Tribeca triple threat – 11 films where the star is also the writer & director

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Song of Back and Neck_(Bartosz Nalazek)_1

Maine_(Donald_R_Monroe)_1_Property of Beachside Films

All About Nina
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Eva Vives
Writer: Eva Vives
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Common (also starring in Blue Night), 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

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

The Party’s Just Beginning
Feature Narrative
Country: Scotland
Director: Karen Gillan
Writer: Karen Gillan
Starring: Rachel Jackson, Jamie Quinn, Siobhan Redmond, Paul Higgins, Matthew Beard, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan
Lucy is a sharp-witted, foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking twenty-something who is still reeling from a recent loss. This surreal coming-of-age tale is a love letter to Gillan’s hometown in the Scottish Highlands.
Click for tickets

M
Feature Narrative
Country: France
Director: Sara Forestier
Writer: Sara Forestier
Starring: Liv Andren, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Redouanne Harjane, Sara Forestier
Written by, directed by, and starring César Award winner Sara Forestier, this steamy drama explores the passionate relationship between a girl with a crippling speech impediment and an undereducated drag racer.
Click for tickets

Diane
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Kent Jones
Writer: Kent Jones
Starring: Mary Kay Place, Jake Lacy, Estelle Parsons, Andrea Martin, Deirdre O’Connell, Glynis O’Connor, Phyllis Somerville, Joyce Van Patten, Kent Jones
Diane is a devoted friend and caretaker, particularly to her drug-addicted son. But as those around her begin to drift away in the last quarter of her life, she is left to reckon with past choices and long-dormant memories in this haunting character study.
Click for tickets

Duck Butter
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Miguel Arteta
Writer: Alia Shawkat, Miguel Arteta
Starring: Alia Shawkat, Laia Costa, Hong Chau, Kate Berlant, Kumail Nanjiani, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Lindsay Burdge, Miguel Arteta
Two women, jaded by dishonest and broken relationships, make a pact to spend 24 uninterrupted hours together, having sex on the hour. Their romantic experiment intends to create a new form of intimacy, but it doesn’t quite go as planned.
Click for tickets

Distributed by: The Orchard

Ghostbox Cowboy
Feature Narrative
Country: USA, China
Director: John Maringouin
Writer: John Maringouin
Starring: David Zellner, Robert Longstreet, Johnny Robichaux, Vincent Xie, Carrie Gege Zhang, John Maringouin
In this darkly comedic morality tale, tech entrepreneur Jimmy Van Horn arrives in China armed with an invention and confidence, only to learn that being American is not enough to succeed.
Click for tickets

Maine
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Matthew Brown
Writer: Matthew Brown
Starring: Laia Costa, Thomas Mann, Matthew Brown
A married woman’s journey of self-discovery and introspection while solo-hiking the Appalachian Trail ends up sidetracked when she encounters a lone hiker.
Click for tickets

Song of Back and Neck
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Paul Lieberstein
Writer: Paul Lieberstein
Starring: Paul Feig, Robert Pine, Brian d’Arcy James, Clark Duke, Rosemarie DeWitt, Paul Lieberstein
A hapless man seeking treatment for his crippling back pain discovers a very unusual talent and unexpected love in this inventive romantic comedy from writer-director-star Paul Lieberstein (The Office).
Click for tickets

Surviving Theater 9
Short Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Tim McGrath
Writer: Tim McGrath
Starring: Stacey Oristano, Tim McGrath, Luke Columbero, Brittany Ishibashi, Chelsey Crisp, Corben Bernsen
After the mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, filmmaker Tim McGrath and his fellow survivors offer an inside look in this intriguing and inspiring movie.
Click for tickets
The 716th
Short Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Andrew Bowen
Writer: Andrew Bowen
Starring: Taj Speights, Lauren McFall, John Asher, Andrew Bowen
Left to die at the hands of her enemies. When a small shuttle piloted by an unlikely hero arrives to save them, a poorly planned, at times comical rescue sends these outcasts on an unexpected adventure.
Click for tickets

20 films at the Tribeca Film Festival that already have distribution

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Say Her Name The Life and Death of Sandra Bland_1

Disobedience_(Bleeker Street Photography).jpg

The Gospel According to Andre_(Magnolia Pictures)_1

No Greater Law
Feature Documentary
Country: UK, USA
Director: Tom Dumican
Writer: Jesse Lichtenstein, Tom Dumican
Distributed by: A&E
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

In Idaho’s rugged Treasure Valley, the Followers of Christ believe in God, family, and faith healing. As an investigation into the community’s high infant mortality rate closes in on the church, one patriarch fights for his right to his faith.

Studio 54
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Writer:
Starring: Myra Scheer, Karin Bacon, Norma Kamali, Nile Rodgers, Ian Schrager, Steve Rubell
Distributed by: A&E
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

In 1977, Studio 54 and its founders, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell, epitomized New York hedonism. But by, 1979 the fantasy was over—and Studio 54 goes inside that meteoric rise and catastrophic fall.

Disobedience
Feature Narrative
Country: UK
Director: Sebastian Lelio
Writer: Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Sebastián Lelio
Starring: Alessandro Nivola, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz
Distributed by: Bleecker Street – Releasing 4/27/18
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

After the death of her estranged rabbi father, a New York photographer returns to the Orthodox Jewish community in North London where she grew up and, in doing so, reignites long-dormant passions and controversies.

McQueen
Feature Documentary
Country:
Director: Peter Ettedgui, Ian Bonhôte
Writer: Peter Ettedgui
Distributed by: Bleecker Street
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Legendary couturier Alexander McQueen’s rags to riches story is vividly brought to life by his closest friends and family, and through his revolutionary body of work, as inspired, tortured, and visionary as the man himself.

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.

Crossroads
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Ron Yassen
Writer:
Distributed by: ESPN Films
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Despite never having played the game before, a group of underprivileged teens emerge as a talented lacrosse team under the tutelage of Coach Bobby Selkin in this inspiring documentary.

Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: David Heilbroner, Kate Davis
Writer:
Distributed by: HBO
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Sandra Bland was a bright, energetic activist whose life was cut short when a traffic stop resulted in a mysterious jail cell death just three days later. Say Her Name follows the two-year battle to uncover the truth.

Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Andrea Nevins
Writer: Andrea Nevins
Starring: Peggy Orenstein, Roxane Gay, Gloria Steinem, Michelle Chidoni, Kim Culmone
Distributed by: hulu
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Since her debut nearly 60 years ago, Barbie has been at turns a fashion idol and a cultural lightning rod. Tiny Shoulders steps behind the scenes as the icon undergoes her greatest reinvention yet.

The story of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s whirlwind romance with the tempestuous poet Percy Shelley, a romance that led to her creation of one of the most enduring works of gothic literature before the age of 20: Frankenstein.

Nico, 1988
Feature Narrative
Country: Italy, Belgium
Director: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Writer: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Starring: Calvin Demba, Karina Fernandez, Thomas Trabacchi, Sandor Funtek, Anamaria Marinca, John Gordon Sinclair, Trine Dyrholm
Distributed by: Magnolia
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

This whirlwind road movie follows the final months on tour of the singer-songwriter Nico, one-time Warhol superstar and Velvet Underground vocalist.

