May 05, 2008 01:41PM EDT
Film Junkie Reports: Checking Out the Award Winners
Without even changing seats I was able to see two prize-winning films today: the world narrative competition winner Let the Right One In, from Sweden, and The Caller, winner of the Made in NY narrative category. The former is the coming-of-age story of a pale misfit boy at the dawn of adolescence and the latter is about the final days of a powerful New York businessman, who manipulates his acquaintances as easily as the data for which he is employed. Rather divergent, then, but for what it’s worth the common link between the two pictures came early in the second film, when a minor character watches Nosferatu. That’s because Let the Right One In is not just a coming-of-age story, and it’s not just a first romance: It’s also a rather graphic vampire/horror film. The object of young Oscar’s affections is his new next-door neighbor, a cute prepubescent girl who also happens to be ripping the throats out of all the locals. When he finally figures this out, Oscar is not too dismayed, and neither was the audience. Much of the most graphic violence actually elicited guffaws from the crowd—and I don’t think this was unintentional on the filmmakers’ part. They must be as aware as anyone that the juxtaposition of the tentative and the over-the-top produces some rather outlandish effects, and the film functions perfectly fine as a result. The Caller keeps its genre straight—it’s a quiet thriller, with Elliott Gould playing a detective hired by Frank Langella to investigate. . . who else but Frank Langella. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film so brazen in pointing out how boring its protagonist is, but the suspense is maintained nonetheless, with constant, gnawing questions of who Langella really is and how he plans to deal with the mobsters on his trail. Given the category in which the film won, the city is put to good effect, with a majority of scenes occurring in exteriors. Given that the Tribeca Film Festival was founded to reinvigorate the culture and economy of New York, The Caller is a good example of filmmaking in the city put to good work.
Speaking of film in New York, throughout the past two weeks I’ve seen a lot of things I haven’t been able to write about, with many, many more titles screened that I never even got to view. There are more good films out there than you could ever get to in a lifetime, and being able to attend so much of this festival really, ironically, drove that point home. Don’t let this deter you from trying, however; I encourage everyone to come see as much as possible in 2009. If you must partake of only a drop within the enormous bucket of world cinema, then Tribeca is a very good place to start.
