Three Identical Strangers tells the crazy but true and sad story of Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland, and David Kellman. The three of them were separated at birth when they were adopted by three different families. Bobby was sent off to live with the affluent Shafran family. Eddy went to the middle class Gallands. As for David, he went to live with the blue-collar Kellmans. All were adopted by Jewish families who had an older daughter living…
"CCFF 2018: Three Identical Strangers"Category: Film Festival
Even though a health crisis is at the center of this relationship-driven dramedy, Shotgun is as far from a Nicholas Sparks film as it gets. Elliott (Jeremy Allen White) works behind a sandwich counter with his roommate and best friend, Nico (DeRon Horton). It’s all fun and games for the two of them–drinking or getting high–until Elliott learns he is suffering from a rare diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma. There’s a lot of nitty-gritty detail about…
"CCFF 2018: After Everything (formerly Shotgun)"
First Reformed is a mesmerizing drama about a pastor who counsels a husband and wife. Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a pastor at the First Reformed Church. The Dutch Reform church used to be a station on along the Underground Railround but as it approaches 250 years, it doesn’t contain the magic that used to be there. The congregation is small even as tourists continue to stop by. This isn’t helped by Abundant Life…
"CCFF 2018: First Reformed"
A wholly original film with a twist you never see coming, Damsel is a hysterical western from the minds of David Zellner and Nathan Zellner. Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson) has tracked down the location of the woman he plans to marry, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). As he sets through in his journey, he hires Parson Henry (David Zellner) to officiate the wedding when he finds his future bride in addition to a gift, a miniature horse called Butterscotch. Samuel…
"CCFF 2018: Damsel"
Debra Granik’s third narrative feature, Leave No Trace, is a emotionally powerful film to say the least. We first meet Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in their fourth year of living in Forest Park. It’s illegal to live in public land but the two of them have gotten away with living on the outskirts of Portland for so long. After Tom gets noticed by someone walking in the woods, it…
"CCFF 2018: Leave No Trace"
Michael Jordan is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. What Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 does is explore the true story behind the classic Air Jordan shoes. It can be said Jordan was the best thing to have ever happened for Nike. Nike was being killed in the marketing by Adidas in the early 1980s. Not only that but future Hall of Famers like Larry Bird and others were under contract to Converse. …
"Tribeca 2018: Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1"
With an impending doom from an asteroid on the horizon, The Goodnight Show offers a touch of sentimentality. The Goodnight Show is far from the doom that was Armageddon or Deep Impact. I can go on and on naming all the films in which an asteroid collides with earth and we’d be here all day. This short film, directed by Charlie Schwan, is something else. While there is an asteroid on path to collision with…
"Tribeca 2018: The Goodnight Show"
The 716th is a fun little sci-fi comedy in the vein of M*A*S*H meets Star Trek. What is known at the start of the film is that it’s Year 42 of the Rak War in the Outer Durad System. Ash (John Asher) and Doc (Andrew Bowen) are revealed as being wayward nonautomated combat medics who learn that two of their own are being left on an alien world to fend for themselves. Neither Doc nor…
"Tribeca 2018: The 716th"
Laboratory Conditions packs so much punch in just under 20 minutes that you forget it’s not a narrative feature! Dr. Emma Holloway makes a late night discovery at work when she comes to the realization that a patient was missing. Unbeknownst to her, the patient–in the final hours of life–is found to have been taken by a medical school nearby. It’s there where Marjorie Cane (Minnie Driver) is running an experiment to see whether a…
"Tribeca 2018: Laboratory Conditions"
Marianna Palka’s newest feature, Egg, offers up satirical view on parenting and some great performances to go along with it. Risa Mickenberg’s screenplay has of commentary to offer when it comes to parenting and the decisions that come with it. Mickenberg hit a home run on her first produced screenplay. The fact that it says so much about the subject with so few cast members is impressive. On the one hand, there is Tina (Alysia…
"Tribeca 2018: Egg"