The Gospel According to André
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Kate Novack
Writer:
Starring: André Leon Talley
Distributed by: Magnolia – Releasing 5/25/18
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

From the segregated South to the fashion capitals of the world, The Gospel According to André recounts fashion editor André Leon Talley’s storied life and career through intimate conversations, rich archival, and testimonials from fashion luminaries including Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, and Marc Jacobs.

Into the Okavango
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Neil Gelinas
Writer: Brian Newell, Neil Gelinas
Distributed by: National Geographic
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Botswana’s Okavango Delta is one of the planet’s last remaining true wildernesses, but studies have shown it is shrinking. A group of intrepid scientists embark on a four-month, 1500-mile journey upriver to the Okavango’s source to investigate why.

The Rachel Divide
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Laura Brownson
Writer: Jeff Gilbert, Laura Brownson
Distributed by: Netflix – Releasing 4/27/18
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Rachel Dolezal became infamous when she was unmasked as a white woman passing for black so thoroughly that she had become the head of her local N.A.A.C.P. chapter. This portrait cuts through the very public controversy to reveal Dolezal’s motivations.

Sunday’s Illness (La Enfermedad del Domingo)
Feature Narrative
Country: Spain
Director: Ramón Salazar Hoogers
Writer: Ramón Salazar Hoogers
Starring: Susi Sanchez, Barbara Lennie
Distributed by: Netflix – Releasing 6/15/18
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

After Anabel hosts an opulent dinner, she is confronted by Chiara, the daughter she abandoned decades earlier. Chiara arrives with just one request: that she and her mother spend ten days together.

The Bleeding Edge
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering
Writer:
Distributed by: Netflix
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

Each year in the United States, unparalleled innovations in medical diagnostics, treatment, and technology hit the market. But when the same devices designed to save patients end up harming them, who is accountable?

Cargo
Feature Narrative
Country: Australia
Director: Yolanda Ramke, Ben Howling
Writer: Yolanda Ramke
Starring: Martin Freeman
Distributed by: Netflix – Releasing 5/18/18
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

An infected father navigates a zombie-riddled Australian Outback with his infant daughter. Fortunately, he’s found an Aboriginal community that may hold the disease’s cure. Unfortunately, he has only 48 hours to live.

The Fourth Estate
Feature Documentary
Country: USA
Director: Liz Garbus
Writer:
Distributed by: Showtime
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

For the journalists at The New York Times, the election of Donald Trump presented a once in a generation challenge in how the press would cover a president who has declared the majority of the nation’s major news outlets “the enemy of the people.” Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus witnessed the inner workings of journalism and investigative reporting from the front lines during this administrations’ first history-making year. A Showtime release

A sumptuous adaptation of the classic Chekhov play transports the audience to a picturesque lakeside estate, where a love triangle unfolds between the legendary diva Irina, her lover Boris, and the ingénue Nina.

Two women, jaded by dishonest and broken relationships, make a pact to spend 24 uninterrupted hours together, having sex on the hour. Their romantic experiment intends to create a new form of intimacy, but it doesn’t quite go as planned.

We the Animals
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
Writer: Dan Kitrosser
Starring: Josiah Gabriel, Isaiah Kristian, Evan Rosado, Sheila Vand, Raul Castillo
Distributed by: The Orchard
Festival tickets: Click for tickets

This lyrical coming-of-age tale, based on the acclaimed novel, weaves magic realism into an exquisite portrait of three brothers, their troubled parents, and the secret that the youngest of them holds.

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

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Daughter of Mine_(Valerio Bispuri)_© Vivo film_Colorado Film _ Match Factory Productions _ Bord Cadre Films

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

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

10 Star-Studded Narratives on Melissa’s watchlist at the Tribeca Film Festival

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

The Miseducation of Cameron Post_(Jeong Park)

A good movie does not have to have a big name, but if you’re a fan of the actor, it could make an ok movie, a great one. All of the films below feature actors whose work I tend to like.

Blue Night
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Fabien Constant
Writer: Laura Eason
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Simon Baker, Common, Taylor Kinney, Waleed Zuaiter, with Jacqueline Bisset and Renée Zellweger
A devastating diagnosis sends a famous singer reeling through the streets of New York City in this French New Wave-inspired drama.
Click for tickets

Cargo
Feature Narrative
Country: Australia
Director: Yolanda Ramke, Ben Howling
Writer: Yolanda Ramke
Starring: Martin Freeman
An infected father navigates a zombie-riddled Australian Outback with his infant daughter. Fortunately, he’s found an Aboriginal community that may hold the disease’s cure. Unfortunately, he has only 48 hours to live.
Click for tickets

Mary Shelley
Feature Narrative
Country: Ireland, UK, Luxembourg, USA
Director: Haifaa Al Mansour
Writer: Emma Jensen
Starring: Maisie Williams, Tom Sturridge, Joanne Froggatt, Bel Powley, Douglas Booth, Elle Fanning
The story of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s whirlwind romance with the tempestuous poet Percy Shelley, a romance that led to her creation of one of the most enduring works of gothic literature before the age of 20: Frankenstein.
Click for tickets

State Like Sleep
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Meredith Danluck
Writer: Meredith Danluck
Starring: Mary Kay Place, Michiel Huisman, Luke Evans, Michael Shannon, Katherine Waterston
Following the death of her husband, Katherine travels to Brussels, where a few loose ends become a whole web of secrets as she untangles her late spouse’s mysterious last days alive.
Click for tickets

Stockholm
Feature Narrative
Country: Canada, Sweden, USA
Director: Robert Budreau
Writer: Robert Budreau
Starring: Thorbjorn Harr, Bea Santos, Christopher Heyerdahl, Mark Strong, Noomi Rapace, Ethan Hawke
In 1973, an unhinged American outlaw walked into a bank in Sweden demanding millions in cash in exchange for his hostages. The events that followed would capture the attention of the world and ultimately give a name to a new psychological phenomenon: Stockholm syndrome.
Click for tickets

The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Desiree Akhavan
Writer: Cecilia Frugiuele, Desiree Akhavan
Starring: Jennifer Ehle, John Gallagher Jr., Forrest Goodluck, Sasha lane, Chloë Grace Moretz
After Cameron is caught making out with another girl on prom night, her conservative guardians send her to gay conversion therapy. There, she forges an unlikely community with her fellow teens in this Sundance-winning coming of age story.
Click for tickets

The Seagull
Feature Narrative
Country: USA
Director: Michael Mayer
Writer: Stephen Karam
Starring: Brian Dennehy, Billy Howle, Michael Zegen, Glenn Fleshler, Jon Tenney, Mare Winningham, Elisabeth Moss, Corey Stoll, Saoirse Ronan, Annette Bening
A sumptuous adaptation of the classic Chekhov play transports the audience to a picturesque lakeside estate, where a love triangle unfolds between the legendary diva Irina, her lover Boris, and the ingénue Nina.
Click for tickets

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

Got $25k? You could have lunch with Robert De Niro & Al Pacino

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Tribeca Film Institute and Charitybuzz are bringing screen legends Robert De Niro and Al Pacino back together for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The highest bidder and their lucky guest will join the actors for a private lunch, courtesy of De Niro in New York City. The proceeds will benefit the Tribeca Film Institute, which provides funding and resources to diverse groups of exceptional filmmakers and media artists, empowering these storytellers to be catalysts for change in their communities and around the world. The auction will launch on Thursday, March 22 at 9 AM EST, and the bidding will close on Thursday, April 5 at 3 PM EST.

