I was compelled to see the documentary
Lioness at the
Tribeca Film Festival because the basis is so intriguing. In the press notes for the film, this is the description: "Despite written policy banning women from direct ground combat, military commanders have been using women in direct ground warfare as an essential part of their operations since 2003. Though official policy forbids this operation and publicly denies its existence, this initiative and company of women have a name: they are called Team Lioness.
OK, that's it. I think I'm tapped out on the ridiculously heartwarming documentaries about elderly folks doing things like singing Coldplay songs or learning hip-hop to perform during basketball games. It's not that I'm sick of them, it's that they reduce me to an overemotional puddle on the floor.
Here's the good thing I can say about
Tennessee: The effort behind the film is commendable. "A" for effort. "D" for most everything else.
Bart Got a Room isn't high art and it's not fall-down funny, but it's easily the sweetest of all the
Tribeca films I caught and the one movie I would wholeheartedly recommend. It's silly and goofy and fun, all the while washed in bright hypercolor Florida shades of pink and turquoise. It trots along quickly to swinging, squealing Big Band tunes, which is a funny juxtaposition of the old timers' Florida retirement community with the painfully hilarious adolescent experience at the center of the plot.
As is the case with many movies, you can kinda tell how you'll feel about
Savage Grace from how you feel watching
the trailer. For me, I thought the trailer was tense, dark and disturbing. Julianne Moore looked powerfully off-kilter, exhibiting that magnificent control she utilizes with every role she takes on, but ultimately the trailer left me with a bleakly ominous feeling.
Trucker largely reminded me of another indie movie titled
Come Early Morning, which was written and directed by Chasing Amy's Joey Lauren Adams (who, incidentally, also stars in Trucker). The tone of both movies features a kind of weary, weathered fondness for the southern American landscape (in Come Early Morning it's the South, in Trucker it's the dusty deserts of southern California). At the heart of both movies, too, are hard-edged, tough-talking women in jobs that others in the movie ridicule for not being "women's jobs": Ashley Judd's character in Early Morning worked in construction, while the main character of Diane in Trucker, played by Michelle Monaghan, is a truck driver.
Many of you want
Hilary Duff to star in the 90210 spinoff but for now she's busy showing off her acting skills at the
Tribeca Film Festival. We were hoping for a red carpet walk with her man, Mike
who is in NYC with her, but, as expected, it was Haylie, who escorted her down the line. Buzz was there and she said Hilary was whisked away too quickly to ask about that crazy scorpion scene and unfortunately, the rain probably helped the quick appearance move right along but luckily there were some other fabulous folks to check out from
War, Inc.
Apr 29 2008 - 5:02am by
Molly
The
Tribeca Film Festival rolls on and last night was another fabulous party, this time hosted by Chanel. Not too shabby. Mary-Kate Olsen actually looked pretty cute (yay) and more good news is that
Buzz enjoyed her movie at the festival,
The Wackness.
The Tribeca Film festival continues stateside and to celebrate the occasion Karl Lagerfeld threw a
Chanel dinner inviting some of the hottest young things including Blake Lively (not sure about her dress, maybe it's the positioning of the ruffles?), Zoe Kravitz and Mary-Kate Olsen who strayed from black with a navy-blue blazer. Christy Turlington was also there with Ed Burns looking suitably demure in a midi-length black dress. I love Zoe's outfit, and the gold clutch bag adds a great shot of colour.
