In
fourteen years, the Tribeca Film Festival has grown into an impressive
institution, with well-respected grant-writing and film distribution arms.
Still, the thirteenth anniversary just isn’t a very round number. However, this
year’s Tribeca Film Festival will commemorate a number of films reaching
milestones ending with fives and zeroes. Best of all, several of these special
screening will be free of charge (although advance ticketing is still required
in some cases).
You
might have missed the anticipation for the 30th anniversary of Clue the movie, based on the perennially
popular board game, which is why Tribeca’s free Drive-In screening is such a
public service. Jonathan Lynn’s film was not kindly reviewed at the time, but
in retrospect, we can acknowledge it as one of his wittiest works since the Yes, Minister franchise. The spooky old
house set is wonderfully detailed and the all-star cast is relentlessly hammy—in
a good way. The random uncredited Howard Hesseman sightings also add a dash of surreal
humor, but the real star is the deliciously caustic dialogue. Lynn pushes the
rapid-fire delivery, as if he broke out Howard Hawks’ old stop-watch. There are
actually more films based on board games these days, but Clue remains the best. It screens for free this Thursday (4/16) at
the World Financial Plaza.
In
1985, all the love denied Clue was
showered on Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the
Future, which has become iconic for a reason. The effects were pretty cool
for its time, but it had tons of heart. It heralded Michael J. Fox’s apparent
arrival as a big time movie star, but despite some successful subsequent
releases, Back to the Future 1 remains
his cinematic high-water mark. As likable as he and Christopher Lloyd are
together, it is impossible to think of the film without hearing Huey Lewis’s Power of Love in your mind’s ear, but
that just proves how all the elements truly came together for it. Nostalgically
recommended, it screens for free at the BMCC on Saturday (4/25).
Back to the Future
presents
a very innocent, 1950s version of love, but it is nowhere near as endearing as
Disney’s Lady and the Tramp,
celebrating its sixtieth anniversary. Arguably, the spaghetti sequence is the
first movie moment that suggests to boys and girls kissing scenes might be okay
after all. Let’s face it, the film is just adorable, plus it features the sassy
vocals of Peggy Lee, performing original songs she co-wrote with Sonny Burke.
Parents should take their kids to see it at the Drive-In this Friday (4/17),
before Disney cheapens it with another live-action remake.
If
you like Peggy Lee (and who the heck doesn’t?), you’re probably okay with Frank
Sinatra too. 2015 marks the Sinatra centennial (1915-1998), so Tribeca will
celebrate with free screenings of On the
Town, Some Came Running, and High Society (trailer here). They are all
worth seeing, but the latter is particularly notable. A musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, it co-stars
Sinatra in the Jimmy Stewart role, Bing Crosby fearlessly stepping in for Cary
Grant, and Grace Kelly in her final film, assuming Katherine Hepburn’s duties.
Yes, Philadelphia is the better film,
but Society has one thing the other
lacks: Louis Armstrong, playing himself.
In
fact, Armstrong gets the sort of star treatment he lacked in some of his more
problematic early films. He serves as a sort of narrator in the opening and
closing segments and performs a flat-out flag-waver, “Now You Has Jazz,” with
Crosby. Perhaps the coolest aspect of the number is that each of the All-Stars
gets a brief solo, introduced by Crosby. At this time, the line-up consisted of
Trummy Young (trombone), Billy Kyle (piano), Arvell Shaw (bass), Barrett Deems
(drums), and the New Orleans legend in his own right, Edmond Hall on clarinet
(but sadly, no Velma Middleton). Society was
also the first full screen musical Cole Porter had written in a number of years.
It might not be his most memorable work, but there are flashes of that classic
wit, like “have you heard, its in the stars, next July we collide with Mars” in
“Well, Did You Evah!” It screens at the Regal Battery Park next Friday (4/24),
but you’re going to have to deal with rush tickets at this point.