Arguably two of the most talented actors of their generation, De Niro and Pacino are responsible for countless classics of American cinema including The Godfather films, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Goodfellas, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, and Scent of a Woman. They have three Academy Awards between them and have been nominated twelve times.

Besides The Godfather: Part II, they have appeared in two other films together – Righteous Kill and the cult classic, Heat. They have recently wrapped production on their latest collaboration, The Irishman with Pacino playing Jimmy Hoffa and De Niro playing his reputed assassin, Frank Sheeran. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese, co-stars Joe Pesci, and is due to be released next year.

About Charitybuzz

Charitybuzz is a leading online charity auction platform, offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences and incredible luxury packages to its community of more than 200,000 high-net-worth bidders while raising funds for charitable causes around the globe. To date, Charitybuzz has raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars for thousands of non-profit organizations. Its roster of celebrity supporters includes Sir Paul McCartney, Tim Cook, Beyoncé, Mick Jagger, Warren Buffett, Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen. Charitybuzz is a member of Charity Network. Named one of Fast Company’s 2017 Most Innovative Companies, Charity Network is also parent company to Prizeo, an online sweepstakes-for-good platform; Chideo, a cause-meets-entertainment content company; and Global Philanthropy Group, a strategy consulting firm for cause. To learn more, please visit www.charitybuzz.com.

About Tribeca Film Institute

Tribeca Film Institute champions storytellers to be catalysts for change in their communities and around the world. Each year, we identify a diverse group of exceptional filmmakers and media artists then empower them with funding and resources to fully realize their stories and connect with audiences. Our education programs empower students through hands-on training and exposure to socially relevant films, offering young people the media skills necessary to be creative and productive global citizens. We are a year-round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001.

For more information about Tribeca Film Institute, please visit http://www.tfiny.org

Trailer: Edie Falco & Jay Duplass star in the SXSW selection ‘Outside In’

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

The Orchard will release OUTSIDE IN in select theaters on March 30th and all digital platforms on April 3rd

Official Selection 2017 Toronto Film Festival
Official Selection 2018 SXSW Film Festival

After serving 20 years for the crime of essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, 38-year-old Chris (Jay Duplass) is granted early parole thanks largely to the tireless advocacy of Carol (Edie Falco), his former high-school teacher. As he struggles with the challenges of navigating the modern world as an ex-con, and with a fraught relationship with his brother Ted (Ben Schwartz), Chris ends up confessing his romantic love for Carol — a love that, given her marital status, Carol cannot reciprocate. Or can she? Carol longs for something her husband no longer provides. Meanwhile, Carol’s daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever) befriends Chris, finding a kindred spirit in this awkward, tormented older guy.

Distributor: The Orchard
New York Release: The Quad on March 30th
TRT: 109 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Lynn Shelton
Writers: Jay Duplass and Lynn Shelton
Producers: Mel Eslyn, Lacey Leavitt
Executive Producers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Editor: Celia Beasley
Director of Photography: Nathan M. Miller

Tribeca Film Festival: Tickets now available for 4 screenings at Beacon Theatre – ‘Love, Gilda’ ‘Scarface’ Schindler’s List’ ‘Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1’

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

In Love, Gilda, director Lisa D’Apolito uses rare personal recordings and journal entries to tell Radner’s story in her own words. Along the way, friends and admirers, including Amy Poehler, Cecily Strong, Lorne Michaels, and a host of others, offer their most cherished memories of this brilliant trailblazer.

SCREENING TIMES

WED	4/18	7:00 PM	Beacon	ADD	BUY NOW
THU	4/19	9:30 PM	Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-5	ADD	REDEEM
TUE	4/24	4:00 PM	Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-11	ADD	REDEEM
THU	4/26	9:45 PM	Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-11	ADD	REDEEM

Brian De Palma filtered Howard Hawks’s 1932 classic Scarface through The Godfather’s somber consideration for the humanizing motives of corrupt men. It went on to receive three Golden Globe nominations and has become one of the most referenced films in pop culture. Al Pacino delivers his riskiest performance in a career-defining role, garnering a cult following for the film. Revisit the gangland masterpiece thirty-five years later, a rich, harrowing, eminently quotable ride to excess and self-destruction that laid the groundwork for the myriad of anti-hero stories to come.

SCREENING TIMES

THU

4/19

7:00 PM

Beacon

ADD

BUY NOW

Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic masterpiece Schindler’s List remains one of contemporary cinema’s most challenging and sensitive portraits on the human toll of the Holocaust. Anchored by stunning performances from Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley, the film received acclaim and went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with an additional five nominations. Twenty-five years later, Schindler’s List continues to be widely considered to be one of the most important films of all time.

SCREENING TIMES

THU

4/26

6:30 PM

Beacon

ADD

BUY NOW

Through interviews with Michael Jordan, Spike Lee, and more, this vibrant documentary tells the origin story of the Air Jordan, and the impact it had on sports, hip-hop, and the birth of sneaker culture.

SCREENING TIMES

FRI	4/27	8:00 PM	Beacon	ADD	BUY NOW
SAT	4/28	7:00 PM	Cinépolis Chelsea 9	ADD	REDEEM
SUN	4/29	9:30 PM	Regal Cinemas Battery Park 11-5	ADD	REDEEM

Review: ‘VIRGINIA MINNESOTA’ is a quirky and heartfelt road movie.

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Daniel Stine’s feature film debut, Virginia Minnesota, received its world premiere on March 2^nd at the Cinequest Film Festival and stars a primarily female cast led by Aurora Perrineau and Rachel Hendrix.

Two young women, torn apart by a childhood tragedy, unexpectedly reunite and embark on an illuminating 24-hour journey, where they unlock memories of long forgotten innocence and what it means to truly believe.

This unexpected indie takes your heart by surprise within minutes. It’s part folklore, part road movie, and all charm. When four girls are called together to hear the reading of the will of their former headmistress, sparks fly and memories burn with truth and misunderstanding. I was not expecting this story to turn into a road movie at all, although with a character that is a suitcase with a personality (you’ll just have to watch to understand what I mean) I guess I should have predicted it in hindsight. While a small piece of the plot does revolve around a fiancé, the dialogue definitely passes The Bechdel Test with flying colors. Aurora Perrineau and Rachel Hendrix have a chemistry that is fun and comfortable.They challenge one another at every turn making Virginia Minnesota just as delightful as it is insightful. Guilt, repressed feelings and some seriously quirky encounters create a truly lovely and endlessly engrossing film.

VIRGINIA MINNESOTA – Trailer from Daniel Stine on Vimeo.

Virginia Minnesota premiered at the 2018 Cinequest Film Festival on March 2^nd at 9:30 PM.

