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2009 Tribeca Film Festival Guide to Feature Films
NYC’s answer to Sundance celebrates 7th year
Larry David [right] in Woody Allen’s latest film Whatever Works
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Founded in response to the financial hardships suffered by downtown businesses after September 11th, 2001, the Tribeca Film Festival quickly made its place in the film festival circuit. This year, the festival will bring economic stimulus to hard times of a different nature. The festival opens with the first showing of New York-cinema royalty Woody Allen’s latest, Whatever Works, starring Larry David. The remaining selections, all New York or world premieres, are organized into dubiously titled categories. Below, we translate their meanings and give you some highlights. Explore more at the Tribeca Film Festival website.
Spotlight
Some of the year’s highly anticipated film premieres that pop
Kundo Koyama’s Departures (Okuribito): The Academy Award-winner for Best Foreign Film, the story explores the joys of playing cello and becoming an undertaker.
Duncan Jones’ Moon: It’s not the storyline (a man in space with a computerized voice as his sole companion) that makes this movie interesting. It’s the star, Sam Rockwell, a dynamic psychological actor, and the computer voice, Kevin Spacey, a master of carefully controlled verbal mockery.
World Narrative Feature Competition
Remarkable stories from the 12 feature films competing for Best Film, Best New Filmmaker, and Best Actor and Actress
Bette Gordon’s Handsome Harry: A dying friend sparks a man’s desire to settle his past, disrupting his quiet life. Starring Jamey Sheridan and Steve Buscemi.
Darko Lungulov’s Here and There (Tamo i ovde): A middle-aged New Yorker in need of quick cash is commissioned to travel to Serbia and bring a woman to the US under the guise of marriage. His mission is interrupted when he is forced to ponder the age-old choice: love or money?
Rune Denstad Langio’s North (Nord): A run-down ski champion lives the isolated life of a ski-area caretaker. When he learns he has a son, he hops on his snowmobile with nothing but a copious supply of booze, traveling north to find his son and meeting a host of characters in the Norwegian countryside.
Encounters
Films with established talent and popular themes
Jake Goldberger’s Don McKay: In this black comedy, Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church) was a high school janitor in his hometown. Lured back by the memory of romance (Elisabeth Shue), he must also face old secrets.
Julio DePietro’s The Good Guy: A Wall Street do-gooder suffers a downfall by sharing his secrets with a parasitic coworker. The storyline captures the anxiety of downtown Manhattan.
Josh Goldin’s Wonderful World: Making the argument that a scorned lover can only be healed by love, Ben (Matthew Broderick) recovers from his bitterness with the help of his roommate’s Senegalese sister.
Showcase
Offering a snapshot of the current global cinema
Yesim Ustaoglu’s Pandora’s Box (Pandoranin Kutusu): Set in Istanbul, a dysfunctional family navigates a minefield of issues to care for an aging matriarch. The film was a favorite at the San Sebastián Film Festival.
Zheng Wei’s Fish Eyes (Yu Yan): The mystique of China’s cultural interior remains alluring to outsiders, and this film offers a beautiful portrait of life near Beijing, as well as exploring the impact of capitalism on the country’s restrained traditional culture.
Restored/Rediscovered
For silver screen historians, offerings of rarities and restorations from the film archives
Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind: In recognition of Darwin’s 200th birthday, Tribeca will screen this fictionalization of the Scopes Monkey Trial in which a schoolteacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly.