Three major trends ran through the gamut of films shown at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. For one, there were a lot of love stories. Still, the best films at this year's festival tended to be documentaries, not romances. And the narrative films that did show at the festival starred big-name actors playing characters out of their comfort zones.
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Lots of Love Stories:
Love was all around at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, whether as comedy, drama, documentary or experimental venture. Some of the most interesting love stories included "The Swell Season," which documents the relationship that developed between the band members behind the 2007 film "Once." French film "Flowers of Evil" incorporates real footage from YouTube and on-screen imitations of Twitter and Facebook posts to present a blossoming, very contemporary love story. Taking a more dramatic and dismal approach to the search for love, "White White World" tells the story of multiple characters who long for unreturned and unattainable affection. One of the most alternative approaches is avant-garde documentary "The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye," which captures the powerful and spiritual love of a couple who practice pandrogeny, the experimental creation of a third gender. — Erin Whitney Faigh
Quality Documentaries:
This year the Tribeca Film Festival had its strongest content in the documentary genre. There were activist documentaries, like "The Bully Project" and "Give Up Tomorrow." But there were also more ponderous, less practical doc fare, like "L'Amour Fou" and "Klitschko." I appreciated the lack of a unified ideology among these documentary selections. The director of "Give Up Tomorrow," Michael Collins, follows the story of Paco Larrañega, who has been falsely imprisoned for years and eloquently argues for his release. The film inflamed viewers. Someone was wearing a "Free Paco" button at almost every screening throughout the festival. The audience rewarded Collins' hard work and passion with the Heineken Audience Award. "Klitschko," however — which follows brothers and boxing phenoms Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko — lavishes attention on the aesthetic beauty of boxing. It has no call to action, no interest in politics. Instead, filmmaker Sebastian Dehnhardt focuses on the ethereal blue lights in the boxing ring and the slow-motion uncoiling of muscles. Dehnhardt knows that documentaries do not have to be gritty or even realist. — Mel Zahnd
Stars trying not to be stars:
Tribeca bills itself as an independent film festival. But you might not have known this with all of the well-known faces in starring roles striving to break away from typecasting with varying degrees of success. This year, Chris Evans, a face you'll find familiar from the "Fantastic Four" flicks, seizes the opportunity to demonstrate his acting chops in "Puncture." In an otherwise clichéd David vs. Goliath tale, Evans' character Mike Weiss steals every scene with constant energy and varied emotional registers. Zach Braff of "Scrubs" fame is a dark drug dealer facing the consequences of his hit-and-run of a pregnant woman in "The High Cost of Living." The woman, Nathalie, loses her child in the accident and, not knowing the identity of her assailant, is taken in by the guilt-ridden Henry as her marriage crumbles. Braff performs well, but can't wholly escape his charm and good looks no matter how tattered his clothes or how moody the lighting. Sam Worthington, recognizable as the lead of "Avatar" and "Clash of the Titans," convincingly shows his softer side as he deals with the question of infidelity alongside Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes in "Last Night." Without action scenes to fall back on, Worthington manages to competently portray a committed yet tempted husband. — Jonathon Dornbush
