City Cinemas Village East Cinema

11:30 AM, 1:30 PM, 3:30 PM, 5:30 PM, 7:30 PM

11:10 AM, 1:10 PM, 3:10 PM, 5:10 PM, 7:10 PM, 9:10 PM

Fluid, open-ended documentaries that demand more of an audience than foregone assent or fleeting bouts of passive outrage are rare these days, which is what makes Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man such a gift. In telling the tale of... More »

Fluid, open-ended documentaries that demand more of an audience than foregone assent or fleeting bouts of passive outrage are rare these days, which is what makes Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man such a gift. In telling the tale of Sixto Rodriguez, a Mexican-American balladeer from Detroit who cut a couple of tepidly received LPs in the late '60s, vanished amid hazy rumors of onstage suicide, and subsequently became an Elvis-sized rock god in South Africa, the Swedish filmmaker sidesteps arthritic VH1-style "where are they now" antics in favor of a more equivocal interrogation of celebrity culture. Bendjelloul interviews pertinent Rodriguez-saga parties in standard rock-doc style, including the hilariously combative former Motown bigwig and Sussex Records (Rodriguez's label) founder Clarence Avant, as well as the singer-songwriter’s charming, touchingly loyal grown daughters. It's no huge surprise when Rodriguez himself turns up, still living the same modest existence as before his brush with micro-fame, but it does dispel the impression that Bendjelloul has been punking us. Better still, Rodrigue's casual disinterest in p.r.-blitzing his resurrection and apparent contentment with an ordinary working life lets Searching for Sugar Man hold up a mirror to what we’ve come to expect — and cynically refuse to accept — from artists in an age of pervasive, entitled notoriety. « Less

11:00 AM, 1:05 PM, 3:10 PM, 5:15 PM, 7:20 PM, 9:25 PM

11:30 AM, 1:50 PM, 4:10 PM, 7:30 PM, 9:50 PM

11:45 AM, 2:15 PM, 4:45 PM, 7:15 PM, 9:45 PM

Mix a dollop of The Bourne Identity, a dash (or two) of Taken, and a pinch of the spy classic Three Days of the Condor (1975), stir it all together, and you get Erased, a thriller whose storytelling ingredients are so familiar that one could... More »

Mix a dollop of The Bourne Identity, a dash (or two) of Taken, and a pinch of the spy classic Three Days of the Condor (1975), stir it all together, and you get Erased, a thriller whose storytelling ingredients are so familiar that one could watch it with the sound off and still know what's going on. Aaron Eckhart is Ben Logan, a recently widowed private security analyst living in Brussels who awakes one morning to find his office empty, his co-workers in the morgue, and his personal identity wiped away. With his rebellious teenage daughter, Amy (Liana Liberato), in tow, Ben begins dodging assassins. As luck would have it, he's a retired black ops operative, so, game on. German director Philipp Stölzl proves adept at staging fight scenes in confined spaces, and has fun with a bob-and-weave train station pursuit. The movie zips along nicely for a while, but once screenwriter Arash Amel begins explaining the vast conspiracy Ben has stumbled upon, action gives way to talky angst. Eckhart is too lively an actor for material this mundane, although a Liam Neeson hand-me-down is probably irresistible in today's marketplace. Can Erased Again be far behind? « Less

5:30 PM, 8:00 PM, 10:20 PM

In April, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned from office, five months after Palestine received non-member observer state status at the United Nations. The new documentary State 194 teases apart Fayyad's efforts to make Palestine the... More »

In April, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned from office, five months after Palestine received non-member observer state status at the United Nations. The new documentary State 194 teases apart Fayyad's efforts to make Palestine the 194th member state of the U.N., and how those efforts were received in Palestine, Israel, and abroad. Filmmaker Dan Setton highlights the grinding political processes that halted the realization of a two-state solution and full recognition of Palestine. The best part of State 194 is its domesticity, its low-key approach to a conflict that has been widely sensationalized in the media. Fayyad is depicted not just as an international spokesperson for a peaceful struggle, but as a man whose wife criticizes him for not packing enough oil in with the olives. He is Westernized and palatable to American and Israeli leadership—and to many Palestinians. The heated, urgent talk here comes from activists-- from the rallying masses of youth in Ramallah calling for a united front rather than Fatah's and Hamas's factionalization of the Palestinian nationalist movement, to the rage-filled speech of an Israeli woman urging Palestine's recognition. Fayyad expresses hope for his country, but his personal comfort and privilege--the ability to travel, to access sufficient water-- suggest that his hardships are more ideological than the harsh realities faced by many Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Is the two-state solution more appealing to Westerners with the ability to ignore the conflict? Will Palestine gain international recognition? The film delivers no answers, but it ably articulates how important it will be to keep asking those questions. « Less

12:15 PM, 2:50 PM, 7:00 PM

11:30 AM, 1:30 PM, 3:30 PM, 5:30 PM, 7:30 PM, 9:30 PM