The 2013 Tribeca Film Festival starts Wednesday, featuring a slate of films that is almost impossibly large -- dramas and comedies, features and shorts, docs, VOD and talks -- on offer for 12 days.
To make Tribeca a little more manageable, we've highlighted one film for each day of the festival.
Wednesday, April 17: Mistaken for Strangers
The Tribeca Film Festival opens with a gala screening at the BMCC/Tribeca Performing Arts Center of a new documentary from first-time director Tom Beringer, who chronicles his time as a roadie for his older brother's band, The National, as they travel from Berlin to Paris to LA to an Obama fundraiser in Wisconsin. Also screening April 26 & 27.
Thursday, April 18: The Birds
This year's Tribeca Drive-In kicks of with a free screening of Alfred Hitchcock's classic about a small California town that comes under attack from a massive and hostile flock of feathered, flying fiends.
Friday, April 19: At Any Price
Dennis Quaid stars as the patriarch of a family farm who finds himself at odds with his son, played by Zac Efron, who would rather pursue his dream of being a race car driver than follow in his father's footsteps. But father and son must set aside their differences when federal investigators begin to question the ethics of dad's business practices. Also screening April 19 & 23.
Saturday, April 20: Lenny Cooke
In 2001, Lenny Cooke was among the most highly touted high school basketball player in the country, mentioned in the same breath as LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. This documentary, part of the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival, follows Cooke from the heights of amateur ball to anonymity, as he bounces from Rucker Park to the Philippines to Shanghai and Minot, North Dakota. Also screening April 18, 25 & 27.
Sunday, April 21: A Case of You
Justin "The Mac Guy" Long co-wrote and stars in this film about a young man who tries to woo the girl of his dreams, played by Evan Rachel Wood, by creating a fake online persona, only to find the plan work, forcing him to somehow meet her expectations. Features a talented supporting cast that includes Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Vince Vaughn, Brendan Fraser and Sienna Miller. Also screening April 23 & 25.
Monday, April 22: The End Is Near
One of Tribeca's seven Shorts programs, this one includes six different stories of people confronting the great beyond: An acrobat contemplating suicide; two friends on a bus trip; life in the South Pacific; interconnected lives in turmoil in the moments before a global incident; three siblings fighting over a grandmother's estate; and a man who's destroyed his enemy, recovered a lost treasure, and saved his true love—but whose adventure is not yet over. Also screening April 20, 26, and 28.
Tuesday, April 23: Greetings From Tim Buckley
Penn Badgley stars as the late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, who tragically followed in his father's footsteps, first by becoming a musician, and then by dying much too young. Imogen Poots co-stars as the young woman who convinces him to take part in a tribute concert to a man he barely knew. Also screening April 25.
Wednesday, April 24: Before Midnight
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy star in the long-awaited follow up to Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," as one of indie cinema's most enduring couples confronts middle age. Also screening April 22.
Thursday, April 25: Lil Bub & Friendz
The most famous cat in cyberspace hits the road with his owner, Mike, to meet some of the other cats that make the Internet hum, such luminaries as Nyan Cat, Grumpy Cat and Keyboard Cat. Also screening April 18, 20 & 23.
The Scene
Friday, April 26: Adult World
Emma Roberts stars as a budding, young poet fresh out of grad school who finds herself stuck living in a dead-end town with her parents. She splits her time between working at a sex shop and trying to convince a local recluse and famed writer, played by John Cusack, to be her mentor. Also screening April 18 & 20.
Saturday, April 27: Clint Eastwood & Darren Aronofsky or The King of Comedy
Two events are too good ignore. On the one hand there's Darren Aronofsky interviewing Clint Eastwood, as part of the Tribeca Talks series, about the art of directing at BMCC. On the other hand there's a 30th-anniversary restoration of Martin Scorsese's "King of Comedy," starring Robert De Niro as a struggling -- and delusional -- comedian who kidnaps a talk show host, played by Jerry Lewis, in a bid to get a guest spot on his show. These will be tough tickets, but don’t you have to try?
Sunday, April 28: A Single Shot
Based on the novel by Matthew Jones, "A Single Shot" stars Sam Rockwell as a hunter who accidentally shoots a woman, only to discover a large bag of cash by her side, touching off a game of cat-and-mouse. Co-stars William H. Macy and Jeffrey Wright. Also screening April 26 & 27.
And if you'd rather stay home, Tribeca has a number of titles available on-demand, including two starring writer-director Alex Karpovsky, best known for playing Ray, the cantankerous coffee shop manager on "Girls." In the road comedy "Red Flag" Karpovsky plays an indie filmmaker touring the festival circuit with an old friend and a stalker-y fan, and in "Rubberneck" he takes a darker turn, as a lab technician who becomes obsessed with a colleague following a one-night stand.
