Solzy at the Movies is back with the 2023 Tribeca Festival short film roundup, which consists of a number of shorts playing the fest. The one film on my list after they announced the short films that I did not get to watch was Harry Holland’s Last Call, which stars Tom Holland. Pre-fest screeners were not available when I inquired in late May nor is the film among the short films available through Tribeca at…
"Short Film Roundup – Tribeca 2023"Category: Film Festival
David Duchovny writes, directs, and stars in the adaptation of his novel, Bucky F*cking Dent, about a father dying of cancer in 1978. The film is more of a baseball-adjacent movie than being an outright baseball movie. It’s probably unlikely to become one of the films airing on MLB Network’s regular rotation. That’s not to say anything about the quality of the film but again, it’s more baseball-adjacent in its storytelling. There’s enough heart at…
"Bucky F*cking Dent – Tribeca 2023"
A grieving children’s book author turns to the dark web and orders a self-help book in The Secret Art of Human Flight. The film was one of two Vanishing Angle productions to premiere at Tribeca. It’s a film that is very high-concept in nature with an ending that I’m still thinking about. The ending is one of the big reasons why my review did not go up immediately after watching. Days after watching the film,…
"The Secret Art of Human Flight – Tribeca 2023"
Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater adapt Chuck Klosterman’s Reagan-era 1980s dark comedy, Downtown Owl, for the screen. The film, like Klosterman’s novel, takes place in a fictional North Dakota town. Funny enough, the Minneapolis area stands in for North Dakota in the adaptation. Anyway, the film takes place in 1984 just as a blizzard is about to hit the area. English teacher Julia Rabia (Lily Rabe) is one of Owl’s newest residents, having moved from…
"Downtown Owl – Tribeca 2023"
The Line is the one movie that fraternity and sorority houses will probably not want anyone to watch but it’s a conversation starter. It’s not uncommon for a film to be a conversation starter and Ethan Berger does exactly this with his feature narrative debut. To say that frat houses will not want this film out there is not an understatement. And yet, it is impossible to discuss this film without touching on the history…
"The Line – Tribeca 2023"
Kiss the Future is a documentary that focuses in part on the music scene in Sarajevo, U2’s activism, and the post-war U2 concert. I can’t argue with the Tribeca Festival for selecting Kiss the Future as its opening night selection. The opportunity to have the likes of Bono and The Edge walking the red carpet is a no-brainer. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are producers. However, I went into the…
"Kiss the Future – Tribeca 2023"
The League is a worthy addition to the canon of baseball documentaries with its focus on the history of the Negro Leagues. Tribeca had a trio of baseball movies this year. Two of them were documentaries–both touch on Bill Veeck signing Larry Doby in Cleveland and breaking the AL color barrier. While I easily recommend both documentaries, The League is probably the more important of the two just because of what it brings to the…
"The League – Tribeca 2023"
Pixar puts its own take on films about immigrants and ethnic diversity in its newest romantic dramedy, Elemental, now in theaters. I don’t think I ever thought I’d see the day where Pixar would release a film about immigration and draw on a classic like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in the process. And yet, here we are. Elemental might not become as classic as the star-studded 1967 film but Sohn and company make a…
"Elemental – Tribeca 2023"
Rolling Along is a live theatrical recording of Senator Bill Bradley’s one-man-show performed at the Signature Theatre in December 2021. What I find most impressive is how Bradley committed this show to memory. Bradley workshopped on the road, getting notes afterwards from the audiences. With Covid and everything, he would rehearse while taking a walk in Central Park. Eventually, he would take his show to Broadway. There’s a lot to enjoy about Rolling Along although…
"Rolling Along – Tribeca 2023"
The Blackening is a hysterical laugh riot that subverts every single genre trope when it comes to the horror film genre. The basic question that this film is asking comes down to what is on the tag line. If the entire cast is Black, which of them will die first? It goes back to horror films where the Black person is usually the first person to die. Of course, I would not know because I…
"The Blackening – Tribeca 2023"