‘The Lesson’ Review: Richard E. Grant Steals The Show In A Slow-Burn Tale Of Literary Larceny – Tribeca Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Columbus’ production company 26th Street Pictures has optioned the David Michael Slater novel The Vanishing for film, tapping Jay Lender (SpongeBob SquarePants) to script an adaptation.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Films about fictitious great writers often stumble when it comes to the character’s actual writing: Viewers must suspend disbelief that a lofty literary reputation has been built on the purplest of screenwriter-devised prose. A blackly comic melodrama in which writerly ego, ambition and insecurity do increasingly destructive battle, “The Lesson” gets around that trap by folding questions of authorship into its arch country-house mystery: Who is writing what, and to what extent it matters, are the questions that keep director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith’s mutual debut feature interesting, even as it slides into occasional, overheated cliché. When the film’s own words don’t quite pass muster, however, a tight, tony ensemble of actors gives them some polish and punch. A big, ripe turn by Richard E. Grant — as a celebrated British novelist looking to emerge from a gloomy hiatus with one more masterwork — represents the chief selling point of this low-key Tribeca premiere, though as his wary potential protégé, it’s Irish up-and-comer Daryl McCormack (fresh off his BAFTA nomination for “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”) who carries the bulk of the film in quieter, wilier style. With a chablis-dry Julie Delpy playing intermediary in their passive-aggressive duel, this U.K.-German co-production is the kind of accessibly upscale fare more frequently served to its target audience in another European language; Bleecker Street will release it Stateside.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Sunday,” by Uzbekistan-based director Shokir Kholikov, was Thursday named best film in the Asian New Talent section of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival. The Asian New Talent Awards are called Golden Goblet Awards, but are separate from the festival’s official competition section, and favor new and emerging talent. The main competition jury will hand out its Golden Goblets on Sunday. The best director prize in the Asian New Talent section was shared by two helmers: China’s Luo Dong won for “May.” So too did Kazakhstan’s Aisultan Seit for “Qash.” Luo previously attended the Shanghai festival’s project market ten years ago and has since completed one other film.

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITIONBest Performance in a U.S. Narrative Feature: Ji-Young Yoo for “Smoking Tigers,” (United States) – World Premiere.

There was no mention of artificial intelligence Thursday at Tribeca Festival’s Paul McCartney talk with Conan O’Brien.

Gabrielle Union steps out in a studded mini dress from Prada for the premiere of her new movie, The Perfect Find!

It’s been a busy week for Ariana DeBose!

Paul McCartney “Got Back” again.The 80-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is headed to New York City’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center on Thursday, June 15 at 6 p.m. for a conversation with Conan O’Brien.At the one night only event, the pair will discuss McCartney’s new “1964: Eyes of the Storm” about McCartney’s rediscovered photos from the height of Beatlemania as part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s Storytellers Series.And if you want to pick up last-minute tickets to see the Beatle live in the Big Apple, we’re here to let you know you still can.General admission tickets start at $254 before fees on Vivid Seats at the time of publication.Will Paul bust out his guitar and sing “Hey Jude” with Conan? What do the two have in store?All we know is the best way to find out is live.Want to go to the show?Here’s everything you need to know and more.All prices listed above are subject to inflation.As mentioned earlier, the lowest price on general admission tickets is $254 before fees on Vivid Seats.After that, there is a significant price hike — the next cheapest tickets start at a whopping $732 before fees.Therefore, if you see tickets available at a lower price — strike while the iron is hot.

How do you tell the story of a life? That’s a question many of the characters in “Bucky F*cking Dent” poise aloud, a little too aware of their construction. It’s a question its star David Duchovny should have asked himself behind the camera, too.

None of us were privy to the casting process for Alice Troughton’s “The Lesson,” but I sincerely hope, with my entire heart, that they opened a bottle of champagne after locking in Richard E. Grant.

