‘Pilgrimage’ Review: Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland Anchor the Lackluster Epic | Tribeca 2017

by Aubrey Page April 25, 2017


Pilgrimage begins with a stoning. Underneath the hot sun, a religious martyr’s executioners line up and chuck black, volcanic rock towards his head. Each rock lands with a crushing blow as the victim’s skull cracks and blood bubbles to the surface. It’s a brutal beginning – one that tonally syncs the unabashedly dark and gloomy period drama that it precedes – but it’s also a bit of a cinematic warning: abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Set amongst the foggy muck of 13th century Ireland, Pilgrimage follows a group of monks, tasked with transporting an ancient holy heirloom (referred to simply as “the relic”) across a landscape riddled with enemies with a vested interest in stealing it. It’s a lean premise, one that director Brendan Muldowney and writer Jamie Hannigan fill out with curios of ancient Catholicism and colloquial mysticism as the reality of the unforgiving landscape begins to clash with the holy men’s divine plans.

Tom Holland stars as The Novice, a young and altruistic monk whose relatively tame life in and around the monastery is unceremoniously uprooted with a few words from his religious guardians. He’s a necessary presence, one that offers the only real emotional porousness of any of the characters present in Muldowney’s doomed crusade, but perhaps the most interesting presence is Jon Bernthal’s The Mute, who speaks but one word during the entire course of the film. The Mute is an enigmatic force of nature, capable both of extreme violence and incredible sensitivity, and the tension between he and The Novice keeps the film at least slightly emotionally resonant.

At its core, Pilgrimage is a road movie, albeit sans the fun, levity or even the suspense the subgenre has become known for, eschewing moments of capitulated human connection for dark-eyed brooding and sword-clashing. But to its credit, Pilgrimage is certainly more complex than a pulpy approach to the crusades has any right to be, and at its best the film perceptively presses at the grey area between deep-rooted cultural superstition and long-held institutions of religion. And while the film never quite manages to make the soul-stirring connections it seems to be reaching towards, Muldowney and Hannigan refuse to remove religion and all of its occasionally nasty consequences from the equation. Unfortunately, much of Pilgrimage is happy to operate on less interesting terms: it’s uber-violent, and boyishly sadistic as monks and other religious figures knock skull against skull (or worse, end up at the other end of a particularly nasty medieval torture device).

Where the reigning real estate gospel is “location, location, location,” the indie film mantra should be “casting, casting, casting,” and in Pilgrimage’s case, that unspoken mantra is pulled off in spades. Holland and Bernthal manage to elevate the film even amidst the carnage, must have been taken to heart, as the film’s most apparent strengths – stars in Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal and Richard Armitage – remain the elements that set it apart.The best of the film really does come from Holland and Bernthal, who establish a fascinating connection seen only through eye contact, as Bernthal utters but one film throughout the film’s entire running time. But it’s unclear as to why actors of this stature took these roles – there’s little in the action to justify a leap of faith of that nature.

In the end, Pilgrimage is pretty simple: religion for religion’s sake is bad, human connection is good, and the 13th century was fucking brutal. It’s a film for devotees of the genre, who might be pleased by the Crusades-set version of Game of Thrones lite. For others, many coming to Pilgrimage may find themselves bored, even amidst the carnage. It’s neither dumb enough to work as a pulpy period action film, but not quite complex enough to take its place amongst the ranks of classics.

Rating: C+

Pilgrimage, The (Tribeca 2017)
Posted on April 25, 2017 by Jonathan Barkan


Starring Tom Holland, Richard Armitage, Jon Bernthal, John Lynch, Stanley Weber

Directed by Brendan Muldowney

I’m a serious sucker for films that take place during the medieval era, especially ones with mystery, intrigue, and the potential for violence. Films like The Name of the Rose, The 13th Warrior, Black Death, and The Reckoning draw me in and delight me with a chance to see the world as it once was, just sometimes with a horror or thriller twist. That’s why I was so excited by The Pilgrimage, which stars Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Richard Armitage (The Hobbit trilogy, “Hannibal”), and Jon Bernthal (“The Punisher”, “The Walking Dead”). Alas, my expectations and hopes were not met in what is a frustrating film.

