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As complex and conflicted as the man himself, Rudy! A Documusical––which premiered on the same evening as the first primetime January 6 hearing––never quite knows to make of the man. There’s an old joke from Saturday Night Live‘s 9/11 era about making a TV movie featuring Rudy Giuliani and, true to the man himself, no one will like him until the last five minutes.

Directed by Jed Rothstein (WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a 47 Billion Unicorn and The China Hustle), this look at “America’s Mayor”-turned-Trump-personal-lawyer views Giuliani’s life through the lens of those who knew him well, with a musical performance that seems to enforce an uneasy operatic structure onto his rise and continual fall. The man of the hour himself only appears in found footage and through a theatrical interpretation that walks a fine line between sincere portrait of a now deeply troubled contrarian and political satire.

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You can understand why filmmaker Jed Rothstein didn’t want to make a traditional documentary about Rudy Giuliani, whose life and career haven’t exactly been starved for attention. Rothstein’s conceit was to supplement the traditional mixture of archival footage and interviews with scenes from an imagined Broadway-style musical about Giuliani. That may have been a mistake, since the results play more like a standard cable television doc inexplicably accompanied by excerpts from a fringe festival theatrical production.

Nonetheless, Rudy! A Documusical, receiving its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, proves fascinating. How could it not, considering the utterly bizarre downward trajectory of its subject’s reputation? Although in Giuliani’s case, a Broadway musical seems less appropriate than Greek tragedy. Or maybe a horror film, since the older he gets the more he bears a striking resemblance to Nosferatu.

The...

No mere documentary can capture the turbulent life story of “America’s mayor.”

In order to do justice to the rise and fall of Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani, director Jed Rothstein had to invent a new genre. The result, “Rudy! A Documusical,” weaves in musical performances by Broadway actors with archival footage from Giuliani’s metamorphosis from top prosecutor to New York City mayor and hero of 9/11 to his sad final act as Donald Trump’s cable news henchman and chief purveyor of election lies.

“Rudy is this very unique and mercurial character,” says Rothstein. “He’s very operatic. His personal story is like an opera with these cartoonishly extravagant highs and lows.”

But staging a full-on opera would have been too costly and time consuming for the filmmakers, so Rothstein turned to another Big Apple staple — musical theater. The numbers themselves were written and performed to delineate key turning points...

The New York City police officer credited with stopping Tuesday’s deadly truck attack by shooting the suspected assailant in the abdomen says he was simply doing what other officers would have.

“Although I feel that we were just doing our job, like thousands of officers do every day, I understand the importance of yesterday’s events and the role we played,” Officer Ryan Nash said at a Wednesday news conference, “and I am grateful for the recognition we have received.”

Nash, who is assigned to Lower Manhattan’s First Precinct, was reportedly near the scene of the attack on...

The father of the New York police officer credited with stopping Tuesday’s terror attack by shooting the suspect in the abdomen spoke out to People about his hero son.

“I’m very proud of him,” Richard Nash tells People, adding that his son, Officer Ryan Nash, 28, is not authorized by the NYPD to speak to the media. “He’s just going through the procedures.”

Nash, who is assigned to Lower Manhattan’s 1st Precinct, rushed to the scene in which eight people were killed and at least 11 injured. Nash shot suspect Sayfullo Saipov in the stomach after Saipov got...

On Sunday evening, a lone gunman in Las Vegas left at least 50 dead and more than 400 injured at an outdoor music festival. Police said the shooter, identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, killed himself as they closed in on him inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The massacre is the deadliest in United States history, and for at least one major law enforcement official, it’s something Americans will just have to get used to. During an appearance on MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, former New York City and Los Angeles police commissioner Bill Bratton sounded a grim tone, telling Ruhle that.

There’s a moment late in Camilla Hall’s Copwatch when a rare officer of color from the Ferguson Police Department engages a group of copwatchers, a term used for local, autonomous groups who document policing activity and potential wrongdoing on the side of the law. He’s careful to discuss policies he’s not a fan of while hearing them out. Copwatch isn’t a permanent solution — one would hope with the rise of body cameras and community-based policing it wouldn’t have to be — but there is still unanswered questions regarding police tactics and use of force that supervisors and chiefs remain unwilling to be transparent about for one reason or another. Or, as former NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton used to say, “it looks awful, but it’s lawful.” The conversation that ends Copwatch is lively, even if the Copwatchers occasionally talk over themselves, which could be...

NBC News has hired Bill Bratton, the former New York City Police Commissioner and former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, as its Senior Law Enforcement and National Security Analyst, starting this week. He will be seen on NBC News and MSNBC. Until last month, Bratton served as New York City's Police Commissioner for the second time, to take a job with consulting firm Teneo Holdings, where he will head up a new "risk division," the Wall Street Journal reported…...

Newly released surveillance video shows slain New York City jogger Karina Vetrano on Aug. 2, running into the Queens park where she was found dead later that same day. In the footage, captured by a security camera around 5:46 p.m. that Tuesday and released Monday by Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen, Vetrano briefly runs down a road and past a parked car. She is wearing athletic sneakers, a sports bra and black shorts. Vetrano's body was found in Spring Creek Park around 11 p.m. on Aug. 2, about a dozen feet from a jogging trail she used daily, according to police.

