Category: Film Appreciation
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Tribeca Fest Spotlights Jayne Mansfield, Barbara Walters—and an Amazonian Activist
Mariska Hargitay has had a remarkable TV run as the Emmy-winning star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” over a record-breaking 26 seasons. Many of the show’s younger fans may not know that she’s the daughter of a movie icon, the buxom 1950s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. Hargitay was only three years old when…
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Tribeca Fest Premieres Dark Dramas ‘Inside’ and ‘Dragonfly’
I’m certain there are some feel-good films at the Tribeca Festival—The Best You Can with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and She Dances with Steve Zahn and his daughter Audrey both look promising—but somehow I’ve wound up watching two undeniable feel-bad films. Each may be a hard sell, but they’re worth checking out for their deft performances. Inside,…
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Tribeca Docs Salute Congressional Pioneers
Delaware is known as “the First State” for its historic legacy as the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. Delawarean Sarah McBride has herself tallied some impressive firsts: the first openly transgender woman to work at the White House; the first trans speaker at the Democratic National Convention, in 2016; the first trans…
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Tribeca Festival Goes Pop with Billy Joel and Boy George
The 24th annual Tribeca Festival kicked off on June 4, 2025, with a sadly newsworthy opening-night attraction: part one of Billy Joel: And So It Goes, a two-part HBO documentary detailing the career of one of pop music’s most successful singer-songwriters. It’s newsworthy because Joel recently announced he’s suffering from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, a rare brain…
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Open Roads Italian Series Returns with Stories of Familia
For the 24th year, Film at Lincoln Center and the legendary Italian studio Cinecittà are presenting “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema,” a chance for New Yorkers to catch up with the latest offerings from one of the world’s greatest cinema nations. Running May 29 to June 5, the 2025 series opens with a film that…
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‘Green Border,’ ‘No Other Land’ and ‘Anora’ Are Among 2024’s Best
Thanks to my relatively new perch on the editorial board at Cineaste, I’m getting to see more films a year than ever. (Editing a monthly magazine and website for several decades limited my free time to luxuriate in the three weeks of New York Film Festival press screenings, although I tried to make up for that…
Kevin Lally on Film 