The movie follows a group of monks, along with a mute man (Bernthal), who live a life of peace and solitude in the remote regions of Ireland. One day, a monk of the Cistercian order arrives and instructs them that a holy relic they are protecting must be delivered to Rome immediately. Believing this to be a terrible mistake but left with no choice the monks select a few of their order, including the youngest of their order (Holland) and the mute, to make the journey with the Cistercian monk. Their path becomes fraught with danger, violence, and death as treachery and greed become the catalyst for deception, all while strange events occur. Is God on their side or is he against their plan?

Right away, I’ll say that the film is gorgeously done. The Irish fens, highlands, and coasts are shot with an eye for beauty. The production is also top notch with everything seeming to fit the era. And as someone who loves hearing different languages, this film offers Gaelic, English, French, and Latin, so get ready to do some reading. For horror fans, the violence is unflinching and particularly brutal. Those who enter this film seeking gore will no doubt be sated.

Additionally, the acting is stellar. Nearly entirely silent, Bernthal still manages to bring forth a character that is obviously in pain and seeks absolution for sins he has committed during the Crusades. Holland plays the pious yet inexperienced Brother Diarmuid strongly while Armitage’s Raymond De Merville is a wonderful villain. Stanley Weber plays the Cistercian monk Brother Geraldus, a cowardly and duplicitous man that is well deserving of any feelings of animosity the audience has towards him.

Jamie Hannigan’s script works for most of the film and makes sense when one takes into account the history of the Crusades and the actions that took place during that time. However, the film derails at the end when everything culminates in a series of events that left me staring at the screen feeling empty and unfulfilled. Everything that was fought for, everything that the story had built up, was dashed away and even the remaining survivors didn’t have an answer for what was to come.

I found myself wondering for a while what the ending of the film was trying to say. Was it that such journeys were futile? Was it a jab at organized religion? Was it the opposite, trying to say that God works in mysterious ways? While much of the film cleverly allows the audience to come to their own conclusions, as with the mute and his backstory, the ending is left frustratingly open to interpretation with even the survivors at a loss of what to do or make of things.

Ultimately, The Pilgrimage is an unsatisfying film, one that winds up feeling pointless. It’s a shame because the first two acts are so good, the production is wonderful, and the acting is brilliant. The problem is that the story itself doesn’t give us a gratifying conclusion. When the credits roll, there’s a lingering feeling of “What was it all for?“

... the violence is unflinching and particularly brutal. Those who enter this film seeking gore will no doubt be sated...

Das habe ich halt so befürchtet. Natürlich spiegelt es sehr stark die Zeit wieder, in der nur allzu schnell mit Streitaxt und Schwert um sich geschlagen wurde, was ja an sich dann eine korrekte Darstellung ist.

April 20, 5:30 pm
PILGRIMAGE: Tom Holland And Jon Bernthal Spread Faith And Spill Blood in First Trailer

Andrew Mack
Associate Editor, News; Toronto, Canada (@Mack_SAnarchy)

To those of you out there who like their action cinema bathed with the blood of their Saviour AND its victims have we got a trailer for you. Behold action brethren and sistren, the trailer for Brendan Muldowney's period action film Pilgrimage has come to us from the heavens! 
 
Ireland, 1209. A small group of monks begin a reluctant pilgrimage across an island torn between centuries of tribal warfare and the growing power of Norman invaders.  As they escort their monastery’s holiest relic to Rome, the true value of the bejeweled relic becomes dangerously apparent and their path becomes increasingly fraught with danger.
 
Directed by Brendan Muldowney (Savage, Love Eternal) and written by Jamie Hannigan, Pilgrimage stars the 'got them before they became hot' actors Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Captain America: Civil War) and Jon Bernthal (Punisher, Sicario) and Richard Armitage (The Hobbit franchise, Captain America: The First Avenger).
 
Pilgrimage will have its World Premiere this Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival. RLJ Entertainment will share Pilgrimage in theaters and also make it available on VOD and Digital HD on August 11, 2017.
 
(Full disclosure: XYZ Films had a hand in the production of this film. ScreenAnarchy founder and editor Todd Brown is Head of International Acquisitions for XYZ Films but was not involved in the writing or editing of this article. I may have drunk some of the whiskey acquired during the film's production though.)

