RED BANK: BASIE TAKES OVER MOVIE THEATER

For several months, posters outside the pandemic-idled Bow Tie Cinemas have read: “This is not a Hollywood ending. This is a Red Bank beginning.” (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank nj Despite facing an uncertain post-pandemic future itself, Red Bank’s Count Basie Center for the Arts has added a two-screen movie theater to its portfolio.

The entertainment juggernaut has taken over the former Bow Tie Cinemas venue on White Street, the Basie said in an announcement Monday.

September 7, 2020 - 6:54 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: INDIE FILMS TO LIGHT UP SCREENS

The trailer for ‘I Am Another You,’ a documentary about a young man who chooses to live on the streets, screens as a free, community-welcome entry at this week’s Indie Street Film Festival. Below, artist Ron Haywood Jones‘s mural for the festival at 97 Broad Street remained unfinished Tuesday morning because of rain interruptions. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Its community mural may still need some finishing touches, thanks to uncooperative weather. Still, the third annual Indie Street Film Festival kicks off in Red Bank Wednesday evening, ushering in a five-day rush of innovative cinema, movie talk and parties.

A project of the filmmaker cooperative Indie Street (working in partnership with Red Bank RiverCenter), the festival spreads decidedly non-Hollywood magic across the borough’s theaters, restaurants, night spots, and even the middle school auditorium. And there’s a free, community-welcome screening mixed in among the orange-pass-only fare.

Check out the festival schedule below; information about passes and tickets can be found here.

July 25, 2018 - 7:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: ‘MARK FELT’ SCREENING AT BOW TIE

Follow the Movie: Liam Neeson stars in “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House,” which gets a sneak preview screening in Red Bank Thursday.

“Follow the money,” said the shadowy figure known as Deep Throat to reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), in the fact-based thriller All the President’s Men.

Many years later, the informant who helped break open the Watergate investigation was revealed to be former FBI associate director W. Mark Felt,subject of a new bio-drama that stars Liam Neeson and screens in a special sneak-preview showing this Thursday at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

September 26, 2017 - 12:30 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: ‘MAUDIE’ THURSDAY AT BOW TIE

Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke star inhe bio-pic feature ‘Maudie,’ screening in a Thursday sneak-preview fundraiser at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge.)

She was the very definition of an “outsider artist:” a young woman crippled by arthritis and living a below-radar existence as a housekeeper in a Nova Scotia fishing village, whose colorful way of seeing the world elevated her to the status of Canada’s most cherished folk-art painter. Just as unlikely, and equally compelling, is the bond between Maud Lewis and her employer, the relationship at the heart of the biographical feature film “Maudie.”

A 2016 festival favorite that’s slated for general release in the United States on Friday, the film from director Aisling Walsh gets a sneak-peek screening Thursday as part of a special series at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

June 14, 2017 - 11:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: ‘PARIS’ IN THE SPRING

Alec Baldwin, Diane Lane and Arnaud Viard star in ‘Paris Can Wait,’ screening in a Thursday sneak-preview fundraiser at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

It maybe has some catching up to do with the likes of Cannes, but when it comes to being a mecca for first-run independent/”arthouse” feature films, Red Bank has long led the local pack — a fact that’s attributable primarily to White Street’s Bow Tie Cinemas (and its predecessor, Clearview Cinemas).

For most of the new millennium, the downtown movie house has done duty as official host venue for a series of sneak-preview screening events, spotlighting festival-favorite indies before they go into general release. Part of a long-running partnership between borough-based nonprofit Monmouth Arts and Sony Pictures Classics (the major distributor whose president, Tom Bernard, makes his home in Middletown), the series unspools once more this Thursday, May 11, with a 7:30 p.m. showing of “Paris Can Wait.”

May 9, 2017 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: SNEAK PEEK AT ‘THE COMEDIAN’

Robert De Niro in ‘The Comedian,’ screening in a Thursday sneak-preview fundraiser at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

It’s the latest entry in a series that’s offered a first look at features by Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola. And this Thursday, audiences here on the Greater Red Bank Green have an opportunity to catch Robert De Niro in The Comedian one day prior to its going wide on screens from coast to coast.

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February 1, 2017 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: INDIE FEST SEEKS SUBMISSIONS

The organizers of last summer’s five-day Indie Street Film Festival in Red Bank, promoted above on a mural at Monmouth Street and Maple Avenue, plan to return next July, and are accepting film submissions, they announced Monday.

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December 19, 2016 - 11:15 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: HOLLARS FOR DOLLARS, AT BOW TIE

Actor-director John Krasinski pushes a pregnant Anna Kendrick in ‘The Hollars,’ screening in a Thursday sneak-preview fundraiser at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

In addition to helping make downtown Red Bank a Milk Dud mecca for first-run independent/”arthouse” feature films, White Street’s Bow Tie Cinemas (and its predecessor, Clearview Cinemas) has done duty as official host venue for an attraction all our own: a series of sneak-preview screening events, spotlighting festival-favorite indies before they go into general release.

