish Am seems the most reluctant of the lot, cowering next to Nook), as she grabs at Aeh's hair and screams for the doctor. He hands off a knife to Nook, who finishes the task. Oh! This whole while, brief cuts back to Dr. Tar, at a payphone or driving in his car, wondering when he can get rid of the body. He has flashbacks too, perhaps back to his medical school days, involving a lithe dude doctor who obvs has the hots for him and wants to marry him.

Back to the action! Jo gets it bad. Tahwaan possesses her to dig head-first through garbage cans and stuff her face in an ashtray. She collides w/ a tray of medical instruments (the crash Aeh heard earlier) and lands in a room full of formaldehyde jars (fetuses, jawbones, organs, you know...), the door closing behind her. Oh she KNOWS what's about to happen, pleads for her life, and Tahwaan, perhaps pitying her or perhaps showing just how sick and f-ed up she obviously is, forces Jo to swallow a handful of razor blades instead. The film has not been very bloody thus far, if you can believe that. But this scene, w/ Jo struggling as blood gushes from her mouth, is pretty disgusting. I suppose it's better than having to watch her get force-fed the contents of formaldehyde jars? Elsewhere, Nook finds Aeh precariously walking around with that handbag on her head, like around and on top of her head. Apparently after a round of hair-pulling, Tahwaan was content to stick the bag on Aeh's head and be done w/ her. Nook tries to help her, being a good friend of course, but in undoing the stitching around the base of the bag she involuntary decapitates Aeh. Think of Alvin Schwartz's "The Red Ribbon", from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, only w/ lots of spurting blood.

Meanwhile: Am and Orn get split up, not in a grisly sense but they lose track of one another, and Am ends up in I guess a security room? Or a room w/ a bunch of video monitors IN ADDITION to operating tables. B/c she has to watch her colleagues get mowed down by the ghostly Tahwaan. She sees her sister getting mugged by Tahwaan in a stalled freight lift then, suddenly, Orn is in the same room as Am (no questions asked), prone on a box-enclosed operating table. And yes, Tahwaan forces Am to do precisely what she doesn't want to do: eviscerate her twin with a bone-saw. Only: Orn is possessed as well and willing to help her! Another flashback: good ol' Dr. Tar was flirtatious (or entirely out of line, depending on how you look at it) w/ all his nurses: groping Orn and Yim, feeding a cream puff to Jo, giving Aeh that lovely handbag, in addition to sleeping w/ Nook and Tahwaan. I guess evil Tahwaan realizes this, and that Am never wanted to kill her in the first place, b/c she leaves her alone after sawing away at her twin for a few hours (at least it felt that long), so Am commits suicide instead. Tahwaan possesses Nook to coax the good doctor back to the hospital, quick!, then dukes it out w/ her on the front lawn. But: the clock strikes midnight, Nook prevails, and the doctor returns just in time to find his bride-to-be. Only... it's Tahwaan! Or actually it's Tahwaan before, not the MTF post-op Tahwaan but the dude from medical school, bleeding all over like Carrie. Dr. Tar, conveniently, doesn't know what to do and freezes in place. So Nook reappears and sets fire to Tawhaan, immolating her. Which should work, but this is an Asian horror film, so instead Tahwaan attacks Nook once more, being reborn through her — if the last 80 minutes were an endless series of one-upping, jaw-dropping shockers, this one takes it way further — into a blood-soaked man who reaches out to Dr. Tar, reminding him once again that they should get married. The end.

fee's LIST (through 8/24)

WEDNESDAY
* SummerScreen presents "Labyrinth" (dir. Jim Henson, 1986) @ McCarren Park ballfields / Bedford + N 12th St, Greenpoint (L to Bedford, G to Nassau), 6p/FREE. What, I ask you, is better than watching a hot vampiric David Bowie and a teenaged Jennifer Connelly in a surreal fantasy film, but doing all of it outdoors on a balmy summer's evening in Brooklyn? NY, I love you.

* The Beets + Air Waves + Easter Vomit @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. STELLAR: Two 'The Beets'-related bands here, the original plus drummer Jacob's psyched-out band Easter Vomit, plus Nichole Schneit's dreamy Air Waves. Nice in all respects.

* Julian Lynch + Family Portrait @ Pianos / 158 Ludlow St (FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8. Two of the strongest from Underwater Peoples, label founders Family Portrait and the ineffable Julian Lynch, whose nostalgia-inducing smooth anthems on "Mare" are this summer's staple (and like organic Panda Bear, if you want to take it there).

THURSDAY
* "Open Studios" w/ robbinschilds @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave (E/V to 23rd St/Ely Ave, 7 to Courthouse Sq), part of "Greater New York", 3-6p. Check installation/performance duo robbinschilds and their work-in-progress contribution to "Greater New York", 'I came here on my own'.

* "Cold Water" (dir. Olivier Assayas, 1994) screening @ BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins, C to Lafayette), 6:50/9:15p. Wait, Virginie Ledoyen stars in it? I'M THERE! (plot hint: it's set in the '70s w/ two American rock music-listening gorgeous misfits, one of whom, obvs, is Ledoyen)

* "Drums of Tahiti" (dir. William Castle, 1953) + "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (dir. André de Toth, 1953) double-screening @ Film Forum / 209 W Houston St (1 to Houston, ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), part of "Classic 3D" series, 4:40p/8:20p. The only thing cooler than seeing one of these classic 3D films (guns pointed at YOUR face! song and dance! in full color...maybe!) is seeing two of 'em, back-to-back, for the price of one.

* Cassie Ramone + Reading Rainbow @ Don Pedro / 90 Manhattan Ave, Williamsburg (L to Montrose, JM to Lorimer), 8p/. Lo-fi and delicious. Philly's Reading Rainbow conjure a LOT of rockin' energy from the twosome, and Cassie Ramone is THAT Cassie Ramone, a la Babies and of course a la Vivian Girls, so you know she can bring it. w/ Easter Vomit + White Mystery (like the candy!), i.e. an night of rockin' duets.

FRIDAY
* Aki Sasamoto w/ Saul Melman performance @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave (E/M to 23rd St/Ely Ave, 7 to Courthouse Sq), part of "Greater New York", 2-4p. Sasamoto's cocoon-like performance last month, in the mosquito-net-draped back alcove of the boiler room, was partially a treatise on comedians and mosquitos, partially Sasamoto's Kafka-esque metamorphosis, zapping at the bug-lights with a straw, climbing and hanging from the pipes while belting out "Let It Be". It took her normally athletic lecture/performances to a whole 'nother level, and I'm excited where she takes episode two. Melman, meanwhile, stoically continues gilding the boiler. ALSO SAT (during Warm Up) and SUN, same time

* "Piranha 3D" (dir. Alexandre Aja, 2010) screenings in wide release. I remember way back earlier this summer, post-NYAFF, I said the only two domestic films I looked forward to b/w now and the NYFF were "Inception" and "Piranha 3D". And while I saw "Inception" opening night and LOVED it, I saw a few others as well ("Salt", OK; "Predators", surprisingly great; "Scott Pilgrim v. the World", very fun), I've been anxiously awaiting this Jersey Shore-slick, over-the-top violent monster movie. And it's here, baby.