Apr 26
Tribeca 2017: Pilgrimage
Rob Trench
An epic period actioner revolving around a perilious journey in 13th century Ireland, Pilgrimage offers an intriguing blend of religious conflict and brutal violence.
Opening on a ghastly sequence where a man is stoned to death, that comes to form the crux of the plot, the focus shifts to the foreboding, overcast landscape of a small community of monks, ordered to send a treasured artifact across treacherous terrain.
Tom Holland, soon-to-be a major leading man (or Spider-Man, if you will), plays the youngest monk, the Novice, who has never stepped outside the confines of the sect, largely acting as the arbiter for the audience to see this quest through. Jon Bernthal acts as a brute mute, who is a trusted ally of the Novice, as well as his fierce, deadly protector with many secrets. Even with one single instance of dialogue in the film, Bernthal manages to convey a tantalizing performance, a testament to his abilities as a actor known mainly for his physicality.
For much of its first half, Pilgrimage is focused entirely around setting up the world around it, leading to lots of exposition and zero action, and as such feels like a bit of a slog. It's only when the travellers are ambushed by a group of wild, frenzied attackers that leaves most of their party dead, that things get interesting, resembling an episode of Vikings but with a greater emphasis on gore. Director Brendan Muldowney and screenwriter Jamie Hannigan do an admirable job of transporting the viewer to this world and making it feel lived in, feeling like a deadly road trip in the vein of Apocalypse Now or Mad Max: Fury Road, but with a Catholic spin.
Any hope that the subject matter will result in a complex, crisis of faith narrative like Martin Scorsese's recent Silence, is squandered however. It never quite gets there as the backdrop doesn't lend itself to a detailed, multifaceted view of the monks and their beliefs. And while the violence is stupendously constructed, it leaves the latter half feeling like a brawn over brains endeavor.
While requiring patience at the start, Pilgrimage is worth seeing through to the end, and makes for another fairly well-made entry in the religious epic subgenre.

Pilgrimage

(2017 Tribeca Film Festival Review)

By Jacob Oller | April 28, 2017 | 12:48am

Photo: Tribeca Film Festival


Quest films are best when they understand that, like in the tales of King Arthur, the journeys they chronicle are often designed to destroy the questers through the very thing they seek. Glory, purity, power—there’s an ironic end to them all. In Brendan Muldowney’s Pilgrimage, when a band of Irish monks is recruited to escort an ancient holy relic across the post-Crusade island occupied by factions whose conquering lust has not yet been sated, we know this group was meant to be tested from the beginning.

The main party is made up of rookie Brother Diarmuid (Tom Holland), a mute (Jon Bernthal), foreigner Brother Gerladus (Stanley Weber) and veteran Brother Ciaran (John Lynch). They speak to each other in old Gaelic, English and sometimes French, building, because their words have been overwhelmed by their faith, their relationships through physicality. They’ve come together because the monastery at which the brothers and enigmatic mute (who washed ashore years ago, silent on a makeshift boat known for its carriage of repentant sinners) reside was formed to guard this relic.

Somewhere between the complicated piety of Martin Scorsese’s Silence and Peter Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings film, Pilgrimage draws its religious doubt from a cultural and historical well, rather than from the suffering and torture sprung from the clash between the two forces as they vie for superiority. Christianity is dominant here (rather than a subversive, persecuted religion in Silence’s Japan) which alters the typical religious narrative of the personal protection of and struggle with faith, transforming into a broader action epic in a world that, from the characters’ perspectives, depends on them. Meanwhile, Pagan religions—polytheistic myths of nymphs and spirits—flood the screen with supernatural hints while cinematographer Tom Comerford shoots the film with such wide-eyed awe of nature that it’s easy to buy into a mystical world beneath the island’s gray-green moss. Contrasted with this natural aesthetic are devout monks dressed in their light hewn robes, passively resisting the primal calls of war and barbarism.

