2. @SUMMER STAGE Central Park NYC

3. on Aseret Yemay Teshuva - September 10th  tix here

What better way to do TESHUVA then to really listen to someone who's been trying to find his way all year long?  We'd put big money that he'll have the beard by the time this concert rolls around... what do you think?

Yes, we know you are obsessed with Hatufim (Homeland) and Srugim (your lame dating life), but such outstanding films are coming out of the holy land it's only a matter of time until Hollywood starts ripping off more and more of Israel's finest.

So now is your chance to get in on it early - below is the schedule of top films in Israel showing in NYC next week. Just in time for Yom Haaztmaut.

Take a date, make a night out of it - and get in on this amazing festival ACHSHAV!

THURSDAY, APR 11

07:30pm

Opening Night - The World is Funny

SVA Theater

FRIDAY, APR 12

10:30am

The World is Funny

The JCC in Manhattan

SATURDAY, APR 13

07:00pm	By Summer's End	Cinema Village
07:30pm	Israel in Short	Beth Elohim
09:00pm	The World is Funny	Cinema Village
09:00pm	The Ballad of the Weeping Spring	The JCC in Manhattan

SUNDAY, APR 14

 

05:00pm	By Summer's End	The JCC in Manhattan
05:00pm	The Ballad of the Weeping Spring	Cinema Village
07:00pm	Rock the Casbah	The JCC in Manhattan
07:00pm	Dr. Pomerantz	Cinema Village
09:00pm	Through His Eyes	The JCC in Manhattan
09:00pm	Lola	Cinema Village

 

MONDAY, APR 15

 

06:00pm	Poli's Final Sketch	The JCC in Manhattan
06:00pm	Rock the Casbah	Cinema Village
07:30pm	By Summer's End	Beth Elohim
08:00pm	God's Neighbors	The JCC in Manhattan
08:00pm	Through His Eyes	Cinema Village

 

TUESDAY, APR 16

 

02:00pm	Through His Eyes	Center for Jewish History
06:00pm	Poli's Final Sketch	Cinema Village
08:00pm	God's Neighbors	Cinema Village
08:00pm	Israel in Short	The JCC in Manhattan

 

WEDNESDAY, APR 17

 

06:00pm	Lola	The JCC in Manhattan
06:00pm	Israel in Short	Cinema Village
07:30pm	Lola	Beth Elohim
08:00pm	CLOSING NIGHT - Fill the Void	The JCC in Manhattan
08:00pm	Dr. Pomerantz	Cinema Village

 

THURSDAY, APR 18

 

07:00pm	Dr. Pomerantz	B'nai Jeshurun	CANCELLED
07:00pm	Wild Card Screening	Cinema Village
09:00pm	Wild Card Screening	Cinema Village

Mazal tov R' Bergoglio (see video of Pope Francis lighting the menorah below)

“Decreasing” aid packages to Israel from $2.3 billion a year to $3.1 billion  “I know it looks like it’s going up, but remember, in Hebrew, you read the chart from right to left.”

Day #9 and #10: awards, fruitvale and goodbyes

On Friday, John and I split up to see two different films. I was dying to see "C.O.G" which is a film based on David Sedaris' essay by the same name. John went to see "Pit Stop." Personally I wanted a little more from C.O.G. But probably because I think David Sedaris' most film-adaptable (I know that's not a word) essays are the ones about his hilariously crazy family, not so much about his time apple picking in Oregon. I actually shot my hand up during the Q&A and asked the director how he chose this particular essay by David over all the other ones. He explained that he wasn't setting out to make a David Sedaris film, he wanted to tell this one story. Mental note: write a David Sedaris script based on "Me Talk Pretty One Day." The best part of that screening was that I was in really close proximity to the hilarious Casey Wilson ("Happy Endings") who unfortunately was a small role in this film that in no way highlighted her talents. But being a mere five feet from her for 20 minutes makes me confident that we will one day become best friends and she will throw me an amazing bachelorette party for me when I marry Adam Scott. Did I mention that the air is thinner up here and my drinking habits went from questionable to AA-meeting worthy? Delusions come with that territory.

