Written by Nina Evans for THE ARTISTS FORUM MAGAZINE
Edited by Amos White V for THE ARTISTS FORUM, INC
Photos: Various Contributors. Header photo by Kris Dewitte
REVIEWER RATING:
4 out of 5 stars
2025 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
NEW YORK, NY (July 11 2025) From June 4th through the 15th, the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival brought an energetic buzz to theaters across Lower Manhattan. This year’s slate saw a clear focus on socially conscious and politically charged films, with many works shining a light on pressing global issues. Additionally, I noticed that music was quite central to many of the films in the programming, embraced and emphasized in different ways across narrative film and documentaries.
While the event was inevitably marked by the kind of natural chaos that often accompanies large-scale festivals, the overall organization and atmosphere remained smooth and welcoming. Tribeca succeeded in being both a platform for emerging voices and established artists alike, and with its films sparked conversations about art, oppression, expression, and societal change.
Below are my ratings and impressions of the festival selections I saw this season.
THE WOLF, THE FOX, AND THE LEOPARD (Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Croatia, Taiwan R.O.C., 2025)
Director: David Verbeek
Writer: David Verbeek
Stars: Jessica Reynolds, Nicholas Pinnock, Marie Jung, Naomi Kawase, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35528069/
REVIEWER RATING:
4 out of 5 stars
The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard tells a story that feels creative, energized, and new. When police searching for a missing body instead find an adult woman living amongst a pack of wolves, her life is changed forever. Ripped from the forest and taken in for scientific research, this fully unsocialized animal-woman, later dubbed Alice, is a marvel to all around her. Surreptitiously one night, she is abducted from the facility and brought to a post-apocalyptic, post-climate-crisis industrial hideout in the middle of the ocean, where a couple— who call themselves the Fox and the Leopard— fascinated with her uniquely wild nature, decide to raise her as their own and plan to survive the end times with her emerging as ‘the one’ who will show the world a new way to live.
The story definitely picks up as the film moves along. The first act felt a little clunky; I felt the early scene where the hiker monologues about how he is troubled by current world issues like AI and COVID was too on the nose and missed an emotional target. I’m also conflicted about the narration, which, I noted early on, felt overly aphoristic and over-explanatory. However, and, spoiler alert here, later in the film, it is revealed that the narration is from a book that was written about Alice by one of the scientific researchers who studied her. Once I knew this, I had a greater appreciation for the narration— the scientist mythologizes, fetishizes, and aggrandizes Alice in it, fundamentally misunderstanding the truth of the wolf woman’s experience.
That being said, I was deeply interested in the rest of the movie. The second act, taking place on the ocean hideaway with the Fox and the Leopard, is rich with emotional and intellectual complexity. Though the two critique those who live in cities and plague the Earth with money, societal inventions, and pollution, they themselves have no clue how to run a society. They don’t even know how to run a family. They refer to Alice, The Wolf, as their child, as the chosen one, and yet they want to socialize her and naturalize her, too. The Fox and Leopard just want her to adhere to their desired structure instead of society’s desired structure. Ultimately, their practice is a bastardization of their message, which seeks to embrace the wild.
My favorite part of the film was the third act, in which Alice has escaped the Fox and Leopard and become part of the ‘real world,’ this time learning to speak in full sentences, drive a car, and work at a grocery store. Assimilating fully of her own volition but still held back from normalcy by some invisible force, Alice’s interactions with the real world are so philosophically rich. When asked if she liked something, she says, should I have liked it? She is free by some definition of the word, but far removed from the presence and embodiment she had at the beginning of the film, free in the forest. The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard is certainly worth a watch; it asks you to contemplate the acts of taming, caring, and existing, and never fully allows you to settle on any black-and-white point of view.
