by Ashley Steele
Franny actress Dakota Fanning on the red carpet – Photo Credit: Lyndsey Casagrande
As wide-eyed film connoisseurs, fanatics and press teams run rampant through the streets of Lower Manhattan for the 2015 TriBeCa Film Festival, the real magic is happening on screen. With a selection of diverse, engaging feature narratives, this year’s festival has proved to be nothing short of extraordinary once again.
L’ Etage Magazine contributor Ashley Steele breaks down a few of the must-see movies of this year’s festival and chats with their stars.
BARE- Natalia Leite’s debut film is a must-see. The Brazilian director’s film tells the story of Sarah-a desert-dweller who’s life is as boring as the town she lives in (played by Dianna Agron) and Pepper (played by Paz de la Huerta)-a seductive female drifter. Pepper introduces Sarah to a world of sex, drugs and ultimately romance as the two tumble into a spiritual and physical relationship. Sarah finds herself falling deeper for Pepper and her spontaneous ways and sheds her old life behind. For Agron, the role is unlike any other character she’s played and includes pole-dancing and lesbian sex scenes with co-star de la Huerta.
Without giving too much away, Agron spoke about the journey her character takes and her feelings going into the film. “I was nervous and excited, for sure. [But] you know going in, I didn’t really have time to think because I was coming from one set to the other,” said Agron.
“I think that, maybe, perhaps that helped get a little bit of the jitters out because there was really no time to think about switching brains.”
***BARE won this journalist’s top pick this year at the festival. From the cinematic, visual goodness that mixed a desert aesthetic with neon lights, the overall product was stimulating to the eye as well as to the ear. To learn more about Purple Milk (duo director Leite and producer Alexandra Roxo) visit http://drinkpurplemilk.com.
THE OVERNIGHT- Director Patrick Bryce takes viewers on perhaps one of the funniest journeys of the year with his feature film The Overnight starring Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling and the hilarious Jason Schwartzman. The film centers around parents Alex and Emily (Scott and Schilling) and their young son as they struggle to find friends their own age after relocating to Los Angeles from Seattle. On the playground, they meet the eccentric Kurt (Schwartzman) who invites them over for a parental playdate. The film takes a hilarious, sexual and down-right ridiculous turn as Adam and Emily spent the night with Kurt and his wife, played by French actress Judith Godrèche.
The ensemble cast gives a hysterical performance in this bizarre comedy. The chemistry between the foursome is evident on screen and for Taylor Schilling, (star of the Netflix hit-series Orange is the New Black), helped showcase her comedic chops. Schilling was a busy woman to track down on the carpet, with Orange is the New Black returning for it’s third season and just recently being renewed for a fourth, but I was able to speak to about her success and popularity on Orange as well her feelings on taking risks in film and on stage (she co-starred alongside Peter Dinklage in “A Month in the Country” this past winter.)
“I found in my life that there are moments where when you feel particularly seen or validated, it does boost your confidence [to take on other more daring projects.]” said schilling. “Doing the play was extremely scary and frightening for me and when I’m scared, that’s the direction I have to go in. The fruits of that type of labor are usually pretty magnificent.”
THE OVERNIGHT hits theaters June 19th, 2015.
Good Kill- Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke stars in this Andrew Niccol drama as Major Tommy Egan, a frustrated, former air combat veteran turned drone pilot who’s struggling with some form of PTSD alongside January Jones, who plays his wife, and fellow drone pilot Zoe Kravitz. While the film has a slow pace, Hawke does an excellent job of playing an emotionally void military man experiencing both problems at home with his marriage and problems with his own morality. Niccol delivers a refreshing character-driven war film that is not littered with pro or con military propaganda.
Star Ethan Hawke felt that the film was less about the military and focused more on the importance of telling the stories such as what his character was facing.
“I feel the view of the artistic community is to tell stories and start conversations. You know the view of the military is clear and they have a real clear job that they have to do,” explained Hawke. “But our job as citizens is to ask questions and as artists it’s important to tell these stories about what our brothers and sisters are going through, and without that-the citizens don’t have the questions to even start a dialogue.”
Good Kill is set to release on May 15, 2015.
Sleeping with Other People- Director Leslye Headland (known for Bachelorette) examines the question of whether or not men and women really can be just friends in her refreshing romantic comedy Sleeping with Other People, starring Allison Brie and Jason Sudeikis as friends who lost their virginity to each other years prior and struggle with their own relationships with other people. Often times the words “romantic comedy” can draw a sigh and an eye roll, but Headland’s take on the situation at hand proves to be anything but predictable. Brie and Sudeikis play particularly well off of each other and the film draws out great performances from its other stars Amanda Peet, Adam Scott and Natasha Lyonne.
With a new film on the way, Allison Brie has been working virtually nonstop. While she is most often recognized for her roles on camera, many aren’t aware of is that she also has an impressive talent for voice over and lend her talents to a few of the characters on the hit Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman.
On doing voice over: “I’ve actually really grown to love voice over work. It’s one of those things like, I was never just like “I have to go after VO work. Some people are really amazing at it I think I was always excited by animated stuff. One of my favorite things, actually, about Bojack is they’re constantly surprising me with new characters and its’ so encouraging. They put a lot of faith in me to come up with 8 different voices and, somehow, I do!” said Brie.
Sleeping with Other People hits theaters on August 21, 2015.
The Adderrall Diaries- Tribeca proved to be the stomping ground for talented female directed films this year and Pamela Romanowsky’s is no exception. Her first feature is based on the best-selling memoir of Stephen Elliot and his crippling case of writer’s block and drug dependency as he is engrossed in a high-profile murder case. Elliot (played by James Franco) develops an obsession with the case and his own skeletons begin to unravel as the film goes on (particularly nightmares of his cruel father played by Ed Harris.) The film also features performances by Amber Heard, Cynthia Nixon, and Christian Slater.
When I Live My Life Over Again- This feature narrative by writer-director Robert Edwards stars Amber Heard, with rose-colored hair, as singer-songwriter Jude and Christopher Walken as a has been crooner trying to make a comeback in the music world. Jude returns home to her father after a series of problems in the big city and soon realizes that living at home also presents a set of new problems. The film also marks Amber Heard’s musical debut as she performs “Montreal”, a recorded track for the film.
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