Spoiler-Free Tribeca Thoughts

In the midst of this busy semester, I managed to see a few films at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Here are my spoiler-free reactions:

Flower (2017) 

Flower is a coming-of-age dramedy. It's hilarious, uncomfortable, and takes some seriously dark turns. This film surprised in a lot of ways, and while the ending felt a little too neat for my taste, I enjoyed it overall. The audience at the premiere seemed to love it, and there were laughs and audible gasps throughout. The film's cast is amazing, and I think the lead gives a great performance as a funny, yet infuriating teen who likes to think she's more mature than she really is.

Aardvark is a drama about a therapist, her mentally ill patient, and his brother. Again, the cast here is excellent - Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, and Jon Hamm. I wanted to love this film more than I did. There were a couple of moments that didn't make any logical sense, which is hard for me to get over. I did like the elements of mystery, but ultimately the film just felt unfinished. So much potential though.

Take Me is a mad-cap comedy produced by the Duplass Brothers (l watch everything these two work on, and it blows my mind how prolific they are) and starring Orange is the New Black's Taylor Schilling. This film suffers from some tonal shifts, but when it's funny, it is really funny. There are a couple of side characters, but the two leads basically carry the film. I had fun with this one, and you'll be able to catch it on Netflix in a few months.

On the festival as a whole, I love that Tribeca offers individual tickets for films for about $20 each. Other fests I have been to don't necessarily do this, and it simply doesn't make sense for me to buy a pass when I don't have time to see many films. I think Tribeca caters perfectly to busy New Yorkers with these single ticket sales. Props to AT&T for their Free Film Friday promotion also. I got to see one of these films for absolutely nothing, simply by walking into an AT&T store and asking for a ticket. I love the accessibility of this festival.