Part of a long-running partnership between the borough-based Monmouth County Arts Council and Sony Pictures Classics (the major distributor whose president, Tom Bernard, makes his home in Middletown), the sneak-peek series has offered Red Bank-area audiences a first look at works from veteran auteurs (Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola) and first-timers alike.

This Thursday, it’s “roll ’em” once more, with a 7:30 p.m. showing of “The Hollars,” a comedy-drama directed by (and starring) a familiar face from the workplace.

August 10, 2016 - 6:30 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: MOVIE SATURDAY ON INDIE STREET

The trailer for “65 Percent,” a documentary by Mike and Jon Altino of Middletown, screens at the Red Bank Middle School at 1 p.m.

Saturday-morning cartoons, a locally made documentary and shorts-in-a-bunch enliven Saturday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway in Red Bank Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.

Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers. Read More »

July 8, 2016 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: FRIDAY’S INDIE STREET LINEUP

Sand artist Joe Mangrum creating a temporary painting at the festival opening-night cocktail party on the Count Basie patio Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

Screenings at four Red Bank venues fill Friday’s schedule of the Indie Street Film Festival, which got underway Wednesday night and continues through Sunday afternoon.

Click the “read more” for the full schedule and a sampling of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.

July 7, 2016 - 12:44 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: A MOVIE FEAST ON INDIE STREET

A documentary about people who eat white dirt adds some grit to the first full day of the Indie Street Film Festival.

Scandalously long, beautiful legs. A guy with a compulsion for commandeering buses and trains. Geophagy, or dirt-eating.

These and other delightfully strange and wondrous topics fill the schedule of Red Bank’s Indie Street Film Festival as it enters its first full day of screenings and other events Thursday.

Click the “read more” for the full sked and a whole dirtload of delightful and outrageous movie trailers.

July 6, 2016 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: TURN HERE FOR INDIE STREET

The festival flickers to life with “Morris from America” on the big screen at the Count Basie Theatre. Here’s the trailer.

Day One of the first-ever Indie Street Film Festival gets underway in Red Bank Wednesday, kicking off five days of heaven for movie lovers.

The opening day schedule is light, with one just one film lighting up the giant silver screen of the Count Basie Theatre and two parties. But the festival shifts into high gear Thursday with daylong screenings and other events at five venues, and keeps up the pace through Saturday before winding down Sunday.

Check in with redbankgreen throughout the week for festival coverage and next-day schedules with tons of trailers to help you decide which darkened room to bring your popcorn to. Meantime, here’s the first-day lineup:

July 5, 2016 - 3:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: INDIES INVADE THIS WEEK

A mural on Monmouth Street near Maple Avenue touts the five-day Indie Street Film Festival, which flickers to life Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

For the first time since 2007, Red Bank will swarm with screening maniacs this week as independent films, filmmakers and cinephiles invade the downtown — and one or two nearby outposts.

Encompassing nearly 100 feature-length and short films, four screening venues and a handful of bars and restaurants, the five-day Indie Street Film Festival kicks off Wednesday, promising to liven up a post-Independence Day interval when the borough traditionally slips into an early doldrums.

July 4, 2016 - 11:35 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: DOWNTOWN GETS INSTANT MURAL

A team of painters, including 13 students from the visual arts program at Red Bank Regional, worked on the mural throughout the day Saturday and into early Sunday. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

rb mural 060416 3 Racing to finish before an expected rain, a team of artists and volunteers painted a two-story mural in downtown Red Bank over the weekend.

Overlooking the parking lot for Buona Sera restaurant at Monmouth Street and Maple Avenue, the mural promotes a film festival scheduled to light up movie screens in town next month.

June 6, 2016 - 7:40 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: FILM FEST MURAL GREENLIGHTED

A scan from a flyer given out at Wednesday’s council meeting shows a rendering of the proposed mural, at left, and the building it would go on. At bottom right is a 150-foot-tall mural the artist, Misha Tyutyunik, helped create in SoHo. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

A prominent black wall in downtown Red Bank may soon be covered with a two-story-high, somewhat psychedelic mural.

The borough council greenlighted the makeover Wednesday night after an organizer of a film festival scheduled to hit town this summer offered it as what he called a “gift” to the town.

May 13, 2016 - 7:59 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: COMING ATTRACTIONS, FOR MCAC

British actor Tom Hiddleston plays country music immortal Hank Williams in I SAW THE LIGHT, screening in a Thursday sneak-preview fundraiser at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas.

Beginning Thursday night, and continuing in monthly installments through Spring 2016, downtown Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas is once again the scene for a set of feature film premieres.

Not the red-carpet, “who-are-you-wearing” variety, mind you, but still, a series of sneak-preview screenings that positions the Greater Red Bank Green as a go-to destination for talked-about indies from such major festivals as Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes.

