Agenda Newsletter - October 12-14, 2007

Phoenix + Wahlberg = good times
We Own the Night

Review; Showtimes
David Edelstein is a little iffy on the whole thin-line-between-cop-and-criminal movie convention, but this film, he says, transcends the “B-movie gutter.” As cinemagoers perfectly okay with lolling about in said gutter, we’re ready to have our minds blown. Mark Wahlberg. Joaquin Phoenix. Robert Duvall, whom we also like, despite not having a tremendous crush on him. They really bring it, especially Phoenix: “He’s not an actor disappearing into a role but a man disappearing into himself.”
Star will have you staying in
Women’s Murder Club Tell your friends you’re watching a show called Women’s Murder Club on a Friday night and you might never hear the end of the “Skinemax” jokes. But despite the soft-core name and the fact that it airs while you’re supposed to be crowding the Lower East Side, this is one to watch. Star Angie Harmon, John Leonard attests, “has given a new, slinky meaning to Friday nights at home, inhabiting her role as if it were a skin.” ABC
Fridays
9 p.m.
Review » More weekend picks
Top Dogs of Comedy woof it up.
Tori Amos tends to her flock. Justice
at Terminal 5
The on-the-rise French house duo play Terminal 5. Enter to win tickets now!

Untitled Document

Sony/Columbia;

Company veers way off Broadway
Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road) Theater versus film. Stage versus screen. Live versus Memorex. If you think in terms of those old paradigms, you’re probably well over 40. Miranda July, Caden Manson, even the Wooster Group are all about multimedia works. Add to that list Temporary Distortion, a former resident company at Richard Foreman’s Ontological Theater. This young troupe’s latest, a live road movie opening tonight, is equal parts installation art and surreal montage (with whispered voice-overs). What a surprise to find Off–Off Broadway has suddenly set up shop in Queens. Temporary Distortion
Chocolate Factory
Through October 27
8 p.m.
$15
Tickets » More weekend picks

Sigrid Nunez drops in for the Strand’s b-day.

Ticket alert: Lamb of God. Grrrr.

See greatest matricide after Psycho
Electra There’s no eye gouging like in Oedipus or baby killing like in Medea, but this Sophocles tragedy still exhibits a Freudian complex–daughter loves daddy–that gives it dark undercurrents all its own. The current revival comes straight from the homeland, via the National Theatre of Greece, and though fall appearances by this acclaimed troupe have become an annual tradition Stateside, this particular production is especially welcome—it’s helmed by the revered German director Peter Stein. National Theatre of Greece
City Center
Through October 14
$35–$80
Tickets » More weekend picks

Kenneth Branagh directs Sleuth.

CultureFest presents too much to mention.

Collages transformed for the stage
Hotel Cassiopeia The world has seen many great painters and many great sculptors, but it’s probably seen only one great artist whose primary form of expression was the Box. That man would be Joseph Cornell. How director Anne Bogart and playwright Charles L. Mee have chosen to translate his 3-D collages–with their perfectly compartmentalized bits of cork, bone, and crystal–into living stage pictures is a feat that would rightly be called thinking outside the you-know-what. The SITI Company
BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater
Through October 13
$20–$60
Tickets » More weekend picks

Opening: Lindsey Adams Adelman’s hair drawings.

Ron Gilad talks design, wears interesting glasses.

Simon(e) says: Check out designer toys
Simone Legno You’ve recently accepted the fact that your little one might be a better art collector than actual artist. So take her to meet Tokidoki founder Simone Legno, an Italian-born designer who’s inspired by Japan. Having worked with Smashbox and LeSportsac, he’s now collaborating with hip toy company StrangeCo. Tomorrow he’ll be signing toys, tees, and more at YoyaMart, where they’ll also be giving away a platinum set of his popular characters Adios and Ciao Ciao. YoyaMart
October 13
7 p.m.
More info » More weekend picks

Carve pumpkins by the Gowanus (really).

Have them make their own paint, and use it.