Training Day is a 2001 film starring Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris, a corrupt Los Angeles police officer, and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a new recruit looking to become a part of Harris’s elite narcotics unit. The entire movie takes place over a single, intense 24-hour period that forever changes the lives of both officers.
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The inclement weather is making indoor activities more desirable. This holiday weekend is the ideal time to check out a film. Here are our O&A weekend movie picks guaranteed to get you Out and About. Continue reading
Cabaret is a 1972 musical film directed by Bob Fosse and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. The film is set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1931, under the ominous presence of the growing Nazi Party. Cabaret holds the record for most Academy Award wins in a single year without winning the highest honor, Best Picture, with eight awards. The film won the Academy Award for Best Director for Bob Fosse, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey, and five more technical awards. It lost the Best Picture award to The Godfather, which won three awards.
Fall is here! As we bid summer a fond farewell the new season ushers in a whirlwind of arts events. We have classic cars in the Bronx, a watershed moment in dance in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the “Queen of disco” is re-crowned Off Broadway and there are Killer Heels in Brooklyn that would make Nancy Sinatra “walk all over you”. Here are a few of the many events happening in the city that never sleeps guaranteed to keep you Out and About. Continue reading
Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach’s Rascals) began in 1922 as a series of silent short subjects produced by the Roach studio. The series is about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way, as Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. Continue reading
The Band Wagon is a 1953 musical comedy film that many critics rank, along with Singin’ in the Rain, as the finest of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals despite only a modest box-office success. The film tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway play will restart his career. The play’s director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of Faust, and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star.
The songs were written by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, and some were created for the original 1931 Broadway musical also called The Band Wagon. The Broadway production featured a book by George S. Kaufman and starred Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. The movie’s dances and musical numbers were staged by Michael Kidd.
On The Town, the 1949 MGM musical film is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944. Both the theatre and film productions are based on the Jerome Robbins ballet entitled Fancy Free, which was also produced in 1944. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
With an all-star song and dance cast including Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Ann Miller, Betty Garrett and Vera Ellen the film was an instant success. On The Town won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography (Color). Screenwriters Comden and Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical. Continue reading
Who else but Grace Jones could have played the over the top model/fashion icon Helen Strangé in the 1992 romantic comedy Boomerang. The model turned song stylist and actress used her exotic and erotic persona to create Strangé. Jones dominates these two scenes with outragous, broad humor. Continue reading
Oprah Winfrey portrayed Sofia in the 1985 movie version of Alice Walkers novel The Color Purple. The role was Winfrey’s first venture into film and for many remains her most recognizable role. Winfrey was the high-spirited and independent Sophia who marries Albert’s (Danny Glovers) son Harpo (Willard E. Pugh). Sofia has suffered abuse from the men in her family, but unlike Celie (Whoopie Goldberg), she refuses to tolerate it. This high-spiritedness proves to be her downfall, as a rude remark to the town mayor’s wife and a retaliatory punch to the mayor himself ends with Sofia beaten and jailed. Continue reading
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 
The Dance of the Village Elders are back ! This time we exercise, dance and just have fun through the zoom platform or in-person at R.A.I.N. Nereid 
