Tribeca 2022: A Lesbian Jehovah’s Witness Romance in ‘You Can Live Forever’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

Religions, as institutions, don't often make space for new ideas or changingn times. This includes LGBTQ+ people whose existence is essentially prohibited in the most literal and unimaginative readings of biblical texts. While there are more religious communities these days that are open and accepting, merging faith with a celebration differences, that is sadly not the general case. You Can Live Forever is set within the world of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, where scripture is quoted often and two women being together isn’t a concept that would ever be considered.

The new film from the co-written and co-directed by Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky, follows a girl named Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll), who has been sent to live with her aunt and uncle after the death of her father. At church she meets Marike (June Laporte), and a passionate romance soon develops between the two...

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Doc Corner: The Cowgirls of 'Bitterbrush'

By Glenn Dunks

Emelie Mahdavian’s first documentary feature was set in Tajikstan. The remote mountains of Idaho in the American west may seem like something of a remarkable jump, but it’s really not one at all. Topographically speaking, the two are quite similar. Certainly more so than Idaho and at least half of the rest of the US. That Mahdavian was so easily able to embed herself into the world of Bitterbrush shouldn’t surprise, then.

This is a quiet film, a film about loneliness and struggle and about the physical toll of a genuine hard day’s work. Unlike something like Buck or the more thematically similar Sweetgrass, that its two subjects are women lends Bitterbrush a unique entry-way into its world that brings with it a lot of connotations even before its opening shot...

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Tribeca 2022: B.J. Novak's "Vengeance"

by Jason Adams

Weirdly conservative and as profound as a midnight tweet-storm during a Dexedrine binge, I give you (no seriously, take it away from me) actor B.J. Novak’s writer/director debut Vengeance. This feels like a movie that Elon Musk will just absolutely adore... and please never defile my memory by thinking I mean that as a compliment. A wannabe Coens-esque satire of red-state/blue-state warfare and the champagne simps caught in the middle, Vengeance ultimately reads like a love letter to "Both Sides"-ism that ventures nothing so gains a great plains worth of nothing in bold-type return...

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Tribeca: Intoxicating Experiences in ‘Good Girl Jane’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

Everyone’s experience of high school includes something they wish they hadn’t done. It’s much easier to reflect back on what that might have been as an adult; you have more distant to consider the impact and meaning of a moment or relationship that might not have problematic or regrettable at the time. For some, there’s a great deal of regret from a repeated pattern of behavior that had an undeniable effect on their lives. With time, humor can also be found in deeply disturbing events, and Good Girl Jane does that exceptionally well.

Sarah Elizabeth Mintz describes her directorial debut (she also wrote the screenplay) as loosely based on her own life but with considerable liberties taken and modifications made...

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Almost There: Bea Arthur in "Mame"

by Cláudio Alves

This past Sunday, the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League celebrated the 75th Annual Tony Awards. Considering past intersections of Tony gold and Oscar success, it's fun to speculate which honorees might one day reprise their roles on the big screen and play a part in a different sort of awards season. Not that repeating an acclaimed stage performance for film leads to a surefire triumph with the Academy. For every Yul Brynner in The King and I and Viola Davis in Fences, there's a Robert Preston in The Music Man and Bea Arthur in Mame. That latter film saw 2022's Lifetime Achievement Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury ditched by Warner Bros. in favor of Lucille Ball, despite having originated the role to great acclaim on stage and already being a film star. It was a move everyone involved grew to regret. 

Thankfully, the studios didn't replace Arthur from the original Broadway cast, so there's still something to love about the misbegotten Mame…

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