TURNSTILE: NEVER ENOUGH (USA, 2025)
Director: Brendan Yates, Pat McCrory
Writers: Brendan Yates, Pat McCrory
Stars: Brendan Yates, Pat McCrory, Franz Lyons, Daniel Fang, Meg Mills
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37023472/
REVIEWER RATING:
5 out of 5 stars
This is the first year that Tribeca Film Festival included music videos and visual albums in their lineup. Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile’s Never Enough is a 55 minute visual showcase accompanying their new album of the same name, and it is an odd yet beautiful ode to DIY community, music, and home. Directed by lead singer Brendan Yates and guitarist Pat McCrory, Never Enough has Turnstile’s fingerprints all over it. The film opens with a shot of the ocean, washed in a murky and foreboding blue, while synths begin to glow in the background. After the first verse, the band’s signature heavy guitar and drums kick in and the ride begins.
One of the themes that Never Enough seems to center around is isolation and connection. At first, each of the band members appears on their own, fully isolated from the others and enveloped in their own vast landscape. One rides a jetski in the middle of the ocean, one jams out in a snowy tundra, one drums alone in the desert. This opening sequence is immediately contrasted with a huge gathering. In what almost feels like a Teletubbyland landscape of otherworldly green, rolling hills, the band appears, united, on an RGB stage set to play a show. Their fans thrash around in the audience, jumping up on stage and dancing around without inhibition. The DIY scene here feels like an antidote to loneliness, a magnetic force that pulls together all the isolated elements from before.
The film also seems to touch on homesickness, Turnstile’s rise to mainstream success, and perhaps the guilt that comes in tow of that success. In one scene, each of the band members, alone again, find themselves on a stage, chased by a spotlight. In another scene soon after, bedrooms detonate, sending an explosion of stuffed animals, drywall, and instruments flying— perhaps signifying the end of childhood or an unmooring from home. It’s made clear that the band has much reverence for their hometown. A long shot lingers on a bench that says, “Baltimore, the greatest city in the world” before a car joyride begins through the city. But sometimes their relationship with Baltimore has a more complex dynamic, like when a crowd dressed in black swarms the band’s empty car in the park. The scene is bittersweet; love and demand can feel overwhelming. Still, Never Enough centers on camaraderie and the togetherness that music can create, even amidst hardship. I would definitely recommend the film to fans of Turnstile. For those outside the punk scene, come in with an open mind and the visuals alone, in their primary-colored, 70s film haze, will leave you stunned.
ANIMATED SHORTS BY WHOOPI G (2025)
Films: The Quinta’s Ghost (Spain, 2025), Petra and the Sun (Chile, 2025), How A River Is Born (Brazil, 2025), Ovary-Acting (Norway, Sweden, UK, 2025), Still Moving (Canada, 2025), A Night at the Rest Area (Japan, 2025), The Piano (USA, 2025)
REVIEWER RATING:
4 out of 5 stars
EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg curated Tribeca’s program of animated shorts, a range of compelling and heartfelt narratives. From the “Animated Shorts by Whoopi G” selection, here are my highlights:
The Quinta’s Ghost is a horror short about a mysterious painter who arrives at a manor, at first leading a luxurious life before being overcome by past demons and visions of ghosts. It is a triumph visually. The 3D animation is characterized by hand-painted details, emphasizing the stylistic details of the artwork within the film. Though never explicitly said, The Quinta’s Ghost tells the story of Francisco de Goya’s Black Paintings, bleak and foreboding works from later on in his career. The film uses characters from these paintings as the ghosts that haunt the house, and de Goya is only able to be set free from his terrible visions by painting them. I finally caught on to the Black Paintings theme when I recognized Saturn Devouring His Son at the apex of the film. I had the chance to interview director James A. Castillo for The Artists Forum broadcast and had a lovely conversation with him, so be sure to look for that on TV or YouTube if you’d like to find out more about the process of making the film and the inspiration behind it.
Another standout was Petra and the Sun, which received a Special Jury Mention for Animated Short. The stop-motion film is about a woman who unearths a hiker’s dead body in the frozen woods and decides to take him home. This absurd, possibly disturbing, and nonetheless heartwarming romance builds up to a final slow dance between the two in the glow of red and blue police sirens from outside Petra’s house. Something about this piece that really drew me in was the texture of the world— the knitwork of Petra’s sweater, the fluffy show, the ridges in their faces— it was a truly impressive character study.