* "Soul Kitchen" (dir. Fatih Akin, 2010) screenings @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). Akin's latest food-minded film, w/ eccentric restauranteur (Adam Bousdoukos) and culinary maniacs Moritz Bleibtreu, in classic hangdog style, and Anna Bederke (HELLO!) equals a tailor-made LIST entry.

* "The Town That Dreaded Sundown" (dir. Charles B. Pierce, 1977) screening @ Anthology Film Archives / 32 2nd Ave (F to 2nd St), 9:30p. A masked slasher film docudrama based on the 'Texarkana Moonlight Murders' in '46 and predating "Halloween" by a year. And just to up the contemporary scare factor several notches, the Phantom Killer looks kind of like Man in the Mask from Bryan Bertino's "The Strangers".

* "Modern Love Is Automatic" (dir. Zach Clark, 2009) screenings thru next THU @ reRun Theatre / 147 Front St, DUMBO (F to York St, AC to High St). It's shot like an extended Miles Aldridge fashion spread (candy pastels, bold primaries v. desaturation, everyone glistens slightly) and stars Melodie Sisk as a nurse by day, dominatrix by night, and roommate to an aspiring model (Maggie Ross) who works as a mattress hawker in a strip-mall. Yet another bijoux from SXSW. (showtime details + tix)

* "Blue Velvet" (dir. David Lynch, 1986) midnight screenings @ Sunshine Cinema / 143 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave). Before the creepy guy-behind-the-dumpster and the Mystery Man in Black, there was Dennis Hopper, forever burned into our retinas as the amyl nitrite-huffing sadomasochist (plus lip-syncer to Roy Orbison's "In Dreams") against a young and clueless voyeur Kyle MacLachlan and an enchanting Isabella Rossellini. Hell, even the first two minutes of this film give me the shivers. ALSO SAT

* Heavy Cream w/ Detroit Cobras @ Rock's Off Cruise / 2430 FDR Drive @ E 23rd St (6 to 23rd St), 7p sharp!/$25 on the Half Moon boat. I don't do too well on boats... I was meant to reside on land and ideally in an urban metropolitan environment. That said, I LOVE Nashville's Heavy Cream, and the fact they're performing their grungy Southern-fried punk (w/ twangy rockers Detroit Cobras) on a boat means I may need to make an exception. I sincerely hope there is lots of beer on this cruise.

* Dream Diary @ Monster Island / 128 River St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford/JM to Marcy), 8p/$8. Brooklyn's Dream Diary, I like 'em. Dreamy, obvs, + w/ elements of the best things about late '80s/early '90s Brit-rock. w/ The Shining Twins + Phone Tag

SATURDAY
* "4 Eccentrics" group show @ The Proposition / 2 Extra Place, E 1st St (Alley behind CBGB's!), no reception. I have fond memories of The Proposition in W.Chelsea and laud its reopening on the LES. Plus, any show w/ Mickalene Thomas (from her "Brawling Spitfire" series) is essential. Also: mixed metal brutalities by Paul Evans, creepy visceral fantasy watercolors by Balint Zsako + James Mont's treated industrial sculpture.

* "Doomed Love" (dir. Andrew Horn, 1983) screening @ Anthology Film Archives / 32 2nd Ave (F to 2nd St), 9:15p. An unnerving love story w/ Jim Neu-penned dialogue, organic sets by abstract artists Amy Sillman and Pamela Wilson, and Evan Lurie's soundtrack. It's verrrry noir.

* Asobi Seksu @ 383 Carroll St, Gowanus (F/G to Carroll St, M/R to Union St), 6p/$15. After BKLYN Yard was shut down earlier this summer, I worried that we wouldn't get to enjoy the promised Asobi Seksu (Brooklyn's finest shoegazers) concert. We are in LUCK: they perform across the street, amid the embers of a late summer's evening and the famous dumpster pools. Plus the Greenpoint Food Market vendors will be there, a decidedly local deliciousness to the slow-burn tunes. This is what summer's all about, people. w/ Golden Triangle

* Crystal Castles @ Terminal 5 / 610 W 56th St (1/AC/BD to 59th St), 8p/$45. OK so I'd normally be damned before I give credit to Terminal 5, let alone step foot in that acoustic monstrosity. But Crystal Castles, love 'em or not, throw a hell of a party. And guilty pleasure "Celestica", off their new album, is about as sweet as they get.

* Sunshower Orphans (album release party) + Telenovelas @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow St (FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8. Telenovelas do a great J&MC thing, from the literal shoegazing to the hypnotic girl-guy vocals. And there's a hazy sunniness to Sunshower Orphans' guitar-drenched rock, as befits their name, and they've got a track called "Manic Flaneur" that should be my nickname.

* Skeletons + Dead Western @ Silent Barn / 915 Wyckoff Ave, Ridgewood (L to Halsey, M to Myrtle/Wyckoff), 8p/$8. A solid, chill lineup for a weekend full of dope bands. Local soulful ensemble Skeletons are incroyable, a bit lounge-y, a bit Beck. Troy Mighty of Cali's Dead Western et al do a folksy turn, until he starts singing and that honeyed ageless baritone totally mesmerizes. w/ Nat Baldwin + Little Women

SUNDAY
* Cy Amundson "Recomposes a Painting" (recommended by Dave Miko) performance @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave (E/M to 23rd St/Ely Ave, 7 to Courthouse Sq), part of "Greater New York", 3p. Miko's a cool young dude and his flotilla of aluminum- and canvas-set works in PS1 are rendered site-specific by his swaths of paint over the walls housing them. Amundson comes straight off a Miko-organized group show "A Lettuce Slaughter in the Woods" at Real Fine Arts, and I trust Miko here.
+ Naama Tsabar "Double Guitar" performance at 4p. Nice, if you couldn't tell from the title, Tsabar is an installation and performance artist and will be playing a double guitar — not a double-neck like Takeshi from Boris or those metalheads, actually two guitars that meet at the neck, thus requiring two people to play it.

* Religious to Damn + Fielded + Psychic Steel @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p. Two of Chicago's great solo avant-garde electronic projects, Fielded + Psychic Steel, grace Bruar Falls w/ local Garbage-esque rockers Religious to Damn for a scrumptiously dark night.

* nullsleep + Bit Shifter @ (le) poisson rouge / 158 Bleecker St (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 6:30p/$10. Some of my favorite chip musicians (besides Anamanaguchi, natch), led by the oddly emotive renderings of nullsleep. w/ live visuals by NO CARRIER.

MONDAY
* "Funeral Parade of Roses" (dir. Toshio Matsumoto, 1969) screening @ IFC Center / 323 Sixth Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), 8p. I had the pleasure of catching this Japanese New Wave iconoclast at last year's incredible "Shinjuku Ecstasy" festival at Japan Society. Think Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex", only w/ rival drag queens in '60's Tokyo's gay counterculture.

* Psychic Steel + Fielded + Lichens @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. Nice nice nice. I've come to rely on ISSUE for the best of noise (or otherwise "difficult" music), but DbA's brought a top-notch lineup, courtesy of Chicago's Psychic Steel (Seth Sher) + Fielded (Lindsay Anne Powell) and Lichens (Robert Lowe). Leave here a changed person.

