The Tribeca Festival is back at close to pre-pandemic speed. These are the films worth watching out for
Photo: Focus Features The Tribeca Festival has, in recent years, found itself inextricably intertwined with COVID-19 — its 2020 edition, scheduled for April of that year, was among the first film festivals canceled at the onset of the pandemic, while last summer’s fest, held in those heady, cautiously optimistic, newly vaccinated days of early June, stuck to primarily outdoor venues out of an abundance of caution.
Vengeance Tribeca’s programmers love to showcase the work of actor-turned-directors — this year’s line-up also includes films by Ray Romano, Kyra Sedgwick, and Katie Holmes — but the most promising may be the debut feature from one-time The Office co-star B.J. Novak. Novak also directs and stars as a smarmy New York journalist and podcaster who travels to West Texas for the funeral of a casual hook-up and ends up sticking around when he smells a story.
Jerry and Marge Go Large / Corner Office It says something about the considerable iconography and cultural impact of Walter White and Don Draper that Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm have had so much trouble finding big-screen vehicles remotely as memorable as their TV breakthroughs. Strangely, both actors have new films at Tribeca that draw upon those roles and their considerable baggage.