Not too far into Kelly Reichardt’s latest road trip film, Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams), the slight, dark-haired drifter in cut-offs and hoodie, has been dragged into the manager’s office at Jack’s Market for stealing a roll and a can of I AM’s dog food.

You can tell the manager would like to let this go.

“Well,” he says with a sigh to his zealous clerk, “what are we talking here?”

But Andy (John Robinson), the blond teen-ager who’s “watched the whole thing,” his face red and blotchy with indignation, the gold cross at his throat flashing, insists it’s not the money, it’s about setting an example.

“I’m not from around here,” says Wendy quickly, sensing an opening that diffident apologies had not provided...

CATEGORY: Movies

TAGS: Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond, Nancy Keefe Rhodes, Michelle Williams

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“Why do you like me?” asks Nazneen (Bengali actress Tannishtha Chatterjee) one day of her younger lover, the hip, hunky, London-reared Karim (Christopher Simpson).

“Who says I like you?” he answers, suddenly shy. But when pressed into emotional territory Nazneen has never entered with her older husband, Karim says she’s unlike the modern girls with their mini-skirts or the religious girls, always arguing. He says she’s “the real thing” – a girl from a village in their homeland of Bangladesh.

It’s this exchange that a friend of mine recalled most vividly from Monica Ali’s 2003 novel, "Brick Lane," an exchange that made it into director Sarah Gavron’s 2007 film version of the same title...

CATEGORY: Movies

TAGS: Brick Lane, Sarah Gavron, Monica Ali, Bangladesh, London, 9/11, Nancy Keefe Rhodes

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You’d need a heart of stone not to love this movie on the night it premiered at Art Rage in late January. Consider the event itself a kind of triple whammy. First the packed, enthusiastic crowd itself, which included many members and friends of the Community Choir. The audience lining the walls easily doubled those in the folded chairs filling the center of the room. The Community Choir’s 20th anniversary concert three years ago is the subject of “Giving Voice,” Mišo Suchý’s half-hour documentary.

Then, the gallery walls themselves held the exhibition “Voices of Diversity,” more than 100 of Lida Suchý’s black-and-white photos of Choir members. These are arresting and powerful, some large format single shots and some arranged in grids of up to twelve images...

CATEGORY: Movies

TAGS: Syracuse Community Choir, Karen Mihalyi, Miso Suchy, Lida Suchy, Giving Voice, Voices of Diversity, Nancy Keefe Rhodes

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