Critical 5 art events this week in NYC: all ears, August 29-31

If they're not permanent prosthetics, pull out the earbuds. Most of this week's offerings entail some listening.

La Femme Nikita at MoMA

For purists who remember how the franchise began, La Femme Nikita is screening at MoMA. Way before this challenging original became an elevator pitch to The CW, Luc Besson made startling sense out of the seemingly divergent paths of a drug addicted teen and the shadowy secret government that recruits her. Interesting choice, MoMA.

Alanis Morissette at the the 92nd Street Y

The Canadian Renaissance Woman sits down for a chat with Rolling Stone contributing editor, Anthony DeCurtis. She's so smart, funny and complex you might almost forget she's a former child star. Of course, everyone has a past.

John Reed at McNally Jackson

In Snowball's Chance, John Reed's utterly unauthorized sequel to George Orwell's allegorical Animal Farm, the exiled pig, Snowball, returns to the farm to install a full-on capitalist wet dream, à la L. Paul Bremer. When Reed's book was released in 2002, it barely escaped litigation from Orwell's estate, and infuriated readers of all political stripes. Reed will debate his political satire at McNally Jackson with Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle. Could be quite a lively evening, if our coversation with Reed is any indication.

New music under the Brooklyn Bridge

Only New York would have the savior-faire to stage a new music recital on a barge under the Brooklyn Bridge. The four-day Bargemusic Here and Now Labor Day Festival is packed with contemporary music and world premieres, including original compositions by Colin and Eric Jacobsen; the world premiere of Ken Thomson's Burst," soprano Lauren Goldsmith's rendition of Ned Rorem's Nantucket Songs; and a premiere of Rob Schimmer's new works for piano and theremin. What could be more gorgeous than live music under the Brooklyn Bridge?

Petrochemical America: Project Room at Aperture Gallery

Images of the picked-over American landscape along the "Cancer Alley" stretch of the Mississippi River are patently haunting. The complex class realities that led to the surrender of these tracts to the petrochemical industry are chilling. Photographer Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff have quietly nailed this story. And Aperture, as always, has the presence of mind to bring it to us.