Once again I skipped the pre-fest screenings this year at Tribeca, mostly because I love the press and industry screenings. They are screenings set up in the early morning and afternoon before the masses descend on the theater, and it’s pretty fun to navigate your way through the movies you’d like to see. Reminds me of movie hopping a decade ago during my high school years. Ahh, youth.
In any case, today was a pretty light day… just saw two films and got back home before it started raining down. I’ve got at least a dozen more I want to see over the next week so I wanted to pace myself and not burn out like I did last year after three days of 4+ movies…
First up was Micmacs, from Jean-Paul Jeunet. (City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Amelie). I really enjoyed it. It’s possibly the most childlike and lighthearted of all his films (even though it’s about seeking revenge on arms dealers!) and while it definitely doesn’t hold a candle to his other work, it’s incredibly enjoyable. Plus, Dominique Pinon! Really don’t understand how Devin could have been bored by it. He has killed his inner child. It’s a delightful film.
Second was Thieves By Law, a pretty in-depth documentary about the Russian mafia. They managed to interview some of the most infamous gangsters in the world and it’s absolutely chilling when they relate things that they’ve done. It has some pretty brutal moments as well- a bunch of people walked out of the screening during a sequence that showed people who had been inside a car when it blew up, in fact. The doc’s a bit sloppy and sort of ends abruptly, but it’s a really intensive look into a world you’ll hopefully never know.
I’ll have full reviews of these on the site soon, this was just a teaser. If you want to follow what I’m up to you can check out my twitter! More to come…