The 2025 Tribeca Film Festival is off and running, and I’m doing virtual coverage again this year. I’ll be sharing reviews with you over these next couple weeks. Let’s dive in with some Week 1 highlights!
Cuerpo Celeste (Chile, Italy) *** – Adolescence can be an emotional roller coaster; likewise the grief process. Dealing with both at once is a daunting test of anyone’s mettle. Chilean writer-director Nayra Ilic Garcia’s meditative family drama opens on New Year’s Eve, 1990. Vivacious 15 year-old Celeste (Helen Mrugalski) is enjoying a beach holiday with her loving family and closest friends (I had to remind myself that Chile is below the equator).
This is not only a happy time for Celeste and her entourage, but for Chileans in general. General Pinochet’s brutal Junta is over for good, with democratically-elected Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin set to take office in March of the new year.
However, just when everything’s looking up, Fate intervenes with a sudden death in the family. Celeste’s double-whammy of having to cope with growing pains along with an emotionally traumatic personal loss gives impetus to this moving and sensitively acted coming-of-age story. Garcia subtly weaves political analogy in the narrative; using the specter of Chile’s “missing” to mirror a nation coming to terms with collective grief, and the growing pains of a revived democracy that has lain dormant for far too long.
Dog of God (Latvia, USA) *** – Witch hunt! Put Hammer horror, Ralph Bakshi, Peter Greenaway and Ken Russell in a blender, and out pops something that approximates co-directors Raitis and Lauris Ābele’s rotoscoped animation fantasy, set in a Livonian village in the 1600s. A comely herbalist/tavern maid (who may or may not be a witch), an impotent Duke, a malevolent Benedictine pastor and his long-suffering whipping boy, and a (sort of) werewolf all converge in this entertainingly over-the-top folk horror tale of superstition, dogma, and human frailty. Earthy, sexy, visceral, and hallucinogenic, with a dash of dark humor. Not for all tastes (or the squeamish), but adult animation fans should dig it.
Gonzo Girl (USA) *** – Mother of God, man…another film about Hunter S. Thompson?! Well yes…and no. Because you see, the adrenochrome-addled gonzo journalist pecking away at a bullet-riddled typewriter in Patricia Arquette’s dramedy is named “Walker Reade” (Willem Dafoe). A starry-eyed super-fan and aspiring writer named Alley (Camila Morrone) lucks into a gig as Reade’s writing assistant.
Reade’s muse has gone fallow; he has writer’s block and is under deadline pressure from his publisher to deliver a new book. While she takes initial warnings from his long-time, world-weary live-in assistant (played by Arquette) with a grain of salt, Alley soon learns that “writing assistant” could mean anything from “babysitter” to “caregiver”.
As one might expect, there are echoes here of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam (and yes, there is a requisite “first acid trip” escapade). That said, the film vibes more like a hybrid of All About Eve and Get Him to the Greek. Jessica Caldwell and Rebecca Thomas adapted the screenplay from Cheryl Della Pietra’s eponymous novel (which the author based on her real-life stint as Hunter S. Thompson’s assistant).
While at times a bit uneven in tone, Arquette’s directorial debut is,for the most part, an enjoyable romp for Hunter S. Thompson fans. Morrone gives an impressive performance, and Dafoe portrays Hunter with a typically idiosyncratic flourish (sans the somewhat self-conscious mannerisms that Bill Murray and Johnny Depp deployed in their characterizations).
Inside (Australia) **½ – Every time I try to swear off prison dramas…they pull me back in (and throw away the key). In the case of writer-director Charles Williams’ Inside, I was intrigued by the casting. Guy Pearce plays a grizzled long-term inmate who becomes mentor to a young man (Vincent Miller) who has just been transferred from a juvenile facility. When a notorious lifer (Cosmo Jarvis) who fancies himself a religious prophet takes an interest in the new inmate, an uneasy surrogate father triangle ensues.
There are three solid, intense performances here by the leads, but there are jarring narrative jumps which require some heavy lifting by the viewer. It’s possible that I was thrown off by the odd tics of Jarvis’ character. It’s an interesting performance (along the lines of Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade character), but frankly I could not understand three-quarters of his dialog (perhaps a second viewing wherein I have the option of close-captioning will clarify some plot points for me). Until then…a guarded recommendation.
Peruse my Tribeca review archives (and more) at Den of Cinema
— Dennis Hartley