Tribeca Film Festival: Week 1
ALEX: The Tribeca Film Festival started last week, though for the first time Lower Manhattan isn’t the only host to the festivities. Films are screening in such far off destinations as 34th St. and Lincoln Center. It’s an odd vibe for the festival which once occupied only a few blocks near Battery Park. There are an overwhelming number of choices too. In this piece, Michele and I are gonna tear through our first block of films, which seemingly star all of Young Hollywood.
First up is Fifty Pills, starring Lou Pucci, Kristen Bell, and John Hensley (aka Thumbsucker, Veronica Mars, and Matt McNamara of Nip/Tuck). Pucci is in danger of getting kicked out of NYU if he doesn’t come up with the last $1000 of owed tuition, and all he has to raise the money are the titular fifty hits of ecstasy.
MICHELE: I had been really excited to see this movie, since it had such a great cast. Lou Pucci was great in Thumbsucker, and John Hensley is my younger crush in Nip/Tuck. After Pucci’s roommate, played by Hensley, throws yet another party & gets busted, Pucci loses his scholarship & must pay back around a $1,000. This first off seemed impractical to me. You lose your scholarship half way through the semester & you only have to pay the remaining money? Last I checked, you had to pay it ALL back. But I digress. Hensley sets him up with the 50 pills (of ecstasy) as a way of making the situation better. For me this just doesn’t work- what dealer would just give 50 pills to sell, along with a beeper & tell him good luck? Only one who had a death wish from his supplier.
Anyway, Pucci begins the day selling the pills to a cast of characters including a dominatrix who lives with her grandmother, a stockbroker with a Diff’rent Strokes obsession, as well as a few others.
ALEX: In the Q&A afterwards, the screenwriter said this idea has been kicking around since 1999, and it shows. The tag line should read “From a writer who really liked GO.” It’s an entertaining movie and the cast has fun (except for Bell, who isn’t given nearly enough to do). Other familiar faces that show up are Eddie Kaye Thomas, Monica Keena (Abby from Dawson’s Creek), the girl that looks just like Rachel Bilson that was in Brick, and the short haired older woman that wanted to fuck the 40 Year Old Virgin.
The film has an NYU film school feature vibe, but refreshingly without the pretentiousness. I’m sure the director will be helming an 80’s teen comedy remake or thesequel to Grandma’s Boy very soon.
MICHELE: I agree that it just doesn’t seem as if it is properly timed anymore. With a little more work, it could have had a timeliness about it that would work. 3 out of 5.
Alone With Her is basically the movie version of ever girl’s fear. Starring Colin Hanks as the stalker, this movie focuses on a lonely guy who becomes obsessed with a girl he sees in the park. However, even as he sees her in the park it is creepy because he has a hidden camcorder recording her as he sees her playing with her dog.
This movie is creepy all along because at some points you think, ok…he is not a horrible guy. But then you remember that every conversation that he has had with her is given the upper hand because he has hidden cameras all over her apartment.
This takes a personal fear- someone secretly trying to put a camera under my skirt or a hidden device in a bathroom & just intensified it to something even more personal.
ALEX: A majority of the film is shot in a style approximating hidden/spy cameras which tries to implicate the audience in Doug the stalker’s voyeurism. We see his target pee, wash her buttcrack, and masturbate with a brush, as well as more banal activities.
Going into this movie, I assumed it would be a much more terrifying experience for a female viewer rather than a male viewer. I personally would be quite flattered if the offspring of an Academy Award winner/member of the Five Timers Club decided to record my every movement. Alone With Her is an accomplished, if ultimately flawed, experiment.
Hanks is ok in his role, but his inevitable turn into a physical threat isn’t completely believable. His target, played by Ana Claudia Talancón, is excellent however. She carries the movie and hopefully will get more work in the US out of it.
MICHELE: Ana Claudia Talancon has to carry the movie- 98% of it is her just sitting around, having conversations with her friend & playing with the dog. Hanks sort of comes off a creepy most of the movie. But then you kind of wonder (forgetting that everything you see is a hidden camera) if he is just socially awkward? The character is dressed…almost as if he has no idea what decade it is. There is nothing about him that makes you think- this guy knows that diesel jeans even exist. That is why when people start to get suspicious, I don’t understand it. At that point he hasn’t said or done anything except act like a new guy in town looking to make friends. But maybe I just have bad instincts. As the movie goes on, until the dramatic ending, I often just felt like I was watching a really cheap version of a reality show on network TV. 2 out of 5.
ALEX: On the other hand, we both agree that I’m Reed Fish is the best we’ve seen at the festival so far. This one stars Undeclared’s Jay Baruchel, Alexis Bleidel, Shiri Appleby, Scyhuler Fisk, Katey Sagal, and DJ Qualls. Reed Fish is a small town morning radio personality who operates out of the barn next to his house. His parents were recently killed in a car accident, and he’s actually taking over for his Garrison Keilor-like father as the “voice of Mud Meadows.”
It’s good to see Baruchel in a leading film role…the movie gods should definitely strike down Jimmy Fallon and replace him with Jay asap. Scyhuler Fisk (Sissy Spacek’s daughter) also impresses in a role that called for her to write and perform her own songs…check out her MySpace for some tracks.
MICHELE: This definitely the best movie that we have seen so far. Baruchel is great as the lead, playing a local boy who is just trying to live up to the town’s expectations. Even when he does some things that you don’t agree with, you know it is just because his character is following his heart. Alexis Bleidel is fine as his fiancée, but there is really no chemistry between the characters. However, I think that is really the intention. The two are brought together through a tragic event, and the relationship develops over grief.
Scyhuler Fisk is excellent as the good girl returning home- Fish’s lost crush. There is amicability about her that you can’t seem to dislike her, no matter what. DJ Qualls is funny as Reed’s best friend- obsessed with karate & dating the High 5 girl.
There is a unique twist to the film that puts everything back into reality a bit more. Whether it was necessary or not, I am still trying to figure out. The one thing that this movie proves is that Baruchel definitely has the ability to carry a movie. He is not the guy ever girl lusts after, but he is cute, and witty and therefore a lot more likeable & trustworthy as a character.
ALEX: I know at least one girl that lusts after him though. Anyway, there are some minor changes that need to me made in the third act to clarify some motivations and bring out a little more emotion. Hopefully whoever picks this up orders some reshoots. Nothing major needs changed, literally a few lines of dialogue could make the difference. 4 out of 5.
We’ll be back later in the week with our “old man” block of movies, including fat John Travolta and fatter James Gandolfini in Lonely Hearts, and John Malkovich as the man who impersonated Stanely Kubrick in Colour Me Kubrick. Meanwhile, the festival is still running, so try to catch a screening before it’s too late.