Finally, I chose to highlight Still Moving, a really tender short about a mother-daughter relationship amidst a fresh divorce. As they soar down the highway in their rented moving van, away from everything they once knew, a mother and daughter must reckon with the issues they are reluctant to talk about. It’s quite moving. The art style is beautiful, expressive, and painterly. I was especially impressed by the depiction of highway hypnosis in the rain, which really pushed the envelope of the animated medium.
Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
OH, HI! (USA, 2025)
Director: Sophie Brooks
Writers: Sophie Brooks, Molly Gordon
Stars: Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds, Polly Draper, David Cross, Desmin Borges
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33292655/
REVIEWER RATING:
5 out of 5 stars
Oh, Hi! was a clear standout to me from Tribeca. Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) seem to have everything going for them— when we first see them, they’re beginning their romantic retreat upstate, singing along to Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in the car (which, by the way, was a fantastic needle drop). However, when Iris finds out that Isaac did not think they were exclusively dating, a lovely weekend takes a turn for the chaotic and worse.
Molly Gordon’s performance is an absolute triumph, and the writing is downright hilarious. Iris is as insane as she is relatable. Her extended performance for her captive audience is the highlight of this film. It’s cathartic to see someone on screen be so courageously unhinged and pathetic. I was also quite delighted by the introduction of the supporting cast about halfway through the film, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Kenny (John Reynolds). Both of them added their own flavor of humor and loving groundedness to the growing pandemonium of the second act. For fans of Practical Magic — you’ll definitely enjoy the ride-or-die friendship between Iris and Max as they scramble to find solutions to the holes they’ve dug themselves into.
Though he doesn’t get as many laughs as Gordon does, Lerman is the perfect straight man to contrast with the comedy of the rest of the cast. Beyond its very strong humor, I think Oh Hi! could actually start many conversations, in the way that a (500) Days of Summer does. The film explores attachment styles, distance and codependency, what makes people approach relationships the way they do, and more. And furthermore, I liked that no one perspective seemed to be ‘right.’ Everybody is a little crazy and messed up in their own way. The soundtrack is also incredible, notably featuring Julia Jacklin and Clairo, among others. I thoroughly recommend catching this one in theaters in July.
PARADISE RECORDS (USA, 2025)
Director: Logic
Writer: Logic
Stars: Logic, Tramayne Hudson, Reed Northrup, Mary Elizabeth Kelly
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35168834/
REVIEWER RATING:
2 out of 5 stars
Paradise Records is the directorial debut from rapper Logic, who also wrote and starred in the film. It focuses on Cooper (played by Logic), a record store owner desperate to save his shop from closing amidst the debt he’s already accrued. He hides the fact that the store might close from his eccentric employees, which he views more like family. A wacky cast of characters enter the shop over the course of the film, including a pregnant shoplifter, a grifting family member, and, a personal favorite character, a weed dealer who may or may not be on house arrest. The plot dramatically snowballs from a typically stressful day of trying to keep the store financially afloat when robbers, the mafia, and police become involved in a hostage situation– of course, all happening within Paradise Records.
Ultimately, this movie fell flat for me. Kevin Smith is listed as an executive producer on the project, and I am not the first to note that Paradise Records owes a lot to Clerks, Smith’s feature directorial debut. I also found it to be quite derivative of Empire Records— a 1995 film set in a record store that is financially floundering, focused on a motley-crew cast of employees and their manager with a heart of gold who sees the kids as his family. Paradise Records lacks the familiarity and charm of the films that it draws from, though it does have its moments of humor that landed well in the theater. In classic Logic fashion, much of the screen time is devoted to biracial slur discourse, which is less and less interesting and funny the more instances in which it is brought up, and it is brought up a lot. At one point, Cooper is literally held at gunpoint and made to declare whether he is black or white. I didn’t need Paradise Records to take itself too seriously, but I did need it to step outside of self-referentiality and self-indulgence.
The strongest parts of the film, in my opinion, were early on, in the record store, when the characters other than Cooper were able to have their moment on screen. The weakest part of the film is easily the final act, which was far too drawn out for what should be an absurdly comical climax point. Overall, this film feels unnecessary— not original enough to stand on its own two feet, not laugh-out-loud enough to be the classic stoner comedy that it wants to be.
