Tribeca 2009: Day 7 Recap

For all of you who read the title of this post and said, “Oh no, I missed Jerry’s awesome coverage of Day 6† don’t worry. You didn’t miss anything. I took a day off from the festival for personal reasons but I returned in full force today, watching 4 movies back to back. The theme for today seemed to be love and heartbreak.

I started the day with My Last Five Girlfriends, which completely blew me away. I wanted to see this film based on the clip available on the Tribeca website. It seemed quirky, fun and original. It turned out to be all those things and more. The film is a creative study of the main characters last 5 girlfriends, which led him to commit suicide as we see in the first scene of the film. The premise may sound dark, but this is actually a fantastic comedy, with inventive visuals and storytelling techniques.

After the first brilliant film of the day, I was treated to the Mathew Broderick vehicle Wonderful World. While not even close to one of my favorites of the festival, I did still enjoy it quite a bit. Broderick’s character, with his constant spouting of his philosophies, reminded me of Ferris Bueller if he grew up to become a cynical asshole. There were some funny moments and Broderick is great in his role. You do feel bad for him, but you also do not like how he does not trust anyone.

A one-hour break followed, which of course means a trip to the DirectTV Tribeca Press Lounge for press notes and free Snapple, followed by a $5 footlong at a nearby Subway. I headed back to the theaters and went to see The Good Guy by Julio DePietro. I did not watch the trailer for this film, and as I’ve said before, I am a sucker for romance done right. I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did. The film is perfectly written, funny and well acted. The first scene of the film is the ending of a relationship and then we cut back to 6 weeks earlier when things started to get rocky. This seems to be a common theme of festival films this year (Damn me and my straightforward narrative for Stuck Like Chuck). However, it is used in a brilliant way here because things are not exactly what they seem and there are a few surprises thrown at the audience. I really enjoyed this film and expect it to be picked up shortly.

After the film, I met the director in the lobby and spoke with him for a bit. Being a New Yorker, he agreed to setting up an interview some time in the coming weeks to avoid the hectic Tribeca schedule. I’ve reached that agreement with a few filmmakers at the festival so expect our Tribeca coverage to continue long after the festival ends.

My final film of the day was Easy Virtue. I had known little about the film other than overhearing a few critics rave about it and that it starred Jessica Biel and Colin Firth. Uncertain of what to expect, this was another film that surprised the hell out of me. Colin Firth was brilliant as the sardonic father and Jessica Biel gives a great lead performance. The film used a lot of older comedy gags that fit in with the time period depicted (early 1900’s) but I believe there are some modern twists. And despite being a walking clichà ©, I thought the downtrodden sarcastic Butler was hysterical.  

After 4 great films, I headed home. Day 7 is done. Day 8 brings me one of my most  anticipated  films  of  the festival.

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com