"THE PARTY'S JUST BEGINNING" // TRIBECA 2018 REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Karen Gillan is best known for her turn as one of The Doctor’s favorite companions in the "Whoniverse" and now is known for her exploits with the Guardians of the Galaxy, playing Nebula, one of the adopted children of Thanos. But for her Directorial debut THE PARTY’S JUST BEGINNING, she has jumped far away from the cosmic galaxies of her most well-known properties. Instead, she had written and directed a pitch-black comedy drama about a woman who drinks too much, who parties too much, and is tortured by the suicide of her best friend.

Liusaidh (Gillan) lives in a small Scottish town called Inverness. It’s a bleak town with not a lot to do and she has a dead-end job at the meat counter inside a grocery store to match. She spends her days being miserable and spends her nights getting black out drunk at a local pub or spends it in the arms (and beds) of various strangers, almost daring danger to rear its ugly head. She’s numb, broken, and hurting and Gillian’s performance is out of this world beautiful (pardon the expression). Throughout the film, she’s repeatedly haunted by memories of her friend Alistair (Matthew Beard), before it got bad and they were both happy together, and when it got really bad and she witnessed the worst thing a person can possibly see.

It’s all very heavy stuff, and the unraveling of why her friend eventually took his own life is powerful. The film also reels into a wonderfully dark and strange corner, where Liusaidh ends up having to confront other people’s depression while she deals with the nightmare of her own, and out of that she begins to slowly be able to face her demons. Gillan’s performance is fantastic, powerful, and incredibly bleak. Beard is heartbreaking in the flashback of her dearly departed friend, and in a smaller role, Lee Pace brings a full sense of charm and despair as a conquest of hers who ends up being a bit more. It’s a heavy night out at the theatre, but one that feels healing if you’ll let it in, even for just a couple of hours.

VERDICT: MUST SEE

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Karen Gillan STARRING Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Matthew Beard, Paul Higgins, Siobhan Redmond, Jamie Quinn, Rachel Jackson. Playing as part of the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/party-s-just-beginning-2018

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "ANGRY SKY"

BY W DEREK JORDEN

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...

Nick Piantanida was a dashing fellow with a strong, wide, chiseled body, a square jaw, and dark hair cropped into a sweet flattop. He had a look that could have fit him into almost any realm, whether on Capitol Hill or  Wall Street, the battlefield or the board room. Because he could blend into any situation or wear just about any hat maybe he would have made a fine actor.

Well good thing Jeff Tremaine put together ANGRY SKY, which makes Nick posthumously the movie star he never really was. Reminiscent of Edward Bloom or Poppa Neutrino, this man from New Jersey navigated life less bound by many of the conventions most of us feel restricted to. A larger than life figure even from his younger years, Nick quit his high school basketball team, even though he was good enough to play professionally, because the coach said he couldn't smoke cigarettes. He joined the Army, became the first to climb part of Angel Falls in Venezuela, worked on construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and opened an exotic pet store. Around 30-years old, he saw some skydivers and became obsessed. He worked to support his habit (maybe addiction is a better word) and jumped out of airplanes as much as he could. Within months, maybe even minutes, of his first jump he began plotting a scheme to break the world record for highest parachute jump. Many hurdles stood in the way between making his dream a reality, but a supportive wife and determined spirit led him a long way. Twenty-three miles above the earth's surface even. 

Tremaine's documentary used some actor lookalikes to play Nick and others in the film in conjunction with archival footage, early home videos and recent interviews; all very effective. Nick's story has a bunch of sub-stories, and Tremaine could have done a better job filling out those little lines without adding much more length to the film. For instance, after several minutes of Angel Falls talk I wasn't (and still am not) sure whether Nick submited the thing he was trying to submit. 

Nick was born to a pretty normal family and had a typical upbringing. But there was something special about him: his many lofty goals and his drive to achieve them. In his too brief life, Nick Piantanida lead a remarkable life, and Jeff Tremaine does a great job bringing that to our attention.

 

VERDICT: SEE IT

DIRECTED BY Jeff Tremaine CINEMATOGRAPHER Lance Bangs

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

W. DEREK JORDEN is an actor currently living and working in New York City. He and his wife live on a Spaceship on the top of a building, which makes for some interesting dinner parties.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "CODE: DEBUGGING THE GENDER GAP"

BY CHRISENA RICCI 

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...

This film falls into the category of things that I didn't know, that I didn't know. For example, I know that there are gender gaps in several professional fields, but I had no idea that there was one in computer coding. Further than that, I could have never guessed how bad that gap truly is. That's where this film comes in. It explores in great detail where women are in the computer science field, where they used to be and examines both the causes for this as well as some possible solutions.

Did you know that it was a woman that created the phrase there's a 'bug' in the system? Did you know that women were the first coders in the United States? I didn't. I didn't know anything about women in computer science.

There were a few things that really stuck out to me. I liked that the film wasn't afraid to force the audience members to use their brains. It was a very intelligent film that used some very interesting and clean diagrams and charts to describe social trends. The subject matter is dealing with a field of science, but the filmmakers build a story that is easily digestible and memorable. I will never get out of my head some of the studies the film explores about the pressure on women to compete with their male counterparts. If you were unaware that women have a more difficult go of it in their career lives, this should be a must see. My favorite thing from this film was the emphasized truth that there is no inherent difference between a man and a women's brain. None, whatsoever. Society is the one that convinces women that computer coding is a place they do not belong.

Hopefully, this film can help change that stigma.

VERDICT: SEE IT

DIRECTED BY Robin Hauser Reynolds

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

CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.