Alice Douard’s wonderful Cannes 2025 drama Love Letters captures the ups and downs of an expecting lesbian couple during the months leading up to the birth of their daughter. Douard was inspired by her own experiences and depicts the bureaucracy Céline and Nadia have to endure and their familial interactions with a lot of heart […]
A Second Life – Tribeca 2025
Laurent Slama’s A SECOND LIFE starring Titane’s Agathe Rousselle and Alex Lawther is my favorite watch of Tribeca 2025. The brief encounter film with exquisite wide-angle shots of crowded Paris streets during the 2024 Olympics portrays the connection between two troubled souls who are trying to bounce back from the emotional lows they experienced. Rousselle […]
Birthright – Tribeca 2025
What if you were down on your luck, expecting a child soon, and had to ask for help from your rich parents, who might be the two worst people on earth? Zoe Pepper’s BIRTHRIGHT answers that question in a dark comedic thriller that has Quentin Dupieux and Yorgos Lanthimos influences. (The leather jacket with fringes […]
Ride or Die – Tribeca 2025
In Josalynn Smith’s RIDE OR DIE, Paula and Sloane reunite for the first time since high school. After a passionate night, they decide to take a road trip from St. Louis to California, which takes violent turns. We know they will likely get in trouble, but Smith and co-writer Alicia Louzoun-Heisler are not interested in […]
Cuerpo Celeste – Tribeca 2025
It’s impossible to watch Nayra Ilic García’s Chilean coming-of-age story CUERPO CELESTE without thinking of Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here. Both films bring attention to the atrocities committed by military dictatorships while dealing with a family’s loss and pain. At the end of 1989, Celeste is a happy 15-year-old spending her summer with her caring […]
A Tree Fell in the Woods – Tribeca 2025
Nora Kirkpatrick’s A TREE FELL IN THE WOODS starts as a comedy of infidelity, gets nuttier as it goes along, but then ends on a very dramatic note. This inconsistency prevented me from sustaining the enthusiasm I had for it at the beginning of the film. The cast of Josh Gad, Alexandra Daddario, Ashley Park, and […]
Our Hero, Balthazar – Tribeca 2025
Oscar Boyson’s OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR with Jaeden Martell and Asa Butterfield is a not-to-be-missed black comedy that delves into class divide, loneliness in the age of social media, and guns. Martell’s Balthazar, a rich Manhattan high schooler who tries to attract attention online with his fake crying videos, decides to take a trip to Texas […]
Oh, Hi! – Tribeca 2025
Sophie Brooks’ Oh, Hi! has a lower-stakes, comedic Misery scenario going on and is an entertaining hour and a half thanks to Molly Parker, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, and John Reynolds. Just like a slasher, it might make you shout “What are you doing?” to Lerman’s character at times. There are no big dramatic turns […]
The Best You Can – Tribeca 2025
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon have undeniable chemistry in THE BEST YOU CAN. If you are looking for a pleasant romantic comedy with boomers, Michael J. Weithorn’s NYC-set film should do the trick. Weithorn does not try to reinvent the wheel and delivers a straightforward story […]
Natchez – Tribeca 2025
Suzannah Herbert’s powerful 2018 film Wrestle was one of the best documentaries that year. In NATCHEZ, she again tackles life in the south and the inescapable effects of racism on people’s lives. It is full of interesting characters and is an engaging watch despite not breaking much new ground. I found it a little cluttered […]