SHORTS: FOR THE CAUSE, featuring:
DOC ALBANY (USA, 2025) dir. Ben Proudfoot
I HOPE THIS EMAIL FINDS YOU WELL (Palestine, 2025) dir. Asia Zughaiar
THE BAN (Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK, 2025) dir. Roisin Agnew
NATASHA (Italy, Russia, 2025) dir. Mark Franchetti, Andrew Meier
REVIEWER RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars
This selection of documentary short films focused on political issues worldwide, including access to healthcare, the war in Gaza, censorship, and corruption. Each documentary had their own distinct identity and style, but overall the program flowed very well and obvious themes and calls to action carried across the films.
Doc Albany, directed by Ben Proudfoot, draws attention to rural America’s lack of healthcare options. Living in these medical deserts means driving hours and hours to the nearest clinic, or not being able to get an appointment for months on end. The film focuses on Dr. Sheena Favors who, through a placement program that encourages doctors to complete their residencies in underserved areas, ended up as an OB/GYN in Albany, Georgia. We also meet her colleague, Dr. James Hotz, who actually lobbied for and designed the program that brought Favors to Albany. Hotz served as the inspiration for Doc Hollywood, a film about a hotshot doctor who ends up doing community service in a small town. The documentary short doesn’t ignore the harsh realities of their lives— a lot of weight is on their shoulders, Favors even has to perform an emergency C-section on one of her patients at one point— but it remains cheerful and hopeful throughout, ultimately showing the difference that one person can make for an entire community.
I hope this email finds you well is the least conventional out of all the shorts. Asia Zughaiar narrates a message to someone once close to her and now separated from her, in it detailing how life has dramatically changed in occupied Palestine amidst the war in Gaza. The footage itself was collected over six years. Vignettes from Zughaiar’s daily life are combined on top of one another in a double exposure effect. It feels experimental, homemade, and deeply personal. I think the double exposure also serves the point Zughaiar makes about how unrecognizable the past is now, and how home has physically become incongruent with what it once was. Occupying forces overwrite on top of generations of history. This short feels like creative nonfiction— not at all your traditional documentary, but instead a wash of emotion and honesty, as Zughaiar lays her mind and worries bare for us to see. Throughout it all, we can feel her ache for this person she is writing to, who resides in Jerusalem and presumably on the other side of this war. Zughaiar wants us and this estranged person to understand her deeper. I think we walk away from the film doing just that.
The Ban is a short composed of archive footage that recounts Margaret Thatcher’s broadcast ban on the voices of Northern Irish radical groups. This ban led to broadcasting networks hiring actors, funnily enough, to dub the voices of those associated with terrorism, like Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. To paraphrase a moment in the film, the ban sought to take away the voices of these Irish Republican advocates because ‘if you’re going to demonize terrorists, they can’t be eloquent, working class people.’ However, in a backfire, the overdubbing seemed to only make Thatcher’s administration look ridiculous, and international interest was drawn to Northern Ireland because of it. The Ban explores the right to protest and whether or not we can believe the media when they throw these terrorist labels on others, something that feels very relevant in this current political moment.
Natasha chronicles the life of Natalia Estemirova, an extraordinary human rights advocate in Russia whose work saved many lives, and ultimately cost Estemirova her own. Estemirova began her work in 2000, investigating executions, torture, and disappearances. As the military was trying to conceal their crimes in Chechnya, Russia, Estemirova and her team of journalists refused to let them bury what was happening. This was especially dangerous work, resulting in the murder of one of Estemirova’s closest friends and fellow human rights advocate. Estemirova tried to preserve her young daughter Lana’s sense of normalcy amidst the harsh reality they lived in, but was passionate about her work and did not stop even at the signs of danger. Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, threatened Estemirova, and when she refused to cease, he had her abducted and murdered. The film shows us Lana now, who feels angry, understandably, but not hopeless. Her mother’s work and legacy, though perilous, did so much good for people. Estemirova’s human rights organization, Memorial, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and her fellow journalists continue on in her wake. This film champions the importance of doing your part and speaking out, igniting hope in even the bleakest moments, because our fellow people are worth it.
BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB (USA, UK, 2025)
Directors: Alison Ellwood
Stars: George O’Dowd (aka Boy George), Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, Roy Hay
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36591348/
REVIEWER RATING:
3.5 out of 5 stars
Boy George & Culture Club is a new feature documentary directed by Alison Ellwood, detailing the band’s rise to fame, the evolution of Boy George’s role in the band and as a global personality, and Boy George and drummer Jon Moss’s romantic relationship, which laid at the heart of the band’s music. All four band members, including Boy George, Moss, Roy Hay, and Mikey Craig, were interviewed for the film and provide their different perspectives on Culture Club across the years.
The documentary does a great job studying the style and persona of Boy George (and subsequently, Culture Club). New Romanticism emerges as something of a response to punk, a movement tied to subculture but more focused on performance, or perhaps, more willing to admit to performance. As Boy George notes in the film, “Everybody is a poser. Everyone has an image.” His play with gender expression and fashion is constantly questioned by the media and inspires Culture Club’s fans. I enjoyed the discussion of celebrity, image, and promotion that underscored this film. Boy George’s queer and experimental fashion existed loudly and unapologetically, and he brashly and humorously chewed up reporters and interviewers who picked on it. It’s simultaneously a schtick and a lifestyle, a costume and a true expression.
The film also shows the slow collapse of Culture Club despite their initial momentum, torn apart by inter-band jealousy, unfocused creative vision, and addiction. It doesn’t spend much time on the music itself or delve deeply into the lyrical messaging, which I would have appreciated in conversation with the discussions of fame and the band’s trajectory. Furthermore, because it focuses so much on image and how the band was viewed from the outside in, we don’t get to see as much interiority as I would have wanted. Still, there’s plenty of great archival interview and performance footage throughout, and something that I did really enjoy was the love that was obviously still there between the band members; even though they were splintered apart, even though Boy George took up the space in the spotlight, and even though Moss recently sued the band, it’s clear that they all have a reverence for what they created and a love for each other. As they recount even the hardest of times, you can see a twinkle in each of the band members’ eyes. Boy George & Culture Club chronicles the cultural legacy of the band in a very captivating way, one that any fan would love to see.
CUERPO CELESTE (Chile, 2025)
Director: Nayra Ilic García
Writer: Nayra Ilic García
Stars: Helen Mrugalski, Daniela Ramírez, Néstor Cantillana, Mariana Loyola, Nicolás Contreras, Clemente Rodríguez, Erto Pantoja
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15475528/
REVIEWER RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars
Cuerpo Celeste is a beautiful coming of age movie about grief, home, and Chile itself. Set in the beautiful Atacama desert, Celeste and her family are having an idyllic summer. Her parents work together, studying the rock formations around them and tagging and collecting mysterious relics that they won’t tell Celeste about. Their family spends time peacefully at the beach with a tight-knit group of their colleagues, extended family and family friends. But everything changes in one fateful moment when Celeste’s father has an unexpected heart attack and dies. One year later, Celeste returns to the beach where he died to watch a once-in-a-lifetime eclipse.
This film was beautifully written. In an early scene, before the tragedy strikes her family, Celeste makes a joke to her friend, to which he responds, “Qué dark.” This motif carries through when we see the characters a year later, and the phrase takes on new meaning as Celeste fights against the weight of her grief. The mother-daughter relationship is deeply interesting, as Celeste’s mother is grieving, too, and is unable to be the present parent that a fifteen-year-old girl needs. When we see her a year after the death, she’s packing up their former office and shipping off samples, and preparing to sell their house. Celeste, in contrast, is trying to hold onto everything she can of her father’s, lifting some shells from the samples for her own personal collection.
The sadness is not overwhelming but constantly there. Another layer to the film is the end of the Pinochet fascist regime in Chile at the time, and its transition to democracy. It is not a central focus, but it carries on in the background and in chatter— building on the existing feeling that everything is changing. Celeste’s own country is in limbo along with her. Despite everything, this still hits the classic coming-of-age moments, like Celeste’s budding crush on her friend, Jano. The ending is beautiful, and calls back to a moment in the beginning beautifully. I liked that it didn’t end up tied nicely in a bow. Grief endures, and yet so does love.
