The old adage “save the best for last” certainly applied to this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, as the last screening I attended was the thought-provoking, emotional journey called “Future Weather.” I had met its writer, director and producer Jenny Deller at the Tribeca Press Reception beforehand, during which she gave me the film’s background. “Future” lives up to expectations. Clearly, this is not the kind of story in which you’ll

Smart horror–is that an oxymoron? Not in “The Cabin in the Woods,” a devilishly twisted film written by Joss Whedon, maker of beloved TV series “Buffy” and “Firefly.” Whedon starts with a generic plot premise that has been hackneyed to death: youth in the woods, getting feisty inside and out a cabin, and then getting killed.

Luckily, Whedon torques this premise and pushes into unfa-

Disclosure: “Rubberneck” was a film I was assigned to review, not one I chose. And yet I can’t thank my editor enough, as it’s the most compelling drawn-out thriller I’ve seen in a while. It also serves as illustration for why the Tribeca Film Festival was created in the first place: to provide a venue for the small-budget indies which may otherwise not get much mileage. The hardest part of this essay has been to judge what filmmaker

James Franco has a lot going for him. At thirty-four he’s already had a prolific career having risen from the parapets of television to Hollywood challenger status, all while attending grad school and appearing in a daytime soap.

But doesn’t this sound like the last-ditch attempt of a fading star seeking to reclaim the limelight? In interviews I’ve seen of him Franco appears as nothing more than

Have you ever been to Louisiana? It’s creepy. There are nine populated areas and a lot of dark waters with things that can eat you. The swamps probably stay dark in the daytime just to make it all creepier. And the thing is, I think they like it creepy. So I have a hard time imagining Louisiana swampland as a romantic setting for a movie. Nonetheless, The Lucky One gives it a try, featuring a lost photograph, adorable dogs, a lovely rose

There’s a famous Hollywood joke about how you can describe any action movie over the past twenty years as something like ”Die Hard in an orbital maximum-security prison.” That would be the one that applies to the very entertaining Lockout, a movie that is Die Hard by way of Star Wars by way of Blade Runner by way of La Femme Nikita by way of The Fifth Element by way of Escape from New York by way of Big Trouble in Little China.

Yaron is part of an elite group of police officers belonging to an anti-terrorist unit of the Israeli police. He and his companions are the weapon pointed by the state at its opponents, "the Arab enemy." Yaron loves the male camaraderie and his own muscle-bound body. His wife is about to give birth and he could become a father at any moment. But his meeting a group of violent radicals will force him to suddenly confront a new kind of revo-

I saw Lee Hirsch’s documentary Bully (previously called The Bully Project) at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, before the sound mix was officially finished; shortly after it was purchased by the Weinstein Company. There may have been a few changes made before its release last Friday so I am writing, as it were, from memory. Bully couldn’t have been timelier. In the thirteen years since Columbine, America has seen an alarming uptick in suicides

The Hunger Games will sap up comparisons to science fiction. That’s what happens with stories about futuristic dystopias and freaky hovercraft. The better comparison is to Roman or Biblical epics of the fifties. Its story, of the youth of twelve outlying provinces exploited for the bloodsport of a wealthy and perverse capital, is reminiscent of Ben Hur. It even has a grand chariot parade, with crowds adoring Katniss Everdeen, a coal-haired

Claudio, Orlando and Leonardo Villas Boas are spirited young brothers in search of a path in life in 1943, during a period of historic industrial and agricultural growth in newly-democratic Brazil. They sign up as to travel to the Xingu region of the Amazon to help build a landing strip near indigenous tribes. But in order to do this, they must gain the natives' trust. Xingu, based on true events, is directed by Brazil's Cao Hamburger. His previous