Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s Five Films to See at Tribeca 2023
Written by: Christopher Llewellyn Reed | June 7th, 2023
The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in response to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City, which had an especially devastating effect on the southern part of Manhattan (TriBeCa stands for “Triangle Below Canal Street”). For close to 20 years, the fest took place at the end of April, sometimes spilling into May, but in 2021 it moved to June, adapting to changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s iteration takes place June 7-18, offering 109 features, 93 world premieres among them. They represent 127 filmmakers from 36 countries. There’s no way I can catch so many, but here are 5 I very much hope to see.
Bad Things (Stewart Thorndike): A weekend getaway with friends sounds like just the ticket, right? Hold on to your cinematic beer, for in Bad Things, from director Stewart Thorndike (Lyle), what should be a wonderful chance to catch up turns into a psychological horror set amidst snowy landscapes. Nothing like subverted expectations topped with a little (or a lot of) blood. Gayle Rankin (Sheila the She-Wolf in Netflix’s GLOW) stars, with support from Hari Nef, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, and Rad Pereira.
Final Cut (Michel Hazanavicius): French director Michel Hazanavicius wowed Hollywood with his 2011 Oscar-winning The Artist, but has hardly rested on his laurels since (check out his 2017 Godard Mon Amour). In Final Cut, Hazanavicius remakes the 2017 Japanese zombie film One Cut of the Dead in his own inimitable way. Bring on more blood, please. Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) and Romain Duris (Eiffel) lead the cast.
I.S.S. (Gabriela Cowperthwaite): What would you do if you were stuck on the International Space Station—a crew made up of Russians and Americans—and a nuclear war broke out on Earth. Such is the dilemma explored by director Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish) in I.S.S. Politics, meet gravity. The ensemble includes Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), John Gallagher Jr. (Underwater), and Chris Messina (Air).
The Listener (Steve Buscemi): Actor Steve Buscemi hasn’t directed a feature since the 2007 Interview, although he’s done quite a lot of TV work since then. In The Listener, he gives us the incomparable Tessa Thompson (Creed III) as a volunteer for a mental-health-crisis phone line. Actors directing other actors usually results in brilliant performances.
Milli Vanilli (Luke Korem): Remember Milli Vanilli? Did you “forget their number?” (oh, no!) In the late 1980s, this German duo, comprised of childhood pals Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, took the world by storm with hits like “Girl You Know It’s True” and the previously linked-to tune, until a lip-syncing scandal caused everything to unravel. In this eponymously titled documentary from the talented Luke Korem (the Showtime docuseries Action), we get the full story, start to finish, top to bottom. I cannot wait.
Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.