But anyway you don't want to hear about how John and I hung or at Our friend Scott's rental house and raided his fridge and sat on all 12 couches. No you want to hear about our DAY 10 which was pretty epic

Day 10: Epic
After nearly falling asleep at "JOBs" (the film was at 9am, it wasn't that bad, but that being said, it wasn't good) John and I jetted off to the highly anticipated film "Escape From Tomorrow!" As previously mentioned in this blog, we had met the director, producer, DP and main actors of this film and we actually had a real conversation with them. They are likely the most down to earth crew out here. They are also sitting on one of the most highly talked about controversial films at the festival. I mean they shot almost their entire film at Disneyworld without getting ANY permission from Disney. This is insane in the film world since we all know Disney can afford to sue anyone so it's a risky film for any distribution company to buy. In layman's terms: it was likely this was the only time this film might be shown before Disney muzzles it. The film is insane and actually John and I jointly wrote the review about it because we had to talk it out a bunch. John and I not only each asked a Q at the Q&A but we also chatted with the director and actor after, both remembered us, we feel special. We told them we'd see them at the award show that night

Cut to the awards show which was in a word surreal. First of all, John and I had tickets -  but we also signed up as media and were escorted to the media risers... Along with only two other venues.... Basically we had the best view ever.

Secondly, while I was double fisting my vodka sodas, we ran into our friends from "Escape from Tomorrow" we actually ended up seeing them a TON that night, forcing me to tell them we were not, in fact, stalking them. And then the awards began, they were possibly the most laid back, awesome awards show ever.

Joseph Gordon Levitt was beautiful and hilarious and was a great choice for host. John and I watched as we became more and more confused with which films were actually in competition! Many of the winners were films we had never heard of!!! We later heard that most of the Sundance winners are films which were not picked up for distribution and therefore a win gives them a shot in the spotlight.

The one film that did win, TWICE, was "Fruitvale" which caused me to cry for a millionth time as I watched the most humble and talented, Ryan Coogler just nail it with his speech. And then out of nowhere the awards were over and in a blink of an eye the giant room was transformed into a giant dance floor we all of a sudden realized we were at the coolest prom ever. During our schmoozing we spoke with the people of our favorite doc, "blackfish" our best friends from "Escape From Tomorrow" (I swear we are not following you, ok we might be following you), I met and hugged Ryan Coogler, the man who made me cry about 15 times this week, I gave Lake Bell my Bangitout card at the same moment someone gave her a stack of condoms, forcing Lake to say, "now I can Bangitout safely." I mean a lot of things happened, a Congo line began, I may have started speaking French to some Parisian filmmakers, John got in the center of the giant circle and danced like there was no tomorrow. Because there wasn't a tomorrow.

Sundance was over and real life is looming around the corner. This experience has been such a whirlwind, we are so grateful to Bangitout for taking a chance on us!

John and I could only hope that this isn't the last time we have the honor of being at this wondrous festival. This marks our final blog post. I want to thank my Mother who is the sole reader of these blogs, Mom, thanks for being our audience of one! Hoping to see you next year! Xx

I mean lets face it, we all want Ben Wyatt and Leslie Knope to exist in real life.

