It took some back brain searching, but I do remember the Tribeca Film Festival having a rather disappointing At Home section last year. This year’s offerings are slightly more robust, and there were some gems to be had. Be on the lookout for these films later this year.
Maggie Moore(s) – When you’ve got Jon Hamm plastered as the still frame of your murder mystery film, you know I’m in! It was also neat to learn that Hamm’s longtime Mad Men costar, John Slattery, was directing! In fact, he even got his Modern Love scene partner, Tina Fey, involved! The rest of the cast was also a delight to watch in this, at times, awkward whodunit. The film opens with a dead woman in a parking lot identified as Maggie Moore. The cops at the scene find that really odd considering just a few days ago another Maggie Moore was found dead. There’s definitely a bitter marriage, money, accidental death, and bad dates involved. While the script didn’t really offer too many surprises, I enjoyed the cadence of this film and was reminded a little bit of a more recent Hamm release, Confess, Fletch.
Blood for Dust – When it boils down to it, this story is simply a desperate times calls for desperate measures. For Cliff, anyways. After a sweet gig goes awry, we see Cliff just trying to provide for his wife selling defibrillators. He’s making squat on commission, but one night after a particularly good sale he runs into his old colleague, Ricky. Now, Ricky was and is all about greed. Poor Cliff is too trusting for his own good, because in his desperation to get by for him and his wife, he gets caught up dealing drugs with Ricky, which soon turns into a con. I don’t know why anyone would think it would be a good idea to con drug dealers. As you can imagine, things get hairy, and while this story isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, I just loved how tensely this thing was shot. I never knew if I should be expecting a jump scare! I imagine this film will find a home soon.
The Line – Hm…I was supposed to have a review for this film, but by the time the At Home portion of the festival came around, the filmmakers decided they wanted to pull it from the schedule. Lame. Still hoping to catch this someday.