Laura Bispuri's SWORN VIRGIN ("vergine giurata" in the original italian title) feels incomplete, a partial film missing a final reel. SWORN centers on Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), a young Albanian woman who invokes the traditional right for females to become honorary males known as “burrnesh” in exchange for taking an oath of virginity. Years later Hana, now known as "Mark," flees the countryside to live in Italy and rediscover her lost femininity.

A collaboration grew from inside a New York University graduate […]

The other film produced by Gabe Cowan this year and shown at Tribeca (see our REVIEW of “just before I go”) is the clever and relatable “Loitering with Intent.”

The cast includes Ivan Martin and Michael Godere, who are the screenwriters of this film in real life, as two starving-artist screenwriters, named Raphael and Dominic, who after being offered the chance to sell a screenplay repair to the countryside to write it. Only, they’re met with anything but the hoped-for peace and quiet at their new address.

The title goes right to the point, as does this movie shown at Tribeca last week, which deals with a nerdy oddball named Clinton (played brilliantly by Fran Kranz), who discovers that his cat has been killed. In attempting to solve the murder of his furry and only friend Clinton unwittingly stumbles onto a series of events which lead him deeper into chaos, until his own life is at stake. He teams up with fellow cat lover Greta, played by Nikki Reed, his mother Edie (Blythe Danner)

In her directorial debut "Just Before I Go" Courteney Cox confronts her wealth of experience in comedy with the darker subject-matter of suicide with mitigated results.

Written by sitcom heavy David Flebotte ("Desperate Housewives," "Will and Grace") "Just Before I Go" is an unconvincing attempt to mollify the seriousness of suicide with humor. But directing a film that wants to make light

The last Tribeca Film Festival finished on a high note as Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese screened “King of Comedy” marking the thirtieth anniversary of the film’s release. With its knife-sharp commentary on celebrity and the vagaries of fandom "King of Comedy" not only still holds up thirty years later but is just as relevant today as it was then. In “King” stage-door autograph hound and aspiring comedian

The twelfth edition of the almost-venerable Tribeca Film Festival wrapped up last week, and left the impression women filmmakers figured higher than ever. Is this the signal of a paradigm shift? And yet, contrary to what many believe women have stood peering into a viewfinder ever since silent-film era actress/director Mabel Normand yelled “Action” to Charlie Chaplin on the Keystone lot ("Silent film star deserved")

Most people believe Tribeca is all about the big pictures. However what makes it fun and different is what I believe are the backbone of most film festivals, as they are both the stepping stone for filmmakers and the quicker way to see more entertainment in a minimal amount of time; the short films. There were several this year that not only had more production and entertainment value then the features but

Sean Dunne's new documentary “Oxyana” was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the last Tribeca Film Festival, and it's easy to see why. Capitalizing on the current rage over oddball slice-of-life docs (see “The Queen of Versailles,”etc.), Dunne's straightforward portrait of a desolate West Virginia mining town ravaged by prescription drug abuse (Oceana, West Virginia, nicknamed “Oxyana” because of its Oxycontin problem) hits the right notes to ensure big indie success. He chooses a provocative topic, adeptly balances

During the 2013 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival which […]