What's Hot at the Tribeca Film Festival

By Jo Piazza Posted Apr 21st 2010 05:38PM

The ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival is coming to New York's downtown this week, kicking off 12 days of screenings of 85 features and 47 short films. It's enough to make even the most devoted cinephile's head spin.

Thankfully, we've scoured the offerings and picked out a few choice selections that just scream awesomeness. So if you're in the New York area this week, these are the films you'll want to try to score tickets for. Check it out after the jump!

'Get Low' -- A backwoods recluse played by Robert Duvall decides to fake his own death and plan a funeral to put his own living legend to rest. Duvall is joined by veteran actors Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek in this slyly funny folk tale.

'Beware the Gonzo' -- If only John Hughes were still alive, he would love this quirky teen comedy about a high school journalist, Eddie "Gonzo" Gilman, who gets fired from his school paper and sets out to give all the misfits, nerds and outcasts in the school a voice. Rounding out the cast are Jesse McCartney and Zoe Kravitz, but what we love is that Campbell Scott and Amy Sedaris are perfectly cast as Gonzo's parents.

'brilliantlove' -- Coming of age love and lust story between an aspiring photographer and his taxidermist girlfriend. There is no telling where this movie is going to go. Don't ask, just enjoy.

'The Chamelon' -- In this psychological thriller, teenager Nicholas Barclay resurfaces after going missing for three years. He is welcomed back warmly by his mother (the always amazing Ellen Barkin) and sister ('Lost's' Emilie De Ravin) but a no-nonsense FBI agent, played by Famke Jansen, is out to prove he is an impostor.

'Piece of Work' -- If you think you can't handle an entire feature length film about Joan Rivers, you're wrong. At 76, Rivers is still ticking and this doc captures every irascible and crazy moment of the multi-tasking world of a septagenarian, who has spent fifty years in show business. Surprisingly touching when it catches Rivers at her most vulnerable, you'll walk away with a newfound love of the red carpet maven.

'Sons of Perdition' -- In January, the Sundance Film Festival premiered '8: The Mormon Proposition,' a documentary profiling the Mormon Church's efforts to keep gay marriage from becoming legal. Not to be outdone, TFF features 'Sons of Perdition,' a look at Mormon teenagers who struggle to fit into society after fleeing a fundamentalist Mormon sect led by notorious leader Warren Jeffs.

'Monica and David' -- Monica and David are in love. They also happen to have Down syndrome. Alexandra Codina's affectionate and heartwarming documentary is an intimate, year-in-the-life portrait of these two child-like spirits with adult desires. You'll laugh with them, cry with them and wish you had been invited to their wedding.

'Freakonomics' -- Good on you if you can land tickets to this closing night feature documentary based on the best selling books by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt from the filmmakers behind 'Jesus Camp' and 'Supersize Me.'

'The Killer Inside Me' -- This horror thriller had audiences so upset at the Sundance festival that some folks actually walked out of the theater. Starring Casey Affleck as a sociopathic sheriff with a tendency towards violence and Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson as the women ensnared in his web, this flick will keep you up at night and checking the back seat of the car in dark parking lots.

'Meet Monica Velour' -- We love it when Kim Catrall plays any role other than Samantha on 'Sex and the City,' mainly because she is just damn good. Loved her in 'Ghostwriter' and now we love her playing the aging porn star and object of a lonely teenager's affection. Think of it as a glimpse at Samantha's future if she didn't have that fabulous PR job in Manhattan.

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