* Dream Diary @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/FREE. See my praise of Dream Diary for their Monster Island show FRI, then see 'em again. w/ Dinowalrus

TUESDAY
* Miles Mendenhall @ Half Gallery / 208 Forsyth St. A gallery reception BEFORE the big opening-night run in early Sept! Mendenhall's hazy b&w silkscreen patterns on cotton remind me a bit of Wayne Gonzales' hypnotic magnified-halftone acrylics.

CLOSING
* "Annual Summer Invitational" @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery / 529 W 20th St 9th Fl. Deep w/in the August heat, amid the shuttered galleries on holiday in W.Chelsea, there's a shining beacon of ABSOLUTE DOPENESS that is Jonathan LeVine Gallery. This show of 13 emerging artists kills. Take your pick, really, it's all good, but personal faves: Nicoletta Ceccoli gemlike acrylics on paper (fantasy scenes mixing whimsy and dread, of the Trevor Brown/Mark Ryden vein); Tran Nguyen's stunning figurative portraits in diluted acrylic and colored pencils (balancing classic early Surrealism, like '20s style, or like a Sofia Coppola film); LOLA's gently warped acrylics on board (like she used a Dali-sized horsehair brush to capture each and every wrinkle in fabric and animal fur); Andrew Hem's textured mixed media works (somehow both Second Life and the E. European "doomsday" painters like Alexander Tinei and Zsolt Bodoni). And that's just personal taste. The exhibition runs the gamut into feverish abstraction (Alex McLeod's C-prints, which wouldn't be remiss in a Nintendo Wii platform game, and Oliver Warden's somehow "pixellated" oil smears) and EVOL's startlingly photorealistic spraypaint on cardboard is unbelievable even in person. Highly recommended.
+ "Two-Way Street". The gallery teamed w/ Choque Cultural in Sao Paulo in feat. four Brazilian street artists, Chivitz (Alexandre Tadeu Alves), NOVE (Joao Paulo), Presto (Marcio Penha) and Ramon Martins, and beyond the ginormousness of Martins' mural-sized canvas a James Rosenquist-like washing-machine abstract of markers and spraypaint, I rather dug NOVE's swooping, sprite-like characters, somehow human and mechanical, rendered in acrylic and spraypaint on wood.

* Christian Marclay "Fourth of July" @ Paula Cooper Gallery / 521 W 21st St. Ahead of his major musuem show "Festival" at the Whitney, Marclay presented a fragmented series of print blowups from an Independence Day parade in Hyde Park NY. Seeing these torn glimpses of a uniformed marching band and sweating spectators is like viewing the actual parade through a tube: he draws you toward all these interesting peripheral actions that, in the actual festival, would have been lost in all the noise. Like a dude lounging in a folding chair.

* Bruce Nauman "Days" @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E/V to 5th Ave, 6 to 51st St). Nauman's incredible sound installation debuted at the 2009 Venice Biennale and I am thrilled it was added to MoMA's collection. This suite of 14 speakers contain women's and men's voices speaking the days of the week. That's it, and depending on where you stand it'll either mesmerize you (a la Odysseus' crew and the Sirens) or freak you the hell out. One of the guys sounds like a serial killer. Another, like your least-favorite schoolteacher, bullets the days at you. Yet another, my favorite obvs, is a lightly accented young woman's voice, intoning them like she's reading the coolest poem ever.

fee's LIST (through 8/17)

WEDNESDAY
* "Enter the Void" (dir. Gaspar Noé, 2009, France) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 7p/good luck. Part of "Film Comment: Summer Meltdown". You're not getting into this VICE-cosponsored screening, w/ deviant enfant terrible Noé, Paz de la Huerta and Nathaniel Brown in attendance, this slo-mo acid float through a neon-drenched Tokyo, w/ the requisite drugs, sex and afterlife. I have class this evening so that's my excuse. But you... YOU should be there! (fingers crossed this reappears at Lincoln Center's upcoming NY Film Festival — or at Austin's Fantastic Fest, hell that would be wicked).

* "Weekend" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E to 5th Ave/53rd St, DF to 47-50th St), 7p. AKA "Week End", JLG's arguably final film from Nouvelle Vague, and it's a stunner: the typical petty bourgeoisie couple trapped in apocalyptic gridlock in the French countryside. A literal and figurative "trip".

* Memoryhouse + Twin Sister @ Mercury Lounge / 217 E Houston St (F to 2nd Ave), 7:30p/$10. I'm huge into lovely Ontario duo Memoryhouse's new EP "The Years", it's like positive-vibe Portishead w/o the beats, sort of. Local darlings Twin Sister's magnetic presence is like a groovy drug.

THURSDAY
* "Younger Than Moses" Group Show @ Benrimon Contemporary / 515 W 24th St, 2nd Fl. Who says the NY gallery scene (specifically W.Chelsea) takes a European holiday? (Oh wait, I did...) This raucous affair (perhaps echoing New Museum's "Younger Than Jesus" triennial?) centers on 'idle worship', meaning the stuff that hooks our attention when we're in-between destinations, I guess. Emphasis on audience participation here (w/ everything!) and feat. an opening night performance w/ Kahori Kamiya "Hashtag" (twitter accounts necessary!) and w/ "artist in bathroom residence" Ryan V. Brennan.

* River Rocks 2010: Deerhunter + Real Estate @ Hudson River Park / 353 West St, Pier 40 (1 to Houston, CE to Spring), 6p/FREE. The potentially star-crossed pairing of suffocatingly hypnotic (and increasingly pop-driven) Deerhunter w/ NJ's coolly surf-minded Real Estate, replete w/ clever songwriting, active rhythm sections and loads of guitars. They play together again at Webster Hall on Oct 15, but this is show is 1) free and 2) outside so that equals LIST-certified dopeness.

* Twin Sister + Memoryhouse @ Monster Island / 128 River St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford/JM to Marcy), 8p/$10. A night of dreaminess, and a decidedly more indie venue for these two bands. The A/V experience that is Ontario's Memoryhouse, think your favorite trip-hop band from the '90s but nearly beatless, w/ Denise Nouvion's soaring vocals + absolutely magical dream-disco locals Twin Sister, one of my favorites.

* Deerhunter (DJ set) + Ducktails @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$10 w/ RSVP to popgun booking. Catch Deerhunter TWICE in one night, albeit as a (promisingly trippy) DJ set, w/ Matt Mondinale (Real Estate) and band as Ducktails. w/ The Big Sleep.

* Grizzly Bear @ The Beach / Governor's Island (take a NY Water Taxi ferry *before* 5:30p from Pier 11 at South Street Seaport (23/45 to Wall Street, J to Broad St) or from Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park (AC to Jay St, 23/45 to Borough Hall), 6p/$33 (roundtrip ferry fee). The OTHER mega concert this evening, besides the Deerhunter performance way on the other side of Manhattan, is clearly Grizzly Bear. I personally find "Yellow House" quite sombre (though beautiful) and "Veckatimest" a bit pop-ish, but what better way, really, to experience this talented foursome than on a beach past sunset? If you've done Wsburg Waterfront already, it's totally not the same. w/ The Walkmen + Gang Gang Dance

* German Measles + Eternal Summers @ Live at the Pyramids / 32D S. 1st St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 7p/$8. Here's one indie 11211 venue I've embarrassingly not attended (yet!), chock full of local indie, incl. my faves Eternal Summers and party-boys German Measles. w/ Reading Rainbow + Rescue Birds.