(Courtesy of I Was Born This Way Production, LLC)
I WAS BORN THIS WAY (USA, 2025)
Director: Daniel Junge, Sam Pollard
Stars: Archbishop Carl Bean, Billy Porter, Questlove, Lady Gaga, Dionne Warwick, Rep. Maxine Waters
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18764730/
REVIEWER RATING:
4 out of 5 stars
I Was Born This Way tells the true story of Archbishop Carl Bean, whose breakout Motown hit I Was Born This Way served as a joyful and declarative out-and-proud anthem in the 70s. The film follows through Bean’s childhood, one that was haunted by abuse but illuminated by music and spirituality. Eventually, his work in the choir led him to being in a Gospel group, which eventually led Motown to his door. When presented with the song I Was Born This Way, Bean was hesitant to publicly come out, but felt it was important nonetheless. The song was a disco hit, and became influential across generations; modern artists like Questlove note how it’s still used by house DJs today, and Lady Gaga speaks about how it inspired her own I Was Born This Way.
In the 80s, when the AIDS crisis hit, Bean redirected his line of work. He became a minister in order to comfort patients with the disease after visiting hours and in their time of need. He went on to create the Minority AIDS Project, an organization that educated about AIDS specifically in black communities and advocated for those suffering. Bean continued his spiritual work as well, founding Unity Fellowship Church, the first LGBTQ-positive church for people of color.
Though sometimes covering dark times in personal and LGBT history, the film maintains a positive outlook— the same way Bean’s anthem is joyful and unapologetic, “I’m happy, carefree and gay.” Bean’s legacy is one of enduring joy. The filmmakers show his story visually with some archive photography but mostly rotoscoped animation sequences. In the latter part of the documentary, Billy Porter re-records a forgotten B-side to “I Was Born This Way” that was unearthed in production of the movie. That section of the film was the only one that I wish were more abridged, though it does maintain the overall celebratory tone. Overall, I walked away very inspired by Bean’s life and work. In the current political climate, where queerness is constantly under attack and scrutiny, it felt energizing to see someone sow so much joy into their community despite it all.
ANDY KAUFMAN IS ME (USA, 2025)
Director: Clay Tweel
Writer: Clay Tweel, Luis Lopez, Shannon E Riggs
Stars: Michael Kaufman, Carol Kaufman, David Letterman, Carol Kane, Tim Heidecker, Eric Andre, Kristin Schaal
IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6687184/
REVIEWER RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars
When I think about people who get lost in a character and cannot find their way back to who they really are, I think of method actors, not comedians. Andy Kaufman is a clear exception to that. Andy Kaufman Is Me explores Kaufman’s history and identity as the world and his loved ones alike sought to understand what was comedy and what was actually Andy. The film draws from newly unearthed diaristic tape recordings and the semi-autobiographical and strange novel that Kaufman was writing. Director Clay Tweel chose to have scenes from the novel animated with marionette puppetry.
The film embodies Kaufman well with both its archival selection and stylistic direction. It opens with Kaufman doing standup— he shuffles awkwardly on the stage and tells the audience to stop laughing, none of this is comedy, this is just him talking. It’s funny, and the audience continues to laugh. This sets up the arc of the entire documentary, showing that Kaufman’s comedy was never truly far from the truth, at least emotionally. Kaufman’s family, including his parents and siblings, are interviewed and trace through Kaufman’s strange childhood, trying to define who he was and who he became. We follow Kaufman to The Dick Van Dyke Show, Saturday Night Live, and Taxi, and through his impressions (like the Elvis impression he got stuck in), standup, and characters. Many accomplished comedians, including David Letterman, Carol Kane, Robin Williams, and Eric Andre, testify to the impact Kaufman’s absurdist character work had on comedy.
