The 2023 edition of The Tribeca Film Festival upped the anty for female filmmakers this year. Femmecentric storytelling gave us innumerable outstanding performances from women of all ages. As usual, I begin my annual roundup with the caveat that this list pertains solely to the films I saw. Here is my 2023 list of Women to Watch from Tribeca. *an Read More →
BUCKY F*CKING DENT David Duchovny adapts his novel of the same name for the big screen at Tribeca’s 2023. If you grew up a Red Sox fan like I did, the name Buck Dent is akin to “He Who Shall Not Be Named” in Harry Potter. Being a Sox fan, I was constantly aware of the curse. You can spot Read More →
PROOF OF CONCEPT Written and directed by Max Cohn and Ellie Sachs, the short film PROOF OF CONCEPT is a filmmaker and cinephiles meta-inside joke. Richard Kind plays Robert Cohen, a man with an aspiring filmmaker daughter. An ager Chloe, played hilariously by Ellie Sachs, tries to get dad and her Uncle Eddie on board for funding a short film, Read More →
STAN LEE This is a Disney+ documentary look at the one and only Stan Lee, largely told in his own words which were recorded during his almost century-long life.For those who don’t know Stan Lee is the guy who got a job with Timely comics in the late 1930s and ended up staying with the company for decades, eventually rechristening Read More →
DOWNTOWN OWL I went to the world premiere of Downtown Owl. It takes place in Owl, North Carolina about a high school teacher, played by Lily Rabe, who recently moved there. She doesn’t know anyone and soon another teacher, played by Vanessa Hudgens, invites her to come to the local bar. They wind up spending many nights there. There she Read More →
CATCHING DUST Sunset in the desert. A modern mobile home splashed with paint, the bold hues almost glowing in the half-light. A man with a rifle. A shrill scream. Stuart Gatt’s Catching Dust announces itself by beginning with these enthralling moments. A film centering on a painter, it is interested in the motivations of its character, but also in placing Read More →
THE LISTENER Steve Buscemi‘s Tribeca 2023 film, THE LISTENER, finds Tessa Thompson playing Beth, a crisis line operator who works the overnight shift. Watching Thompson process callers’ stories in real-time is akin to live theatre. Scenarios range from a call from a formerly incarcerated man, a husband who just told his wife he doesn’t love her, an overburdened mother, a Read More →
SUITABLE FLESH H.P. Lovecraft‘s story “The Thing on the Doorstep” serves as inspiration for Joe Lynch‘s Tribeca 2023 Midnight film SUITABLE FLESH. Heather Graham is Dr. Elizabeth Derby. Beth is a straight-laced psychiatrist whose obsession with a young patient becomes an uncontrollable sexual attraction. Part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe, horror-lit fans finally get the blood-soaked deliciousness they’ve been craving. Read More →
OUR SON Billy Porter and Luke Evans return to Tribeca playing partners of thirteen years. Billy stars as Gabriel, an aspiring artist struggling to find creative and personal spark while caring for the young son he shares with his ambitious partner, Nicky (Luke Evans). Stress and anxiety flare as their relationship gets to an unrepairable place, forcing the couple to Read More →
THE FUTURE At 42, Dr. Bloch (Reymonde Amsellem), a profiler, wants a child. A future. Her only way is to find a surrogate mother. At the same time, her groundbreaking algorithm designed to identify individuals planning to carry out terror attacks fails and a young Palestinian woman (Samar Qupty) assassinates the Israeli minister of Space and Tourism. In order to Read More →
TAKE CARE OF MAYA In 2016 in Venice, Florida, Beata and Jack Kowalski began the fight of their lives. Diagnosed with a rare condition in 2015, Maya Kowalski was in constant pain, barely able to walk, and deteriorating by the day. After intense treatment in Mexico, Nata improved for a year. During a 2016 relapse, following a 10-minute interview with Read More →
SONGS ABOUT F*CKING In the fall of 2021, filmmaker James Gallagher rode across the country with Marc Rebillet on his sold-out Third Dose Tour to capture what it was about the artist, showman, and robe-clad musical alchemist that brought thousands of people out of their homes for the first time. Part hitmaker, part internet personality, Marc Rebillet is the epitome Read More →
CORVINE An eccentric boy has trouble fitting in at school due to his obsession with crows. Writer-director Sean McCarron‘s Tribeca animated short CORVINE immediately enchanted me, from the delightful score by Suad Bushnaq to the beautiful animation to the sweet storytelling. The film celebrates imagination and individuality while also creatively tackling bullying. As a parent of a child on the Read More →
JE’VIDA With a face hardened by years of hurt, chain-smoking Lida carries the weight of a life defined by the shame and marginalization directed at her as a Sámi woman in contemporary Finland. Though strangers, she sets out alongside niece Sanna to clear out their long-held family home in preparation for its sale. Lida’s instinct to burn anything and everything Read More →
SOMEWHERE QUIET Meg (Jennifer Kim) is trying to readjust to normal life after recently being involved in a heinous abduction. To recenter herself, she takes a trip to the woods by the coast in Cape Cod with her husband Scott (Kentucker Audley) to stay at his wealthy family’s countryside compound. An excursion like this offers the kind of peace that Read More →
TO MY FATHER To My Father, depicts Deaf actor Troy Kotsur’s journey to winning an Oscar and his father’s inspiringinfluence on him, despite a tragic accident. Gorgeously shot by Brody Carmichael, with thoughtful editing by Joshua Meyers, Sean Schiavolin brings audiences a heartfelt story of inspiration and determination with the short film TO MY FATHER. Unless you’ve been living under a Read More →
CHASING CHASING AMY 12-year-old Sav Rodgers watched the film Chasing Amy, and his life was forever changed. Developing a kinship — and maybe a slight obsession — with it as he grew into his queerness, he decides to fund and direct a documentary that examines its role in LGBTQ+ film culture. He makes significant progress, even garnering the support and collaboration of its director, Kevin Smith. Read More →
TRIBECA FESTIVAL 2023 brings thrills, mystery, comedy, fantasy, you name it, there is something for everyone. This year’s lineup features Joe Lynch‘s latest, Suitable Flesh, Gabriela Cowperthwaite‘s I.S.S., and David Duchovny‘s Bucky F*cking Dent. Let’s get into a few of the films we are dying to get our eyeballs on this year. THE LISTENER – North American Premiere – Read More →
Fantasia 2023 is almost upon us, or as we like to say, “It’s Christmas in July, Motherf*ckers!” But, we usually keep that on the inside. Now that you have a taste of how demented we naturally are, here is a handful of films we are stoked to check out at this year’s fest. It’s the stuff we’ll undoubtedly be buzzing Read More →
Slamdance 2023 Premiere of WHO’S ANNIE? After jail-time, 12-step programs and five marriages, Annie begins her acting career in her mid-fifties with the help of a young director she met at a Burger King. In this show within a show, Annie tackles both her gigs as an actor and the role of herself in her own life story. A farcical Read More →
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