Another week virtually participating in the Tribeca Film Festival! I know I said this last week, but I’ll reiterate how pumped I am that I can participate in this festival. The pandemic may be good for almost nothing, but it did somehow afford me this opportunity. Especially now that things are slowly beginning to morph back into normalcy. Well, enough of that – let’s get to the rest of those movies!
7 Days – Wow, was this unexpectedly funny! This is a title I added late in the game as I was initially just scrolling through and looking titles that sounded interesting. That means I failed to see this gem starring Miracle Workers co-stars Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni! The film starts by showing the great lengths that Indian parents go through to find their children the perfect partner. That means we get to see Rita and Ravi go on a horrendously awkward first date. Both are trying to impress, but it’s clear they are both ruining it in their own way. Then the pandemic hits full force with everything locked down and everyone getting told to shelter in place. A snafu with a rental car company means that Ravi has to stay at Rita’s place and she’s done pretending to be the perfectly traditional Indian woman. Rita explains that she goes on a number of dates only to placate her mother and so she keeps paying for her house. From there, the two have a ton of laugh out loud moments before things take a turn for the serious. In a fit of frustration, Rita leaves the house to go see the man she’s been having an affair with only to come back and contract COVID. Things get pretty serious, but I’d say things end up on a pretty good note. All in all, I really enjoyed this fresh take on the rom-com!
Werewolves Within – Who knew I’d like a movie based on a video game?! That factoid was part of my hesitation in purchasing this film in the first place, but the cast really sold it for me in the end. If I had to describe this film to you as two other films (because I don’t play video games), I’d say it’s like Clue meets The Wolf of Snow Hollow. It was really fun and funny! Plus you’ve got the thrills of a werewolf thrown in there! Anyway, Finn is the new Ranger in a small snow-trodden town where he gets introduced to all of its characters. There is the local inn owner Jeanine, pipeline “villain” Sam Parker, a strange couple in Pete and Trisha, affluent couple Devon and Joaquim, doofus couple Marcus and Gwen, and new mailperson Cecily. When a dog gets murdered, and then a person after that, this group of weirdos start pointing the finger while simultaneously trapping themselves together. It was fun to see them all interact with each other and although the werewolf’s true identity didn’t come as that much of a surprise, it was still very entertaining. I have no clue how this chalks up to the video game or if having experience with it would make the plot more spoiler-y, but I’d say give this a go! Also, probably intended for adults? I thought kids could watch at first, but there’s a fair amount of swearing.
Italian Studies – This movie was sort of a hot mess. Truthfully, for most of the runtime I didn’t really have much of a clue what was going on other than the fact that Vanessa Kirby is playing a woman that’s hella confused. We first meet her in London where she doesn’t recognize someone she apparently spent a considerable amount of time with at some point. Then we go back in time and see that interaction. While at the hardware store, she seems to suddenly forget where she is or what she’s there for and ends up leaving her dog there while she roams the streets of New York for a full day. From there we see her lose other things like her purse, leave a conversation mid-way through, and strike up a conversation with an odd teen. Someone also compliments her on her short story collection, so she suddenly identifies as the author of this collection. Then she follows that awkward teen and his friends claiming to need to interview and observe them for her next book. By the end of it all, I wasn’t sure if she had some sort of dementia, if she was a writer at all, and what the point of those interviews were. It’s like they tried to mix a documentary (those teens weren’t real actors) with a thriller? Not a fan at all.
See For Me – Talk about a fresh take on the home invasion genre! Sophie is a former skiing champion and somewhat recently blind woman who’s making money by house sitting for bougie people. Her most recent gig also involves cat sitting, but it’s basically at a mansion, so there’s lots at her disposal. On her first night alone, a trio breaks into the house looking to steal seven million dollars. Sophie goes unnoticed at first, but then they are privy to her presence. Sophie reaches out to Kelly on an app called See For Me, to help navigate her through the house to safety. That’s all I’ll say so not to spoil anything, but this movie did take some twists and turns I did not coming. I feel like this was a great pick to end the festival with!