Crude Oil (Yuan You) Nov. 4 through 8, Light Industry, 230 36th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), Brooklyn, www.lightindustry.org; times vary, donation requested Wang Bing’s epic 14-hour film Read more

At a moment when DVD sales continue to decline and new releases can often be downloaded (legally or otherwise) days after their theatrical release, Matt Grady has taken a bit of a gamble. The 39-year-old founder of Factory 25, a new independent film and music label based out of Brooklyn, is betting that you’ll still shell out some money for a DVD—or even a vinyl record—so long as what you’re getting is more than just a disc in a plastic case. Read more

In the opening scene of director Allan Miller's new film about the acclaimed Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, the sweaty-browed maestro poises his baton over a student orchestra in Rotterdam. “I’m important now,” he says, daring the musicians to better respond to his stick. “You cannot start without me.” Read more

In a fitting dramatic flourish, the Two Boots Pioneer theater closed one year ago this upcoming Halloween. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was the last movie screened at the much-missed hub for both vintage and contemporary cult flicks. The saddest part about the space closing was how quickly its unusual programming disappeared with nothing to fill the space. Programmer/manager Lee Paterson’s eclectic and exciting month-long “Schlocktober” festival, featuring everything from Italian zombies to Mexican wrestlers, made it seem as if the Pioneer was going strong right up until its last night. This is the first Halloween in a decade that New Yorkers will have to get their horror fix without the theater and, while it’s tempting to say that it’s not going to be an easy one, there is hope yet. Read more

Starting tomorrow, the Museum of Modern Art will present Spike Jonze: The First 80 Years, a retrospective of the work of the 39-year-old filmmaker running the gamut from his early commercials and music videos to clips from his upcoming adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic childrens book Where The Wild Things Are. Read more

“It’s all just one long game,” rants a demonic reprobate in Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers, which screens at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 1.That’s actually Korine talking, under the guise of a monstrous geezer— one of several populating this hauntingly immersive, knowingly fragmented work— as he unleashes a detailed rant on suburban domesticity. Read more Read it in print

Lean and mean, Iron Maven passes rainbow-clad Smashley Simpson on the track. Dressed in a skimpy plaid skirt, the Holy Roller girl weaves in and out of the green-sash wearing Hurl Scouts and, with a violent hip thrust, Scouts’ Rosa Sparks knocks one of the Rollers to the ground with a bone-jangling crack. Read more Read it in print

The Death Ray Sept. 8, Light Industry, 220 36th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), Brooklyn; 7:30, $7 A rarely seen, feature-length work by early Russian cinematic wizard Lev Kuleshov, The D Read more

Best of Newfest at BAM Aug. 29 & 30, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave. (at Ashland Pl.), Brooklyn, 718- 636-4100; times vary, $11 per film The gays take over BAM’s cinema for a Read more

SPIKE LEE’S ROUTINE interest in provocative subjects—promiscuity (She’s Gotta Have It), colorism (School Daze), miscegenation (Jungle Fever), urban racism (Do the Right Thing), Northern prejudice (Crooklyn), police indifference (Clockers) and sexual addiction (Girl 6)—makes his unentertaining films marketable. But by trafficking in superficial political controversy, Lee obscures his real ambition. Fact is, until his new movie Passing Strange, Lee has never made a film that concentrated on the central issue of his career: class. Read more Read it in print