Virginia Minnesota was recently awarded the Global Grand Jury award for Best Hollywood Film at the Hollywood Film Festival (HFF), with Aurora Perrineau and Rachel Hendrix receiving special mention as Exceptional Emerging Artists. The film is produced by Rushaway Pictures, with cinematography by Pedro Ciampolini and a score by Gary Dworetsky.

Review: ‘Keep The Change’ is a laugh out loud funny and charming as hell.

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Set in New York, the story centers on the struggles of David as he comes to terms with his own high-functioning autism, when he unexpectedly falls for a quirky and outgoing woman whose lust for life both irks and fascinates him. Keep the Change is based on an award-winning short film developed by Rachel Israel and Brandon Polansky that was inspired by Polansky’s experiences at Adaptations, a community for adults on the autism spectrum.

Keep The Change premiered last year at The Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews and won awards for best U.S. narrative feature and best new narrative director along with a special mention for the Nora Ephron Prize.

This film is a sidesplitting winner. Outside of the documentary genre, we’re not often let into the world of adults on the autism spectrum. Keep The Change follows the beginnings of a relationship between two very different individuals who are ultimately seeking to be accepted and cherished for who they are. The issues of self-love, sexuality, class, are addressed in endearing and tongue-in-cheek ways. Newcomers and leads Brandon Polansky and Samantha Elisofon have an insane chemistry. The two appear to be polar opposites making their banter all the more entertaining. Any time you pit a glum and cynical individual against an outgoing and seemingly innocent one, interesting things are bound to happen. The dialogue is biting, witty, and oftentimes offensive, keeping the viewer on their toes and thoroughly amused. Writer/director Rachel Israel has given us a true gem. This unique romcom will undoubtedly charm the pants off of you and teach you some much-needed tolerance.

Kino Lorber will open the film in New York on March 16th at the Quad Cinema, in Los Angeles on April 20th at Laemmle Town Center and Laemmle Royal Theatre followed by a national rollout.

Keep The Change stars newcomers Brandon Polansky and Samantha Elisofon. Written and directed by Rachel Israel, the film also stars veteran actress Jessica Walter (“Arrested Development”), Tibor Feldman and non-professional actors with Autism, Nicky Gottlieb and Will Deaver.

Review: ‘PERMISSION’ allows an audience to ask ‘what if?’ for themselves.

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

***Official Selection of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival***

Anna (Rebecca Hall) and Will (Dan Stevens), were each other’s first every-things: first kiss, first love, first and only relationship. Now, 10 years in, at Anna’s 30th birthday party, as Will is about to propose, the couple’s best friend makes a drunken toast, suggesting that they should sleep around before their inevitable marriage. The joke lands like a lead balloon, but the thought lingers until Anna proposes that they try opening their relationship – as a sexual experiment. Together, they venture out of the purely monogamous boundaries of their relationship and, along the way, evolve.

Permission is one of the most honest portrayals of how awkward true intimacy is. When you are so comfortable with someone to the point of predictability, does that have the potential to become a death sentence for a relationship? Life’s ‘what ifs” are some of the most tempting ideas a person can entertain. The chemistry between the entire cast is palpable. You will find yourself falling in love with Hall and Stevens and definitely crushing on Arnaud, Gershon, Craig, Spector, and Sudeikis. This true ensemble of actors along with writer/director Brian Crano has given us a gift. What may appear on the surface as small moments in the script are incredibly impactful due to some really brilliant acting and writing. Permission has an authenticity that sneaks up on you. It’s those moments that define the story and make it so relatable. The music is perfectly paired with each scene, almost becoming its own fly on the wall secondary cast member. Overall, the film is a refreshing look at adult relationships and how to find horny contacts. It’s fun and engrossing and different. It dares to challenge the typical rom-com genre and that’s why you should seek it out.

Permission is in theaters today! Check out the trailer below.

Starring Rebecca Hall (Christine, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women), Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast, Downton Abbey), Gina Gershon (Empire), Francois Arnaud (Midnight Texas), David Joseph Craig (The Gift), Morgan Spector (Chuck, Boardwalk Empire), and Jason Sudeikis

Written and Directed By Brian Crano (A Bag of Hammers, Dog Food)

Produced by Rebecca Hall, Margot Hand, Girl Tharan, Joshua Thurston

Tribeca Film Fest: ‘Love, Gilda’ to open at Beacon Theatre April 18th

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

An intimate portrait honoring comedy legend Gilda Radner in her own words with readings from her personal diaries and candid interviews with Chevy Chase, Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong and others…

The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, will open its 17th edition with the world premiere of LOVE, GILDA on Wednesday, April 18, 2018. CNN Films presents the feature length documentary – produced by 3 Faces Films in association with Motto Pictures – which opens a window into the world of celebrated Emmy^® and Grammy^® award-winning comedian Gilda Radner who became a cultural icon the moment audiences first laughed with her on Saturday Night Live’s debut episode. A trailblazer for female comedians, her impact on the entertainment industry has endured almost four decades. The film will premiere opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the city she called home when she catapulted to fame. Tickets for Opening Night go on sale on March 20 atwww.tribecafilm.com/festival. The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival runs April 18-29.

LOVE, GILDA is directed and produced by Lisa D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate. The film is a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own words and in her own voice. It weaves together audiotapes, rare home movies, diary entries, and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her including: Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Cecily Strong; SNL original cast members Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, and Paul Shaffer; as well as Lorne Michaels (SNL creator and producer), Alan Zweibel (SNL writer), Stephen Schwartz (Broadway composer); Andrew Alexander (CEO of Second City), and long-time friend and actor Martin Short.

Gilda Radner captivated millions of television viewers as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1975-1980. The popularity of her now classic comedic characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Lisa Loopner fueled the young talent to meteoric fame in television, movies, and on Broadway. After finding happiness in love with Gene Wilder she received the cruelest joke of all, cancer. Her fight against the disease served as an inspiration to people impacted by the illness to stay positive and to keep laughing no matter what challenges life brings you.

“As a Festival that has always supported women’s voices and is largely run by women we are incredibly proud to celebrate the inimitable voice of Gilda during the opening night of our Festival,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder and CEO of the Tribeca Film Festival. “Gilda Radner was a powerful comedic force of nature who opened doors and thrilled audiences while becoming one of the most prolific comedians of a generation. Her cutting edge humor was only second to her dedicated leadership in cancer care with her eponymous Gilda’s Club.”

“LOVE, GILDA is the right film at the right time and the perfect way to open our Festival,” said Paula Weinstein, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises. “Gilda is a woman for the ages, an extraordinary talent in film, television, and theater who overcame her personal struggles to make us laugh, to make us cry. She understood the healing power of laughter not simply for her audience but in her own life as she struggled with cancer and lead the way for all of us to make the world a better place.”

First time feature filmmaker Lisa D’Apolito commented, “I fell in love with Gilda Radner while doing pro bono work at Gilda’s Club, the cancer support organization Gene Wilder founded in honor of Gilda, in Greenwich Village where I grew up. This started my journey to discover who Gilda was as a person and as a performer. Gilda inspired me and many other women with her remarkable spirit and unique talent that changed the world of comedy. I’m grateful and honored to share the extraordinary legacy of Gilda Radner at the Tribeca Film Festival.”

