Having just slightly recovered from our 2010 SXSW Film Festival experience, we’re realizing another festival is almost on us again (sigh, yes, it’s a good problem to have). But we’re also realizing we’re a bit behind with our 2010 Tribeca Film Festival line-up news.
And fittingly, right on cue, today a few more titles were announced. And… ok, so we’re not dazzled by today’s announcements, but there is some decent stuff including the British rock biopic “Sex & Drugs & Rock N’ Roll,” starring Andy Serkis as Ian Dury of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. The film also stars Olivia Williams (“Rushmore“), Naomie Harris, Bill Milner, and Ray Winstone. This will be the North American premiere of the picture and we’re curious.
Also added is the U.S. premiere of the Jay Baruchel film, “The Trotsky” written and directed by Jacob Tierney. It sorta reeks of Canadian film production (sadly often mediocre quality and we say this from long, long experience), but we like Baruchel and we’re hopeful. It’s essentially about a high school boy (Baruchel) who believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky and emulates his namesake every step of the way including getting arrested by trying to start unions and trying to provoke a student uprising. French indie rockers Malajube have written some tunes for the film.
Also added are free titles on VOD. Many of them are from last year’s ongoing partnership with ESPN, but hey, they’ll be free including Spike Lee‘s Kobe Bryant documentary, “Kobe Doin’ Work” and “Muhammad and Larry,” Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan’s documentary on much-hyped 1980 fight between Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes, in which the 30-year-old Holmes mercilessly pummeled Ali (then 38) and signaled an end of an era for the famous boxer.
Other films added to the line-up during the last two weeks, many of which we’ve seen at TIFF 2009 and recommend include:
“Micmacs” — “Amelie” director Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s latest which sort of takes his early, dark fanciful work — “Delicatessen,” “City of Lost Children” — and meshes it with the whimsical world of the aforementioned twee romance film starring Audrey Tautou. We liked it, but found it rather familiar. That said, tons of people who saw it for the first time at SXSW seemed to be head over heels for it, so there’s that.
“Ondine” — Neil Jordan‘s Irish mermaid fairytale starring Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda and Stephen Rea, isn’t perfect, and suffers from a clumsy ending, but it’s gorgeous, romantic and evocative boasting a score by Sigur Ros keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson and beatific cinematography by the great Christopher Doyle (known for his work with Wong Kar-Wai and Gus Van Sant and Jim Jarmusch). It’s also just pretty damn sweet despite its flaws.
“Get Low” — A TIFF 2009 film that one of our stringers saw, but most of the core team missed, so we’ll be happy to catch up with it. It’s about a backwoods recluse Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) who is feared and shunned by the local townsfolk. Then Felix decides to plan a living funeral to lay his own legend to rest. It also stars the great Bill Murray (which suggests it’s something special since Murray doesn’t turn up for much these days), Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black.
“The Killer Inside Me” — A Sundance 2010 film that we haven’t seen that is one of our most anticipated of the year so far, essentially because of the buzz, some of which is pretty negative. The Michael Winterbottom (an underrated U.K. director) film stars Casey Affleck as an insane serial killer, police chief and is supposedly extremely graphic and brutal. It also stars Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Elias Koteas, Simon Barker, Bill Pullman and Ned Beatty and what can we say? We’re intrigued.
Also of note is the already announced Serge Gainsbourg biopic, “Gainsbourg, Je t’Aime… Moi Non Plus,” Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give” starring Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall, and Fatih Akin‘s comedy, “Soul Kitchen” which we saw at TIFF (which we didn’t love per se, but it had its moments).