It’s clear when one sees all of Kaufman’s work supercut together like this that it’s not really standup comedy, it’s conceptual art. Kaufman’s humor relied on real emotions, vulnerability, and bravery. It feels like his beating heart is raw and laying on the table in front of the audience. As he pivots from charmingly-odd characters like his Foreign Man or silly Tony Clifton to characters that challenged and provoked audiences, the schism between real and imagined gets blurred further. His constant commitment to the bit confused even the people closest to him, and even began to confuse me as an audience member. Toward the end of the film, we hear Kaufman describe the final scene from his book, or a movie version of his book. He says that the audience will watch the central character enter a theater, not unlike the one that they are currently sitting in, and suddenly, he will somehow be in the theater with them, beside them, and they will appear on the screen in real time. As this happened in the theater I was in, someone happened to open the door to enter back in, and as I saw that sliver of light, I thought to myself, Andy Kaufman couldn’t have possibly faked his death for years just to emerge as part of a documentary feature, right? Of course, he didn’t do that. But Andy Kaufman Is Me did such a good job at wrapping me up in his world that I thought for a second that he might.
DEPECHE MODE: M (USA, Mexico, 2025)
Director: Fernando Frias
Stars: Depeche Mode
IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36590288/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
REVIEWER RATING:
4.5 out of 5 stars
In Depeche Mode: M, director Fernando Frías brings a truly unique and engulfing point of view to concert film. As darkwave band Depeche Mode plays sold out nights in Mexico City as part of their Memento Mori tour, Depeche Mode: M explores the motif of death as it relates to their music and Mexican culture alike. Narrated by actor Daniel Giménez Cacho, the film opens with a sequence about human sacrifice in pre-Columbian Mexico before transitioning to Depeche Mode, who open their concert with the song “My Cosmos Is Mine.”
The film is a collage of footage from the concerts and interpretations of death and technology. I particularly enjoyed the altar for death made of old TVs, which began displaying fan testimony about Depeche Mode, as well as the artist whose work using Pepper’s Ghost illusion makes skulls and the band rise out of 2D digital space. Depeche Mode: M goes beyond what a traditional concert film does. I was so interested in the dissection of Mexico’s relationship to death (in holidays like Día de Muertos, for example) and how this close relationship might draw such a strong fanbase to a band like Depeche Mode, who don’t shy away from morose or dark subject matter. The title of their recent album, Memento Mori, even translates to ‘remember you will die.’ In this film, Frías devotes careful attention not just to the band’s performance but to their career and history. It is clear that he understands their catalog deeply. By splitting up the concert footage with clips of interpretive poetry, fax machine portraits, and more, the film creates a multimedia tapestry and grounds us fully in Mexico City as Depeche Mode performs. I would certainly recommend this film to fans of the band, who I think will appreciate how well Depeche Mode is understood here, but I would also recommend it to more casual listeners, as well, who can get wrapped up in the artistic texture of the film itself.
RIDE OR DIE (USA, 2025)
Director: Josalynn Smith
Writer: Josalynn Smith, Alicia Louzoun-Heisler
Stars: Briana Middleton, Stella Everett, Seth Gilliam, Cody Kostro, Eisa Davis, Guinevere Turner, Ella Jay Basco
IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31098308/
REVIEWER RATING:
3 out of 5 stars
Ride or Die is an adventure-thriller about two girls on a daring road trip gone wrong. It starts strong. Paula, a cool-but-nervous fresh graduate and aspiring director, has a chance encounter with Sloane, her secret crush from high school. The two actresses have great chemistry, and we get wrapped up in the romance. Paula mentions her dreams of someday moving to California to direct. But after a chaotic night where Sloane’s fraught family situation comes to light and Paula’s dad explodes at her, Sloane convinces Paula to pack a bag and impulsively run away to California together.
The giddy, Thelma-and-Louise style adventure takes a turn down a darker road as the film progresses. Sloane may be more intensely disturbed by her past than Paula ever knew, and a crush and connection may not be enough to support a chaotic and dangerous cross-country journey. I felt that the film started to lose its footing a bit as it pivoted toward the thriller genre. Though still grounded in the strong performances from Briana Middleton (Paula) and Stella Everett (Sloane), the darker elements felt a little unfocused and at times rushed. Sloane is hiding much more instability than she initially let on, and this comes out sporadically and irregularly in the second act, instead of being a steady build. Ultimately, I wanted a bit more from the characters’ arcs and ending, though I was impressed with the final takeaway— this is not a love story. This is a warning about what is omitted when we choose to see the best in people.
CANDID SHOTS FROM THE 2025 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
For more information about the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, visit: https://tribecafilm.com/
