Kristine Froeba: Southern Charm: New Orleans’ Benny Poppins

The Sassy Private Chef’s Shrimp n’ Grit’s Recipe as featured on Bravo

Each series has one breakout character, and while the Bravo Southern Charm New Orleans series offered little to locals other than indigestion, it did present us with the sass of New Orleans’ private cook, Mr. Benny Poppins. Poppins, aka Benjamin Levasseur, originally from Algiers, plies his trade amongst New Orleans’ families as a personal cook. “The name ‘Benny Poppins’ came from working closely with families and their children as a personal chef, and it stuck,” said Levasseur. In the Bravo series, Benny Poppins, of the bow tie, eye-roll and discreet side-eye proved popular amongst the audience who enjoyed the series. Levasseur portrays the cook and private assistant to New York documentary film producer Nicelle Herrington – also a real-life gig.

Carpark Cinema offers free screening of “The Lost Boys”

“The Lost Boys,” the 1987 movie that the New York Times hailed as a “hip, comic twist on classic vampire stories” set in a beachfront California town, will be screened for free Wednesday night on Broad Street as part of the Carpark Cinema film series. The movie starts at 7 p.m. at Broad Street Cider & Ale, 2723 South Broad, according to The Carpark Cinema’s announcement:

Do you like the 80s? Perms? Vampire gangs? A soundtrack to die for?

Kristine Froeba on Bravo’s Southern Charm New Orleans: Authentic as canned gumbo from Texas

Where to begin with this contrived foolishness? I’ll start with the rent-a-voodoo princess who wears the bejeweled and feathered turban of a Hindu Maharaja. If that isn’t enough, she also travels with a Home Decor store crystal ball, Italian Tarot cards and sprinkles Arabian frankincense and myrrh from a miniature broom–the type my grandfather kept under the seat of his car. Bravo states that the Southern Charm New Orleans television series will follow an “elite circle of friends…born into prominent families,” presumably from New Orleans. “Presumably” being key.

Local director’s first feature film ‘Thunder Road’ headed to Pyrtania Theater

Join the New Orleans Film Society as they present the homecoming of New Orleans native director Jim Cummings’s first feature film “Thunder Road,” which won the Grand Prize in SXSW 2018 and heading to Cannes Film Festival for its international premiere in May. “Thunder Road” tells the story of a flawed police officer, Jim Arnaud (Jim
Cummings), who’s life is made worse by his mother’s passing. Unable to change his life for the better, his only stability comes in the shape of his daughter (Kendal Farr). New Orleans’ premiere of “Thunder Road” will be on Tuesday, April 24, 8 p.m. at the Prytania Theater. The screening is free for New Orleans Film Society members, with public tickets available at the Prytania box office and online.

This Week at The Broad: Spies and Secrets

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Another weekend in the books and more records broken. We’ve been amazed by the turnout the last two weeks and are so happy to meet more and more of our neighbors who are visiting The Broad for the first time. If this is your first newsletter or your 100th, we’ve got a bunch of new movies and special events to share with you. RED SPARROW opens this week, led by another stellar Jennifer Lawrence performance. You might have seen her in mother!

This Week at The Broad: Your Guide to The Oscars

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This morning the staff at The Broad woke up to a startling discovery. The entire lineup of films currently playing at the theater can now be called Oscar nominated films. Over the past twelve months we have played seven of the nine films nominated for Best Picture with four of those being played at this very moment. We even ended up playing one of the animated shorts with our free screening of REVOLTING RHYMES late last year. So with our entire lineup being nominated we felt it best to not change things around too much. This next week you can catch CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, THE POST, THE SHAPE OF WATER, I, TONYA, and LADY BIRD just in time to start handicapping your favorites for the awards on March 4th (which just happens to be our 2nd birthday).

This Week at The Broad: Globe Winners Posted

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The Hollywood Foreign Press has spoken: The Broad Theater shows the best films. Four of our pictures have 9 awards between them. THE POST opens this week, and while it was shut out at the Globes for its 6 nominations, any film combining the talent of Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep is worth the price of admission. This is the true story of The Washington Post newspaper’s struggle to publish the Pentagon Papers, which ultimately blew the lid off the government’s deception surrounding the Vietnam War. 
THE SHAPE OF WATER (Best Director – Guillermo del Toro, Best Original Score – Alexandre Desplat) I, TONYA (Best Supporting Actress – Allison Janney) LADY BIRD (Best Actress Musical or Comedy – Saoirse Ronan) and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (Best Picture Drama, Best Actress Drama – Frances McDormand, Best Supporting Actor – Sam Rockwell, Best Screenplay – Martin McDonagh) continue their run. BYOB(aby) will be showing I, TONYA this week.

This Week at The Broad: Icy Conditions Ahead

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We feel it, too. It’s COLD outside. The new year has brought in some frigid air, so we’ve turned on the heater to bring you the warm fuzzies while you enjoy our lineup this week. Coincidentally enough, this week’s new release takes place in the frigid world of figure skating, so lace up your skates and let’s dig into the newsletter. I, TONYA is not your ordinary biopic.

This Week at The Broad: Looking Back on 2017

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First things first, if you got a Broad Theater gift card in your stocking this week then congrats on being given the gift of cinema! Your new card never expires and can be used for anything at the theater from tickets to cocktails to some of our awesome new food items available every weekend. As we look back on this past year, we’d like to focus on the things that made us happy. Nothing of course makes us happy more than good movies and we think we ended up showing a healthy number of them. From A QUIET PASSION to WONDER WOMAN, we stuck to our guns in giving you a eclectic mix of movies in all shapes, sizes, and budgets.

This Week at The Broad: It’s beginning to look a lot like Oscars

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It’s the newsletter before Christmas and all through The Broad, new features are screening, with a couple quite odd. Our hot-pink tree is covered with light, and no matter what, this week will delight. We’ve got indie pleasures from across the globe, and a visual feast from a filmmaker in vogue. The rest of this newsletter will not be in rhyme, but continue reading and you’re sure to have a good time. 
THE SQUARE has been one of the most requested indie titles this year from all of our guests, and we’ve been trying all winter to squeeze it into a very packed schedule.