Tribeca Review: Sleepless Nights in "Restless"

By Abe Friedtanzer 

Not getting enough sleep can really ruin a person’s mood. Inconsiderate neighbors with no concept of how loud they are the subject of another Tribeca entry this year (The French Italian), but those antics take an immediate comedic turn. That’s not at all the case in Restless, an isolating tale of one woman who can’t take it anymore when deafening music blasts into her home at all hours of the night, pushing her to the brink of insanity...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Chanel N°5: The Film (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

If someone asked me to come up with the definitive image of Nicole Kidman, I'm not sure I'd gravitate toward her work in movies or TV, nor even her red-carpet appearances. Instead, my mind would instinctually drift to that shot of industrial-grade glamour that once played at every primetime ad break. It's a Moulin Rouge! reunion and, in its way, a miniature remake with a contemporary twist. It's fashion distilled into a dream, a bespoke Lagerfeld-designed wardrobe, and a fragrance we can only imagine through the screen. It's Old Hollywood resurrected for 180 seconds of hyper-artifice and soft-focus glow, so beautiful it makes your heartache. It's Chanel N°5: The Film, of course…

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Tribeca Review: Interpersonal Dynamics in "Family Therapy"

by Abe Friedtanzer

Movies give us a window into a particular moment in time, opening on characters at a certain point in relationships with or without added context. It’s possible to form judgments based on how they act and react in given situations without knowing much – or anything – more about them. Slovenian director Sonja Prosenc offers a bizarre but deeply inviting portrait of a family still trying to figure out how it operates in Family Therapy, an off-kilter comedy that often says much more without words than it does with them…

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Birth (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

After her Oscar win for The Hours, Nicole Kidman's career went through some interesting somersaults. 2003 saw her bow the avant-garde cruelty of Dogville at Cannes, while Hollywood bore witness to two prestige projects whose success is debatable. The Human Stain is one of those classic "This Had Oscar Buzz" case studies, while Cold Mountain is most interesting for how it didn't secure a Best Actress nomination despite AMPAS' affection. Then came 2004, when von Trier's Brechtian film finally reached the States, and Kidman faced critical lashings as a response to her risk-taking. If not for Dogville, then for a derided broad comedy we'll discuss later in the series. And, of course, for today's subject – Birth.

Jonathan Glazer's sophomore feature was a resounding bomb with audiences and critics back in 2004, and only the Golden Globes seemed willing to recognize the genius in Nicole Kidman's work. Twenty years later, its reputation has changed…

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Tribeca Review: Terrible Neighbors in "The French Italian"

by Abe Friedtanzer

Everyone has had an inconsiderate neighbor at some point in their lives, someone who can’t understand, or doesn’t seem to care, that their actions – and likely the noises emanating from their place of residence – affect those around them. In part because people can be crazy, most don’t confront these nuisances and instead find workarounds that may lead to a drastic decrease in their own comfort.

The comedy The French Italian takes that idea to a new level, as its protagonists hatch a revenge plan that’s half-baked at best and better described as entirely aimless and lackluster...

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