FRIDAY
* "Scott Pilgrim v. the World" (dir. Edgar Wright, 2010) screenings, in wide release. Avid LIST-readers know I eschew wide-release films unless there's a serious reason to see 'em. And this has loads of reasons: comic-book/video game-style cinematography, Michael Cera as the charismatic bassist lead, fighting a legion of superpowered exes to win fuchsia-haired GF Mary Elizabeth Winstead's honor, all the while being stalked by his own crazy ex-GF named (in the film) Knives Chau. KNIVES. I would totally date a girl named "Knives".

* "Classic 3D" @ Film Forum / 209 W Houston St (1 to Houston, ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), through AUG 26. OK so beyond "Avatar" and the upcoming "Piranha 3D", what dope 3D films have debuted recently? "Clash of the Titans"? The absurdly named and be-coloned "Dogs & Cats: The Revenge of Kitty Galore"? Uh, "Step Up 3D" (give me a break). Luckily, Film Forum takes us back to the 'golden years' of classic 3D cinema, meaning 1953-4, way back when they had to use two projectors to run the films properly. Oh, they're absurd all right (in fact, "Dogs & Cats" wouldn't be out of place here), but they're way fun. Check the site for the full list and read on for some of my picks. And, lest you were worried, super-cool 3D glasses provided!

* Heliotropes + Heavy Hands @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$7. Frequent LIST-readers will remember my love for Heliotropes and their gorgeous mixture of hypnotic vocals w/ sludgy, heavy guitars and rhythm. Pair them w/ psyched-out stoner-rockers Heavy Hands and it's the heaviest lineup tonight. w/ Poison Arrows (Chicago)

* Eternal Summers + Yvette @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow St (FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8. Noisy local duo Yvette (two dudes actually) I missed when they played w/ So Cow at Death By Audio last month. And any opportunity to see Eternal Summers' 90s-sunny pop is a good thing.

SATURDAY
* "Gorilla at Large" (dir. Harmon Jones, 1954) screenings today and tonight @ Film Forum / 209 W Houston St (1 to Houston, ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), part of "Classic 3D" series. Guy dies at the carnival, so everyone suspects the star gorilla did it. Or wait: was it actually someone wearing a gorilla COSTUME? And this is in full-color 3D, remember.

* Saturdays @ Rock Yard w/ Frankie & The Outs + MINKS / 354 Wythe Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JMZ to Marcy), 2p/FREE. NY in general and Brooklyn in particular is replete w/ free outdoor concerts this summer, and if you are just hankerin' for some tunes and cheap beer but don't want to hassle w/ wacky weekend service to Long Island City, brother (and sister) have I got an alternative for YOU. How about a Captured Tracks-heavy lineup at Rock Yard, Jelly NYC's decidedly uber-alt space in Wsburg, feat. the fierciest Frankie & the Outs (on the crest before their album debut this Sept) and glamorously moody MINKS? Yes, MAYJAH. w/ Total Slacker (and a slip 'n slide)

* Underwater Peoples Summer Showcase @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, Bushwick (L to Grand), 7p/$5. The 2nd annual NY-area summer showcase of all good things surf- and psych-, to help us all ride out the last weeks of this heat like a green curl at our backs. Last year's at sweaty Market Hotel was completely ace and earned a rightful place in my LIST Top Ten Cultural Events of 2009, and this year's lineup sounds promising. feat. Ducktails, Julian Lynch, Big Troubles, Air Waves, Alex Bleeker & the Freaks and more.

* Warm Up: ?uestlove (DJ Set) + These Are Powers @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E to 23rd St/Ely Ave, G to Court Square), 2-9p,$15. Ahmir Thompson, aka the illustrious Roots drummer ?uestlove, is one of the wisest, chillest contemporary musicians (and that's not just my opinion, either). His DJ set should epitomize deep-funk eclectic, i.e. you'll learn something while you're gettin' down. Bombastic local fab-partiers These Are Powers precede.

* Screaming Females @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p. I still have the fury of Screaming Females ringing melodiously in my ears post-Siren Fest, where they absolutely SLAYED and I think won over several thousand new fans. So expect DbA to be extra-crowded tonight.

* Nite Jewel @ Glasslands / 289 Kent Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8:30p/$10 advance (buy 'em here). Too many concerts today! My schedule is booked solid, but you should definitely check Ramona Gonzales' electrifying project Nite Jewel, which is like one-part bedroom disco and one-part dancey "Feed Me Weird Things"-era Squarepusher, w/ lyrics. w/ Blood Orange

* PUJOL + Fergus & Geronimo @ Don Pedro / 90 Manhattan Ave, E.Williamsburg (G to Broadway, L to Montrose, JM to Lorimer), 8p/. It's PopJew's birthday party, and she has some of the best taste in local talent (plus indie rock in general — I credit her for getting me into the Nashville scene). This best-of bash feat. Daniel Pujol and his band (Nashville), Denton TX's Fergus & Geronimo + local rockers Home Blitz & Moonmen on the Moon Man, and I've a feeling it's going to run late.

* Anamanaguchi @ Brooklyn Bowl / 61 Wythe Ave, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 11:55p. Depending on how late the Underwater Peoples show runs, a strong dose of hacked NES punk might be the ticket, and no one does it better live than these guys. Bonus fact: they composed the soundtrack for "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game".

SUNDAY
* "Out of the Blue" (dir. Dennis Hopper, 1980, Canada) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 8:30p. Part of "Film Comment: Summer Meltdown". The "Easy Rider" for the '80s, so says the trailer. That sums it up: Linda Manz as juvenile punk and daughter to belligerent ex-con Hopper (surprised?), w/ cameo by Canadian punk band Pointed Sticks. Takes you back, doesn't it?

* The Beets @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/. I'm always up for some Beets, aka Jackson Heights' finest garage-rockers. The lineup just got a little sweeter w/ inclusion of Austin TX's three-chord champs Rayon Beach.

* !!! + Future Islands @ The Pool Parties / E River State Park, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 2p/FREE. I'm big into the fill-the-stage dirty disco-funk that is !!!, but their lineup has morphed to such a degree (no Justin Van Der Volgen hypnotic basslines, no Tyler Pope buzzsaw guitars, no John Pugh whiteboy soul, no Jerry Fuchs, may he rest in peace) that I wonder "can the core still break it down?" So long as they have Shannon Funchess on guest vocals and Paul Quattrone on drums (plus Nic Offer's shameless ass-shaking) the answer is YES.

MONDAY
* "Those Redheads From Seattle" (dir. Lewis R. Foster, 1953) screenings tonight @ Film Forum / 209 W Houston St (1 to Houston, ACE/BDFM to W 4th St), part of "Classic 3D" series. Widowed mom and daughters (everyone's a redhead, like the title states, except the youngest girl) head to Alaska seeking a Gold Rush fortune. Oh, and this is a musical.

