2009 Tribeca Film Festival: What to See, What to See…

If you’re lucky enough to be a New York City resident, or are devoted enough to travel here, the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival is kicking off in a couple of weeks on April 22 and running through May 3. You can check out the film schedule online to start planning what you want to see, or you can help me plan my viewing schedule.

Being recently forced into the wonderful world of unemployment, I decided to do something constructive with my time and signed up to volunteer at the festival (not that sitting around my apartment without pants on isn’t fun, but like all fun things, it gets old after a while). For every shift I work I get a voucher to attend a screening, so attend screenings I shall! But out of all the selections, how do I choose what to see? Here’s the list of possibilities so far:

Don McKay, starring Thomas Haden Church and Elisabeth Shue. It’s a dark comedy following the theme of “you can’t go home again.” Or can you? Is it wrong to go see this just because I loved Wings and someone once told me I look like Elisabeth Shue?

Easy Virtue, starring Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Jessica Biel. I love British movies and I want to do filthy things with Colin Firth. That’s pretty much the extent of my thinking here.

Midgets vs. Mascots. Hello? It has midgets. And Gary Coleman. Who wouldn’t want to see this?

A Matter of Size. A group of friends run away from fat camp to pursue careers in sumo wrestling. Interesting…

Passing Strange. I missed seeing this during its Broadway run, but Spike Lee was kind enough to capture it on film. The musical nerd in me is most likely going to force me to see this one. Whenever I try to deny her, she sings the songs from Grease at me until I finally give in just to shut her up.

Tell Tale. It’s inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. If it’s only half as chilling, it should be pretty good.

Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB. OK, so I never went to CBGB, nor was I ever really into the sort of musicians who flocked there, but it’s such a New York landmark with such a crazy back story, this will probably be a great documentary to check out.

City Island, starring Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, and Alan Arkin. A dysfunctional family comedy-drama that takes place on City Island. I didn’t know anything ever happened on City Island.

I’m sure as I continue to wade through the selection of movies being screened, I’ll find even more possibilities to add to this list. Are there any to-die-for, not-to-be-missed selections you are horrified that I passed over?