Each other’s biggest fans. Ben Stiller supported his wife, Christine Taylor, alongside their daughter, Ella, 21, at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

Hollywood’s biggest names never miss an opportunity to dazzle Us with their fierce fashion sense. Tracee Ellis Ross, Claire Danes, Brittany Snow and more stars turned heads on the red carpet at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. 

It was a Stiller family affair.

Elizabeth Hurley celebrated turning the big 5-8 by rocking an itsy-bitsy string bikini. The British model, actress and swimwear designer, who celebrated her birthday on June 10, took to Instagram and shared a photo of herself jumping for joy while at the beach. The star wore a sapphire-hued two-piece, featuring a triangle top with silver sequins and matching side-tie bottoms.

In the proliferation of subgenres, the media noir is perhaps the rarest. From the ’50s alone, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, Fritz Lang’s While the City Sleeps, and Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success spring to mind. Just lately, with the exception of Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler (2014), there hasn’t been too much evidence of a renaissance, but Roxine Hellberg’s satisfying feature debut taps back into the same dark wells of oral ambivalence corruption and power, casting the excellent Bel Powley as a journalism student who will do whatever it takes to make it in the cut-throat world of TV news broadcasting.

There have been plenty of movies detailing life in a fraternity – Animal House being the crown jewel of all, no matter how outrageously funny. The newest entry in the genre, The Line which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, is not trying to amuse on any level , a deadly serious take on college frat houses that looks like it was ripped straight from the many headlines about hazing deaths and horrific goings-on at these places.

For his sophomore feature, the follow-up to 2004’s little-seen indie House of D, David Duchovny serves up a similarly niche confection, a sometimes-zany black comedy based on his 2016 novel of the same name. The elevator pitch is a tough one; though it’s funny in places, the tone is all over the place, one minute aspiring for the arch, stoner laughs of PTA’s Inherent Vice, the next veering into straightforward sentiment with a rambling final section that hits a similar highway to the 2006 Sundance hit Little Miss Sunshine. There’s also the f-word: the looming curse of American baseball movies that don’t have the word Field in the title, which could hamper its commercial prospects in the wider world.

Premiering Saturday night in the Tribeca Film Festival’s Spotlight Narrative category, Eric Larue is an intense and devastating account of the after effects of a school shooting, but the focus is almost entirely on the parents of that boy who shot and killed three male classmates and is now in prison. Adapted by Brett Neveu from his own 2002 stage play, it has taken on new weight in the two decades since it was first presented at Chicago’s Red Orchid Theatre in light of the seemingly endless numbers of school shootings and the fact that the number one cause for deaths of young people is now by gun. But for his feature film directorial debut actor Michael Shannon was most interested in looking at the effects of this traumatic life-changing incident from the point of view of the parents, those of the kids killed, and particularly the pair of the young teen who murdered them.

“How do people do this?” asks well-to-do New York book publisher Nicky (Luke Evans) in a state of exasperation. Nicky is in the thick of a bitter custody battle for his eight-year-old son Owen (Christopher Woodley), after Gabriel (Billy Porter), his partner of 13 years, has decided to call time on their relationship. It’s a well-worn premise in mainstream cinema — essayed most recently by Noah Baumbach’s acerbic Marriage Story, and still portrayed most famously in Robert Benton’s 1979 weepie Kramer vs. Kramer — but gay cinema has been slow to tackle the issue. With his second movie, the follow-up to the 2018 sci-fi Jonathan, Bill Oliver corrects that oversight with a beautifully judged human drama that dissects a dying marriage with humor and intelligence, drawing out an especially open and moving performance from Porter.

It might sound like a backhanded compliment, but Downtown Owl feels more like a pilot than a feature film and may yet yield a series. In today’s market, that could work out just fine for directors Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe, who, after a choppy start, finesse Chuck Klosterman’s digressive 2007 novel into a thoughtful, broad-canvas ensemble piece. T Bone Burnett helps nail things down with an eclectic alt-country score and soundtrack, infused with the music and spirit of Elvis Costello, but it’s Rabe that holds it all together onscreen with a controlled yet still wildly uninhibited performance.