Early in their cross-country journey, their guard abandons them, leaving them to meet an occupying military unprotected. This army is led by Sir Raymond (Richard Armitage) and his father, both men with a vested militaristic and political interest in mystical relics. Their country and loyalties are left ambiguous, an unimportant detail lost in the powerful lure of God’s favor. Raymond develops from friend to possible enemy to hounding pursuer with a fiery hate burning in his sharp eyes, as he hulks over the locals in his chain mail, spitting condescension with every word.

All the performances match his for intensity. Lynch, playing the elder monk, has an aching, long-suffering delivery in his salted eyes, while Holland’s fresh-faced naiveté provides the perfect counterbalance. Bernthal is a silent human bear, tattooed and far more pacifistic than someone like Mads Mikkelsen’s One-Eye from Valhalla Rising. Weber plays one of the most interesting religious characters I’ve ever seen develop on screen: He’s petty, but truly seems ready to absolve those that stand against him, a man using God like Raymond uses his king—as a symbol of prestige, a “might makes right” argument, and an ethical imperative to flex their power and purity on everyone. Holy men are not usually this dickish without being villainous or corrupt. Bernthal’s character seems good at his core and prickly on the surface rather than the other way around, which we see as he attempts to take the impressionable young Diarmuid under his wing. He needs faith and fear simultaneously. He encourages violence. He’s a man of complex loyalty to the church.



Without guards, the monks’ journey becomes progressively more dangerous. A heated confrontation between Diarmuid and Sir Raymond in thick woods incorporates the dreadful temptation and threat of a Frodo vs. Boromir struggle into the film in more ways than its claustrophobic wooded staging—a conflict between a true believer and an imperfect doubter over something that could save or doom them all.


Combat, when it finally bursts from the brush, is occasionally hard to follow but has moments of clarity in its close-up brutality by using the gore of a slasher movie with the historical specifics of a period piece (at least, when it comes to weaponry). When an arm is chopped with an axe, it’s not a slash and then it’s over. The arm must succumb to repeated hacking, primal bashing used by both locals and the “civilized” invaders. Bernthal shines here, a John Wick who’s from the Middle Ages and not middle-aged, going into a berserking bloodrage that puts his intimidating frame to good use. After this conflict, the party must decide how to continue on through the danger. How much trust do they put in God when He clearly has no respect for their lives?

The film understands the importance of appearances and loyalties in a person’s life. These commitments—either to popes, kings, or gods—are built on faith and risk. Every character in the film seems to put all their eggs in one of these baskets, hoping for a brighter tomorrow and a right way of life. The film’s foggy swamps and moral haze help emphasize both the trials of whole-hearted dedication and the world of possibility lying just beyond the blur’s edge. The film’s quest eventually absorbs, then loses, the kind of divine intervention that answers exactly what characters have asked without feeling sappy or campy, but truly mystical. The moment, the split second of divinity, between its appearance and removal is the moment the film was built for: a split second of utter belief.

Director: Brendan Muldowney
Writers: Jamie Hannigan
Starring: Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage
Release Date: March 27, 2017


Jacob Oller is a writer and film critic whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, Playboy, Roger Ebert, Film School Rejects, Chicagoist, Vague Visages and other publications. He lives in Chicago, plays Dungeons and Dragons, and struggles not to kill his two cats daily. You can follow him on Twitter.

Pilgrimage Review
Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal star in Pilgrimage. It’s a monks on a mission movie, but audiences are in no danger of conversion.

Review David Crow
Apr 29, 2017


At the peak of the High Middle Ages, Christendom grew in size and scope like the Heaven-reaching silhouette of its many cathedrals. The Roman Catholic Church ruled the known world, and the only thing that mattered about the rest of it was why God allowed Jerusalem to fall (again) into the hands of Saracens. This is the historic crossroads that Pilgrimage finds itself trekking across, and it is one rife with narrative possibilities.

It is thus a shame that Brendan Muldowney’s picture mostly feels like it’s wandering in circles with its feature-length detour about monks on the road. Albeit those brothers of the cloth have plenty of reasons to be wary of an open landscape as fraught with danger as this one, with the deadliest unseen menace being a palpable sense of boredom.

In the grand tradition of other tales about men traversing the great unknown, Pilgrimage can be best described as as a men (or monks) on a mission yarn. But whereas many of the movies that clearly served as an inspiration tended to highlight fellowships searching for absolution or retribution, this film’s group of five Holy brothers, plus one mute manservant, are on a much more specific march toward salvation. In a sense, they’re aiming to rescue the regal Vatican—or at least its cause.

