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"Category: Movie Reviews
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"
All About Nina is a highly personal film grounded in the world of stand-up comedy that delves into Me, Too territory. Nina Geld (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a rising comedian in New York City and she’s crassier than Sarah Silverman. Listen, stand-up comedy is no doubt dominated by men and Nina has worked her butt off to get to where she is today. Her sets come through with raw talent and emotion. On the other…
"Tribeca 2018: All About Nina"
Song of Back and Neck, the feature debut for Paul Lieberstein, tackles both romance and pain. Fred Trolleycar (Paul Lieberstein) has somehow managed to be cursed with the worst combination of back and neck pain of all time. It’s what Dr. Street (Paul Feig) describes as “the trifecta of back and neck pain.” It’s so bad that the paralegal is able to get ready for work by crawling on the floor. Fred is a 25-year…
"Tribeca 2018: Song of Back and Neck"
Howard is a long-overdue documentary that tells the story of the late songwriter/composer Howard Ashman, who passed away as a result of AIDS in March 1991. To those who grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ashman’s music played a large role in our cinematic upbringing. Ashman and Alan Menken teamed up for The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast. Make no mistake about it, these films simply would not be…
"Tribeca 2018: Howard – A Nostalgic Documentary"
Mary Shelley doesn’t focus on Frankenstein until the final half hour but the headliner is preceded by a lifeless under-card that’s not even worthy of pay-per-view. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) was the woman who would go on to pen the famous Frankenstein novel. Before getting there, the future author had a relationship with romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth). Their relationship was not one in which their family endorsed, which explains why the…
"Tribeca 2018: Mary Shelley"
Paying tribute to her hometown, The Party’s Just Beginning marks the feature debut for actress Karen Gillan. From her previous works, we already knew that Karen Gillan was a talented actor. What the The Party’s Just Beginning does is put her on the map as a rising talent to watch as both a director and screenwriter. Gillan uses the suicide rates in the Highlands of Scotland in which she bases the narrative. Luisadh (Gillan) is still…
"Tribeca 2018: The Party’s Just Beginning"
Led by Katherine Waterston and Michael Shannon’s performances, writer-director Meredith Danluck takes a fascinating approach to grieving by way of State Like Sleep. Katherine Grand (Katherine Waterston) had relocated to the US following the death of her husband, Stefan Delvoe (Michiel Huisman). One year after the tragedy, Katherine learns that her mother suffered from a stroke. She flies to Brussels in order to visit her in the hospital. Because of all that had happened, Katherine…
"Tribeca 2018: State Like Sleep"