Cinemaniac’s Tribeca Film Fest Picks: Part I

I’ve mellowed about the Tribeca Film Festival since it’s well meaning inception (by Robert de Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff) in 2001. You could say I’ve learned to stop worrying and come to look forward to it in many ways. Last year I found myself trying to cram as many movies as possible and this year it surprises me how many good titles are included. Here’s my rundown so far, and I still look forward to seeing the documentary about Squeeze Box…

BAGHEAD
The Unknown Comic meets Jason in this sardonically inspired deranged gem of a movie by the Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair). After attending an underground film festival, best buds Chad (Steve Zissis) and Matt (Ross Partridge) decide to take their girls Michelle (Greta Gerwig) and Catherine (Elise Muller) up to a remote cabin for the weekend to write a movie script. Chad is really into Michelle who is eyeing Matt, and Catherine is not amused. Michelle has a bad dream about a guy wearing a paper bag on his head in the woods and they start writing a horror movie -- that is until a guy with a paper bag on his head shows up. Remember when you were kids and you and your friends tried to scare each other until suddenly you actually freaked yourself out? Well, this is that movie. Call it “slackerscare” cinema. While the film could have headed into many different directions the outcome is vibrantly satisfying and had me smiling to myself contentedly all the way home.

BERLIN
“In Berlin, by the wall, she was five feet ten inches tall. It was very nice. It was paradise...” begins Lou Reed’s 1973 rock opera Berlin. I loved that album to death when it came out -- it was about speed freaks, suicide, taking children away from an unfit mother, and looking back at really bad love affairs... every thing rock operas should be about. But it bombed at the time. Here director Julian Schnabel covers Lou Reed’s staging of it at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2006, with a top-notch orchestra, children’s choir and guest singers like Sharon Jones and Antony, who sings an unearthly beautiful version of “Candy Says.” Schnabel’s artful photographic interjections really don’t elevate this beyond just a concert film, but I still insist it’s a great record.

BOY A
Having committed an unspeakable crime in his youth and having spent years in prison, 24-year-old Boy A (Andrew Garfield) is getting released from prison. He’s given a different identity (“Jack”), a job, a new chance on life. His caseworker Terry (Peter Mullan) is devoted to protecting him -- he even gives him a new pair of sneakers to celebrate his rebirth. But as Jack readjusts to his life -- making friends, getting a girlfriend -- the fear that he will some day be exposed hangs over him. Based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell and sensitively directed by John Crowley, these kind of movies are tough to take as you anxiously wait for the axe to fall. Andrew Garfield is really astounding -- he’s all exposed nerve endings -- his sense of wonder, first flush of excitement at his freedom, not to mention his increasing panic, is so palpable it’s heart-wrenching to watch.

ELITE SQUAD
The controversial winner of Berlin’s 2008 Golden Bear, Elite Squad is a gritty unsparing look at an elite Dirty Harry-ish squadron of special force officers (BOPE) working in the thick of Rio de Janeiro’s slums, who serve their own brand of justice against drug dealers and corrupt cops alike. Directed by Jose Pailha (Bus 174) and written by Braulio Mantovani (City of God), the movie focuses on Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), wildly stressed out over the imminent birth of his child; the Pope’s upcoming visit to the dangerous slums; and quickly finding a replacement for himself. Sure the team is fascistic and brutal but the movie’s about the out-of-control world that they live in which operates by its own rules anyway. And it did make me laugh how “students” really come off as villains. Nonetheless, it’s hard to find an easy way to enjoy the film, despite its raw bravado.

MAN ON WIRE
This spellbinding documentary by James Marsh is about Philippe Petit, whose high wire stunt in 1974 between NY’s Twin Towers was an obsession and the pinnacle of his career of amazing feats of daredevil courage. The dramatic tension director Marsh creates by describing Pettit and his merry band of coconspirators as they sneak into the Towers to fulfill Philippe Pettit’s insane dream is extraordinary. The movie is suspenseful, funny and at times downright thrilling. It’s also refreshingly free of any mention of 9/11. The description of the actual event is almost as supernatural as it is magical. It’s doubtful you’ll see a documentary as good as this one in the near future. James Marsh’s film a high wire act of it’s own.

MISTER LONELY
This crackpot new film by Harmony Korine (Gummo) is about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) moonwalking on the streets of Paris for spare change who meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator (Samantha Morton) who convinces him to go with her to a commune in Scotland. This castle-like enclave houses other imitators (Madonna, The Pope, Abe Lincoln, Sammy Davis Jr., The Three Stooges, etc.). Meanwhile, the film features an unrelated story set in a Latin American jungle about skydiving nuns who leap without parachutes from planes (driven by a priest played by Werner Herzog) and miraculously land unharmed. Yes, it’s that weird. But there are parts that are just wonderful -- a musical show the commune puts on is particularly sublime. But, unfortunately, it’s way too long and eventually runs out of steam. Nonetheless, seeing Anita Pallenberg (as a Queen Elizabeth impersonator) reunited with her Performance costar James Fox (as the Pope) is quite heavenly.