Donald Trump is facing rebukes from military veterans again - this time for making a joke about how easy it is to get a Purple Heart after a veteran handed him one as a gift at a rally on Tuesday. Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down in 2004, led the way, posting a photo of herself in a hospital bed wearing the medal on her gown. "This is how one usually looks when you are awarded a Purple Heart. Nothing easy about it," she wrote. She was...

Outgoing New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday that Donald Trump “scares the hell out of me.” Bratton told co-hosts Gayle King, Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell that he didn’t understand the support for the Republican candidate given Trump’s “lack of depth on issues” and he questioned Trump’s decision not to apologize to the the family of fallen war hero Humayan Khan. “Tough guy. I wonder if he’s ever actually taken a punch in his life, an actual, physical punch,” Bratton said of Trump. “I’m always amazed by...

Perhaps the ideal thriller in a Pokémon Go era where Facebook Live, Periscope, and augmented reality have proven to be game-changers, Nerve ups the stakes and tension as the sport evolves and ultimately devolves into a Hunger Games-esque battle. The characters are just complex enough and the action is just engrossing enough to keep us interested, but Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, working from Jeanne Ryan’s novel, haven’t quite built a solid-enough foundation to foster a genuinely compelling commentary on today’s social media obsession.

High school senior Venus aka “Vee” (Emma Roberts) is a shy, sometimes anti-social wallflower living in a social media age. Living on Staten Island in public housing with mom Nancy (Juliette Lewis) she’s on track to commute to a public college after her senior year while never getting close to the football jock she pines for. Her pal Sydney (Emily Mead) has...

Two New York City police officers are being hailed as heroes for their quick-thinking reaction Wednesday, when they sped away from a crowded Times Square carrying what they thought was a bomb that had been tossed into their van, police said. Several hours and one suspect in custody later and, police tell People, the truth is more clear: Police allege that 52-year-old Hector Meneses threw a device appearing to be a bomb into a police van in Times Square about 11:30 p.m. local time Wednesday. The two officers in the van drove away from the crowd to minimize potential casualties from an explosion.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton expressed his frustration on Morning Joe today at how nothing has been done on gun control after multiple mass shootings.

Bill Bratton apparently isn’t a rap fan. After a shooting at a performance by rapper T.I. in New York left one person dead, the NYPD commissioner condemned rappers as “basically thugs” during a radio interview on Thursday. Appearing on Wcbs 880 (via BuzzFeed), Bratton lamented the “crazy world of these so-called rap artists who are basically thugs that basically celebrate violence they did all their lives, and unfortunately that violence often times manifests itself during their performances, and that’s exactly what happened last evening.” Also Read: 4 Shot, 1 Killed at Ti Concert in New York City (Video) Asked if “thug culture” in the.

It's safe to say this subway rider might consider cabs for some time after his most recent underground encounter. In a video captured by fellow passenger Anthony Lin, 31, a sleeping man got a very unwelcome surprise when a rat crawled up his lap and around his neck before he woke up and realized what was happening. @Mta rat crawls onto person on 7 train at 3am. @CNN @CBSNewYork @NBCNewYork @ABC7NY @PIX11News that's Mta for you pic.twitter.com/2gBm9cOb98— Antony Lin (@copaantl98) March 27, 2016 "I had my phone ready to film the rat since it was huge and the...

It's safe to say this subway rider might consider cabs for some time after his most recent underground encounter. In a video captured by fellow passenger Anthony Lin, 31, a sleeping man got a very unwelcome surprise when a rat crawled up his lap and around his neck before he woke up and realized what was happening. @Mta rat crawls onto person on 7 train at 3am. @CNN @CBSNewYork @NBCNewYork @ABC7NY @PIX11News that's Mta for you pic.twitter.com/2gBm9cOb98— Antony Lin (@copaantl98) March 27, 2016 "I had my phone ready to film the rat since it was huge and the...

[[tmz:video id="0_94o975gx"]] Former Lapd top cop Bill Bratton knows a thing or 2 about L.A. police work, so he's a little dubious about the portrayal of the men in blue in 'The People v. O.J. Simpson.' The current NYC Police Commissioner was on Capitol Hill, when our photog asked if cops should watch the show, presumably as a lesson.  His answer is interesting. Fact is, the Lapd made lots of mistakes in the case ... contaminating evidence,...

Four of the five teenagers accused of raping an 18-year-old woman last week in a Brooklyn playground have been released without bail as authorities continue to investigate the complex case, according to reports. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino on Thursday ordered the release of all five suspects - Travis Beckford, 17, Onandi Brown, 17, Ethan Phillip, 15, Shaquelle Cooper, 15, and Denzel Murray, 14 - though Cooper remains in custody in connection with a separate assault case from October, reports the New York Daily News. "Because we are determined to get to the truth about what happened in that park, we need more time...

