Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha

Before this week, the films of New York writer/director Noah Baumbach threatened to pigeonhole him as a grim observer of embittered human behavior. Then the 43-year-old invited 29-year-old actress Greta Gerwig to co-write a script with him. Frances Ha, the result that opens in Miami today, pitches a shimmering curveball into his filmography, most recently known for Ben Stiller's misanthropic turn in Greenberg and Nicole Kidman's cruel mother in Margot at the Wedding. With Frances Ha, Gerwig has brought out in Baumbach a lighter touch that has no equivalent in his oeuvre.

It's easy to understand how it happened. Even speaking over the phone from New York, Gerwig exudes a luminous quality. When she laughs, it takes up both exhale and inhale. One cannot help but wonder if she, who is now Baurbach's girlfriend, had a part in bringing some brightness into his work, but she refuses to take any credit. "It's equal parts him and me, but it's also something we could have only made together," she explains.

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- In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig Displays Her Colors Like Never Before

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via mdc.edu

It's summertime, which means Miami's 100% humidity, unoccupied children, and epic blockbusters will have us hightailing it to the movies on the regular. We can't miss the likes of the Rock, Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman lighting up our screens, after all. Even for $12 a pop.

But all movie theaters are not created equal. And there are plenty of shitty venues across the city that you'd be all the wiser to avoid. So to help you navigate the summer movie season as comfortably as possible, here are Miami's top ten movie theaters.

Some are corporate chains, some are artsy independent outposts - but all are a great way to spend an afternoon.

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Kaelsie SARAVIA and Mauricio GONZALEZ of Surface Workshop

A rendering of O Cinema's outdoor theater, coming soon.

If the founders of O Cinema can have their dreams fulfilled, the small art house in Wynwood will be able to show three different screenings in three different parts of its building at once. Monday, the theater announced new funding that will get them halfway to that vision, a grant of $100,000 from ArtPlace America that will allow the movie house to hold free screenings outdoors. (The Adrienne Arsht Center also won an ArtPlace grant; look for more of its plans later this week.)

Last week, the Knight Foundation announced O Cinema as one of 66 finalists of its Arts Challenge Grant. Should achieve that grant, it will allow for creation of a second screening room inside the theater.

Speaking over the phone, O Cinema co-founder Kareem Tabsch says, "We're super-honored and stoked to be a Knight's finalist this year, particularly since we were founded with a grant from the Knight Foundation. It's what allowed us to open our doors, so they've always been fervent supporters of ours. We are huge fans of theirs and eternally indebted to them."

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With the help of the Knight Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami hopes to elevate Nigerian film into the larger consciousness of the art world. You can count the long-standing museum as one of the 66 finalists vying for a Knight Arts Challenge grant. Executive Director and Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater notes that "Nollywood," as it is commonly known, is the second-largest film industry in the world. "I was encountering a number of artists who were referencing Nollywood in their work," she says speaking over the phone.

According to Knight's list of finalists, MOCA's plan is to "expose South Florida audiences to global art centers through a film festival focused on cinema in Nigeria, home to one of the largest film industries in the world."

See also:
- Miami Knight Arts Challenge Finalists: Wynwood Renovations, a Nigerian Film Festival, O Cinema Expansion

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Courtesy IFC Films

Brady Corbet in Simon Killer.

If there's one character Brady Corbet runs the risk of being typecast as, it's the creep. Corbet pushed the edge of creepdom in Michael Haneke's Hollywood remake of Funny Games, where he played one of two homicidal preppy kids who slowly torture and murder a family vacationing at their Long Island home. More recently he played an unstable acolyte to a cult leader in Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene, tasked to tempt a young woman back into the fold.

