Come One, Come All!

Alright, folks, here it is; here's what I was so coyly teasing all last week. I will be hosting my very own movie night at Brooklyn's premier nerd bar The Way Station. Hooray me. As a wise man once said: "This is my happening and it freaks me out!"

If you haven't yet been to The Way Station, this upcoming event will be a great time to check out my new favorite drinkin' spot. As of right now, we still don't know whether this will be a monthly or weekly event. We'll see how this first night goes and take it from there. Translation: Please, everyone, come and drink lots if you want me to be able to keep doing this.

Although future movie nights will focus almost exclusively on cinematic dreck, my first movie night will feature one movie that I consider a genuine masterpiece (Phantom of the Paradise) and another that, although wonderfully terrible, was Oscar nominated (Wild in the Streets). For my first event, though not required, I will highly encourage singing along—that is, if you know the songs. Also, you should get blotto. Don't worry; I'll have some drinking games for y'all, in case you forget how to drink.

Movie Night Date: Sunday, February 12
Start Time: 4:30 PM
Location: 683 Washington Ave (between St. Marks and Prospect Place)
Requirements: Bring your appetite for Sunday night-drinking.

First Feature: Wild in the Streets (1968)
dir. Barry Shear
Length: 97 minutes


Oh, you're in for a treat with our first feature, an anti-hippie propaganda piece that also functions as a rollicking youth revolt movie. Is this a good movie? Who's to say? It was nominated for an Oscar (Best Film Editing), if that's the kind of thing that interests you. Director Barry Shear's groundbreaking film posited a world in which the voting age has been lowered to fourteen. And instead of, you know, not voting because it's like totally boring and lame, the fictionalized youth in this movie send the messianic leader of a swinging rock band to the Oval Office—to the detriment of everyone over the age of 35. Come for the "you've been warned" lecturing; stay for the Dick Clark, Shelley Winters, Richard Pryor, and Hal Holbrook performances.


Second Feature: Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
dir. Brian De Palma
Length: 92 minutes
Start Time: Whenever the first feature ends. I gave you the start time of the event and the running time of Wild in the Streets, so you do the math.


Come see the movie the folks of Winnipeg (the only city that ever embraced Brian De Palma's best feature) deemed worthy of an annual Phantompalooza. As I mentioned on my podcast episode for Phantom of the Paradise, I want to create in New York the kind of following De Palma's feature has received from the generous Canadians. Not only is De Palma's Phantom of the Opera/Faust/The Picture of Dorian Gray rock-musical adaptation a genuine masterpiece, it is bursting at the seams with unapologetically catchy Paul Williams tunes. If you can leave this movie without at least one song stuck in your head, you don't like fun.