The 9 Movies We Most Want to See at the Tribeca Film Festival
Jon Hamm, lots of ‘Godfather,’ and another mind-twister from the makers of ‘Resolution’
It should come as little surprise that we here at Tribeca Shortlist are especially psyched for the Tribeca Film Festival. We love all film festivals, but we’re a joint venture between Tribeca Enterprises and Lionsgate, so forgive us if we root for the home team for a minute here. With over 100 narratives, documentaries, shorts, and special presentations taking place from next Thursday, April 20th to Sunday, April 30th, there’s a lot of great stuff to see.
We’ve narrowed down a list of some of our most-anticipated screenings and events. Read on to the bottom to check them out and stream past Tribeca Film Festival favorites right now on Tribeca Shortlist.
THE DINNER
Tribeca Synopsis: At one of the most fashionable restaurants in an unnamed town, two estranged brothers (Richard Gere and Steve Coogan) and their wives (Rebecca Hall and Laura Linney) meet for an uncomfortable conversation. Stan Lohman is a popular congressman running for governor. His troubled younger brother Paul is a caustic former teacher. When Stan invites Paul for a dinner, the stage is set for a tense night. While the two brothers are constantly at odds, their 16 year-old sons are close friends, and the two boys soon become the center of the conversation as family secrets are dredged onto the table along with the main course. Oren Moverman directs a stellar ensemble cast in this intense and twisty psycholigcal drama about class, family, and accountability.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: Who wouldn’t want to see a showdown between Richard Gere, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, and Laura Linney? And set it at a dinner table in a fancy restaurant? Say. No. More.
AARDVARK
Tribeca Synopsis: Emily Milburton’s (Jenny Slate) newest therapy patient is Josh Norman (Zachary Quinto), an emotionally challenged introvert who suffers from increasingly volatile hallucinations. Most pressing though, is his estranged relationship with his brother, Craig (Jon Hamm), a famous TV actor who just so happens to be in town for a visit. So what’s the worst that could happen when Craig shows up on Emily’s doorstep?
Skirting the line between quirky comedy and poignant drama, first-time writer-director Brian Shoaf’s Aardvark demonstrates how personal baggage and proverbial closet-bound skeletons can be as strangely unifying as they are harmful. Following her breakout turn in 2014’s Obvious Child, comedian turned versatile actress Jenny Slate gives an especially memorable performance as the emotionally fragile woman caught between two seemingly impenetrable men.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: This is another one of those all-star casts that pretty much seal the deal for us. Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate, and Jon Hamm going toe-to-toe in this therapy-centric dramedy seems too good to pass up.
HOUSE OF Z
Tribeca Synopsis: Zac Posen has become one the most recognizable faces in modern fashion with his truly unique aesthetic style. He is a force to be reckoned with whose talent shone through as early as childhood. However like any journey to great success it hasn’t come without cost.
With unique access to Posen, his friends, family, and muses, and a wealth of personal photos and videos, Director Sandy Chronopoulos traces Posen’s career from its meteoric early rise as a fashion industry enfant terrible, through a surprising backlash against his success, and into his present reinvention as one of his industry’s most prominent figures at the head of one of its most respected brands. House of Z peeks past the glamour of the runway and the red carpet to show audiences a true portrait of Posen as both an artist and businessman.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: Aside from the fact that this is the type of documentary that we go wild for (the kind that hones in on its subject and offers unparalleled insight), Zac Posen’s one of our official Shortlisters, and was gracious enough to sit down with us last year and recommend all sorts of engaging films from our service.
JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT
Tribeca Synopsis: Beginning with his formative years as a Brooklyn transplant in Brownsville, Texas, Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait chronicles the personal life and public career of the celebrated artist. The trajectory of the gregarious Schnabel’s meteoric rise to the apogee of the Neo-Expressionist movement began with his move to New York in the late 1970s.The film neatly captures the stages of his career as he moves from young art world upstart to superstar of the 1980s Manhattan art scene to his deft transition to filmmaking with lauded works like Basquiat, Before the Night Falls, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Writer/director Pappi Cosicato’s documentary is a kaleidoscopic blend of material from Schnabel’s personal archive of home movies and photographs alongside newly shot footage capturing the artist in studio and at home. Commentary from friends, family, curators, and artists including Al Pacino, Mary Boone, Jeff Koons, Vito Schnabel, and Willem Dafoe — not to mention the artist himself — completes a fascinating and complex image of one of modern art’s most boisterous and provocative figures.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: Julian Schnabel’s one of those figures in modern art that everyone knows a little something about, but who still remains illusive. Like David Lynch: The Art Life this documentary looks like it’ll be completely engrossing and deeply illuminating.
BONUS! Click below to stream two of Julian Schnabel’s best directorial efforts!
