Tribeca Film Festival 2009 Mini-Preview: Narrative Features
14 photos
<p>The 8th Annual <a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com">Tribeca Film Festival</a> kicks off next Wednesday, April 22nd with the world premiere of Woody Allen's comedy <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Whatever_Works.html?c=y&3301=170236&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">Whatever Works</a></em>, which happens to be Allenâs first film shot in New York since 2004. The movie isn't being officially released in New York until June 19th, and Sony Pictures has been keeping a tight lid on the synopsis, but we do know it's a "blackish comedy" starring Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood (<em>The Wrestler</em>), Patricia Clarkson (<em>Vicky Cristina Barcelona</em>), and <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/02/20/ed_begley_jr_ac.php">friend of Gothamist</a> Ed Begley Jr.</p>
<p>You may recall reading <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/03/02/opinionist_pass.php">a thing</a> <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/04/10/stew_passing_st.php">or two</a> on Gothamist about <em><a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/12/29/gothamist_year_in_theater_2008.php?gallery0Pic=1">Passing Strange</a></em>, the phenomenal rock musical that opened on Broadway last year to enormous critical acclaim. The production ran for a respectable six months or so, but never quite got the packed houses it deserved. Happily, <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/07/07/spike_lee_directing_passing_strange.php">Spike Lee stepped in</a> to preserve it for posterity, taking a documentary approach to the performance and filming it with a live audience over the course of two nights. The Tribeca Film Festival will present the New York premiere of Lee's film <a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/conversations/special-events/">on May 2nd</a>, to be followed by a post-screening discussion with the director and <em>Passing Strange</em>'s co-creators, Stew and Heidi Rodewald. </p>
<p>The hit BBC comedy series <em>The Thick of It</em> has been adapted into a feature-length film called <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/In_the_Loop.html?c=y&3301=170166&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">In the Loop</a></em> by the show's co-creator, director Armando Iannucci. The political satire is set during a fictional "firestorm of international controversy," sparked by an offhand remark made by Britain's Minister of International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander). James Gandolfini also stars.</p>
<p>Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Emily Mortimer, and Alan Arkin star in <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/City_Island.html?c=y&3301=170136&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">City Island</a></em>, a dysfunctional-family comedy set in the titular Bronx island. Directed by Raymond De Felitta, the story concerns such colorful characters as Vinnie, "who's been secretly taking acting classes. His daughterâs moonlighting as a stripper, his sonâs got a weighty fetish, and momâs eye is wandering⦠the Rizzos might get along a lot better if they werenât keeping so many secrets."</p>
<p>Director Scott Sanders's feature <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Black_Dynamite.html?c=y&3301=170131&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">Black Dynamite</a></em>, an homage to '70s blaxploitation films, stars Michael Jai White as former CIA agent Black Dynamite, "a complex man, understood by few but desired by every woman. When bad guy 'The Man' murders his brother, traffics heroin into the local orphanage, and floods the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor, Black Dynamite is the only hero bad enough to fight back." Watch <a href="http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/black-dynamite/red-band-trailer">the amusing trailer here</a>. </p>
<p>Zoe Kazan stars in <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/The_Exploding_Girl.html?c=y&3301=170146&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">The Exploding Girl</a></em>, an indie feature about a "cherubic college student home in Brooklyn for spring break with her longtime platonic guy pal Al in tow. As her relationship with her boyfriend slowly disintegrates via cell phone, Alâs friendship is cast in a new light."</p>
<p>Academy Award-winning Japanese film <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Departures.html?c=y&3301=170141&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">Departures</a></em>âthe move that made many of us <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/departures-the-film-that-lost-your-oscars-pool-for-you/">lose this year's Oscar pool</a>âwill finally seen by the general public in America, starting on the east coast with screenings at Tribeca Film Festival. It is described thusly: "With the breakup of his Tokyo orchestra, Daigo, a young cellist, decides to return with his adoring wife Mika to his hometown in Japan's far north. Searching for work, he responds to a cryptic classified ad for work in 'Departures' only to find out that the position is in the field of 'encoffining,' the ritual preparation of a corpse before it is placed in a casket for cremation."</p>
<p>Steven Soderbergh's new movie <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/The_Girlfriend_Experience.html">The Girlfriend Experience</a></em> stars white hot young porn star Sasha Grey as a $2,000-an-hour Manhattan escort. The film follows her character through five days in the life of a high-class call girl "who thinks she has her life totally under control. She even has a devoted boyfriend who accepts her lifestyle. But when you're in the business of meeting people, you never know who you're going to meet next."</p>
<p>Tony Award-nominated writer/director Conor McPherson collaborated with Irish playwright Billy Roche on the screenplay for <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/The_Eclipse.html?c=y&3301=170146&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">The Eclipse</a></em>, which McPherson directed. The story explores all the things that go wrong at a literary festival in the soggy waterside town of Cobh.</p>
<p>New comedy <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/The_Good_Guy.html?c=y&3301=170156&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">The Good Guy</a></em> concerns a rising Wall Street star named Tommy (Scott Porter) "who has it all: looks, charm, money, and a budding romance (Alexis Bledel). But when he teaches a seemingly hapless coworker (Bryan Greenberg) the ways of money and seduction, Tommy could become the unwitting agent of his own downfall. This true insider view of the culture of Wall Street explores what it means to be "good" in that world. The answer just might surprise you."</p>
<p>British comedy <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/My_Last_Five_Girlfriends.html?c=y&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">My Last Five Girlfriends</a></em>, adapted from Alain De Botton's international best seller <em>On Love</em>, focuses on Duncan (Brendan Patricks), a broken-hearted man who tries to understand his recent break-up by "taking a ride through the memories of his last five relationships." </p>
<em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/Variety.html?c=y&3301=170231&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">Variety</a></em>, Bette Gordon's pioneering indie film from 1984, is being presented here in a restored print. Shot in New York and featuring cinematography by Tom DiCillo (<em>Living in Oblivion</em>), Gordon's film explores voyeurism from a female perspective, telling the story of a young woman (played by Sandy McLeod) who works as a ticket taker in a porn theater, and whose curiosity leads her to shadow a male patron.
<p>In <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/An_Englishman_in_New_York.html?c=y&3301=170146&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">An Englishman in New York</a></em>, the brilliant John Hurt revisits the role that made him a star (in 1975âs <em>The Naked Civil Servant</em>): real-life writer, actor, and gay icon Quentin Crisp. The drama focuses on the flamboyant 72-year-old starâs move to New York in 1981, and the fallout from a reckless comment about the burgeoning AIDS epidemic. Cynthia Nixon, Jonathan Tucker, and Swoosie Kurtz support.</p>
<p>This year's Tribeca Film Festival closes with the premiere of <em><a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/My_Life_in_Ruins.html?c=y&curView=browseDetail&sortBy=title">My Life in Ruins</a></em>, a romantic comedy starring Nia Vardalos, the writer and star of <em>My Big Fat Greek Wedding</em>. Set in Greece, Vardalos stars as a travel guide who feels she's lost her kefi (Greek for "mojo"). "Discouraged by her lack of direction in life, leads a ragtag group of tourists (including Richard Dreyfuss and Rachel Dratch) as she tries to show them the beauty of her native Greece."</p>