Tribeca 2021 Can't Get Here Quick Enough

by Jason Adams

When the Tribeca Film Festival (2021 edition) kicks off in June -- it runs from June 9th through the 20th -- it will have been 25 months since my last rendezvous with the festival, way back in the spring of 2019. Some stuff has happened in the in-between, ya know? But we're still plugging along, thank the Movie Gods, and pretty excited to have this little slice of our routine slipping back into its slot. I've been here in NYC long enough that I was around for the first edition of the fest, founded in 2002 in the wake of the September 11th attacks, and already I can feel in the air a similar sense of celebratory survival. It's been a tough 25 months, but spring feels finally in the air. 

The entire line-up for the festival was announced last week -- including the Opening Night premiere of this year's big musical sensation-to-be In the Heights -- and you'll find all of the titles down below. But first I just want to highlight a small selection of five titles (because five's a good solid respectable number) that immediately leapt off the page and poked me in my eyeballs. And you can no doubt expect to hear my thoughts on these ones (and plenty more) once the coverage kicks up in June...

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Red Carpet Lineup: One Last Look at the Golden Globe Gowns

Though we gawked at beautiful men, giggled at Viking hats, and pursed our Devil-in-Prada lips at flowery dresses the big fashion blowout post is only happening now. Procrastination is sometimes healthy because we need escapism constantly of late given the increasing despair in the world. Oscar nomination balloting is now complete but until the world is no more award seasons will continue to roar.  Which lewks were your favourites? We'll divvy it up into categories starting with blue and red families...

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Podcast: JoJo Rabbit and Oscar's Screenplay Races

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R 

Index (38 minutes)
00:01 Taiki Waitit's JoJo Rabbit. Is its satire successful? We're mixed on just about everything within it including the actors though we both loved Scarlett Johansson as the mother to a little Nazi boy.
16:00 A Parasite tangent "It's so metaphorical!" 
19:20 JoJo Rabbit's Oscar chances hard to read, right? It could be anywhere from 2 to 8 noms
21:50 Adapted Screenplay - The Irishman, JoJo Rabbit, Little Women, etc?
27:00 Original Screenplay - Marriage Story, Parasite, Bombshell, etc?
35:00 Randomness: Hustlers, Dark Waters, and Cats
37:00 Off to Campaign Events!

Related: Oscar Screenplay charts

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

JoJo Rabbit and Screenplays

FYC: Thomasin McKenzie in "Leave No Trace" for Best Actress

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

A good number of pundits agree that Thomasin McKenzie has an outside shot at scoring a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance as a teenage girl living on the outskirts of civilization with her father in the critically-acclaimed Leave No Trace. I’d like to posit a different theory – that she may end up as a surprise nominee for Best Actress.

Now, I don’t think this is likely, but I’d be ecstatic if it happened. Nathaniel is very big on calling out category fraud when he sees it, and there’s more than enough of that to go around this year. It’s actually just as puzzling to see McKenzie called a supporting actress as it is to see her costar Ben Foster classified as a supporting actor. They’re both leads, sharing screen time and the focus of the narrative...

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Interview: Ben Foster on "Leave No Trace" and Acting as Therapy

by Nathaniel R

Ben Foster discussing "Leave No Trace" last summer when it openedWhen I first met Ben Foster he was promoting Rampart (2011), a hard and angry movie about corrupt cops in which the acting was (unsurprisingly) terrific, he would barely speak about himself. Time has mellowed him, or at least made him more lighthearted about his own intensity. He ended our last interview begging for a screen comedy but sadly that project has never materialized. In person he's friendly and thoughtful and funny, never as impenetrable or scary or tragically sad as he has been is in his famous roles. In fact he's a happy new father, having had a daughter with his wife, the actress Laura Prepon, just over a year ago.

We met last month to discuss Debra Granik's award-winning drama Leave No Trace. He plays Will, a former soldier who has shut himself off from society with only his daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie) for companionship.When Will and Tom are found living in the woods at the beginning of the film, social workers attempt to reintegrate them into society. The daughter immediately adapts but the father is tougher to reach. Leave No Trace is moving and insightful and beautifully acted so that's where we begin as we discuss his career, his early days in acting, and what's next.

Our interview, has been edited for clarity and length...

with Director Debra Granik on set

NATHANIEL: Projects like Leave No Trace live or die based on the chemistry between the leads, so how can you prepare for a two-hander like this. Were you involved in casting? 

BEN FOSTER: I was involved in casting so far as Debra said 'I found someone I really like, and she's in New Zealand, here's the tape'. It was recorded on her phone and I watched like 30 seconds before I was like 'Oh yeah, that's it.'  

Instant approval. That's so cool.

She has a quality --you see it in person and you see it onscreen, she's lit from within. [In awe] She's one of them.

And I assume you trusted Debra a little bit on unknown actors, too, because she's famous for that Jennifer Lawrence discovery...

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