In the year 1209 when a Cistercian monk named Brother Geraldus (Stanley Weber) appears on the shores of Ireland with the feverish aim of convincing a local order of Gaelic-speaking brothers to surrender their Holy relic. According to legend, within a gold and gilded box that these monks hold, the rock that ended the life of an ancient (even by the 13th century standards!) Irish saint stil glows with divine authority. Geraldus wishes to use this relic as a source of righteous power for the Vatican, which is intending to begin another Crusade for Jerusalem. The Irish monks, in contrast, simply wish to obey their Church.

Sent to accompany the rock on its pilgrimage to Rome are Brothers Ciaran (John Lynch), Cathal (Hugh O’Conor), Rua (Rúaidhrí Conroy), and of course young Brother Diarmuld (Tom Holland). Diarmuld is the novice who has never known anything but his abbey, yet in many ways, he’s also the worldliest of the bunch since he values a quiet manservant his brothers simply dub “the Mute” (Jon Bernthal) as an actual human being. Bernthal’s Mute is mostly in the background, but his eyes scream with a defeated sense of despair, and the crucifix tattooed on his back promises a Crusader out for a reason to believe.

And yet, even after meeting the semi-friendly embrace of Raymond de Merville (Richard Armitage) and his Norman knights, who have traveled all the way to this tiny isle in search of glory, the brothers still find themselves unable to escape Ireland. Enemies on all sides, including Gaelic warriors, track their movements and the valuable prize they keep. It is said that only the worthy can touch the rock without being struck by immolation, but plenty of men with violence in their heart are willing to take the chance.

The most commendable aspect of Pilgrimage is the way it tries to root its vision of medieval Ireland with, if not accuracy, a sense of authenticity. The film plays fast and loose with language, yet both the Irish monks and Norman knights use Gaelic and modern French to signify their differences, with the common tongue (presumably intended to be Latin) ringing with a very 21st century-accessible version of English. These little creative choices by Muldowney and writer Jamie Hannigan go a long way to root the movie in its setting.

Nevertheless, even with plenty of sweeping helicopter/drone shots of men walking across a desolate countryside like any band of Tolkien-esque heroes, their world still feels at arm’s length. Last year, Robert Eggers released a very impressive film that blended period piece verisimilitude with genre sensibilities in The Witch. While Pilgrimage is no horror movie, it attempts to make an action-thriller out of its narrative, yet lacks the conviction of faith to believe in itself enough for these period-genre influences to mix. What chance does it have then of proselytizing us?

There are scenes of Gaelic heathens besetting monks with slings, as well as grim moments of torture as another character is given the William Wallace treatment via tools of disembowelment. All of these scenes are meant to be exciting or visceral, but they’re often as flat as the coastlines that the characters walk on. Moments of ambush and sudden violence subsequently land with all the intensity of an action set-piece developed for television in the ‘90s by Rob Tapert.

Also the vague Ark of the Covenant overtones of the monks’ relic never really complement the mournful quiet within which the picture drowns, or the ultimate scathing skepticism Muldowney reserves for his most indoctrinated characters. The performances fare better though. Holland particularly displays a comfort with the language and his character’s growing sense of disillusionment that is slyly impressive for such a young performer. Weber also makes for an enjoyably nasty sanctimonious piece of work. And as usual, Bernthal is completely committed, albeit to such a stock role here that it feels like a waste.

Pilgrimage has some nice elements to be sure, not least of which is the stoic landscape the characters inhabit. But when the audience never once feels as if they are there with them, particularly during a third act beholden to the altar of clichés, there is little risk of the movie winning many converts.

Pilgrimage premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in the U.S. on Aug. 11.

Pilgrimage – Irish Film Features at Tribeca.

