Tribeca Film Festival Review: ‘Here and Now’ is sensational.

On the eve of a major performance at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club, Vivienne Carala (Sarah Jessica Parker) receives shocking news during a doctor’s visit that turns her world upside down. She struggles to deal with the devastation during rehearsals with her band and her manager (Common) and attempts to avoid her overbearing mother (Jacqueline Bisset). Finally, as she contemplates sharing the news with her ex and her teen daughter, Vivienne finds solace in the streets of New York City, where she reflects on her past and her future.

​​

Here and Now is the reason we still sit in a dark theater to experience a film. Sarah Jessica Parker is breathtaking and raw. The sound editing is stuff dreams are made of. It is noticeably heightened and for good reason. People’s cell conversations accost her while music fills the gaps in between. We track her in real time because time and sound and regret are the keys to this elegant film. Along with some stunning handheld camera work, there is simply not a hair out of place in this film’s storytelling. Here and Now explores the human connection between beauty and loss and life choices. You will be moved in ways you will never see coming. Check out the clip below for a slice of heaven that is Here and Now. *Formally titled Blue Night*

TRAILER:

 

TFF Review: ‘Dead Women Walking’

Dead Women Walking
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Hagar Ben-Asher
Writer: Hagar Ben-Asher
Starring: Ashton Sanders, June Carryl, Colleen Camp, Lynn Collins, Dot Marie Jones, Dale Dickey

Nine vignettes depict the stages leading to execution for women on death row in this emotional account of the human toll of the death penalty—on both the inmates and those they encounter in their final hours.

Dead Women Walking is an all our emotional gut-punch. It forces you to confront the reality of humanity rather than the crime. From 14 days to mere minutes prior execution time, the vignettes capture moments of healing, despair, acceptance, and the regrets of these very different women. There is no doubt that this film is one hell of an ensemble piece. Each breathtaking and nuanced performance will touch your soul in an extraordinary way. Adding to the brilliant writing is the specific choice of song for each character. Dead Women Walking‘s structure walks the perfect line between pragmatic and poetic. You will be moved, no matter what your political views are,  no matter if you are the victim of a crime, or you think you have no interest in the subject matter. Dead Women Walking will take your preconceived notions of female death row inmates and destroy them.

Tribeca Film Festival 2018 Review: ‘Slut in a Good Way’

Slut in a Good Way
Feature Narrative
Country: Canada
Director: Tribeca Film Festival 2018 Review: ‘Slut in a Good Way’
Writer: Catherine Léger
Starring: Vassili Schneider, Anthony Therrien, Alex Godbout, Romane Denis, Rose Adam, Marguerite Bouchard
Three 17-year-old girlfriends get a job at the Toy Depot for the holiday season and become smitten with the guys who work alongside them in this charming teen sex comedy.

Slut in a Good way has a throwback John Hughes feel to it from the humor to the themes, tot the use of specific music choices. It examines the tumultuous nature of female relationships and how they can turn on a dime. The film features three archetypes, The Virgin, The Rebel Activist, and The Newly Sexually Independent Girl. Double standards and slut-shaming are rampant, but that’s what makes the script whip-smart and funny.

TFF Review: ‘Woman Walks Ahead’

Woman Walks Ahead
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Susanna White
Writer: Steven Knight
Starring: Bill Camp, Ciarán Hinds, Sam Rockwell, Chaske Spencer, Michael Greyeyes, Jessica Chastain
Based on a true story, 19th-century Brooklyn artist Catherine Weldon journeys west on a mission to paint a portrait of the legendary chief Sitting Bull, only to find a very different world—and man—than she was expecting.
Click for tickets
Toronto Film Festival 2017
In theaters: June 29th, 2018, Distributed by: DirecTV/A24

Although I thoroughly enjoyed Susanna White’s beautiful and building drama, it’s always good to point out that this is historical fiction. It’s based on a true story, so it didn’t entirely happen the way it’s shown on screen.

Some really bright spots are Sam Rockwell as a supposedly well-meaning officer andCiarán Hinds (Mance Raycer in Game of Thrones) as the sheriff. Jessica Chastain is as graceful and determined as you’d come to expect her to be. It’s got just enough originality to draw you into another world.

10 Feature Narratives by Female Directors on Liz’s watchlist at the Tribeca Film Festival

This year’s festival demographic for female directors has gone up to 46%. That is huge. Here are 10 feature-length narratives by female directors that I am looking forward to catching. Bonus: Most of these films also focus on a female protagonist.