SATURDAY CHURCH
Tribeca Synopsis: Working single mother Amara leaves her two boys at home with domineering Aunt Rose, and Rose has her eyes on the older son, Ulysses. Stealing nylons, wearing his mother’s shoes: Ulysses is just beginning to explore his identity and sexuality. When Rose demands an end to it, the boy escapes to the Village and discovers both supportive friends and the inspiration to become exactly what he is feeling inside. The problem: Rose is waiting back home. Luka Kain delivers a magnetic performance as Ulysses — who in his best moments hears music all around, and yet faces some of the worst circumstances imaginable — in this drama about finding a literal sanctum, so that you can find yourself. It’s a complicated life Ulysses leads, and Damon Cardasis’s musical coming-of-age story is all the better for tackling multiple sides of the young LGBTQ experience, with compassion and heart combined.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: This is the kind of story we need to see more and more of, both at film festivals and beyond, and Saturday Church’s use of music while exploring identity sounds like an incredible and powerful mix.
THE TRIP TO SPAIN
Tribeca Synopsis: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite with director Michael Winterbottom for another chapter in their hilarious road trip series. This time taking their wit and appetites on a tour through picturesque Spain’s finest fine dining, Coogan and Brydon trade celebrity impressions and witty banter over paella and gazpacho, their comic observations on fame and friendship as dry as the finest Spanish wine.
Older and maybe wiser, the pair’s conversation roams over many topics, but always seems to come back to fame, family, and getting older. Brydon is now a father, while Coogan is basking in the critical response to a lauded film performance (which he is happy to remind Brydon of at every opportunity), even as his agent seems to be losing interest in his career. The Trip to Spain is a delightful road trip comedy that feels like a vacation with old friends.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: It’s harder and harder for a comedy franchise to keep up its steam with each subsequent entry in the series, but Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan operate on a higher plane. We’re fully confident that this outing to Spain will be full of perfect banter, incredible food, and sweeping visuals.
Take the original trip with Steve and Rob. Stream The Trip on Tribeca Shortlist now.
THE ENDLESS
Tribeca Synopsis: After escaping a cult as children, brothers Aaron and Justin are living hand-to-mouth a decade later, until they receive a mysterious message in the mail that seems to be from their former “family”. Aaron insists they go back to investigate, and the protective Justin reluctantly agrees, concerned about returning to the place they worked so hard to leave behind. Once there, Aaron is quickly drawn back under the sway of the cult’s intensely magnetic leader Hal (Tate Ellington), while Justin remains uneasy.
Soon inexplicable happenings begin to occur in the group’s desert encampment, and both Aaron and Justin are forced to conclude that the unsettling events seem to be in line with the cult’s strange and supernatural axioms. Will they unearth the cult’s mysterious secret in time to prevent history from repeating itself? Following their Tribeca breakout, Resolution, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead direct and star in another chilling, intensely original genre hybrid.
Why We Can’t Wait To See It: Benson and Moorhead completely blew us away with Resolution and Spring, and we can’t wait to see what’s next. The plot, centered on cults and the supernatural, is exactly the kind of material we’d hope for from the duo.
TAKE ME
Tribeca Synopsis: Ray Moody (Pat Healy) is a fledgling entrepreneur, trying to get his company off the ground in Los Angeles. His business: abduction, or as Ray describes his company, Kidnap Solutions, LLC, providing alternative therapy that his clients use for curative reasons. The market for such a service is unsurprisingly niche, and Ray is in dire straits. So when he receives a mysterious phone call late one night contracting him for a weekend abduction with a handsome payday at the end, Ray jumps at the chance. The only problem? His target, business consultant Anna St. Blair (Orange Is the New Black’s Taylor Schilling) may not be all that she seems. Take Me, Pat Healy’s feature directorial debut, threads the needle between crime thriller and slapstick farce. Working with writer Mike Makowsky and Executive Producers Jay and Mark Duplass, the film is a wonderfully droll, Hitchcockian black comedy with excellent lead performances that is as twisty as it is funny.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: We’re big fans of Pat Healy and the work he’s done in his acting career (we ❤ him in Cheap Thrills), and we’re very excited to see him branch out and direct his first feature.
Watch Pat Healy’s stunning performance in Compliance, now streaming on Tribeca Shortlist.
BONUS! THE GODFATHER & THE GODFATHER PART II
Tribeca Synopsis: Arguably two of the best films ever made, and winners of nine Academy Awards® between them, Francis Ford Coppola’s epic masterpieces paint a chilling, multi-generational portrait of the Corleone crime family’s rise and near fall from power in America. Tribeca celebrates the legacy of one of the most influential film sagas of all time with this 45th anniversary screening and reunion event.
Why We Can’t Wait to See It: There’s so much to be excited about with this special event screening. First, the chance to watch The Godfather and Part II back to back on the big screen doesn’t come around too often. But, most importantly, a 45th anniversary conversation follows the screening, featuring Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro. Whoa.
Click below to stream any of these Tribeca Film Festival favorites, or check out the full collection of past TFF titles streaming on Tribeca Shortlist this month.