LOVE, GILDA brings audiences into the honest and whimsical world of a beloved performer, whose greatest role was sharing her story. The film is produced by Bronwyn Berry, Meryl Goldsmith, and James Tumminia, with Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn (Motto Pictures), Alan and Robin Zweibel, Amy Entelis and Courtney Sexton (CNN Films) serving as executive producers.

Submarine is handling sales for the film.

The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival will announce its feature film slate on March 7.

Hashtag: #Tribeca2018
Twitter: @Tribeca
Instagram: @tribeca
Facebook: facebook.com/Tribeca
Snapchat: TribecaFilmFest

Netflix News: What do Jack Black, Kathy Bates & Barack Obama have in common?

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

They are all starring in originals releasing today on Netflix! Happy Friday!

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: Barack Obama
The Polka King
Disjointed: Part 2
Stand Up Comedy Special – Tom Segura: Disgraceful
Somebody Feed Phil: Season 1

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman: Barack Obama

“David Letterman, the longest-serving host in U.S. late night television – the original host of Late Night (NBC) and The Late Show (CBS) – is returning to television for a new series for Netflix.

The yet-to-be-named, six-episode series has Letterman combining two interests for which he is renowned: in-depth conversations with extraordinary people, and in-the-field segments expressing his curiosity and humor. In each hour-long episode, Letterman will conduct a long-form conversation with a singular guest – and will also explore topics on his own, away from the studio. The series is set to premiere in 2018.”

www.netflix.com/letterman

The Polka King

“Local Pennsylvania polka legend Jan Lewan develops a plan to get rich that shocks his fans and lands him in jail.

This exuberant tragicomedy recounts the remarkable but true story of the rise and fall of Polish émigré Jan Lewan (Jack Black), from striving tchotchke shop owner in the ’70s to the undisputed “King of Pennsylvania Polka” in the early ’90s. Lewan pursued the American Dream by any means necessary, fleecing investors and bribing officials to build a personal musical empire in what became the world’s only known Polka Ponzi scheme. Swept up by Lewan’s charismatic charm are his devoted wife, Marla (Jenny Slate), and his neurotic sidekick, Mickey (Jason Schwartzman).

Polka King stars Jack Black, Jason Schwartzman, Jenny Slate, Jacki Weaver and J.B. Smoove. Directed by Maya Forbes and written by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky. Produced by Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld, Monica Levinson, Priyanka Mattoo, David Permut & Shivani Rawat.”

2017 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection

Disjointed: Part 2

From Emmy winning creators Chuck Lorre and David Javerbaum, Disjointed is a modern twist on the American Dream, a story of the highs, the lows, and half-baked drama of a family-run marijuana dispensary, which sells products similar to that delta 8 flower from CBD Hemp Direct.

The irreverent workplace comedy stars Academy Award winner Kathy Bates as Ruth, a lifelong advocate for legalization whose dreams are finally realized when she becomes the owner of a well-known cannabis dispensary that provides advice in regards of CBD oil dosage in LA. Cannabis popularity keeps growing everyday as this is an alternative medicine for many which has no secondary effects on our bodies. The Synchronicity Hemp Oil is available now in Dabbers Club Botanicals.

It’s an all-natural, cold-pressed extract derived from industrial hemp plants with no THC or other cannabinoids found within it so you can feel confident about the purity of products like the Fresh Bros THCO products! Ruth’s cannabis cohorts include three budtenders, her twenty-something son and deeply troubled security guard. In Part 2 of the series, Ruth and her squad are back in business (after being shut down by the DEA) and are celebrating this next chapter in their lives as they navigate through new milestones and misadventures at Ruth’s Alternative Caring. Disjointed also stars Chris Redd, Nicole Sullivan, Tone Bell, Betsy Sodaro, Elizabeth Alderfer, Dougie Baldwin, Elizabeth Ho and Aaron Moten.

netflix.com/disjointed

Stand Up Comedy Special

Tom Segura: Disgraceful

Comic Tom Segura takes no prisoners in his return with his second Netflix Original Stand-up comedy special, “Tom Segura: Disgraceful.” Filmed in front of a packed audience at the Paramount Theatre in Denver, Segura unapologetically calls it like he sees it as he reflects on the meaning of life, the different ways that fast food chains shame you, and why having a baby is the most selfish thing you can do.

Somebody Feed Phil: Season 1

The new original documentary series from the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, Phil Rosenthal, takes viewers on a goodwill eating tour of the world (Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Saigon, Mexico City, New Orleans and Bangkok.) Along for the ride are Phil’s friends, family and his trademark sense of humor.

Review: ‘Penalty’

Posted on November 25, 2017 by ReelReviewsOverBrews — Leave a reply

Penalty

Release Date: September 23, 2016

Guest review from Reel Reviews Over Brews

Aldo Iuliano’s award winning drama Penalty has been making waves in the film world, as this wonderful film has received nearly thirty awards and has been selected for five Academy qualifying Film Festivals. Penalty shares the story of a group of guys playing football in the middle of nowhere. There is a much more than a simple victory at stake.

Penalty is one of three short movies we’ve recently watched that are up for Oscar nominations. It’s no surprise why they are all up for nominations either. Penalty starts off a little tough to follow with a bunch of guys playing soccer, but something seems to be a little different… and that is the only reason why we rated it a little lower than the other two shorts. About halfway through is when it all begins to make sense. It’s amazing that in just 15 minutes you can feel like a movie is so complete. There are movies that are two to three hours long that don’t do that. What is even more amazing is none of the actors in this movie were profession actors… they were just guys that the director got to know by living alongside of them. Makes it even more amazing that it turned out so well. We don’t want to give away too much from any of these movies so our reviews will be a little shorter than normal, but if you have 15 minutes to spare, you should absolutely see Penalty.

Reel ROB Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Post Credits Scene: No

We want to thank our friends at Reel News Daily for allowing us to do this guest review!

DOC NYC review: ‘Abacus: Small Enough To Jail’ will cause you to rage against the machine.

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

Abacus Federal Savings Bank is a modest institution of New York’s Chinatown that came under harsh prosecution in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. While other banks were considered ‘too big to fail,’ Abacus was ‘small enough to jail.’ Filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams) follows the bank’s founder Thomas Sung and his family as they fight back in court against Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. in an effort to redeem their name and to dispel biases against Chinatown. Courtesy of PBS Distribution

Wall Street got a free pass, once again. But someone had to be made an example of. Most of us probably didn’t now that one bank was taken to court, but it’s no one you’ve ever heard of outside of Chinatown in Manhattan. In Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” could not be truer. You will be witness to one family’s battle as they are thrown under the bus to save face.The film is filled with strong daughters who go to bat for their father, family honor, their employees, and community. It will floor you as you watch the bogus claims and prejudice that occurs because it seemed to be easier than taking on the Wall Street household names. Abacus: Small Enough To Jail will expose lies we’ve been fed for years. Get ready to rage.

