Given his notorious history of heists one might assume that Gerald Blanchard would stay out of sight. Or at least keep his mouth shut. Yet Blanchard’s narcissism, for it can be labeled as nothing else, will not allow him to stay mum about his life of crime. Thankfully, filmmaker Landon Van Soest gives Blanchard just enough rope to air out his dirty laundry for the whole world to enjoy in the new documentary “The Jewel Thief,” premiering this week on Hulu.

The twenty five year-old title character in Carolina Cavelli’s debut feature “Amanda” is something of a heroine.

Played by Benedetta Porcaroli, Amanda is from an upper-middle-class family who are cold and seem to fear any semblance of emotion who are closed off from the world, safe in their country manor. Every relationship between the women of the family overflows with conflict.

To New Yorkers Fresh Kills is a landfill on Staten Island but for those who attended the recent Tribeca festival it’s the best film of the festival. Rather than make the obvious comparisons with Jennifer Esposito’s Tribeca debut which, due to the mobster genre of her film likens her to another Italian American filmmaker and New York native, I chose to highlight her against a historical context. I do so because to call Esposito a “Female

From the opening moments, writer/director Anubys Lopez sets an unnerving tone for his Texas-set horror/thriller “Aged,” the tale of a young caregiver who discovers a house of dark and dangerous secrets.

The film begins in a coffee shop where Veronica (Morgan Boss-Maltais) is meeting with potential employer Charles (Dave McClain), a man looking for in-home care for mother Mrs. Bloom (Carla Kidd) who may be suffering from dementia.

Immediately, something seems off kilter. Charles seems too determined to have Veronica take the job. After her initial refusal, he tells her that he will “pay anything” if she would say yes.

If we’re lucky we grow up with our parents and grandparents present in our lives. But very few of us have a grandparent who helped found one of the major Hollywood studios. Filmmaker Gregory Orr learned one day just how powerful was his step-grandfather, Jack L. Warner, when the studio mogul ran every red light along Sunset Blvd. A watchful police officer pulled him over, but upon catching the name on the driver’s license, let Warner and

It’s so wonderful to see in-person film festivals having returned with gusto. Even though I wasn’t able to travel to New York for Tribeca, thanks to the miracle of the hybrid format—refined thanks to the covid pandemic—I was able to check out an amazing amount of documentaries and narratives. Check out below for a roundup of some of the best festival entries I saw for this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

With a haunting Warhol-esque presentation of imagery and an artful gaze worthy of comparison to Peter Greenway and Derek Jarman Georden West’s “Playland” is an unquestionably unique experience. 

The film is, at once, a documentary and an avant-garde reenactment that examines Boston’s Playland Café; a haven to the city’s gay community and one where

I freely admit the main reason I went to “The Flash” was with eager anticipation for the return of Michael Keaton as Batman. So be it, but as “The Flash” and its time- and universe-bending plot undertook its twists and turns, I found so much more to enjoy than Keaton being back in the bat-saddle as the Caped Crusader. For his performance, I (and, it must be said, the entire preview audience) was enraptured and cheering—but this is a Flash movie

Beginning with an intoxicating narration that sets the story on its path (and even sneaking a quote from Leonard Cohen into the first few minutes) “The Secret Kingdom” (helmed by former visual effects artist turned writer/director Matt Drummond) does something special, it takes viewers through a sweet but exciting tale that takes its audience seriously. Twelve-year-old Peter (a very natural Sam Everingham)

With the documentary “Playing with Fire: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting” Oscar-winning director Allan Miller explores the career of a woman who bleeds with a complete love of music and works to bring the vibrancy and stories of classical music to life.

When she was young Jeannette Sorrell was told by the Juilliard School and The Cleveland Orchestra that no orchestra would hire