TwoBoots Tagged Articles at Cinematical

How will you spend the 7th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks? Here's an idea: head to NYC's Two Boots Pioneer Theater for the opening night screening of Able Danger, an acclaimed independent film based around the conspiracy theory that U.S. intelligence was involved in the planning and execution of the tragic events on the morning of that infamous date. Even if you think the idea of a 9/11 conspiracy is ludicrous and in poor taste, the premiere screening should be interesting, because writer-director Paul Krik will be on hand for a Q&A. And this is the sort of city where people will likely show up for a debate. Of course, while subsequent screenings throughout the film's one-week engagement won't be attended by Krik, there could still be some engaging conversation to be had with fellow audience members. So if you can't make the initial showing, don't worry about missing out on all the fun.

The film, which stars Elina Löwensohn (Nadja) and Adam Nee, is a fictional thriller (Variety labels it a mix between The Maltese Falcon and Kiss Me Deadly) about a couple of 9/11 "truthers" attempting to expose the conspiracy using a hard-drive filled with data thought to be destroyed by a real classified government program named Able Danger. It had its world premiere back in January at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and has since screened at the Cannes Film Market (aka the Marche du Film) and opened the Brooklyn International Film Festival, where it won a special award of excellence. For more on the film, check out the website, where you can use a plane-shaped cursor to click on explosive links located on a graphic of the World Trade Center (classy!). You can also watch the film's trailer below, after the jump.

There's nothing tackier than a Memorial Day sunburn. Come point and laugh at mine, tonight in New York City. Our friend The Reeler is hosting a screening of Lodge Kerrigan's Keane tonight at the Pioneer Theater on the Lower East Side, and after the movie I'll be sitting in on a discussion with Kerrigan, Lawrence Levi, and The Reeler himself, S.T. VanAirsdale.

You probably blinked and missed Keane when it was released late last summer, but the film (which was nominated for Independent Spirit and Gotham Awards alongside films like Brokeback Mountain and Capote) produced some of my favorite pullquotes of 2005. Manohla Dargis' review opened like this: "Lodge Kerrigan keeps such a tight watch on the title character in Keane that at times you think the camera is going to crawl in the man's ear to take a look inside." In The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern wrote, "This isn't entertainment in any conventional sense, but it's a mesmerizing film all the same." And, in positing Keane as the indie flipside to the Jodie Foster hit Flightplan, Roger Ebert took an opportunity to philosophize on the nature of filmgoing: "The complete filmgoer is open to the movie on the screen, and asks it to work in its own ways for its own purposes."

Tonight's event starts at 6:30. If none of the above seems like reason enough to head downtown, know that there will be free beer and pizza after the discussion, courtesy of Two Boots and Magic Hat -- for ticketholders only. You can buy tickets here; for more info, click here.