March 22, 2016 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

RED BANK: A MOVIE THAT’LL EAT YOU ALIVE

The trailer for ‘Consumed,’ which gets a one-time showing in Red Bank Wednesday night. (Click to enlarge)

It hasn’t exactly scorched the box office, and you didn’t see it sweep Sunday night’s Academy Awards. But in the parlance of the Hollywood pitch, Consumed has it all: a mystery you can sink your teeth into, a take-charge female protagonist, a sick kid, a race against time, shadowy conspiracies, and the kind of global armageddon scenario that’s a cornerstone of the modern movie blockbuster.

The threat in this case comes from the insidious presence in food of Genetically Modified Organisms, and when the dramatic feature by director Daryl Wein comes to Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas for a one-time screening on Wednesday, it will make no bones about its anti-GMO stance, and pull no punches about its point of view.

February 29, 2016 - 11:00 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: INDIE FILM FEST SET FOR SUMMER

The big screen at the Count Basie Theatre, seen here during a live broadcast of the 2014 World Cup, will serve as the home screen for a film festival scheduled to run in July. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Clapboard Kept on a restricted diet for the past eight years, Red Bank-area fans of independent movies will finally get to binge again this summer.

An outfit called Indie Street — in conjunction with Red Bank RiverCenter, three major entertainment venues and even the borough middle school — is planning screenings of as many as 30 films over five days in July.

February 24, 2016 - 8:37 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: WOODY ALLEN FILM TO DEBUT HERE

Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix pair up in IRRATIONAL MAN, the latest feature from writer-director Woody Allen, and the latest sneak-peek screening from the folks at the borough-based Monmouth Arts Council.

It’s as dependable as beach fees, summer gas prices or the annual appearance of a new feature film from writer, director and occasional star Woody Allen.

Once or twice each year, audiences on the Greater Red Bank Green are offered the chance to catch a buzzed-about arthouse movie, screened in advance of its general release as a fundraiser for the folks at Red Bank’s own Monmouth County Arts Council.

Coordinated by Middletown-based Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics, and hosted at Bow Tie Cinemas on White Street, these events have often dipped into the seemingly bottomless well of the prolific Woodman’s cinematic legacy, as with last year’s preview of Magic by Moonlight. This Thursday evening, the stars align once more as the MCAC presents a sneak-peek look at the director’s 50th feature, Irrational Man.

July 14, 2015 - 7:16 am | Comments ()

RED BANK: FOR THE GOOD OF THE GHOSTS

The animal-rights advocacy feature GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE shows in a benefit screening, Thursday evening at Bow Tie Cinemas on White Street.

Although The Ghosts In Our Machine makes a passionate case for ending the suffering of animals worldwide — and the idea that animals are sentient beings, worthy of rights — the documentary has a human protagonist: the photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, whose tireless work for the nonprofit We Animals organization (and the book of the same name) has made her one of the animal kingdom’s most eloquent spokescreatures. The feature-length doc screens at Red Bank’s Bow Tie Cinemas on Thursday night, in a special event that also features a panel talk immediately following the film.

August 6, 2014 - 12:00 pm | Comments ()

WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS?

Can you identify Where the above photo was shot? Take a guess! Send your answer to wherehaveiseenthis@redbankgreen.com.

March 6, 2014 - 7:34 am | Comments ()

WEEKEND: LAUGHING ALL THE WAY

Above: Standup guy Kyle Grooms is among the headliners taking part in Saturday’s annual Laugh Out Loud Comedy Show fundraiser for 180 Turning Lives Around. Below, it’s a triple-header of Jim Gaffigan shows at the Count Basie.

A quadruple-whammy forecast of snow, ice, epic low temps and, uh, snow can put a klondike kibosh on the best-laid plans for the holiday-hangover weekend. But those willing to boldly go beyond home and hearth will find some entertaining people who aim to make it worth the trip or slip. All served up with a smile and a laugh — and all, we feel compelled to add, subject to schedule changes.

Friday, January 3:

RED BANK: The chilly autumn landscapes of Nebraska and other Plains locales might appear downright tropical when you’re coming into Red Bank Bow Tie Cinemas from the Navesink riverside cold. But if you’re looking to defrost your extremities by the glow of a heartwarming father-son bonding scenario, you’ll need to do the hard miles with Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama road trip, through the kind of quirky relationship dynamics that the writer-director mastered in Sideways and The Descendants. 1960s Hollywood rebel Bruce Dern has his best role in decades as a drinky, distant deadfish of a dad who’s convinced that a direct-mail sweepstakes prize awaits him in Lincoln, NE — and he’s fortified by a strong cast that includes Will (SNL) Forte, Bob (Breaking Bad) Odenkirk and fellow codger contrarian Stacy Keach. At times broadly silly and bracingly sad, Nebraska nurtures a warm ember of humanity at its heart — and it’s playing on White Street with Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ seriocomic sojourn of an ambitious folkie adrift in the crashpads and coffeehouses of Camelot-era America. Take it here for showtimes throughout the weekend.

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January 3, 2014 - 12:13 pm | Comments ()