Showtimes:

Wed Nov 15, 2017, 11:45 AM | Cinepolis Chelsea

BUY TICKETS

Official Site: https://www.abacusmovie.com
On Twitter: AbacusMovie
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abacusmovie
Director: Steve James
Producer: Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
Cinematographer: Tom Bergmann
Editor: John Farbrother, David E. Simpson
Music: Joshua Abrams
Running Time: 88
Language: English, Mandarin & Cantonese with English subtitles
Country: USA
Year: 2016

DOCNYC review: ‘What Haunts Us’ is unfortunately a timely film.

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Why are the men of Charleston, South Carolina’s Porter Gaud School killing themselves? Alarmed by the latest in a long-running series of suicides from her high school in 1979, filmmaker Paige Goldberg Tolmach returns to her hometown for answers. Stonewalled by administrators, she mines her own memories, and those of her former classmates, to uncover long-held secrets, revealing a disturbing cover-up centered around a popular teacher and sports coach.

With years of sexual assault/abuse allegations surrounding the current political administration and entertainment industry, let us not forget that this problem is pervasive anywhere and everywhere. The coverups go deep and pride and reputation often cause the guilty to go free. Shame is a killer of dreams and, as we see in What Haunts Us, it is also a killer of people. Unravelling the mystery that surrounds not even a well-kept secret in this particular story will anger and shock you. Along with intimate sit-down interviews with our subjects, both innocent and guilty, memories are illustrated in beautifully vibrant colors. What Haunts Us is a stunning film that will hopefully open eyes to the ongoing abuse so many face on a daily basis. We have to change our rhetoric and realize the consequences of staying silent.

WHAT HAUNTS US
at DOC NYC Film Festival
Monday Nov 13, 2017
7:30 PM with Q/A following with
Paige Goldberg Tolmach, Matt Tolmach and
Special Guests from the Film

IFC CENTER
323 6th Ave. New York, New York 10014

Review: ‘MAYHEM’ is contagious fun.

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

Have you ever dreamed of punching Karen from Human Resources in her stupid face? Sure you have, who hasn’t?! In a new unapologetically violent and incredibly awesome film, you can live vicariously through others in kicking Karen’s ass.

MAYHEM stars Steven Yeun (“The Walking Dead,” Okja), Samara Weaving (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Showtime’s “SMILF”), and Steven Brand (“Teen Wolf,” “Secrets and Lies”) is directed by Joe Lynch (Everly, Knights of Badassdom) and marks the feature film debut from writer Matias Caruso.

SYNOPSIS: Derek Cho (Steven Yeun) is having a really bad day. After being unjustly fired from his job, he discovers that the law firm’s building is under quarantine for a mysterious and dangerous virus. Chaos erupts throughout the office as the victims of the disease begin acting out their wildest impulses. Joining forces with a former client (Samara Weaving) who has a grudge of her own, Derek savagely fights tooth and nail to get to the executives on the top floor and settle the score once and for all.

We all know Steven Yeun as our beloved (may he rest in peace) Glen, but in Mayhem, he does such a fantastic job that you completely forget about his Walking Dead persona. Mayhem is literally laugh out loud funny all while having some of the coolest fight choreography and blood gushing effects. Screenwriter Matias Caruso might have hit the jackpot with the plotline because this is the most imaginative way to utilize “The F-word” in a script possible. I would go back and watch to count the number of times it’s used and not a single time is it superfluous, it’s genius. Yeun’s training with zombies made him the perfect pick for this role. He is the embodiment of everyone who has ever felt oppressed by the BS hierarchy of corporate. Samara Weaving gives a borderline Harley Quinn inspired performance as a woman who was wronged by Yeun’s character. Her effortless delivery and comic timing, down to specific idiosyncracies she displays are spot on brilliant. In reality, this is an ensemble piece of pitch-perfect character work. You cannot help but get revved up watching Mayhem. It has to be one of my favorites of 2017. You can catch MAYHEM in theaters and available On Demand / Digital HD November 10, 2017. (PS- that’s today.)

RLJE Films will release the upcoming horror, action film MAYHEM in theaters and available On Demand / Digital HD November 10, 2017.

**World Premiere – SXSW Film Festival 2017**

**International Premiere – Fantasia Film Festival 2017**

**West Coast Premiere – Beyond Fest 2017**

TITLE: MAYHEM

IN THEATERS AND AVAILABLE ON VOD AND DIGITAL HD: November 10, 2017

CAST: Steven Yeun, Samara Weaving, Steven Brand

DIRECTOR: Joe Lynch

WRITER: Matias Caruso

GENRE: Horror/Action

DISTRIBUTOR: RLJE Films

NYFF review: ‘The Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected)’ – on Netflix 10/13

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

You may remember that this was one of two films that Netflix screened at the Cannes Film Festival and it caused quite a controversy.

Meyerowitz Stories is one of the two films in the competition — the other being Bong Joon-ho’s Okja— that Netflix has brought to Cannes, stirring up controversy, with the fest promising not to screen any films next year that aren’t guaranteed a theatrical release. – via Hollywood Reporter

I’ve enjoyed many of Noah Bambach’s work and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is no exception. It’s got an extra layer of New York-ness throughout that gives it a special punch.

From writer/director Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is the emotional, and comic intergenerational tale of adult siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) contending with the long shadow their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) has cast over their lives. With an original screenplay by Baumbach, the film also stars Emma Thompson, Grace Van Patten, Adam Driver, Candice Bergen, Judd Hirsch, and Rebecca Miller. The film was produced by Scott Rudin, Baumbach, Lila Yacoub, and Eli Bush.

Although it is told through a limited worldview, you’ll likely identify with some aspect of any of the characters, especially if you have siblings. The film pulls no punches and will make you laugh more than you even realize. The editing is purposeful, so don’t think something is cutting off. That just adds to the abruptness and comedy. At the risk of sounding awful, it’s so New York.

I’ve been slightly annoyed with Ben Stiller in the past few Baumbach movies (Greenberg and While We’re Young) but this character is not nearly as negative or needy. It’s quite possibly my favorite Ben Stiller role to date.

So what is the “New and Selected” all about? Well, it really seems to just let you know that this is a collection of stories of the Meyerowitz family and you couldn’t possibly show everything, so these stories are New and Selected.

Quite possibly his most accessible film to date, it definitely raises the bar of Originals on Netflix. Streaming now! (Oh, and so is Okja, which is AWESOME.

New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ persists.

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — 1 Comment ↓

Sometimes a documentary teaches you more than you ever expected. Sometimes a doc is so relevant to the present it’s shocking. Nancy Burski’s, THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR, caught me by surprise from the very beginning. I learned not much has really changed in the past 80 years when it comes to everything I hold dear with respect to racism and sexism.

1944 brought forth a horrific event perpetrated by 6 white boys on one black woman. A married mother, minding her own business, was forced into a car at gunpoint, driven into the woods and raped. She was not believed, she was threatened, she was silenced. Nevertheless, she persisted. The film utilizes “race films” (something I had never heard of prior) and intimate sit-down interviews with Recy’s siblings. Both are extremely effective in illustrating her journey for justice. With the help of Rosa Parks, yes THE Rosa Parks, Recy Taylor did not shut up. She did what so many women still don’t for fear of retribution. Nevertheless, she persisted. The Rape of Recy Taylor is powerful in its narrative and triumphant in its storytelling. In a world that tries its hardest to keep women down, particularly women of color, we should revere someone like Recy Taylor and commit to educating the masses because Recy Taylor persists.

