TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "THE ADDERALL DIARIES"

BY MATEO MORENO

The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...

Stephen Elliott's 2010 memoir THE ADDERALL DIARIES relies on a clever notion: that the narrator is an unreliable one. The man telling you the story may not exactly remember the story correctly. Such a tale can become a gripping and pulsating narrative. However, Pamela Romanowsky's film version, starring James Franco as an unreliable author, hits only a few of the right notes. The rest are clunky, gloomy, and unintentionally funny.

Franco plays Elliott, as the film opens, is a well known author. He's a hot property after having a best seller about his childhood abuse reach tremendous heights. His agent (Cynthia Nixon) has angled him a great deal for a new book from Random House. However, he soon gets a new idea for the novel after the new of a successful man (Christian Slater) being tried for the murder of his wife starts making the rounds. He becomes obsessed with the case and starts attending the trial. While watching the case one day he also notices a very attractive reporter (Amber Heard) doing the same. Well, almost the same. She took pages of notes and he wrote the equivalent of a short sentence. Almost immediately they head off to have some sex and engage in Elliott's twisted fantasies but in between a couple hook ups she comes to a book reading of his still massively successful first book and there is humiliated when his father Neil (Ed Harris) shows up. Elliott claims in the book that his father's dead, so this appearance put a damper on that instantly and Neil claims that the rest of the novel is horseshit too. Elliott's career collapses almost within moments.

Throughout the film we are hit with short, hyper edited flashbacks of an unhappy childhood and an abusive father. However, he soon realizes that he may be remembering them differently than it actually happened. True, Neil still won't be winning any father of the year awards, but Stephen won't be receiving any "World's Greatest Son" trophies as well. The biggest problem with the story is how unrelentingly moody it is without giving any catharsis or reason to root for anyone. The script often leaps into unintentional laughter and eye rolls (such as the sex scene between Franco and Heard where he asks her to choke him and then immediately says "I love you"). Franco isn't terrible in the role; in fact he has several scenes that showcase a better film. And Ed Harris, for the most part, delivers as he always does a solid performance. But the lackluster script, too hip for its own good editing, and grand reaches of plausibility makes it a trial that you really don't want to be a part of.

VERDICT: SKIP IT

SCREENPLAY BY Pamela Romanowsky BASED ON THE NOVEL BY Stephen Elliott DIRECTED BY Pamela Romanowsky STARRING James Franco, Ed Harris, Amber Heard, Christian Slater, Cynthia Nixon

 Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com

MATEO MORENO recently won a bet on who could hold their breath the longest underwater. He won the bet, having beat local loudmouth Jimmy "Thunderbird" Thomas with a record breaking "fourteen minutes." True, part of that time was him unconscious and the other part was him being revived, but he still counts it, and is now $20 richer. Take THAT Thunderbird! He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

TRIBECA FILM FEST 2014: THIRD PERSON

BY LIZ WHITTEMORE

They say, “Write what you know.” As a writer, I always pull from my own experiences first. Then the imagination takes over. Academy Award winning Writer/ Director, Paul Haggis (Crash), lets us into the mind of a fictional, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist in Third Person. Michael (Liam Neeson) has essentially locked himself in a hotel suite in Paris. He is desperate to finish his new book but emotionally is held back by a past (and present) that is haunting him. Enter his young mistress, Anna (Olivia Wilde), to stir up a little fun and whole lot of trouble. They play a cat and mouse game that seemingly suits one another’s age and stage. Then we jump to Rome, where we find corporate conman Sean (Adrian Brody) confronted with a gypsy woman, Monika (Moran Atias), pulling him into what may be a long con of her own. Finally, in New York, we meet Julia (Mila Kunis), a former soap star whose ex-husband, Rick (James Franco), is trying to keep her from having any visitation rights after their son is almost killed in her care. Maria Bello plays Kunis’ lawyer, Theresa.

Each story is intertwined in some way and, much like Crash, as the film progresses, there are hints as to what that might be. A running theme we feel with each character is the connection they have with a child. “Watch Me” can be heard in a child’s whisper several times. The multiple narrative style will keep the audience on their toes for the full 137 minute run of the film. Clever editing adds to the drama at every turn.

Neeson is an authentic force. His quiet moments are some of the most intriguing and his connection to Wilde is charming. Wilde, herself, is breathtaking in the balance of hard and soft. Her vulnerability on screen is a joy to watch. Brody’s struggle to do the right thing is something very apparent and there is a moment in the film when he loses a voicemail that will destroy you. Franco plays a real asshole, for lack of a better word. His loathing for Kunis’ character knows no bounds even if it appears his wanting for their son is purely a spiteful and vengeful act. Kunis could not be better. She is truly heartbreaking on screen and incredibly relatable. The climactic scene between her and Franco will both horrify you and make you applaud for the the trust that these two actors must have in real life in order to deliver such a performance. Cheers to them both.

Third Person is a really touching and complex script. Regret, loss, and love all reign supreme in this story. Haggis has outdone himself, once again, tackling some of the most important things that haunt us all on a daily basis.

VERDICT: MUST SEE

Written/Directed by: Paul Haggis Starring: Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, Adrian Brody, Mila Kunis, James Franco, Maria Bello, Kim Bassinger, Moran Atias Runtime: 137mins

BOTTOM LINE: Go for the acting. Go for the writing. Go for the ending. Just go see Third Person. Tell them, “She sent me.”