TriBeCa Film Festival

Free Samples

The best way to cure a hangover at nine in the morning is with some good old-fashioned over-processed ice cream—vanilla or chocolate only. In Tribeca Film Festival’s highlighted feature narrative “Free Samples,” directed by festival newcomer and young artist Jay Gammil, a generic quirky comedic heartwarmer is enlivened by overbearing snarky wit and charm. When [...]

The Fifth Estate

It is said that when the government fails to protect and address the interests of the people, the job is passed down to the fourth estate. But what happens when the press becomes another arm of the government? Director Stephen Maing offers his answer in “High Tech, Low Life,” a documentary about two Chinese bloggers, [...]

Insomnia Is Preferable To This Sleepless Night

Last year, “Attack the Block,” a British film about London hoodlums fighting aliens, perfected the formula of action, suspense, and several truckloads of camp to create something brilliant. “Sleepless Night,” directed by Frederic Jardin, might be attempting the same feat—though it’s never clear if the filmmakers are serious in their ineptitude—but comes across as a [...]

Nancy, Please Smack Some Sense Into This Film

When a film makes you sympathize with the woman who punches the protagonist in the face, it might not be the best sign. Unfortunately, director Andrew Semans’s debut, “Nancy, Please,” does just that. The film follows Ph.D. student Paul (Will Rogers), who, after moving in with his girlfriend Jen (Rebecca Lawrence), discovers that he has [...]

The First (and Hopefully Last) Winter

Benjamin Dickinson’s apocalyptical film, “First Winter,” attempts to tease out raw human baseness from a group of young Brooklynites, when all they want to do is have sex and do yoga.   The film opens with twelve New Yorkers stranded in a farmhouse, facing a record-breaking cold and a life-threatening blackout.  Unofficial leader Paul (Paul [...]

Any Day Now, We Shall Be Released

If the Republican nomination campaign were all that an outsider knew of modern America, he or she might believe that the past forty years have not changed us at all. This is one of the many implications of “Any Day Now,” a new film based on the true story of a gay couple in the [...]

One Night in Havana

  To decide on a single coherent impression of “Una Noche,” Lucy Molloy’s debut film, is quite the challenge. Under the guise of a coming-of-age story, the film tackles the reality of life in Cuba in a very human way, pairing anguish and frustration with teenage pining in a world seldom seen by American eyes. [...]

Obsessed with Sex

We live in an age of relative female emancipation—the days of the 1950s housewife, or the 1910s non-voter, are long gone.  However, our culture still wears a tight leash. Sex, America’s favorite three-letter word, takes its toll regardless of how far we’ve come. “Sexy Baby” is Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus’s attempt to take stock [...]

Struck By Lightning

High school senior and aspiring journalist Carson Phillips (Chris Colfer) doesn’t let anything get in the way of his attending his dream college. In “Struck by Lightning,” Carson relies on getting into Northwestern University as his ticket out of his small town, which is based on where Colfer grew up. However, the dream will never be [...]