May 1, 2017 By Michael Fitzpatrick


‘Pilgrimage’, the upcoming Brendan Muldowney film which featured last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is one of those rare cinematic gems, which ticks all the appropriate boxes. It is a road movie, or perhaps a ‘little-used woodland path’ movie, without the motorized vehicles. It is a buddy flick, where men become friends and companions, but, perhaps more importantly, allies. It is an action flick, with enough battles and blood to keep hearts racing and pulses rising. More than any of that however, it is an Irish production, set in an era we don’t often see represented in film (the 13th century), featuring a talented ensemble cast of established and recognizable actors, mingle with a number of up-and-coming faces from Ireland’s drama scene.

Leading the pack, where casting is concerned is Jon Bernthal (‘The Walking Dead’, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, ‘World Trade Center’), who plays ‘The Mute’, a loyal, trustworthy, mysterious and seemingly battle-hardened individual, who’ll risk his life to protect the monks who took him in many years earlier. Tom Holland, known for playing the title role in the stage version of ‘Billy Elliot’ and his acclaimed performances as Peter Parker/Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, plays ‘The Novice’, a young monk, unafraid to take charge and speak his mind, despite continually surrounding himself with his holier elders, and John Lynch, a seasoned actor, known as well for his early roles in Ulster-set productions as ‘Cal’, ‘In The Name of the Father’ and ‘Some Mother’s Son’, as he is for playing the lead in a biopic about superstar soccer player George Best, and the recent ‘The Falls’ detective series.

With an impressive support cast, which reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the Irish drama scene, ‘The Pilgrimage’ also features Richard Armitage (‘The Hobbit’), Ruaidhri Conroy (‘The Van’, ‘Clockwork Mice’, ‘Into the West’) and Hugh O’Conor (‘Killing Bono’, ‘Lamb’, ‘Fergus’s Wedding’).

Filmed along the west coast of Ireland, along with various locations in Belgium, ‘The Pilgrimage’ is a movie, which, when paused at several dozen points throughout the story, a still could be blown up, and adorn the pride of place above a fireplace for generations, such is the sheer beauty captured by the productions cinematography team. The cliffs, fields, forests and lakes are as much stars in this picture as the actors themselves.

The story concerns a group of 13th century monks, delivering, albeit reluctantly, a holy relic from their Irish monastery, to Rome. Naturally, it is not a straightforward trip, and when the true value of the relic is revealed, the trip the monks take becomes increasingly more treacherous, with their faiths, loyalty to one another and to their God, being tested continually. It is a story well-told, and a cinematic trip worth taking, just hope that your jaunt to the movies is less dramatic than the journey undertaken by these men of 700 years ago.

The Best and Worst Movies of the Tribeca Film Festival
Capsule reviews of 20 narrative highlights and lowlights, including "Rock’n Roll," "The Lovers," and "Abundant Acreage Available."

Film | By Jason Bailey | May 1, 2017

As we mentioned earlier today, sometimes the safest bets at Tribeca are the documentaries, and navigating the narrative slate can get a little tricky. But if you’re willing to take some chances among those titles, you’ll often find richly rewarding experiments in independent cinema, and gutsy actors taking thrilling risks.

GO TO THE MOVIES AND SEE THE WORLD
In which I went to contemporary Spain and medieval Ireland without leaving downtown Manhattan.

The Trip to Spain

After 2014’s The Trip to Italy, it looked like director Michael Winterbottom and writer/stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon could’ve spun this series out indefinitely – taking all the eating/joking/confessing trips they wanted to as many countries as they could imagine. I’m not quite as sure the formula is durable as that after the third outing; the seams show a bit, and there’s occasionally a feeling of obligation rather than inspiration. But those moments are fleeting, and this is, for the most part, a jaunty, funny, entertaining personal and geographical journey, brushing up against moments of truth that can sting. And, yes, they do the Michael Caine bit. (Full review here.)

Pilgrimage

Well, here’s a grim little item, in which a group of Irish monks are sent to accompany their ancient relic’s delivery to the Pope, only to have it stolen by bloodthirsty invaders. It takes a while to get going, establishing its mood and the coming-of-age story at it center (Tom Holland, your next Spider-Man, is the young monk who’s never left the monastery) at a deliberate pace. But director Brendan McDowney’s found his bearings by the time they lose the relic in a grimy, bloody, scary ambush in the woods, and tees up the subsequent moral dilemmas and fights-to-the-death with a combination of emotional intelligence and gory glee.