* "Fear Over the City" (dir. Henri Verneuil, 1975) screening @ Anthology Film Archives / 32 2nd Ave (F to 2nd Ave), 7p. Nouvelle Vague's classic thug Jean-Paul Belmondo as stalwart police inspector, leaping across rooftops to catch a killer. Add a signature score by Ennio Morricone (think any of Sergio Leone's films) and it's golden.

TUESDAY
* "Stones in Exile" (dir. Stephen Kijak, 2010, USA/UK) + "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out"! (dirs. Albert Mayles, Bradley Kaplan & Ian Markiewicz, 1969/2009, USA) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center @ 65th St (1 to 66th St), 8:30p. Part of "Film Comment: Summer Meltdown". One behind-the-scenes motley from the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" anthemic double-album, one live video of the Stones' '69 Madison Square Gardens performance + photo shoot.

* Eux Autres + Knight School @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/. Proper, spare sunny pop from the San Fran trio Eux Autres, who you will instantly fall in love w/ if you listen to 'em. It's like your best day from university and your favorite holiday rolled into one.

CURRENT SHOWS
* "Annual Summer Invitational" @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery / 529 W 20th St 9th Fl. Deep w/in the August heat, amid the shuttered galleries on holiday in W.Chelsea, there's a shining beacon of ABSOLUTE DOPENESS that is Jonathan LeVine Gallery. This show of 13 emerging artists kills. Take your pick, really, it's all good, but personal faves: Nicoletta Ceccoli gemlike acrylics on paper (fantasy scenes mixing whimsy and dread, of the Trevor Brown/Mark Ryden vein); Tran Nguyen's stunning figurative portraits in diluted acrylic and colored pencils (balancing classic early Surrealism, like '20s style, or like a Sofia Coppola film); LOLA's gently warped acrylics on board (like she used a Dali-sized horsehair brush to capture each and every wrinkle in fabric and animal fur); Andrew Hem's textured mixed media works (somehow both Second Life and the E. European "doomsday" painters like Alexander Tinei and Zsolt Bodoni). And that's just personal taste. The exhibition runs the gamut into feverish abstraction (Alex McLeod's C-prints, which wouldn't be remiss in a Nintendo Wii platform game, and Oliver Warden's somehow "pixellated" oil smears) and EVOL's startlingly photorealistic spraypaint on cardboard is unbelievable even in person. Highly recommended.
+ "Two-Way Street". The gallery teamed w/ Choque Cultural in Sao Paulo in feat. four Brazilian street artists, Chivitz (Alexandre Tadeu Alves), NOVE (Joao Paulo), Presto (Marcio Penha) and Ramon Martins, and beyond the ginormousness of Martins' mural-sized canvas a James Rosenquist-like washing-machine abstract of markers and spraypaint, I rather dug NOVE's swooping, sprite-like characters, somehow human and mechanical, rendered in acrylic and spraypaint on wood.

* "Year One" @ Ana Cristea Gallery / 521 W 26th St. One of my favorites of the summer. Four fantastic, moody C. and E. European artists who are still getting little play in NY beyond this gallery. Alexander Tinei is my immediate favorite — his strong showing at NY VOLTA this past year sealed the deal for me — and this trio of new, dreamy nudes is riveting. Same deal w/ Josef Bolf's small, streaky, darker figures. Zsolt Bodoni's large, doomsday-ish industrial scenes and Daniel Pitin's smaller renderings from film stills balance the people with setting to create an all-inclusive haunting diorama.

* "Le Tableau", curated by Joe Fyfe @ Cheim & Read / 547 W 25th St. This beauty of a group show focuses on the surface of the canvas (or whatever medium) and the artists' creative lengths in the realm of 2D abstraction. What we receive is a dexterous abstraction show, always a strength of this gallery, incl. Louise Fishman's sumptuous, trowelled "Violets For My Furs" (w/ a crimson bloom in the upper left corner), Merlin James' "CAT", which is just that, an almost stenciled violet cat walking amidst a fuzzy spectrum of festive soap bubbles, the curator's own "After Corot", a deft 'color-block' abstract composed entirely of pink felt, orange-crush cotton, and jute, and a classic Joan Mitchell diptych as an aquatic field. There are nearly two dozen others that I didn't name, and much of it works.

* "Barakat: The Gift", curated by Gaia Serena Simionati @ STUX Gallery / 530 W 25th St. A great group exhibition of contemporary artists from the Middle East and N. Africa. Political undertones score many of the works, like Halim al Karim's haunting 'Witness' series (blurred figures w/ piercing eyes) and Moataz Nasr's 'Propaganda', disarmingly cartoonish war renderings on embroidered textiles. Nabil Nahas' textured acrylic abstracts take physicality to another level, coral-reef like patterns (think Yayoi Kusama, in 3D) on canvas.

* Carol Bove + Sterling Ruby + Dana Schutz @ Andrea Rosen Gallery / 525 W 24th St. Q: how to incorporate the respective abilities of these three very different contemporary artists? A: don't even try, just let them do their thing. But in doing so, and w/ some deft planning, the gallery has managed to successfully mute Ruby's atmosphere-sucking quality in his brutal, large-scale sculpture (the slickened, wooden cannon "Consolidator") w/ Bove's pair of scale-defying Plexiglas and metal-mesh boxes. They're elevator car-sized, true, yet the transparent quality and the metallic shimmer tricks the eye and creates an interesting effect w/ the space. Schutz's trio of new paintings are good, primarily the very abstract "Finger in Fan", and adds a color element to the room.

LAST CHANCE
* "Normal Dimensions", curated by Neville Wakefield @ Half Gallery / 208 Forsyth St. I'm feeling mono-no-aware here, the permeability of time, in experiencing this four-artist show. Carol Bove's oeuvre traditionally exemplifies that, esp. her impossibly delicate "Woman", little more than a stunning, fluttering peacock feather attached to a steel tether. Olympia Scarry's too, here the disquietingly large slab "Saliva", made of that and lye but mostly rendered fat, in a suspended state of animation (we hope). Susan Collis' luxe interventions require us to look very, very close, at the wall-protectors made of glittering gems and the platinum square staples in a diamond-shaped array. Xaviera Simmons' Xerox print of a barn owl carrying a mouse provides the literal message.

* Ragnar Kjartansson "The End" @ Luhring Augustine / 531 W 24th St. The young Icelandic artist's contribution to the 2009 Venice Biennale — daily portrait paintings of his lugubrious model/friend — may have raised some eyebrows on paper. But the end result, 144 colorful "snapshots" hung salon-style to cover the gallery's main room, is pretty magnificent, and consists almost entirely of off-moment gems rather than formal posing. Plus, in the back gallery: Kjartansson's new film "The Man" w/ blues pianist patriarch Pinetop Perkins, shot in such a way that it feels like the back wall is missing and Perkins is there, tickling the ivories in a sunset-drenched field before our very eyes.

* Richard Kalina "A Survey" @ Lennon, Weinberg Gallery / 514 W 25th St. Big Kalina fan here, I dig his particular type of abstraction, which I know best as kids' breakfast cereal-colored geometric collage-paintings. This 40-year look at his oeuvre necessarily solidifies his presence, from early '80s castle- and ocean-inspired paintings that echo the strong lines of Charles Demuth to contrasty b&ws and eventually the dotty, patterened canvases I'm used to seeing.