After the Q&A John and I were dead set on finding their after party, but in near defeat we decided to head back home, that is until our friend Scott, aka the man of the hour of every day, calls us, what were we doing? Slitting our wrists for not finding the ACOD party, why? "Oh, yeah that's at Cicero's on main, I'll get you guys in." And with that, John and I speed over to main and I proceed to power call Scott to tell him we were outside. But since Scott has a real job for a real distribution company, he was running late. John and I were losing our shit, the only thing keeping us from Adam and Amy (we WILL be on a first name basis so help me god) was a thin sheet of glass. But our luck was about to change because as John and I know from years of experience at these kinds of things, cigarettes may kill but they also bring people together and sure enough as John and I were waiting outside, Adam Scott and Amy Poehler popped out so Adam could smoke. Trying to keep our cool we didn't say anything at first until some random person asked us to take a photo of Adam Scott and then we jumped in. Unfortunately for us, and mainly for John, Amy went inside and we never saw her again. BUT we did get to chat with Adam Scott and take a photo with him, he was worried about burning me with his cigarette which I'm pretty sure is code for "I love you." So don't be surprised when I change my Facebook relationship status to "it's complicated." I'm coming for you Adam, 3,000 miles can't keep us apart. Sure enough Scott arrives and waltzes us in, we would have smacked him for being late if we didn't want to kiss him for getting us in. Amy was already gone but we did see Clark Duke and Jessica Alba (who was totally overdressed, we are in the mountains my dear, anything but casual looks ridiculous.) After the party we went to some IFC house party that was just odd and drunk and strange, like a bunch of us kids got a hold of a giants mansion and we get to drink all the PBRs we want.

There was also another point to Wednesday that we missed. Apparently Wednesday was a celebration of volunteer day. Sundance has 1,400 volunteers and it was really fun to see them honored with a cute short film that played before every film throughout the day. These volunteers come from all over the world to stand in the cold and help people just so they can see some films, they are all interesting and I want to steal their red kenneth cole vests, which will happen.

This brings us to the actual day 8, the day of three films; "The Spectacular Now," "Fruitvale" and "Black Fish". I mean these three films were amazing, all were different and all moving. I recommend all three and we will post reviews for all three but what was by far the most moving part of the day was watching 26 year old writer-director of the film "Fruitvale" get the first and only standing ovation at Sundance. The film is incredibly moving about the true story of Oscar Grant who was shot for no reason by a cop in in new years eve in 2008, a spectacle that was recorded via cellphone photos and video. It's a film where you know the ending, you know what's about to happen, but you're still astonished. Ryan Coogler, the writer and director is such a humble guy with such a huge heart, he explained to the audience that the takeaway from the film should be for people to respect each other as human beings, to recognize that we are all on this Earth together, Ryan has wisdom beyond his years. Can't wait for what tomorrow brings.

A.C.O.D. stands for "Adult Children of Divorce" a subset of America who used to be the exception and are now the rule, as 1 in 2 marriages end in divorce. ACOD is about Carter, played by the great Adam Scott, who has spent his entire life being the middleman between his two divorced parents.  Carter seemingly has his life together, he has a great job and a girlfriend of four years.Upon learning that his younger brother just got engaged to a girlfriend of four months, Carter is thrown back into his familiar role as the go-between. While attempting to get his parents in the same room, Carter seeks out the help from his childhood therapist.  Having not seen this therapist Dr. Judith, played by the hilarious Jane Lynch, since the horrific divorce of his parents on his 9th birthday, Carter is thrown into the past he spent his entire adult life trying to avoid. Dr. Judith has the unfortunate task of telling Carter that she was not, in fact, a therapist, but a researcher studying the effects of divorce on children and was the author of her best-selling book in the subject, which featured Carter amongst several other children.  Carter must acknowledge yet another betrayal from his parents and it is within this vulnerable state that Dr. Judith convinces Carter to be apart of the sequel to her book, Adult Children of Divorce. With a somewhat heavy topic of divorce, this film is magically hilarious. Carter's parents, played by the great Catherine O'Hara and Richard Jenkins, are quite possibly the funniest duo to offset the straight man, Carter. Watching this lovable modern family come to grips with the facts of love and marriage and their necessary evils is refreshing and poignant. With so many adult children of divorce out there with so many fears of marriage, this film reminds you that living in fear isn't living and most importantly, you need to laugh through it all.

After this screening John and I hunkered down and did some actual work! We then made our way to our second screening of the day "We are what we are." I am not really a fan of horror films but this one was gripping and entertaining and truly mashed up a drama with a horror film. This film literally made me jump out of my seat. There are so many "holy shit" moments that you will have to see to believe!