Tribeca Film Festival 2017: Our Best of the Fest

May 01, 2017

Words by Austin Trunick.

The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival is now in the books, and this year’s fest was a true blast. Always a showcase for new and rising film talents, this year’s festival also provided attendees a chance to sneak peeks at new TV shows, interact with virtual reality shorts and installations on an entire floor dedicated to immersive entertainment, listen to respected video game makers dish on their design secrets, and hear some old filmmaking heavyweights discuss their classic movies. (I was lucky enough to be in the audience at this year’s Reservoir Dogs 25 Anniversary reunion, where Quentin Tarantino and his old castmates – Buscemi, Keitel Madsen, and Roth – looked back at the film, and even detailed Tom Waits’ failed audition for the movie.) When you’ve seen dozens of movies in such a short period of time, it can be tough to pick favorites, but we’re going ahead and trying. Here are our five top films of this year’s Tribeca festival, plus a few more noteworthy mentions.


Dir. Jordan Ross
Thumper

Punkish Kat (Eliza Taylor) is the new girl in a poor, urban school, but her willingness to party hard wins her a circle of friends that include several low-tier, teenage drug dealers. As she grows closed to a sweet-but-slow boy in the group, she finds herself increasingly involved with characters who are far more dangerous than she ever anticipated. There’s a twist that comes early in Thumper that totally changes its dynamics, and sets a new tone for the film that’s entirely different than the one most viewers will pick up on starting in. (It’s hard to say anything more without spoiling it, so you might want to steer clear of other reviews.) A terrifying intensity and a strong, young ensemble made Thumper our most memorable film of Tribeca.

Dir. Brendan Muldowney
Pilgrimage

Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and The Punisher (Jon Berenthal) are monks on a mission in the shockingly gritty medieval thriller. When the Pope calls for a sacred rock said to have killed a Christian martyr and possess powers that will help in the coming Crusades, it’s up to a small band of brothers to transport it from their home on the Irish coast, through a Europe populated with pagans, raiders, and other infidels who would rather see them killed than make it to Rome. The trailer – which hints at the movie’s violence with shots of Berenthal holding a sword, and guys getting hit in the face rocks – barely gives away just how graphic and gripping the movie’s action actually is. (Without giving too much away, there’s an ambush that’s as tense and anxiety-inducing as the opening to Saving Private Ryan.) We’re calling this one Medieval Mad Max.


Dir. Max Winkler
Flower

Like Thumper, the less you know about Flower going in, the better. What looks like a dark comedy – about a teen girl who seduces older men with aim to blackmail them for money – turns out to be, well, a much, much darker comedy than you’d probably imagine. Zoey Deutch leads a good cast Kathryn Hahn, Adam Scott, Tim Heidecker, and an impressive Joey Morgan as the stepbrother our heroine never wanted.


Dir. Tabbert Fiiller
The Public Image is Rotten

Tabbert Fiiller’s debut documentary peels back the layers of former Sex Pistol and longtime Public Image Ltd frontman John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) in a career-spanning feature. Lydon’s a famously standoffish interview, but Fiiller’s laid back, conversational paints the punk innovator in a light that’s more open and reflective than we’ve ever seen him before. The insights into the many eras of his illustrious music career are, of course, enlightening and well-accompanied with some fantastic performance footage, but it’s the tiny glimpses he gives into his later years – in particular, the hiatus he took from music to raise his step-children – that’s most captivating.

Dir. Liz W. Garcia
One Percent More Humid

Juno Temple gives the performance of her young career in this slow-building drama. Iris (Temple) and her best friend, Catherine (Julia Garner), have the summer off between semesters in their small town New England college. It would normally be a time for lighthearted R&R, but both girls are still recouping emotionally from a car wreck that took the life of a friend and fellow passenger the prior spring. The movie focuses on each of their coping mechanisms and the way those color their actions and relationships: Iris with an older, married professor, and Catherine with the grieving brother of the victim. One Percent More Humid is the best sort of character piece, allowing time for each character’s innermost feelings to reveal themselves in a meandering (but incredibly rewarding) way.