* "The Mass Ornament", curated by John Rasmussen @ Gladstone Gallery / 515 W 24th St. A fantastic group exhibition w/ a fierce undercurrent of dread running through much of the art. The game here is marginalized subjects and discreet interventions, but that's a bit broad so let me break it down for you. Nick Mauss (showing at "Greater New York" at MoMA PS1) has these slightly off double-chairs placed about the gallery. They link a frightening Gedi Sibony installation, which looks like a cloaked piano-sized apparition suspended high up on a wall, bodily prints by Alina Szapoczikow (way under-appreciated, check her at MoMA's "Mind and Matter: Alternative Abstractions" show), Ned Vena's disquieting rubber-on-linen Op-abstracts and Patricia Esquivias' ("Younger than Jesus") captivating four-part "Reads Like the Paper Group" film, w/ her hypnotic monotone overhead.

* "Touched" @ Lehmann Maupin / 540 W 26th St. I'm taking back much of my overall reticence toward summer group shows. There are many fine ones on now, incl this very physical one at the Chelsea gallery. Love impasto? Allison Schulnik's are like cake-frosted portraiture and Angel Otero's (particularly that yellow one) will burn your eyes out in a good way. Like impossible-to-categorize mixed media sculpture? My fav was Brett Lund's, which look like a cross b/w Huma Bhabha and Anselm Reyle.

* "Lush LIfe Ch 4: Let It Die", curated by Omar Lopez-Chaoud & Franklin Evans @ Lehmann Maupin / 201 Chrystie St. The BIG show of the nine, even though it doesn't utilize the upper gallery floor, literally spilling out into the street w/ Robert Buck's "shrine". Lots of fine work here, from Robert Melee's "melted" interventions, Amy Longenecker-Brown's scene-setting paintings contrasted w/ Rashid Johnson's spraypainted text on a mirror. The neighborhood, as I understand it, is in disarray, so the resultant exhibition is suitably in flux.

* "Lush Life Ch 6: "The Devil You Know", curated by Omar Lopez-Chaoud & Franklin Evans @ Colette Blanchard Gallery / 26 Clinton St. LaToya Ruby Frazier's b&w portraiture and Chakaia Booker's armored-detritus vest really elevate this chapter. One of the most intense exhibitions in the show.

* "The Tell-Tale Heart (part 2)" @ James Cohan Gallery / 533 W 26th St. Obsession and its unraveling. Props to the gallery for a unique spin on the conventional summer show, and double-props for the result. Lots of gun-imagery here (I suppose that's not surprising), from Koto Ezawa's simple-vector "soap opera" animation (echoed by Keren Cytter's stage-dialogue melodrama) to Shirin Neshat's disquieting b&w print (rune-inscribed bare feet around the barrel of a rifle). Dash Snow's print, the glistening just-expelled semen on the nude back of an anonymous figure, I've seen before but fits the tunnel-vision focus underlying the non-gun works (see also: Felix Gonzalez-Torres' lonely chairs/TV installation).

* "Jo and Jack: Jo Baer and John Wesley in the '60s" @ Matthew Marks Gallery / 522 W 22nd St. Baer's son Josh curated this selection of paintings and works on paper by these two seemingly very different artists from their time living and working together in NYC. I've seen them separately many times, so I didn't get the hook: Wesley's flat, simplified, almost minimalist Pop-like figures and nudes v. Baer's extremely minimalist canvases, usually just a colored border around a white or off-white expanse. But the key here, in this beautiful exhibition, is how well the artists play off one another. How Baer's 3D-like "frames" echo the clean lines of a single or repeated Wesley character. Even how they applied the paint to the canvas and the respective sizes of the canvases relate, as if to experience one work you need to see the ones to either side of it.

* Jeff Kessel @ Derek Eller Gallery / 615 W 27th St. Amid this season of group exhibitions, we have the Brooklyn artist's solo debut at the gallery, and it's a beauty not to be missed. I caught him last year in a three-artist abstraction show at Bortolami, and I was quite taken by Kessel's large, troweled-paint canvases. This grouping of ecstatic new works, like the shadowy one invoking Louise Fishman's style, or the grayish, speckled one resembling a drop-cloth (or Josh Smith's style, only paint-on-canvas), is fantastic. For one reason or another, he's not in "Greater NY" (mistake!), but I think we'll be seeing much more of Kessel in the future.

* "You Were There", curated by Thomas Duncan @ Rachel Uffner Gallery / 47 Orchard St. This was a cool idea: show the artists' (Rita Ackermann, Justin Adian, Joe Bradley, Sarah Braman, Sara Greenberger Rafferty and Josh Smith) work from 2005 and from 2010, one example of each. w/ someone as prolific as Smith, who may have created like 2,000 unique works in that timespan, it's interesting two see two same-sized canvases from him, the newer looking more screenprint-ish but even so, no massive change. Sarah Braman's is an interesting transformation from stacked and painted cardboard boxes to stacked and spray-painted Plexiglas and steel, a bit like Donald Judd w/ a lot of whimsy (Dan Graham, maybe?). And I absolutely loved the (older) Ackermann "African Nurse", a golden-hued mixed media painting that embodies the sensuality of Matisse and Gauguin, plus Chris Ofili's silver-leaf works, only it's totally Ackermann.

* "in here" @ Laurel Gitlen (Small A Projects)" / 261 Broome St. Five artists take on representing the relationship of what is visible and invisible, and if that sounds abstract in words it makes loads more sense in person. Take Michele Abeles' bodily version of still-life photography, b/c what you see, and what she lists, is PRECISELY what you get (esp. "Fuschia, Yellow, Green, Blue, Numbers, Man, Cement, Paper", 2010). She and Uri Aran (who mixes computer renderings w/ inkjet prints, to creatively collaged effect) are both in "Greater NY" at MoMA PS1, but their newish works here are exceedingly superior. Add Jamie Isenstein's continual portrayal of her/the body, Halsey Rodman's assemblage, and Erik Wysocan's marquee installation (hint: view it from multiple angles), and you've got a concise, smart summer group show.

* "Shape Language", organized by Natalie Campbell @ Nicole Klagsbrun / 526 W 26th St #213. An incredible group show amid a veritable sea of summer group shows, centered on the ostensibly simple thesis of color and form. We're rewarded with a very savory exhibition, anchored by Blinky Palermo's ovoidish gray form and peer Imi Knoebel's jagged, colorful collage. From these '70s-era springboards, the rest of the show is a voyage through the creatively minimal and patterned (Ned Vena, Zak Prekop, Joe Bradley) to the luxuriantly colorful (Amy Sillman, Patrick Brennan, Wendy White's particularly entrancing multicanvas work). Yes, it's all artists/styles I easily get into, but I think you will too. Trust me on this one: Klagsbrun's show carries my highest recommendations.

* "Spray!" @ D'Amelio Terras / 525 W 22nd St. I dug this multigenerational show involving artists using aerosol-based media as their main component, at least in what was featured here. This spans Yayoi Kusama's early '70s signature psychedelia and Dan Christensen's gestural spraypaint-on-canvas from '68 to Jacqueline Humphries, Rosy Keyser and Sterling Ruby today.

