Gossip Central

Ethan Hawke Lights Up Tesla

In director Michael Almereyda’s poetic hands, genius inventor Nikola Tesla is an absorbing if brooding subject. In Almereyda’s latest movie Tesla, he is the focus, and played by Ethan Hawke who had starred as Hamlet—the archetypical absorbing if brooding subject-- in Almereyda’s 2000 movie. Here Tesla fascinates, having also been depicted, a secondary character in 2019, in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s The Current War, played by Nicholas Hoult. In this past December’s run-ups to Oscars, in the last gasp of influencer screenings, Michael Shannon who stars as George Westinghouse in that movie asked if the Motion Picture Academy members were paying attention to that very special and important truth-based drama. Alas, I had to report, they were not. This glimpse of history was simply not electric. And Almereyda’s movie, now screening as part of a tribute to his oeuvre at the Museum of the Moving Image, may not be on the awards radar either, but in its poetry of image, performance, an a-chronology of vision, it is a bold and beautiful work, and memorable for Ethan Hawke’s Tesla. You’ve gotta love his slightly off rendition of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

Poetry in a Pandemic: Bukowski, Towle, Giorno, La Prade

For Charles Bukowski’s 100^th birthday, coronavirus or not, attention must be paid. Famous in movies portrayed by Mickey Rourke (Barfly) and Matt Dillon (Factotum), the subject of a 1973 documentary by Taylor Hackford, Bukowski was a one-of-a-kind, sexy despite huge facial crevices left by acne, crude: he once described writing a poem was like taking a big bear shit. Now there’s a new documentary assembled from a rare, rediscovered 1981 interview by Silvia Bizio, an Italian journalist, You Never Had It-An Evening with Bukowski, directed by Matteo Borgardt, and whether or not you agree with Bukowski’s view of poetry composition, it is a must-see for a glimpse of this boozing, chain-smoker who fascinates with every word.

Blair Underwood’s Ecstatic Face in The Pack, a Virtual Premiere at Guild Hall

The season would not be eh, the season without all-star comedy from Eugene Pack. He was back virtually on Sunday premiering a program of 3 short works to benefit Guild Hall, starring Matthew Broderick and John Leguizamo performing together for the first time, Blair Underwood and Sherri Shepherd, and Rachel Dratch, Cecily Strong, Andrea Martin, Santino Fontana and Maulik Pancholy. The talented Dayle Reyfel, Pack’s partner and frequent ensemble player, appeared in an unusual way. The playlets inaugurated the final leg of a series that will include some live, distanced, performances in the Guild Hall garden, all sold out. Reached by phone in LA, playwright/ performer, Eugene Pack said he is busy bringing actors together, but he wants everyone to know The Pack owes more to film, although it sounds more like an innovative hybrid, reflecting our current states of creativity.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer on Author’s Night: Sex Talk in Brief

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, now 92, gets hot and heavy talking about sex. This year’s Author’s Night being different from all others, her talk was on Zoom, no touching allowed. Which does not mean it was phone sex, or phoned in. One of the joys of listening to the pint-sized therapist who loves to boast that her grandkids are taller than she is, is hearing her say the words vagina and penis with aplomb, whether or not the discussion calls for it. That’s part of her schtick, getting people used to the vocabulary, and the action. This year she is celebrating a reissue of her Heavenly Sex, dispensing the wisdom of the sages on her subject. “In the Jewish tradition,” she says, “sex is an obligation between husband and wife,” especially on Friday night, the beginning of the Sabbath. The sages were the best at sex therapy, she opines, because they suggested the man say to his wife, you are the best, an effective aphrodisiac. A husband can enter the vagina from behind, leaving the clitoris for stimulation. Good to know.

Charlize Theron in The Old Guard: Some Myths Don’t Die

From the look of Charlize Theron throughout her new Netflix movie, The Old Guard, immortality is not what it’s cracked up to be. Grimacing while engaging in the most athletic combat against warriors, scientists and opportunists who want to package her “gift,” she’s not having it. Called “Andy,” short for Andromache, so you know she goes back to Greek myth, she has already endured the fall of Troy and murder of her son. But through the ages, with medieval torture repeated endlessly, she’s the embodiment of the Myth of Sisyphus. Loneliness, watching loved ones die, may be worse, or facing drowning over decades as she does, having committed the sin of witchcraft alongside fellow immortal Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo), encased in an Iron Maiden. And yes, a legend Andy is, all fierce, her body finely tuned, not a gussied-up Wonder Woman. Watching Andy go through her paces is thrilling.