As promised, we’re keeping you apprised of every development in the Uniqlo Fifth Avenue saga. As you can see from the photos below, the official logo is now in place, assuring that this really will be the gigantic Uniqlo store we were promised. Until now, all we could do was hope that this wasn’t just another ruse perpetrated by the mainstream media. Time for a deep sigh of relief.

Ever since the news broke that Uniqlo was taking over the huge former Brooks Brothers flagship store at 666 Fifth Avenue, the Your It List office has been eagerly anticipating any and all progress. Since we’re less than a quarter block away from the new location, we’re all trying to find ways to finagle a big raise before it opens. Running out for a soup at lunch will now turn in to a soup and a pair of selvedge jeans (and probably a pair of HeatTech long johns, too).

There doesn’t seem to be an official opening date set, but at a reported $20 million a year lease, I’m guessing the Uniqlo folks will want to start moving product out the door before too long.

Until then, we promise to bring you all the latest construction developments as soon as we see them (and we’ll be watching closely). For now, enjoy these glamor shots from the corner of Fifth Ave and 55th Street.

Manhattan or Brooklyn?

Easy question. Where to spend the 4th of July. Your girlfriend’s family’s party in Brooklyn or your buddy’s party in Manhattan. Flip a coin.

That’s how Uncertainybegins. With the flip of a coin. What follows are two separate movies: one follows Bobby (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his girlfriend Kate (Lynn Collins) to Brooklyn. Intertwined is the second movie – what would have happen had the two chosen to spend the day in Manhattan.

At first glimpse the premise is reminiscent of the less-than-stellar Gwyneth Paltrow 1998 film Sliding Doors (I much prefer her Great Expectations from the same year). To keep both Uncertainy story lines separate the film’s writers/directors used color: Yellow for Manhattan (clothes, taxi that brings them there) and Green for Brooklyn (clothes, minivan that brings them there). A much more clever device than Paltrow’s odd blonde/brunette hair cut and coloring.

What follows are two incredible stories as different as can be. In Manhattan Bobby and Kate find a cellphone in the back of a cab that leads to a fast-paced, gripping espionage story of murder, blackmail and what two people would be willing to do for more money than they could ever fathom having with action scenes of roof jumping that rival the Jason Bourne films. Not an easy feat for an independent film.

In Brooklyn, surrounded by her family, Bobby and Kate come to terms about their feelings for each other, their future, her mother’s disapproval. It is an intense, sometimes stifling, family/relationship drama.

The in-depth, claustrophobic nature of the film and the relationship presented on screen set to a defined period of time of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn films reminded me of a mix of Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy Before Sunrise and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers/Scarlett Johansson Match Point.

While not the perfect movie – a few of the loose ends seem to tie up a bit too easy at the end – Uncertainly certainly is a movie to be seen. Levitt, once again as he did in (500) Days of Summer (which you may or may not have heard I kinda liked), proves his ranking as one of the top actors under thirty today and Lynn Collins shows her dramatic abilities are far superior to her roles in True Blood and X-Men: Wolverine (which is a damn good show and a fine movie themselves).

Its too late to see Uncertainty at the IFC Center in New York (though it does seem to be still playing in LA), but the smart folks over at IFC released the movie On Demandsimul with the  theatre release. So look for it there.