After the screening I met up with Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz. John and I were at a party the other day and and were told about this Jewish rapper who was trying to raise money for his kickstarter. I was completely intrigued! Knowing nothing about the man I sent him a text and met him in the back of a store on Main Street. Kosha Dillz is one of those people that walks into a room and befriends everyone in the first five minutes. I was humbled to hear that he performed at the Grammys and was in one of the big Super Bowl commercials last year! Here I thought I was meeting a newbie only to realize that this man had spent over ten years making a name for himself!

What was the most interesting part of our chat was that he told me several people had advised him to change his name to become more mainstream friendly. Kosha dillz was a little too Jewish apparently. But he refused and that's something truly honorable! The trend of Jews changing their names to fit into a "mainstream" industry will hopefully come to an end soon, and maybe Kosha Dillz can lead the way!

Stoker, directed by the highly talented Korean director Chan-wook Park, begins with the death of India’s father, Richard Stoker played by Dermot Mulroney, on her 18th birthday. From the opening credits you are instantly drawn into the story and can appreciate the beauty that is about to unfold. Park has created a world where you wear cocktail dresses and cashmere sweaters to dinner by candlelight. You are able to walk into your backyard to go hunting because you live on acres of land. The Stokers are a family of wealth. Although India, played by Mia Wasikowska seems to remain as plain as can be, that is until her mysterious uncle Charlie, played by Matthew Goode, arrives. India’s mother, played by Nicole Kidman, suddenly has a flash of light during her time of mourning. Charlie and India begin to form an unusual relationship that puts them in compromising situations. India is drawn to her uncle whom she think looks like her father. Her mother gives her very little guidance and at a crucial time in her entering adulthood she reluctantly listens to the words of her uncle. Questioning his behavior yet intrigued by him, India discovers things about herself she didn’t know existed. Mia and Matthew have fantastic chemistry with a creepy demeanor. Their glares and grins leave the audience wondering where is this story taking you and will India follow the appropriate path. Nicole Kidman’s character is beautifully distant towards her daughter and becomes increasingly jealous of the newfound relationship between her and Charlie. Her disapproval of her daughter’s behavior climaxes at the end leaving India to make a crucial decision.

The cinematography and editing of this film are incredible, with seamless transitions. Park took an eerie tale of self-discovery and added his genius to create a fantastically beautiful portrait of an American family with too many skeletons in the closet. Park had a hand in every detail of this film, down to the jewelry the actors wore, and it is within this attention to detail where his genius thrives. Stoker is a must see.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/01/18/world/middleeast/100000002012773/parodies-in-israeli-politics.html?ref=world

Not sure if you heard about the film "Top of the Lake" it's about a pregnant teenager who stands in a freezing lake refusing to admit who the father of her unborn child is, oh and it's six hours long. Yeah, six hours which is like a flight from New York to LA.

Anyway, I did not see the film but we did end up going to a panel which was actually about Indy films and television. Working in television this was a panel I was psyched to see until I saw my self proclaimed nemeses; the creators of the six hour film, patting their own backs. But after I calmed down it became clear that the Sundance channel was going to air "Top of the Lake" as a mini series, OHHHHHHH! Why didn't you just tell us that? Had I heard that someone was going to have a showing of Season 1 of Breaking Bad in a theatre I would be happy to sit down for 12 hours! It only annoyed my as these Indy film people discussed their new roles as working "in television."

LUCKILY one if the producers from "Breaking Bad" was on the panel and was my saving grace, (he gets it) as opposed to the writer and director of "Top of the Lake" (and likely an obscenely brilliant woman) who explained that she doesn't watch tv. Talk shit about anything you want but the minute you put down television is the minute I stop listening. That being said, I'm now really intrigued by the six hour MINI SERIES and will definitely be watching it this March.