In Simon Killer, the new film from Antonio Campos (Afterschool), the 24-year-old Corbet plays Simon, a lost soul from New York visiting Paris to try to get over an ex. He stumbles through the vacation trying to meet other girls but fails with sad sack lameness. He soon turns to porn and then a prostitute (Mati Diop) for affection. Things grow grim fast when he finds himself in over his head when he tries scamming his way using his new "girlfriend" to blackmail some rather menacing johns. It makes for a rather bizarre thriller where the crux of the suspense lies in the ineptitude of the titular character. As he did in Afterschool, Campos infuses the drama with a raw, distinct style and allows his lead a collaborative role beyond acting.

See also:
- Actor Brady Corbet on Francophiles, Old-School Filmmaking, and Au Hasard Balthazar

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He grew that beard in 48 hours: a still from a 2011 prize-winning Miami film, '77

Don't be surprised if this weekend, the city seems lousy with film crews. Fear not: there is not a pandemic of Kardash-ococcus spreading through Miami. Rather, the 48 Hour Film Project begins tonight.

Teams of filmmakers will be given 48 hours to make a short film in one of 15 genres that they select at random, using props and lines of dialogue assigned to them and following other limitations. They will be fueled by inspiration and exactly 9.6 of those 5-Hour Energy drinks.

"The winning Miami film from 2010 was showcased in Cannes, in the short film corner," Cathleen Dean tells Cultist. Dean is a filmmaker in her own right but also produces the Miami edition of the 48 Hour Film Project, which is now in 120 cities across six continents. "Every year, a selection of the 48 hour films from around the word are chosen to show at Cannes and I was thrilled to see the Miami film represent in France."

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On the left, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan in the 2013 version, and Mia Farrow in the same role in 1974.

Anyone who's familiar with the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford should recognize the scenes and shots from trailers for the 2013 version, which opens Friday with Leonardo DiCaprio. Here, in animated GIFs, are shot-by-shot comparisons from the 1974 version and the 2013 version -- which will be the fifth film version of the Fitzgerald story.

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- The Great Gatsby in Cuba? Author R. Clifton Spargo Imagines F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's Final Fling

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Doomed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby has seen several different interpretations, the most recent of which is Baz Luhrmann's frantic, visually overwhelming film opening in theaters tomorrow. But each version has one thing in common: a tragic love story between Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan -- one that mirrored the difficult relationship between Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.

Like Daisy, Zelda was the quintessential flapper, and initially rejected the man she loved for financial reasons. Unlike Daisy, Zelda ended up married to her Gatsby -- but the Fitzgeralds' love story didn't end much happier than F. Scott's novel.

In 1939, 14 years after The Great Gatsby's first edition was published, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald tried one last time to save their failing marriage with a trip to Havana, Cuba. That disastrous trip is the basis of author R. Clifton Spargo's Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.

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- The Great Gatsby, With DiCaprio and Maguire: Great but Not Always Good

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Photos by Claire Nelson

Last night, Brickell got a head start on International Star Wars Day (which is actually on Saturday, May the Fourth) by turning Spazio nightclub into a cantina worthy of Han Solo.

For Star Wars Cantina Cosplay night, the venue provided branded lightsaber surrogates, an LED screen featuring the iconic logo, and cosplayers galore.

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- Star Wars Cantina Cosplay: May The Force Be With You at Spazio Nightclub
- More photos from Star Wars Cantina Cosplay

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Billy Donnelly's former Ain't It Cool News avatar.

While you were clicking 'like' on that photo of your cousin's ugly baby, Billy Donnelly was busy getting fired through Facebook.

Donnelly was until recently known as The Infamous Billy the Kidd, South Florida editor of Ain't It Cool News (spoiler alert: it ain't). He doesn't want to insult his former boss, Harry Knowles, who sent Donnelly a Facebook message "at two in the afternoon saying that I was out and good luck with life." Donnelly's reluctance may be because, as he tells Cultist, he has "been trying to maintain the high road, even if there is no getting around the way I was dismissed and that how it happened kind of says it all."

UPDATE: Ain't It Cool News has responded to this story, denying Donnelly's claims. We've added more information after the jump.

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