This year's Tribeca Film Festival is jam packed with a huge variety of films, many of which feature big name actors and directors, but many more from under the radar and up and coming directors. Here's a quick look at four films, three of which are first features, that will play at this year's festival.
Cronies is executive produced by Spike Lee and on the surface seems like a St. Louis version of Do the Right Thing; events start out aimless and lighthearted and then gradually grow in import as tensions come to a boil on a hot summer’s day. It’s no insult to say it’s not quite as good as that film, with some tonal inconsistency and unnecessary scenes and stylistic choices, but it’s a promising debut nonetheless for director Michael Larnell and succeeds as a tale of personal growth. Louis spends the day driving around and hanging out with his two friends Jack and Andrew, the former symbolizing his past and the latter his present and possible future, with Louis caught in between. Jack is grating at first and it’s hard to see why Louis shouldn’t kick him to the curb immediately, but Larnell shows that the two are linked by an epochal childhood tragedy that Louis must make peace with for his own sake. Apart from the story, Cronies also has the same integral relationship to its setting of St. Louis as Lee’s film had to Bed-Stuy, right down to the soundtrack which proudly claims “all music by St. Louis artists.” Like its characters, Cronies hides its true emotions behind a cool façade, but underneath there’s a potent look at the ties that bind friends together, for better or worse.
In Men Go To Battle, indie veteran Zachary Treitz makes his directorial debut in a film co-written with actress Kate Lyn Sheil. Unsurprisingly, based on the duo’s resume, they bring a low-key, naturalist (maybe not quite mumblecore, but close) aesthetic to this tale of two brothers separated by the Civil War, which is a huge departure from most period pieces, especially those focused on wars. Unlike most historical pictures, which feel obligated to showcase the epic sweep of history, this is tightly focused on the lives of the isolated brothers, the more outgoing and ambitious Francis and the more introspective and self-possessed Henry. While these are somewhat interesting artistic choices to discuss afterwards, they’re simply boring while you’re actually watching the film, listening to debates about mules and corn. It’s a war film with no discussion whatsoever about a single political or social issue, the war is simply there and Henry enlists to escape his home life, instead of any higher purpose. This passivity and the attention to everyday detail are historically interesting and authentic, but they do not make for good cinema.
Like the previous film, The Survivalist brings a narrow focus to a usually sweeping genre, the post-apocalyptic film, but with much better results. Instead of showing burning landscapes or detailing just how the world collapsed, first-time filmmaker Steven Fingleton only shows the everyday struggle to survive for one man known only as the Survivalist (Martin McCann), who maintains and defends a small farm hidden in the woods. This quiet routine is soon disturbed by the arrival of Kathryn (Olwen Fouere) and Milja (Mia Goth), an older woman and her teenage daughter, whom the Survivalist reluctantly takes in, leading to a suspicious coexistence. The women have their own plan, for Milja to seduce the Survivalist and lower his guard, allowing Kathryn to kill him. But allegiances change after he rescues Milja from a band of raiders and she starts looking toward the future. Here, the focus on the everyday and the claustrophobic setting work, because they’re interlaced with life and death drama and every action could shift the balance of power. The Survivalist is expertly shot and extremely well made in general for a first film, asking questions about just what comes first in a world where life is a struggle every minute.
Stranded in Canton shows a Congolese immigrant (Isibango Iko Lebrun) trying to make a buck by negotiating a purchase of t-shirts in Guangzhou to import back to his homeland. A former farmer, Lebrun is enthusiastic, but out his element in the cutthroat business environment. His order is months late, he’s losing storage money everyday to a Lebanese warehouse owner, and the demand back home has dried up, because they were shirts advertising a presidential candidate for an election that passed, a problem Lebrun tries to solve by drawing an X over the picture and selling them to the opposition. As befitting the subject, the film cultivates a palpable sense of dislocation, often finding Lebrun in moments of quiet wonder, contemplating the strange new world he finds himself in. It’s hard to describe the tone of the film, neither comic, nor dramatic, though with moments of both, there’s a somewhat detached curiosity towards this new trade environment and the lives it shapes. Stranded in Canton shows a world where the spheres of influence are purely economic, where the power of the dollar makes the politics of the old country seem quaint, but it never loses focus on Lebrun, the bewildered but unbowed human face in the middle of it all.