Dare to Be Different
Best Soundtrack

This music-packed documentary looks back at WLIR 92.7, the ragtag New York radio station that for half a decade smack dab in the middle of the 1980s became our airwaves’ foremost tastemaker. Through interviews with their colorful crew and interviews with artists they championed, Dare to Be Different is soundtracked with songs by many of the bands they introduced to American radio, from Joan Jett, to U2, to Flock of Seagulls, the Cure, Billy Idol, and Adam Ant. Hands down, this documentary is one of the best ways to remember the ‘80s.

Nadia Alexander in ‘Blame’
Breakout Performance

Although director/writer/star Quinn Shephard’s film is impressive in every way for a first-time filmmaker – especially at 22 years old – the best and meatiest role went to Nadia Alexander, a relative newcomer whose previous credits include a few television and small film roles. She plays the film’s main antagonist, but her nuanced performance lifts her part beyond the token “mean girl” role to something far more vulnerable and interesting. Alexander rightfully won the Festival’s Best Actress award, which hopefully will lead to many more roles for the young actor.

The Island of the Colorblind
Best Immersive Experience

A small, beautiful island in the Pacific is populated by people carrying a rare gene that has taken away their ability to distinguish between colors. In this immersive experience by Sanne De Wilde, viewers were invited to enter, two-at-a-time, into a small dark room where they take a seat and don a pair of headphones. As the dim light rises, we see the large-format photographs of the island that cover the walls and hear a brief history of its inhabitants in our earphones. On the table before them are stacks of photos, brushes, and a set of watercolors, which the viewer is invited to paint with. Through tricks of lighting, it’s impossible to distinguish between colors on the palette; as the light shifts, so does our idea of what colors we are picking up on the ends of our brushes. It’s a mind-trip, but a thought-provoking one. Of all the experiences on display at the Tribeca Arcade, this may be the most impressive, as it doesn’t use VR headsets to shape our ideas, but turns our own eyes against us to get its fascinating point across.
Comments

The Best Movies We Saw at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

Posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2017 by Jamie Righetti


Another Tribeca Film Festival has come and gone, bringing a new slew of films you should look out for. This year’s festival was particularly jam-packed, with some incredible special events, including a 25th anniversary screening of Reservoir Dogs (using Quentin Tarantino’s personal 35mm copy) and cast panel, talks with industry legends such as Tom Hanks, Kathryn Bigelow and Dustin Hoffman, VR showcases, the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, and the literal godfather of all events, an all-day screening of The Godfather and The Godfather II with the cast and director Francis Ford Coppola assembled for a 45th anniversary retrospective panel and reunion to close out the festival.

Sandwiched in-between these star-studded events were some truly incredible films which I had the pleasure of screening and discovering during this sleepless stretch of two weeks. Here are the narrative titles that stood out, that shocked me, thrilled me and left me in dumbfounded awe by the end credits. Here are my Best of Tribeca 2017 films!


Pilgrimage

On the surface, Pilgrimage is a film about a group of monks attempting to carry a sacred relic to Rome, which might normally sound like a dull affair, except this period-piece also stars Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal and Richard Armitage, turning into a rugged road movie with hints of Silence as well as Game of Thrones. When a Cistercian monk (Stanley Webber) shows up at a remote Irish coastal monastery, he brings an order from the Pope: the monastery’s mysterious relic must be transported despite the immense danger. Diarmuid (Holland), a young novice joins the group of older monks as well as The Mute (Bernthal), a mysterious man who assists with hard labor at the monastery as a means of penance.

The Irish countryside is filled with danger, filled with bands of warring clans as well as Norman conquerors, like Raymond De Merville (Armitage), who has agreed to accompany the ragtag group, providing them with the security needed for safe passage. But De Merville has his eye on the gilded chest housing the holy relic, curious about the power it’s said to wield. And he’s also suspicious of the past that The Mute is trying to hide, igniting brutal conflict that will test the limits of young Diarmuid’s faith. Chock full of unapologetic violence and a stunning use of the rugged scenery, including a tense cat-and-mouse hunt in dense swamp fog, Pilgrimage is a stunning film worth keeping an eye out for.

[...]

Da holt seit langem das erste Mal wieder mal jemand Richards Akzent aus der Versenkung hervor: