The Tribeca Film Festival is New York’s yearly foray into Hollywood — for a week LA comes to New York to showcase the best of independent film, with a few blockbusters thrown in for good measure (The Avengers will close the festival this year, a week before its wide release). We’ve highlighted five films to check our during their week-long run in the big apple, or to keep an eye out for in cinemas near you the rest of the year. Tickets are on sale now for American Express cardholders, or to the general public at 11 am April 16th.
The Giant Mechanical Man
This romantic comedy focuses on the intersection on two out-of-luck kindred spirits — quiet and unfullfilled Janice (Jenna Fischer) “living statue” street performer Tim (Chris Messina). The two connect in the most unlikely of places, the zoo, but as they being to blossom the meddling ways of Janice’s sister, Jill (Malin Akerman) threaten to kill their love affair before it can even take root.
Keep The Lights On
What starts as a meaningless late-night hookup between Erik (Thure Lindhardt) and Paul (Zachary Booth) unexpectedly forges a connection that goes beyond sex to building a life together. The film follows the couple over several years as their self-destructive habits threaten their bond and offers an honest portrait of a relationships that is equally loving and destructive.
Struck by Lightning
Chris Colfer proves he’s more than just “Kurt from Glee” in his first feature film performance (and writing) debut with Struck by Lightning, a comedy where budding young journalist Carson Phillips (ColfeR) recounts his last year on earth post-lighting strike. Director Brian Dannelly (Saved!) works his high school movie magic on Colfer’s landscape of ambition and longing.
Any Day Now
Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt star as a 1970s gay couple who take in an abandoned, mentally handicapped teenager. They build a family, but when the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight a biased legal system to adopt the child they have come to love as their own.
Jack and Dianne
This film is a blend of a horror elements and a love story, starting simply enough when Tomboy Jack (Riley Keough) and bubbly Diane (Juno Temple fall in love one hot summer in New York City. But when Diane reveals she must leave the city for school in Europe at the end of the summer, Jack pushes her away. As she struggles to keep the relationship afloat, Diane must also deal with the increasingly dark and violent visions that plague her.