The film had its World Premiere at Venice (only American Documentary in its category) and will make its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1^st.

The numbers of women raped in Jim Crow South were staggering. In danger of their lives, they did not report the crimes and their stories went hidden. Not Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old mother who was gang raped by 6 white boys in 1944 Alabama. Unbroken, she spoke up, and with the help of Rosa Parks and legions of women spreading the word, they worked to get Recy Taylor justice.

Nancy Burski is the director of THE LOVING STORY and BY SIDNEY LUMET.

16 New York Film Festival movies coming to theaters soon

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Author Joan Didion at home in Hollywood.

Wonder Wheel-Courtesy Amazon Studios1 NYFF55

Wonderstruck-Courtesy Amazon Studios_Mary Cybulski NYFF55

Thelma_a5_EiliHarboe_CopyrightMotlysAS NYFF55

Last Flag Flying-Courtesy Amazon Studios _ Wilson Webb NYFF55

The Florida Project
Description: A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando’s Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker’s depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl’s vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak. An A24 release.

Liz loved it!

The genuine chemistry between Willem Dafoe and rambunctious newcomer Brooklyn Prince is what makes The Florida Project so perfect.

Directed By: Sean Baker
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/6/2017
Buy NYFF Tickets

AMC LOEWS LINCOLN SQUARE 13
1998 Broadway, New York, NY 10023

ANGELIKA FILM CENTER
18 W Houston St, New York, NY 10012

Jane
Description: In 1960, Dr. Louis Leakey arranged for a young English woman with a deep love of animals to go to Gombe Stream National Park near Lake Tangyanika. The Dutch photographer and filmmaker Hugo van Lawick was sent to document Jane Goodall’s first establishment of contact with the chimpanzee population, resulting in the enormously popular Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, the second film ever produced by National Geographic. One hundred hours of Lawick’s original footage was rediscovered in 2014. From that material, Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) has created a vibrant film experience, giving new life to the experiences of this remarkable woman and the wild in which she found a home. A National Geographic Documentary Films release.
Directed By: Brett Morgen
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
Theater Date: 10/9/17
Buy NYFF Tickets

Find a screening here

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Description: Noah Baumbach revisits the terrain of family vanities and warring attachments that he began exploring with The Squid and the Whale in this intricately plotted story of three middle-aged siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) coping with their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) and the flightiness of his wife (Emma Thompson). Baumbach’s film never stops deftly changing gears, from surges of pathos to painful comedy and back again. Needless to say, this lyrical quicksilver comedy is very much a New York experience. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Noah Baumbach
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/13/17
Netflix Streaming Date: 10/13/17
Buy NYFF Tickets

Los Angeles – The Landmark, Laemmle Noho

New York City – Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, IFC Center

Atlanta – Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema

Boston – Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinemas

Chicago – Landmark’s Century Centre

Dallas – Landmark’s Magnolia Theatre

Miami – Landmark at Merrick Park

Philadelphia – Landmark’s Ritz Bourse

San Francisco – Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema

Washington D.C.- Landmark’s Bethesda

Wonderstruck
Description: In 1977, following the death of his single mother, Ben (Oakes Fegley) loses his hearing in a freak accident and makes his way from Minnesota to New York, hoping to learn about the father he has never met. A half-century earlier, another deaf 12-year-old, Rose (Millicent Simmonds), flees her restrictive Hoboken home, captivated by the bustle and romance of the nearby big city. Each of these parallel adventures, unfolding largely without dialogue, is an exuberant love letter to a different bygone era of New York. The mystery of how they ultimately converge, which involves Julianne Moore in a lovely dual role, provides the film’s emotional core. Adapted from a young-adult novel by Hugo author Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck is an all-ages enchantment, entirely true to director Todd Haynes’s sensibility: an intelligent, deeply personal, and lovingly intricate tribute to the power of obsession. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Todd Haynes
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Centerpiece
Theater Date: 10/20/2017
Buy NYFF Tickets

BPM (Beats Per Minute)
Description: In the early 1990s, ACT UP—in France, as in the U.S.—was on the front lines of AIDS activism. Its members, mostly gay, HIV-positive men, stormed drug company and government offices in “Silence=Death” T-shirts, facing down complacent suits with the urgency of their struggle for life. Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys) depicts their comradeship and tenacity in waking up the world to the disease that was killing them and movingly dramatizes the persistence of passionate love affairs even in dire circumstances. All the actors, many of them unknown, are splendid in this film, which not only celebrates the courage of ACT UP but also tacitly provides a model of resistance to the forces of destruction running rampant today. A release of The Orchard.
Directed By: Robin Campillo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
Buy NYFF Tickets

Félicité
Description: The new film from Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent, is largely set in the roughest areas of the rough city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here, a woman named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu) scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar (her accompanists are played by members of the Kasai Allstars band). When her son is seriously injured in an accident, she goes in search of money for his medical care and embarks on a double journey: through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Félicité is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine’s spiritual progress. A Strand Releasing release.
Directed By: Alain Gomis
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
Buy NYFF Tickets

The Square
Description: A precisely observed, thoroughly modern comedy of manners, Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner revolves around Christian (Claes Bang), a well-heeled contemporary art curator at a Stockholm museum. While preparing his new exhibit—a four-by-four-meter zone designated as a “sanctuary of trust and caring”—Christian falls prey to a pickpocketing scam, which triggers an overzealous response and then a crisis of conscience. Featuring several instant-classic scenes and a vivid supporting cast (Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, and noted motion-capture actor Terry Notary), The Square is the most ambitious film yet by one of contemporary cinema’s most incisive social satirists, the rare movie to have as many laughs as ideas. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Directed By: Ruben Östlund
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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Author Joan Didion at home in Hollywood.