All About Nina
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Eva Vives
Writer: Eva Vives
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Common, Chace Crawford, Clea DuVall, Kate del Castillo, Beau Bridges, Eva Vives
Nina Geld’s passion and talent have made her a rising star in the comedy scene, but she’s an emotional mess offstage. When a new professional opportunity coincides with a romantic one, she is forced to reckon with the intersection of her life and her art

Click for tickets


Daughter of Mine (Figlia mia)
Feature Narrative
Country: Italy, Germany, Switzerland
Director: Laura Bispuri
Writer: Laura Bispuri, Francesca Manieri
Starring: Michele Carboni, Udo Kier, Sara Casu, Alba Rohrwacher, Valeria Golino
On the windswept coast of Sardinia, two women compete for the affections of 10-year old Vittoria: her troubled, alcoholic birth mother Angelica and her doting adoptive mother Tina.

Click for tickets


Dead Women Walking
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Hagar Ben-Asher
Writer: Hagar Ben-Asher
Starring: and Ashton Sanders, June Carryl, Colleen Camp, Lynn Collins, Dot Marie Jones, Dale Dickey
Nine vignettes depict the stages leading to execution for women on death row in this emotional account of the human toll of the death penalty—on both the inmates and those they encounter in their final hours.

Click for tickets


Egg
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Marianna Palka
Writer: Risa Mickenberg
Starring: Gbenga Akinnagbe, David Alan Basche, Alysia Reiner, Anna Camp, Christina Hendricks
In provocateur Marianna Palka’s sharp and unflinching satire, two couples and a surrogate lay bare the complications, contradictions, heartbreak, and absurdities implicit in how we think about motherhood. Click for tickets


Lemonade (Luna de Miere)
Feature Narrative
Country: Romania, Canada, Germany, Sweden
Director: Ioana Uricaru
Writer: Tatiana Ionașcu, Ioana Uricaru
Starring: Ruxandra Maniu, Milan Hurduc, Dylan Scott Smith, Steve Bacic, Mălina Manovici
Mara hopes to move her son from Romania to the U.S. and obtain a green card. But bureaucratic processes give way to authoritarian nightmares in this simmering social drama about American immigration and the institutional corruption of power.

Click for tickets


Little Woods
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Nia DaCosta
Writer: Nia DaCosta
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, Nia DaCosta
In this dramatic thriller set in the fracking boomtown of Little Woods, North Dakota, two estranged sisters are driven to extremes when their mother dies, leaving them with one week to pay back her mortgage.

Click for tickets


Mapplethorpe
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Ondi Timoner
Writer: Ondi Timoner
Starring: Mark Moses, McKinley Belcher III, Brandon Sklenar, John Benjamin Hickey, Marianne Rendón, Matt Smith
In the late 1960s, art-school dropout Robert Mapplethorpe moves into the Chelsea Hotel with dreams of stardom. He quickly becomes the enfant terrible of the photography world as the downtown counterculture of 1970s New York reaches its zenith.

Click for tickets


O.G.
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Madeleine Sackler
Writer: Stephen Belber
Starring: David Patrick Kell, Boyd Holbrook, Mare Winningham, Theothus Carter, William Fichtner, Jeffrey Wright
An inmate entering the final weeks of a twenty-plus-year sentence must navigate between old loyalties and a new protégé, while he also grapples with the looming uncertainty of his return to life outside bars.

Click for tickets


Slut in a Good Way
Feature Narrative
Country: Canada
Director: Sophie Lorain
Writer: Catherine Léger
Starring: Vassili Schneider, Anthony Therrien, Alex Godbout, Romane Denis, Rose Adam, Marguerite Bouchard
Three 17-year-old girlfriends get a job at the Toy Depot for the holiday season and become smitten with the guys who work alongside them in this charming teen sex comedy.

Click for tickets


Untogether
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Emma Forrest
Writer: Emma Forrest
Starring: Scott Caan, Jennifer Grey, Alice Eve, Billy Crystal, Ben Mendelsohn, Lola Kirke, Jemima Kirke, Jamie Dornan
Former writing prodigy Andrea tries not to fall for her one-night stand, while her sister Lisa throws herself into a newfound religious zeal (and the arms of her charismatic rabbi) to avoid the truth about her current relationship in this multi-character romantic drama.

Click for tickets