Tribeca Film Festival’s Spotlight section features a mix of narrative and documentaries with “star performers” and known directors. This year’s lineup includes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin in Maggie, this year’s Academy Award-winner Patricia Arquette in The Wannabe, Jessica Biel in Bleeding Heart, Mickey Rourke and Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars) in Ashby, Christopher Walken in When I Live my Life Over Again, Kristen Stewart and Glenn Close in Anesthesia, and Adam Driver in Hungry Hearts, to name a very few.
The Overnight
(Dir: Patrick Brice) The Overnight features Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black) and Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) as a new couple in Los Angeles who just want to make friends. Soon a chance meeting in the playground with another kid’s dad played by Jason Swartzman results in a new friend for their son and an invitation to dinner for the parents that turns into a play date for the mommy-daddies.
—John David West
Grandma
(Dir. Paul Weitz) It’s a rare occurrence that Lily Tomlin stars in a feature film, so this is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed. Tomlin plays and aging poet and loner whose world is disrupted as her teenage granddaughter shows up in need of help and a ride. They embark on a daylong road trip that shakes up both of their worlds.
—John David West
Far From Men
(Dir. David Oelhoffen) “Vigo Mortensen’s anchors this film with a fiercely understated French-language performance, the score by masters Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and the beautifully stark backdrop of Algeria’s mountain ranges, Far From Men transplants a classic western tale into an unstable war-zone to tell the story of one man’s sense of personal duty in light of the realities of the world around him.”
—Genna Terranova
Thought Crimes
(Dir. Erin Lee Carr) “The Cannibal Cop was now looking at a life sentence for his Internet searches and online activities. His sexual fantasies cost him his family, his job, and his freedom–but it also prompted a fundamental question: can you be guilty of a crime you only thought of committing?”
—Genna Terranova
Backtrack
(Dir. Michael Petroni) Backtrack stars Adrien Brody as Peter Bowers, a psychotherapist experiencing ominous visions and nightmares. After having uncovered a secret shared by his patients, he is sent back to his hometown after having fled years prior. There he dabbles into solving an old mystery that proves to be a contributor to his horrifying visions.
—Oscar Flores
Slow West
(Dir. John Maclean) There is never a moment to not watch a film starring Michael Fassbender and Slow West should not be any different. Fassbender plays Silas Selleck, a bounty hunter that’s been tirelessly traveling the road and runs into a young Scottish aristocrat, Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee). With Selleck’s help, Cavendish embarks on a journey to Colorado to find his beloved, Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius).
—Oscar Flores
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