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
Description: Griffin Dunne’s years-in-the-making documentary portrait of his aunt Joan Didion moves with the spirit of her uncannily lucid writing: the film simultaneously expands and zeroes in, covering a vast stretch of turbulent cultural history with elegance and candor, and grounded in the illuminating presence and words of Didion herself. This is most certainly a film about loss—the loss of a solid American center, the personal losses of a husband and a child—but Didion describes everything she sees and experiences so attentively, so fully, and so bravely that she transforms the very worst of life into occasions for understanding. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Griffin Dunne
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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Last Flag Flying
Description: In Richard Linklater’s lyrical road movie, as funny as it is heartbreaking, three aging Vietnam-era Navy vets—soft-spoken Doc (Steve Carell), unhinged and unfiltered Sal (Bryan Cranston), and quietly measured Mueller (Laurence Fishburne)—reunite to perform a sacred task: the proper burial of Doc’s only child, who has been killed in the early days of the Iraq invasion. As this trio of old friends makes its way up the Eastern seaboard, Linklater gives us a rich rendering of friendship, a grand mosaic of common life in the USA during the Bush era, and a striking meditation on the passage of time and the nature of truth. To put it simply, Last Flag Flying is a great movie from one of America’s finest filmmakers. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Richard Linklater
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Opening Night
Theater Date: 11/3/2017
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Mudbound
Description: Writer-director Dee Rees’s historical epic, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, details the daily hardships and vicissitudes of farm life in Mississippi during the post–World War II era. Two families, one white (the landlords) and one black (the sharecroppers), work the same miserable piece of farmland. Out of need and empathy, the mothers of the two families bond as their younger male relatives go off to war and learn that there is a world beyond racial hatred and fear. The flawless ensemble cast includes Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Dee Rees
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Sundance Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/7/2017
Streaming Date: 11/7/2017
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Lady Bird
Description: Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is a portrait of an artistically inclined young woman (Saoirse Ronan) trying to define herself in the shadow of her mother (Laurie Metcalf) and searching for an escape route from her hometown of Sacramento. Moods are layered upon moods at the furious pace of late adolescence in this lovely and loving film, which shifts deftly from one emotional and comic register to the next. Lady Bird is rich in invention and incident, and it is powered by Ronan, one of the finest actors in movies. With Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet as the men in Lady Bird’s life, Beanie Feldstein as her best friend, and Tracy Letts as her dad. An A24 release.
Directed By: Greta Gerwig
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Telluride Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/10/2017
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Thelma
Description: In the new film from Joachim Trier (Reprise), an adolescent country girl (Eili Harboe) has just moved to the city to begin her university studies, with the internalized religious severity of her quietly domineering mother and father (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Henrik Rafaelsen) always in mind. When she realizes that she is developing an attraction to her new friend Anja (Okay Kaya), she begins to manifest a terrifying and uncontrollable power that her parents have long feared. To reveal more would be a crime; let’s just say that this fluid, sharply observant, and continually surprising film begins in the key of horror and ends somewhere completely different. A release of The Orchard.
Directed By: Joachim Trier
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017), Fantastic Fest (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/10/2017
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On the Beach at Night Alone
Description: Hong Sang-soo’s movies have always invited autobiographical readings, and his 19th feature is perhaps his most achingly personal film yet, a steel-nerved, clear-eyed response to the tabloid frenzy that erupted in South Korea over his relationship with actress Kim Min-hee. The film begins in Hamburg, where actress Young-hee (played by Kim herself, who won the Best Actress prize at Berlin for this role) is hiding out after the revelation of her affair with a married filmmaker. Back in Korea, a series of encounters shed light on Young-hee’s volatile state, as she slips in and out of melancholic reflection and dreams. Centered on Kim’s astonishingly layered performance, On the Beach at Night Alone is the work of a master mining new emotional depths. A Cinema Guild release.
Directed By: Hong Sang-soo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/17/2017
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Call Me by Your Name
Description: A story of summer love unlike any other, the sensual new film from the director of I Am Love, set in 1983, charts the slowly ripening romance between Elio (Timothée Chalamet), an American teen on the verge of discovering himself, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), the handsome older grad student whom his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) has invited to their vacation home in Northern Italy. Adapted from the wistful novel by André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name is Guadagnino’s most exquisitely rendered, visually restrained film, capturing with eloquence the confusion and longing of youth, anchored by a remarkable, star-making performance by Chalamet, always a nervy bundle of swagger and insecurity, contrasting with Hammer’s stoicism. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Directed By: Luca Guadagnino
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Sundance Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/24/2017
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Wonder Wheel
Description: In a career spanning 50 years and almost as many features, Woody Allen has periodically refined, reinvented, and redefined the terms of his art, and that’s exactly what he does with his daring new film. We’re in Coney Island in the 1950s. A lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) tells us a story that just might be filtered through his vivid imagination: a middle-aged carousel operator (Jim Belushi) and his beleaguered wife (Kate Winslet), who eke out a living on the boardwalk, are visited by his estranged daughter (Juno Temple)—a situation from which layer upon layer of all-too-human complications develop. Allen and his cinematographer, the great Vittorio Storaro, working with a remarkable cast led by Winslet in a startlingly brave, powerhouse performance, have created a bracing and truly surprising movie experience. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Woody Allen
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Closing Night
Theater Date: 12/1/2017
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Lover for a Day
Description: Lover for a Day is an exquisite meditation on love and fidelity that recalls Garrel’s previous NYFF selections Jealousy (NYFF 2013) and In the Shadow of Women (NYFF 2015). After a painful breakup, heartbroken Jeanne (Esther Garrel) moves back in with her university professor father, Gilles (Eric Caravaca), to discover that he is living with optimistic, life-loving student Ariane (newcomer Louise Chevillotte), who is the same age as Jeanne. An unusual triangular relationship emerges as both girls seek the favor of Gilles, as daughter or lover, while developing their own friendship, finding common ground despite their differences. Gorgeously shot in grainy black and white by Renato Berta (Au revoir les enfants), Lover for a Day perfectly illustrates Garrel’s poetic exploration of relationships and desire. A MUBI release.
Directed By: Philippe Garrel
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 1/12/2018
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New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘The Other Side of Hope’ is subtle, quirky & timely

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Finland’s master of deadpan comedy, Aki Kaurismäki (‘Lights in the Dusk’, ‘Le Havre’), returns with the story of an unlikely friendship between a Syrian asylum seeker and a middle-aged Finnish restaurant owner. Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director, it’s a beautiful, timely film from one of the world’s leading auteurs. Khaled (Sherwan Haji) arrives at the port of Helsinki concealed in a coal container, fleeing war-torn Syria to seek asylum in Finland. Dazed and frustrated by the monolithic administration he encounters at the detention centre, he makes a break for it and heads out onto the streets. There he meets Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen), a former shirt salesman who has recently left his alcoholic wife for a new life as a bachelor restaurateur. Together, they help each other to navigate the adversities they face in these unfamiliar and often baffling new worlds. Stream The Other Side of Hope on Volta now: https://goo.gl/6CrV4v

Sometimes with so much in the news about refugees and asylum seekers, it becomes hard to put a face to the issue. Director Aki Kaurismäki brings the issue humanity and humor in The Other Side of Hope. This truly deadpan comedy focuses on Khaled, who fled Syria because of the war and is now desperate to find his sister. Add to that Wikström, a man who just left his alcoholic wife and bought a restaurant, with no experience. Wikström does not set out to help Khaled, it sort of just happens.

Aside from the story, the film is beautifully shot, and although set in our time, has the look of a 70s film. Many shots are zoomed out to show all the action and the absurd movements of the characters. It’s a delight to just visually follow what’s happening.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack immensely. The song from the trailer (at 0:37) is so fantastic and you’ll find yourself wanted to listen to it again.

To be totally honest, it doesn’t move very fast, but this is one of those films that you can turn on at any point, watch a scene and be totally satisfied. If you’ll watch a home, it’ll likely be a little rough to watch all at once, but really worth seeing.

How to watch: check out their website http://www.theothersideofhope.com/

OFFICIAL SELECTION:

Berlin International Film Festival 2017 – Winner: Best Director

Telluride Film Festival 2017

Toronto International Film Festival 2017

New York Film Festival 2017

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SCREENING TIMES

SCREENING TIMES

SCREENING TIMES

SCREENING TIMES

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ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

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