* "Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art" @ Metropolitan Museum of Art / 1000 Fifth Ave (456 to 86th St). It is w/ heavy heart that this stellar exhibition — a leading example of the Met's fantastic recession-era programming, i.e. drawing from what you've already got — comes to a conclusion. So the Met's Cubist-era collection pales in comparison to MoMA's (no "Still Life With Chair Caning", no "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"), true, but check the rich examples from Picasso's Blue and Rose Periods, like the shocking "La Douleur" and the regal "The Actor", respectively), plus the Met's room of linocut prints rival's MoMA's easily. See this one one more time, hang out on the roof and have a beer, take in the dregs of late summer surrounded by culture.

fee's LIST: September 2010 PREVIEW

I'm all for holding my cards close to my chest, and believe me I am, but I had to give you just a tease of what's coming this fall. It's going to be, yes, very very dope.

Stay tuned here, and if you're not receiving the weekly-ish e-blasts already and want to (they're dope), message me at the address on the flyer. Bestest!

fee's LIST (through 8/10)

WEDNESDAY
* Summer Invitational + Two-Way Street @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery / 529 W 20th St 9th Fl. In the one gallery we get lovely, sexy paintings and mixed media works from emerging artists (Andrew Hem, Morgan Slade, Tran Nguyen, Lola etc), in the other an appropriately streetwise take from four Brazilian street artists in their NY debuts, Alexandre Tadeau Alves (Chivitz), Joao Paulo (NOVE), Marcio Penha (Presto) and Ramon Martins. Yeah, most galleries are taking a European holiday but not LeVine. Don't sleep on this one!

* SummerScreen presents "Starship Troopers" (dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1997) @ McCarren Park ballfields / Bedford + N 12th St, Greenpoint (L to Bedford, G to Nassau), 6p/FREE. OK I QUITE liked this blatant satire on militarism and the sci-fi genre, and I seriously doubt I'm the only one. It's "Roughnecks" v. "Bugs"! Plus a live performance by Brooklyn sludge-rockers Grooms.

* "The Boy Friend" (dir. Ken Russell, 1971) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center at 65th St (1 to 66th St), 4:30p (part of "Russellmania!"). Easily my favorite Russell film, and impossible to find stateside (if you've any tips, let me know). Twiggy's super-cute acting debut as the lead in a riotous theatre troupe, a surreal adaptation of the Sandy Wilson musical.

* "Lisztomania" (dir. Ken Russell, 1975) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center at 65th St (1 to 66th St), 7p (part of "Russellmania!"). Oh if you thought Roger Daltrey of The Who as the mute, bare-chested lead in in Russell's psychedelic rock-opera "Tommy" was something else, you'll shriek in either delight or fear at him as the sex-addled Franz Liszt in Russell's prog-rockin' next feature. Case in point: Rick Wakeman (of Yes and the film's composer) appears as Thor and Ringo Starr is the Pope. Yes, really.

* Cacaw (Chicago) + Twin Stumps @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, Bushwick (L to Grand), 8p. I'm jazzed that Cacaw (two girls, two dudes, lots of shouty atonal rock) are in town. This is their last show before they crest back to Chicago, and they share the stage w/ local noise-men Twin Stumps. w/ GDFX

* Blank Dogs + Kurt Vile @ Galapagos Artspace / 16 Main St, DUMBO (F to York, AC to High St), 8p/FREE w/ RSVP absolutbrooklyn@thelmagazine.com. What better place to see Captured Tracks' founder and lo-fi rocker non plus ultra Blank Dogs, along w/ fuzzed-out Kurt Vile than the floating cabaret of Galapagos? For free, if you RSVP.

* Whatever Brains + Byrds of Paradise @ Death by Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/. I should stop throwing about the "punk" term so gratuitously, b/c these guys, Raleigh's Whatever Brains (here, finally!) and local dudes Byrds of Paradise, really sound punk, at least in my born-in-the-80s mind. w/ Ex-Humans

THURSDAY
* "The Vampire Lovers" (dir. Roy Ward Baker, 1970) screening at BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins, C to Lafayette), 6:50/9:15p. All those "Twilight"-derived teen-vampire dramas suck (no pun) compared to this bijou about, ahem, lesbian vampires (led by Polish screen star Ingrid Pitt).

* "The Devils" (dir. Ken Russell, 1971) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center at 65th St (1 to 66th St), 4:30p (part of "Russellmania!"). Panned by critics, unavailable on DVD, w/ Vanessa Redgrave in perhaps her most controversial role (a deformed, sexually repressed Catholic nun) and Oliver Reed as a "bewitching" priest. If you thought the papal runway show in Federico Fellini's "Roma" was a takedown of the Church, wait until you see Redgrave's hallucination of Reed as a brawny, crucified Christ (let alone the denouement). Highly recommended!

* "Tommy" (dir. Ken Russell, 1975) screening @ Walter Reade Theatre / Lincoln Center at 65th St (1 to 66th St), 7p (part of "Russellmania!"). B/c if you've not seen this rock-music, starring The Who frontman Roger Daltrey as an angelic, shirtless mute running on the seashore (costarring Elton John and Tina Turner in the unforgettable roles Pinball Wizard and Acid Queen), then you've not REALLY seen a Ken Russell film.

* Reni (Japan) + Standard Fare (UK) @ Bruar Falls / 245 Grand St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, G to Lorimer), 8p. The Sheffield cuties in Standard Fare had a brilliant stateside debut in NY last March and I can't wait to see 'em again. Jangly guitars + solid rhythm section + catchy girl/boy harmonies (sometimes trading verses in the same song) = Britpop at its most brilliant. Adding fuel to the equation is, ahem, cosplay popstar Reni Mimura.

* Lower Dens (Baltimore) + Air Waves @ Cake Shop / 152 Ludlow St (F to 2nd Ave, FM/JZ to Delancey), 8p/$8. Tinges of Lower Dens' sonically textured debut album eerily remind me of Les Rallizes Dénudés. They're joined by locals Nicole Schneit & crew as the incredibly magnetic Air Waves.

* KI + Drummer's Corpse @ Death By Audio / 49 S 2nd St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford, JM to Marcy), 8p/$7. A nice night of noise, anchored by the ensemble Drummer's Corpse (feat. a fleet of drummers, Brian Chase, Michael Evans, Alex Lambert etc), but I strongly suggest you show up early for KI, a sonically furious group incl. Tamio Shiraishi, the saxophonist and sometimes-vocalist of legendary Fujitsusha. MAYJAH.

FRIDAY
* "Le Concert" (dir. Radu Mihaileanu, 2009) screenings @ Angelika NY / 18 W Houston St (BDFM to Broadway/Lafayette). A typically smart comedy (en français et le russe) about Andrei, a formerly famous Bolshoi conductor, and his rise back to stardom post-Brezhnev, which sounds sweet and all but my personal impetus to see it is the inclusion of Mélanie Laurent (HELLO) as violin phenom Anne-Marie and Andrei's key to success.