The rest of the day was filled with a Louisiana party (amazing food) and a Korean film party (amazing food) and the premiere of "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman." The film was unique and fun and it makes you never really want to visit Bucharest, but it does give you total respect for Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood (not to mention Vincent D'onofrio makes a cameo and all your Law and Order CI nostalgia comes rolling back, we miss you Vincent!).

The best part of the film was watching the Q&A with the Swedish director Fredrik Bond, who was our dancing bestie at the Thursday night party and who I sang "Good and Plenty" with... He is so full of life and he literally thanked every person in the film as if he was accepting an Emmy, it was adorable. The whole cast and crew were best friends. The film is actually about a love story and seeing the cast and crew up there really filled the whole theatre with love.

So as I was plotting my revenge and thinking up a fantastic bagel brunch where me and the film Jews would spin dreidels, knit yarmulkas and laugh til the manischewitz flew out of our noses, I got a text from my friend Scott: "Where was I?"

He was at a big football party had I RSVPed? Considering I later had to ask someone if what we were watching was the Super Bowl, it's pretty clear I avoid football at all costs and likely saw a football party and ignored it.

Like an idiot. Scott told me to come down there but said that mot people were being turned away even if they WERE on the list. I figured I would give it the ole college try.

Sure enough as I'm about to enter and as three LA PR people were about to thwart my advances, I hear a flurry behind me and see none other than Martin Starr (known for "Knocked Up" and "Superbad") and his hipster entourage.

The LA PR people shuffled away to get sir Martin Starr and his friends right into the party. Maybe I slightly suggested that I was with them or maybe I just didn't correct them when they asked me but either way, I was in and the next thing I know I'm riding up the elevator with Martin deciding whether I should thank him for unknowingly sneaking me in, instead as we were exiting the elevator I pointed a finger at him and said, "you're great!" and he replied, "wow thank you, YOU'RE great" and with that I went to enter the party.

Rooftop overlooking main street with a full bar and a champagne ice luge outside, not too shabby. Many celebs were in and out including Megan Mullally and her "parks and rec" husband Ron Swanson (real name, Nick Offerman), it is possible I said look there's Ron Swansom and it's possible he heard me because he walked the other way.

 You win some you lose some, it's hard to keep your cool after a few free drinks.

An hour later as I was pretending to understand the rules of football I see a familiar face walk by me, Michael B Jordan, aka Wallace from "the wire" aka the kid from "Friday night lights" and "parenthood." I had actually worked on a tv show with his sister and was psyched to have a real conversation starter!

 I called his name out and told him I knew his sister and how I loved Wallace from the Wire (we all did) he then gave me a hug and was a total sweetheart.

He's actually in town for a film called "fruitvale" which got amazing reviews and a film we get to see on Thursday, review to follow.

After a few more cocktails and after Scott got an earful about my dislike of Paris Hilton who was blocking our way to the champagne luge, I decided it was time to go. John and I had premiere tickets for the highly pumped up film, "Stoker" written by Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) and directed by the phenomenal Korean director Park Chan Wook, this man is an absolute genius and being in his presence was an honor, especially as John and I made our way to the press line and I was standing next to AP and E with my dinky point and shoot camera. Of course we got glimpses of Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode (gorgeous).

The movie lived up to our high standards, it was pure cinematic genius with incredible direction, brilliant and beautiful editing and just perfect acting. I mean the story was dark and totally messed up, but this film was just so gorgeously done, you just want to see it again and study it.

Director Park does not speak a word of English so his translator was center stage during the Q&A.

Every actor on that stage confessed that they were all dying to work with Park and would have flown across the world to be in five minutes of one of his master pieces (mental note, Netflix every Park Chan Wook film ever created).

Matthew Goode explained that in the beginning of production each actor got a giant binder filled with drawings of shot for shot of the film. Park picked out every little detail of the film, everything was on purpose and everything meant something. John and I decided we hated anyone who hated this film and that we needed to learn Korean immediately so we can spend the rest of our lives being Park's translator.