Tribeca 2015: ScreenAnarchy Raises The Curtain With 10 Must-See Films

Featured Critic; New York City, New York
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, which runs through April 26, kicked off with its opening night presentation at the Beacon Theater of Live From New York!, Bao Nguyen's documentary on Saturday Night Live, that venerable 40-year old comedy institution. The festival closes with a 25th anniversary screening on April 25 of Martin Scorsese's 1990 classic GoodFellas, also at the Beacon theater, followed by a conversation with the cast and crew. 

In between, there will be nearly 100 feature length films, as well as shorts, experimental and interactive pieces, and more. Other festival highlights include: a Monty Python celebration with the legendary comedy troupe in person with screening of their classic films; a Mary J. Blige concert; talks with George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, Brad Bird, and Harvey Weinstein. Also, with the opening of Spring Studios and screenings at the Regal Battery Park Stadium theaters, the festival this year will have a much greater presence in downtown Manhattan than it has in the past few years, with most screenings and events located in Chelsea.

However, all the glitz, glamour, and hype can tend to obscure some of the better films screening at the festival. So I've put together a guide to ten of the must-see features at this year's festival. For more information on these films and other films and events at the festival, and to purchase tickets, visit the Tribeca Film Festival website.

FAR FROM MEN (David Oelhoffen)

With such recent films as Jauja, Viggo Mortensen has proven himself to be one of the world's finest and most versatile actors. Far From Men brilliantly continues this trend. Adapted from Albert Camus' short story "The Guest," this film is set in 1954 Algeria, on the cusp of the war of independence from France. Daru (Mortensen), a schoolteacher on the countryside, is ordered by the French gendarmes to deliver Mohamed (Reda Kateb), an Algerian prisoner to the nearest town to be tried for the crime of killing his cousin.

Far From Men, with its rugged North African landscape and its plot of delivering a prisoner to the authorities, evokes classic Westerns in its form. It's essentially a two-hander which slowly reveals the histories and personalities of its two characters, and how they are shaped by their own stories of violence and the sweeping changes that are about to visit their country. The film is a beautifully evocative piece, with mesmerizing central performances and use of landscape, enhanced by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis' brooding and haunting score.

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Tribeca 2015

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