* "ODDSAC" (dir. Danny Perez, w/ Animal Collective, 2010) midnight screening @ IFC Center / 323 6th Ave (ACE/BDFM to W 4th St). If you managed to catch AC's recreation of this hour-long ocular freakout at the Guggenheim, then count yourself lucky. I'm not sure it holds up in a traditional theatre experience. Me? I'm content to watch their Jack Kubizne-directed "Brothersport" video, on repeat, at home, in the dark. ALSO SAT MIDNITE

* Boris @ Music Hall of Williamsburg / 66 N 6th St, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 8p/$22. YES, Boris, Japan's finest stoner-rockers, have returned. My eardrums have been yearning for a good sonic thrashing, and Boris is one of the loudest live acts around — and I've seen My Bloody Valentine and attended No Fun Fest several times, so don't doubt me. Also: in the testosterone-heavy world of axe-wielders, Boris has Wata, petite and beautiful but one of the absolute fiercest guitar players EVER. She will conquer you with her riffs, and you will respect her.

SATURDAY
* OK Prom @ Shea Stadium / 20 Meadow St, Williamsburg (L to Grand, G to Metropolitan), 8p/$10 (buy 'em here). So the rules are a bit like your high-school prom — dress up tidy, bring a date, buy tix in advance — only this is Bushwick and instead of a wack DJ-for-hire or a Muzak band we get The Beets, Slasher Risk and Terror Pigeon reinterpreting classic prom-relevant tunes (the Beatles, Motown, doo-wop etc). Plus there's a dance-off at midnight for the title of Prom Queen and King.

* Warm Up: Special Disco Version (James Murphy/Pat Mahoney) @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City (E to 23rd St/Ely Ave, G to Court Square), 2-9p/$15. If "Special Disco Version" of this LCD Soundsystem tag-team (drummer impresario Mahoney and lovable frontman/composer Murphy) is to my ideals, it'll be Murphy DJing/working the crowd to Mahoney's live drumming. The only thing to take THAT to another level is adding keyboardist/vocalist Nancy Whang and her stunning jumpsuits to the equation.

SUNDAY
* "Weekend" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) screening @ MoMA / 11 W 53rd St (E to 5th Ave/53rd St, DF to 47-50th St), 2:30p. AKA "Week End", JLG's arguably final film from Nouvelle Vague, and it's a stunner: the typical petty bourgeoisie couple trapped in apocalyptic gridlock in the French countryside. A literal and figurative "trip".

* "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (dir. Werner Herzog, 1979) screening at BAM / 30 Lafayette Ave, Ft Greene (23/45 to Nevins, C to Lafayette), 4:30/6:50/9:15p. Herzog's signature take on "Nosferatu", w/ frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski in the role of creepy bald guy.

* Cut Copy + Memory Tapes + Glasser @ Williamsburg Waterfront / E River State Park, Williamsburg (L to Bedford), 2p/FREE. Jelly NYC's keeping it balanced this year: if you thought the Xiu Xiu/Deerhoof pairing/Joy Division reinterpretation was too 'art' or the Lightning Bolt show (moved to Brooklyn Bowl due to inclement weather, sadly) was too 'punk', this one should be way dancey, and not in a wack way. Let Glasser's Cameron Mesirow and Dayve Hawk & crew (Memory Tapes) catch you w/ their shimmering grooves before Aussie trio Cut Copy totally set your heart on fire w/ their "Lights & Music".

MONDAY
* "Open Studios" w/ robbinschilds @ MoMA PS1 / 22-25 Jackson Ave (E/V to 23rd St/Ely Ave, 7 to Courthouse Sq), part of "Greater New York", 3-6p. Check installation/performance duo robbinschilds and their work-in-progress contribution to "Greater New York", 'I came here on my own'.

* "Soul Kitchen" (dir. Fatih Akin, 2010) preview screening @ 92Y Tribeca / 200 Hudson St (1/ACE to Canal St), 7p/$12. Akin's latest food-minded film, w/ eccentric restauranteur (Adam Bousdoukos) and culinary maniacs Moritz Bleibtreu, in classic hangdog style, and Anna Bederke (HELLO!), doesn't open at IFC until the 20th, but 92Y is being cool and screening it early, w/ Akin in attendance for a Q&A. This equals a tailor-made LIST entry.

LAST CHANCE
* "Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don't Make Work About Being Asian", curated by Joann Kim and Lesley Sheng @ Arario NY / 521 W 25th St 2nd Fl. I recalled the 2007 exhibition "Making a Home" at Japan Society, which featured nearly three dozen Japanese artists living in NY, when I first heard about this multicultural, emerging artists show. Kim and Sheng culled together an even huger grouping, displaying a hotbed of young, creative artists working in none of the mnemonic, typecasting devices many critics and viewers expect of Asian artists: no manga-cartoony stuff, no renderings of Mao, no calligraphy here. As one example, take Tattfoo Tan, whose several years' worth of environmentally conscious endeavors work as a side-gallery-filling installation, from his mobile gardens to his "master composter" certificate. Mai Ueda, who opened the show w/ a performance, remains only as a glittery signature and handprint on the gallery wall). Check Kyoung Eun Kang's disquietingly messy video "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", where she pulls a vintage Paul McCarthy, Nancy Kim's and Youngna Park's enigmatic photography (the former recalling Uta Barth), Jason Tomme's cerebral "Cig Scale" assemblage, Jane V. Hsu's noirish "People Were Made to Disappear" short film, and like 40 other artists.

* "Lush Life Ch 8: "17 Plus 25 is 32", curated by Omar Lopez-Chaoud & Franklin Evans @ Scaramouche / 52 Orchard St. My favorite of the "Lush Life" lot (and a great achievement for the LES scene). Jayson Keeling's glittery-surfaced wordy canvases are beautiful and require the extra introspective necessary for this entire exhibition. Karina Aguilera Skvirsky's childhood photography from Ecuador, Melissa Gordon's multiple-POV painting and Paul Pagk's encoded abstracts round out this destination spot.

* "Other As Animal" @ Danese / 535 W 24th St 6th Fl. A whole bunch of artists render animals, from the literal (the photorealistic oil on panel robin by Diane Andrews Hall, Simen Johan's emotive lamb C-print) to the not-so-literal (Julie Heffernan's storybook scene, Ross Bleckner's cyanotype-ish oil on linen), w/ some real gems (Catherine Howe's saturated color explosion, Erick Swenson's stoic simian bust).

* Yuan Yuan "A World of Yesterday and Tomorrow" @ Chambers Fine Art / 522 W 19th St. I loved this show. I'm a big Yuan fan as it is, and the young Beijing artist's foggy, mesmerizing paintings — shown here as small-scale groupings in ceramic frames and larger diptychs — are like the soft-focus scenes from a Sofia Coppola film, only clearly from Yuan's memory.

* "The Pencil Show" @ Foxy Production / 623 W 27th St. Artists doing fun and interesting stuff w/ graphite. OK: more than two dozen artists, cutting-edge and establishment, doing crazy stuff w/ graphite (whether it's their major medium or not). And: like twice that many works, encircling the gallery perimeter and mostly of intimate scale. I suggest you do a circuit, beginning near the front desk w/ Matt Savitsky's glisteningly textured, almost crumbled iron-like works, and take it all in, Kon Trubkovich's night photograph-style, Tomoo Gokita's gathering of loose portraiture, D-L Alvarez' pixellation, Dick Evans' creative minimalism... This was a "like" show for me, overall, but I was surprised but its breadth, so unless you just completely hate pencils there's something in it for you too.