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Get Your Cinephile on at the Tribeca Film Festival

We pick out some of the highlights and a few horror gems.


Micmacs
Micmacs Credit: Sony Pictures Classics

The Tribeca Film Festival is currently gearing up with a full schedule of films now available for your perusal online. We've gone through the festival's massive slate and picked out a small handful of films that we think might be worth your attention this year. There's also a fairly good international horror presence this year and we've included a few highlights from that genre as well.

You can check out the full schedule and pick up tickets at Tribeca's official site.

Blood and Rain: In Jorge Navas' beautifully composed neo-noir, taxi driver Jorge begins his night shift bent on revenge after his brother's murder at the hands of a violent gang. But when an accident brings him unexpectedly closer to his party-girl fare Angela, the damaged pair must struggle against forces already set in motion, drawing them inexorably into the rain-soaked underworld of Bogotá.

Dream Home: Cheng Lai-sheung is a young, upwardly mobile professional finally ready to invest in her first home. But when the deal falls through, she is forced to keep her dream alive-even if it means keeping her would-be neighbors dead. Pang Ho-Cheung's disturbingly imaginative violence unfolds against a backdrop of lifestyle fetishization and the housing market crisis in this metropolitan spin on Guignol horror. In Cantonese with English subtitles.

Every Day: Meet Ned. His live-in father-in-law is putting serious strains on Ned's marriage. He's having a hard time adjusting to raising an independent teenager. His job as a TV writer is unfulfilling, and late nights with a sexy coworker are only complicating matters.... Liev Schreiber, Helen Hunt, Brian Dennehy, Carla Gugino, Eddie Izzard, and Ezra Miller star in this eloquent and honest look at an everyday family dealing with life's little curveballs.

Freakonomics: Rogue filmmakers expose the hidden side of everything-from corruption in the sumo wrestling world to the minefield of ethnicity and class conflict in the million-dollar industry of baby naming-in this dynamic adaptation of the smash best seller Freakonomics. From the innovative documentary filmmakers behind Why We Fight, The King of Kong, Academy Award nominees Jesus Camp and Super Size Me and Academy Award winner Taxi to the Dark Side.

Legacy: British-Nigerian director Thomas Ikimi builds a thrilling psychological drama around an all-consuming central performance by Idris Elba (The Wire). Black ops operative Malcolm Gray is returning home after a botched mission in Eastern Europe. Holed up in a rundown Brooklyn motel room, he is torn between retribution and personal salvation as he mentally unravels. When the walls close in, his story may be all he can leave behind....

Mimacs: Bazil (Dany Boon, Joyeux Noël) is a gentle-natured but unlucky man with a bullet lodged in his brain. Together with a motley crew of wacky new friends, he exacts an intricate revenge plot against the giant weapons manufacturers responsible for his lowly lot in life. From the inimitable and hyper-imaginative director of Delicatessen and Amélie comes a wild and whimsical underdog story, a David and Goliath tale by way of Buster Keaton.

The Infidel: Mahmud Nasir (comedian Omid Djalili) may not be the most observant Muslim, but deep down he is a true believer. His life is turned upside down when he learns he was adopted-but most scandalous is that his birth mother was Jewish! And his given name was Solly Shimshillewitz! As Mahmud tumbles into a full-scale identity crisis, a true comedy of religious errors unfolds. With Richard Schiff and Matt Lucas.

The Killer Inside Me: Casey Affleck is Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff whose continuous inner monologue reveals a savage sociopath hidden behind his accommodating Texan smile. When his escalating entanglements with a local prostitute and his prying fiancée back him into a corner, his urges will erupt in shocking violence. Michael Winterbottom's subversive film noir is adapted from cult pulp author Jim Thompson's novel. With Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Bill Pullman, and Elias Koteas.

Ondine: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) weaves a visually arresting tale of a lone fisherman (Colin Farrell) who pulls in the sweetest catch of his life-a mermaid-like beauty. But as their passion grows, their dark pasts come to light, and the real world begins to threaten their fairy tale romance. This stunning film will challenge your senses and imagination as fantasy and reality clash on the big screen.

Open House: Brian Geraghty gives a haunting performance as prim and taciturn David, forced for years to watch over his sexually predatory partner Lila and her violent urges. David longs for human connection and a less violent existence, and when a would-be victim becomes a chance at redemption, he is torn between his humanity and the only life he's ever known.

Possessed: In this eminently creepy horror show, college student Hee-jin returns home in the wake of her younger sister's disappearance, only to find her mother a fanatical religious convert and the family's neighbors offing themselves in increasingly bizarre and grotesque ways. Together with detective Tae-hwan, Hee-jin must unravel the tangled web of connections between the victims that will lead back to the missing girl. In Korean with English subtitles.

Saturday Night: Saturday Night Live has been a New York icon for decades, but few have witnessed what it actually takes to pull off an episode. Actor/director James Franco settles confidently behind the camera and into corners of cubicles and conference rooms to bring unprecedented access to the cast's vigorous marathon of comedy creation. With John Malkovich hosting the episode, Franco sculpts an intimate look at the making of one hilarious episode of SNL.

Zonad: In this cheeky comedy from brothers Kieran and John Carney (director of Oscar winner Once), the Cassidy family lives cheerfully in a small Irish town where the 1950s, it seems, never ended. Then one night a portly brute dressed sorta like an alien arrives at their house. His name is Zonad, and he's from outer space-or so he claims-and soon his cynical, 21st-century attitude begins disrupting this seemingly idyllic little hamlet.

 

 

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