On Demand Weekly

Editor's Note: BROOKLYN BOHEME is now available on demand (FilmBuff).

Media savant T Tara Turk goes deep inside cable TV to reveal Video On Demand's Hidden Gems so even the busiest of our readers can get the most out of On Demand TV. Tell Tara what VOD shows you think deserves her attention.

BROOKLYN BOHEME

By T. Tara Turk

The first time I moved to New York from Detroit for college, one of the first things I did was go straight to Prospect Park to see the place where Spike Lee filmed his bike scene with Denzel Washington for MO BETTA BLUES. This was a clear sign that I was going to be apart of this movement, whatever it was, since my sights to see were vastly different from the usual.

BROOKLYN BOHEME on Showtime On Demand is Writer/Critic/Filmmaker Nelson George’s documentary on the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene and it’s popular 1990s art scene.

It is a beautiful love story

much like that of Woody Allen to New York or Paris

or Scorsese's tribute to Manhattan.

Very few filmmakers could shoot this Brooklyn relationship (although poet/writer/filmmaker Pierre Bennu is one I think who could compliment this one brilliantly) because it’s really something you had to be there to see. I know youngsters hate hearing older people say that (gasp- when did I put myself in that latter group?) but it’s definitely true. If you weren’t there and you’re keen to see how a renaissance gets started, you’ll love this labor of truth from George.

Nelson George (Courtesy of Showtime)

George’s doc is comprised of very personal interviews with very known people (mostly because they are his friends) like Chris Rock, Spike Lee, Rosie Perez, Talib Kweli, Lisa Jones and Saul Williams to name a few.

The chapters of the doc are chronological, starting with the early inhabitants of the then super regular and ungentrified neighborhood, which include Lee, Vernon Reid and Branford Marsalis. This was time when most of those up and coming artists were mostly kids of Brooklynite parents or children of jazz musicians who bought homes in Fort Greene early on due the price and location to the West Village (just two stops away). But then this kids starting creating magical art like “School Days” and stayed in the neighborhood where they worked thus creating a movement of familial synergy and cultural discourse that would last for years on end.

Media savant T Tara Turk is turning her attention to Original Web Series. Tell Tara what shows you think she should review.

Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

By T. Tara Turk

Don’t get excited! Not all of them in one car! That would be a clown car. Ba-dum-bum.

These are really the last three episodes of Jerry’s coffee runs with his celebrity friends and I’m sad! I enjoy these. But Seinfeld couldn’t have found the more perfect comedians to end this run with. Two episodes are deliciously similar - something I think that Seinfeld intended to do - and one is quite unexpectedly somber.

Let’s start off light though with the deliciously similar episodes. One, Jerry has an elegant coffee run in a 1970 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Two with the legendary Carl Reiner to start. Both are in suits like The Blues Brothers and are almost as funny. Carl tells Jerry that every night for the past 62 years, his best friend, Mel Brooks, has come over for dinner. And we get to see this amazing ritual later.

Jerry: You never go to his house?
Carl: He’s younger by four years! He drives better!

Sure enough, later, Brooks comes over bringing essentially an entire deli with him. While this could be an understandable 10 minutes of Seinfeld sucking up to his idols, it’s actually a bit more than that. It’s us getting to sit in on three comic geniuses - the two elder gentlemen tell great stories from BLAZING SADDLES to THE PRODUCERS and the other who listens like we do. As Brooks/Reiner rattle off comedians that they have spotted and knew would be huge.

Jerry: Chris Rock? That was 1996. This is 2012.
Mel: This is 2012?!?!?! I have so many appointments…

Other topics include:

- Louie CK (who admires his business acumen?)
- “Get Smart” (who thought of the shoe phone?)
- BLAZING SADDLES (what did Billy Wilder say to Mel?)
- THE PRODUCERS (what almost prevented Mel from making THE PRODUCERS?)
- Henry Mancini’s big band latin version of “Springtime For Hitler”


Next Jerry visits Colin Quinn and Mario Joyner in the now hipster section of Brooklyn, much to Quinn’s shagrin.