Four of the five teenagers accused of raping an 18-year-old woman last week in a Brooklyn playground have been released without bail as authorities continue to investigate the complex case, according to reports. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew Sciarrino on Thursday ordered the release of all five suspects - Travis Beckford, 17, Onandi Brown, 17, Ethan Phillip, 15, Shaquelle Cooper, 15, and Denzel Murray, 14 - though Cooper remains in custody in connection with a separate assault case from October, reports the New York Daily News. "Because we are determined to get to the truth about what happened in that park, we need more time...

The New York Police Department is mourning one of its own, detective Joseph Lemm, who was among six Americans killed Monday by a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle who drove into a military patrol near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Lemm, 45, a married father of two, was a 15-year veteran of the NYPD and had been promoted to detective in January 2014, serving in the Bronx Warrant Squad, police commissioner William J. Bratton said in a statement Monday night. As a member of the NYPD, Lemm was on his third deployment - he had done one tour in Iraq and...

The New York Police Department is mourning one of its own, detective Joseph Lemm, who was among six Americans killed Monday by a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle who drove into a military patrol near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Lemm, 45, a married father of two, was a 15-year veteran of the NYPD and had been promoted to detective in January 2014, serving in the Bronx Warrant Squad, police commissioner William J. Bratton said in a statement Monday night. As a member of the NYPD, Lemm was on his third deployment - he had done one tour in Iraq and...

When New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton spoke today about the email bomb threats against schools in the country’s two biggest cities that shut down all Los Angeles public schools, he semi-seriously described the potential suspect based on what they’d written in the email. “In reviewing it, the instigator of the threat may be a Homeland fan, basically watching Homeland episodes,” he said in dismissing the threat as a hoax that may have been influenced by the…...

New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters on Tuesday that the closure of the Los Angeles school system earlier in the morning due to an unspecified threat was a “significant overreaction.” Bratton, a former Lapd chief, revealed that New York officials received the same threat and deemed it a hoax. Mayor Bill de Blasio supported that contention, saying, “There was nothing credible about the threat. It was so outlandish.” Also Read: All Los Angeles Unified School District Schools Closed Due to Terrorist Threat At a news conference later in the day, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said without identifying his.

Earlier this week, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton decided to share his personal remedy on conquering the astronomical homeless problem in New York City. Bratton said, “My best advice to the citizens of New York City: If this is so upsetting to you, don’t give. One of the quickest ways to get rid of them is not to give to them.” Ambivalence and lack of compassion have helped foster the present state of homelessness not only across this country, but also around the globe. Though many of us pass by homeless people on a near daily basis, they often become invisible to us. Like a fire hydrant or some other sidewalk fixture, they are present but unseen. In his new film “Shelter”...

Quentin Tarantino is facing heat on multiple fronts for the comments he made over the weekend at a protest against police brutality. “Shame on him, particularly at this time we are grieving for a New York City police officer,” NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday during an interview on “The John Gambling Show” on Am 970. Bratton, who previously served as L.A.’s top cop, was referring to Tarantino’s comments Saturday at a rally in downtown Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, in which he said: “I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers.

Watch it, young lady! NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton shared a funny anecdote with reporters on Friday, Oct. 9, about a memorable encounter he had with a college student the previous morning while making his rounds on Wall Street. According to Bratton, who recalled the incident during a New York Law School breakfast, he was leaving a meeting in the financial district early Thursday when he caught a whiff of something peculiar — and familiar. “All of a sudden, there it is, that smell,” he said. “I said, ‘What [...]...

[[tmz:video id="0_z3dc510h"]] The NYPD just released video of a NYPD plainclothed cop ferociously grabbing former tennis star James Blake, throwing him to the ground and cuffing him. The video shows Blake's description was not an undersell. You see him standing just outside the door of a Mid-City hotel when the cop swoops in, shoving him to the ground. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has apologized, saying Blake looks very similar to a guy who was a suspect in a credit card fraud case.

[[tmz:video id="0_lfq9ifd7"]] James Blake is not ready to forgive and forget his violent run-in with the NYPD this week ... telling a photog in New York City ... he does Not accept their apology.   New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said he apologized to the former tennis star Thursday, but Blake does not seem to be having it.   TMZ Sports obtained a photo of the man police were looking for (and have subsequently cleared) when they mistakenly tackled and roughed up Blake.

For the second time, police turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio at the funeral of one of two New York City officers murdered by a man authorities say was motivated by racial unrest. De Blasio was eulogizing Wenjian Liu when thousands of cops watching on a screen outside the Aievoli Funeral Home in Dyker Heights turned around, according to the Associated Press. FBI director James Comey also attended. "Detective Wenjian Liu was a good man. He walked a path of courage, a path of sacrifice, a path of kindness," de Blasio told mourners, according to the New York Post.

Two uniformed New York City police officers were gunned down Saturday afternoon while they sat in a marked police car by a gunman authorities say was seeking revenge. Officer Wenjian Liu, 32 and Rafael Ramos, 40, were fatally shot by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who had announced online he was planning to shoot two "pigs" in retaliation for the death of Eric Garner, who died in a chokehold by police, according to AP reports. Brinsley approached the passenger window of the officers' police car, parked in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn and opened fire, striking both officers in the head, according to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.