It’s been a while and I’m playing catch up. I’m getting over being sick - and I’ve been in the middle of several other things, including screening a film at the Bergenfield Film Festival, which had a nice sized crowd (thanks for the filmmakers of Chronicles of the Beyond, which had 100+ folks packed into a tiny theater at the Clearview Cinemas in Bergenfield - we had about 80 or so at my film, Mary May’s Suicide Letter).
But now to focus on TFF - the film festival in the area:
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Perhaps shrinking Tribeca this year is the best thing they’ve done. The Tribeca Film Festival has in the past few years struggled to really find its identity, often trying to compete with SXSW in looking for cutting edge indies, often it’s been a mixed bag. Tribeca still isn’t in the same category as Toronto or the New York Film Festival, but the slate seems stronger this year.
My first day was pretty typical of TFF - I saw four screenings, two were pretty good - Blank City, a documentary about underground filmmaking in New York City in the late 70’s-early 90’s, and the fun British romantic comedy My Last Five Girlfriends. The other two programs were a little disappointing, a shorts program of documentaries and Shadow Billionaire, a documentary about DHL founder Larry Hillblom. Shadow Billionaire seemed too long (even at 86 minutes), it would have made for an interesting short subject. It also seemed a bit too soft, it held back and never reached a level in which emotionally cared about the subjects, even though it is a fascinating legal case, it never builds to outrage.
Then I had further doubts at TFF - the next night I saw Stay Cool, the Polish brother’s latest and not their best. The film had an interesting 80’s style vibe, but lacked the wit required to pull the thing together. I kept watching thinking the lead would have been good for Adam Sander, not sure if Mark Polish pulls it off.
The next night I had two shorts programs: both pretty good with strong selections. Deadline was the strongest, telling a clear, three-act story about a prison guard and a “released” prisoner facing off. It’s one you hope will get expanded into a feature. Also fun in its briefness was Section 44 by Daniel Wilson.
The next program I saw featured Cutless by Kate Hudson, who wasn’t in attendance that evening, most of the other filmmakers were, however. Here’s where I have problems: while film festivals can use celebrities to attract mainstream media to the new talent playing, it’s bizarre that a whole set of limits are put on other films. Kate Hudson’s film, which is a fine, professional film and deserving to be in the film series had screened online including on YouTube and iTunes. Strange that it was showcased in the program, yet Kate Hudson was a no-show.
Of the other selections, the best was Todd Luoto’s Oil Change, which is very much in the mode of a good comedy TV show like The Office or Arrested Development, melded with an early Neil Labute film. It’s pitch perfect with an ending that one-ups itself to new and perverse levels - stick with it, it’s brilliant. Also in this strong line up was This Will All Make Perfect Sense One Day, also another film that could be expanded to a feature, and a lovely romance. Two others in the series I’d like to endorse are Of Best Intentions from Iceland and the haunting Shiamsani. This was a strong narrative program.
The next day of TFF was enough to make a film geek like me orgasm. I only saw two programs but both were brilliant - Vegas: Based on a True Story by Amir Naderi, like his Sound Barrier was an edge of your seat film about greed and destruction, there was no happy ending in one of the most tense films of the year. I don’t want to say much - discover this one for yourself, it’s genus.
Then I saw the festival’s only experimental program - a very strong set of films, amazingly diverse, it also included a special treat - a screening of Helen Levitt’s brilliant time capsule In The Streets, a pure documentary that is a heartwarming flashback. It’s a truly wonderful film.
The program was comprised of experimental short works from all over the world and a few from NYC, including Chop Off by M.M. Serra, Mark Street’s latest Trailer Trash, and Ken Jacob’s latest attempt at 3-D without polarized glasses - Hot Dogs at the Met. This program also introduced me to some new international filmmakers including Sara Cox, Tal Rosner, Anna Linder, Paula Gaitan and Martan Caporte - all working in various modes of experimental film. At the post film Q & A I asked each filmmaker to elaborate on their intentions and process - which unfortunately for others occupied the whole duration of the Q & A, still the answers were all fascinating.
Coming into Friday, I started to feel sick - but couldn’t stop - I had five shows to get to. My first was the lovely collaboration between filmmaker Laura Bari and a blind young man, Antoine - the film was a hybrid of eliminates - both narrative and documentary to capture Anoine’s world. Next up was Wonderful World - Joshua Goldin’s romantic comedy, similar to the film The Visitor, Matthew Broadrick plays the world’s most negative man. It’s a fun flick - uplifting and light, I went along for it and dug it.
Rachel, a long (well it felt long) and haunting documentary by Simone Biton about Rachel Corrie, a 22-year old protestor who was murdered by Israeli construction workers, it’s important but doubles back too often to cover the same ground, perhaps the accounts, the witnesses to this action are the point. The world is watching.
Tell Tale was an effective horror film by Michael Cuesta, director of L.I.E. and 12 and Holding. I’m shocked it didn’t have a big studio’s logo in front of it yet, it’s extremely mainstream but also pretty effective. Josh Lucus and Brian Cox star.
My last film of the evening wasn’t worth staying up for the 11:45PM showtime - it was a one joke, b-grade action flick named Newsmakers from Russia. This is like something you would see on HBO at 3AM, fitting for midnight madness perhaps. The only problem with TFF’s Midnight show is they aren’t anywhere near as exciting as Toronto’s. Where is Collin Gedies when you need him. The audience isn’t energized, and the programers here are warn out.
At Toronto they only run one screen at midnight - Ryerson, everyone gathers and it’s like going to a party or a graduation - beach balls fly around - it’s wild and fun. At Tribeca, it’s like a Wednesday night at 10PM here at the Loews Village 7, you feel alone in one of those creepy top floor theaters.
The next day, as the festival winds down and the energy slows down I continued. Going uptown for the screening and Tribeca Talks panel of American Casino, a rather paint by the numbers film about the mortgage crisis. The film never reached the engaging, easy to follow and informative reporting of moderator of the panel Alex Blumberg. The panel was interesting featuring the filmmakers, NYU economist Nouriel Roubini and Bloomberg News correspondent Mark Pittmann. If you’ve been following the mortgage crisis the way I have, the film isn’t necessary, it has some emotional punches but never nails it home, and it’s a bit dry. Not that every doc has to be in your face like Michael Moore, but the voice of its filmmaker is very journalistic and a bit bland as a film.
Anything but bland, next up was the lively Here and There, taking place in Belgrade and New York City, this is a character driven comedy that won the festival’s award for New York Narrative, it’s a little film that could and it delivers. Lastly the night closed with Hysterical Psycho, Dan Fougle’s B-movie (another Midnight show). The film was actually surprisingly fun, it’s more on par with Psycho Beach Party in terms of actually being worth while, it’s silly, sure but it’s fun and short enough to pull it off.
The last day of Tribeca is always like being hung over, it’s a Sunday naturally, the festival is dying down, practically nothing has a rush line and the theaters are crowded but not sold out. It’s sad. Everyone is tired and dizzy. The film I had purchased tickets for was the winner of New York Documentary - this year it was Partly Private about circumcision, not a great film, in fact I think I saw a better New York documentary on day one, Blank City - but not horrible. The voice of the filmmaker is there, which leads me to question how much was staged. But that’s not really fair given the film is what it is, a mother's journey and an exploration of cut flesh. Interesting stuff, at times.
TFF was strong this year, I think the festival, under Geoffrey Gilmore will become more exciting the next few years - so far so good, I could see a new direction here. I just hope it doesn’t become a festival for the elite only - that would suck.
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