The Tribeca Festival is always full of gems, and the 2023 iteration is no exception.
You might see a future Oscar winner, like the Netflix documentary American Factory (which debuted at Sundance first), while sometimes, you’ll have to wait months for everyone else to catch up. While I only got to see a fraction of the dozens of movies screened there, here’s what will stick with me well into the rest of the year.
And if you missed out on the fun, fear not: You can still purchase tickets to watch several Tribeca films and documentaries right at home between now and July 2. I’ll be there right with you.
The Perfect Find
Release Date: June 23, 2023 (Netflix)
Netflix’s rom-coms can be hit or miss, and fortunately for us, The Perfect Find (an adaptation of Tia Williams’ 2016 novel) is among the former. It places Gabrielle Union front and center as Jenna, a 40-year-old who, after losing her job and her 10-year relationship, works for her rival (played by the always-great Gina Torres) at a fashion magazine. But an instant connection with Eric (Keith Powers), a much younger aspiring filmmaker, threatens to blow up her new life when she learns he’s not just her new coworker—he’s also her boss’ son.
The question isn’t so much about whether Jenna and Eric will get together; it’s a rom-com, and like most romantic comedies, there are few truly surprising plot twists along the way. It’s more about the journey, seeing these characters try and fail to keep things professional, watching them get closer and push each other away, and seeing the chemistry take over the screen. Plus, it’s wildly funny, and sometimes the comedy is as hard to nail down as the romance.
Elemental
Release Date: June 16, 2023 (Theatrical, followed by Disney+)
Speaking of rom-coms, it turns out that Pixar, whose films have been a fundamental part of the animation medium for over two decades, is great at those, too! In Elemental, director Peter Sohn uses the elements for a flawed but often compelling allegory for an immigrant story and a romance between Ember (Leah Lewis) and Wade (Mamoudou Athie). Their meet-cute arrives when Wade literally bursts into her life (through the previously dry water pipes), which could lead to any number of outcomes: The end of the family shop, parts of Element City crumbling down, an existential crisis about what Ember wants to do with her life, and maybe even love. That is, if they can get around the biggest hurdle in their budding relationship: She’s made of fire, he’s a water being, and elements don’t mix.
Pixar’s had some rotten luck at the box office lately as several titles went straight to Disney+ and Lightyear (the first Pixar movie to get a theatrical release since Onward) floundered. Elemental won’t change that after opening to a new low. But if you have the chance, seek this one out in theaters: The visuals are dazzling, and the key rom-com moment hit hard enough that my audience cheered when it happened.
The Saint of Second Chances
Release Date: September 2023 (Netflix)
Casual baseball fans might not know the name Veeck (rhymes with “wreck”), but chances are you may be familiar with the mark that Bill, who owned several baseball teams before you had to be a billionaire to do it, and his son Mike left on the sport: To name one example, they’re basically responsible for introducing a lot of the gimmicky promos to entice people to attend the game that you see in baseball stadiums today. But one of those promos, Disco Demolition Night at a Chicago White Sox game in July 1979, was so disastrous that it partly led to Bill getting out of the game entirely and Mike being blackballed from the major leagues for over two decades.
Decades later, in a documentary from Morgan Neville, Mike reflects back on his downfall and the years it took to make his mark again. It takes a unique approach in telling the story—Jeff Daniels narrates, and when Mike isn’t talking to the camera, he’s playing his father Bill in recreations while Charlie Day steps in to play Mike’s younger self—that reminded me a bit of the 2020 documentary Dick Johnson Is Dead. But it also captures the triumphs and tragedies of America’s pastime with a personal tale befitting a sport offering that drama on the field.
The League
Release Date: July 7, 2023 (theatrical); July 14, 2023 (VOD)
Director Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI) sheds a long-overdue light on a major aspect of professional baseball’s history. With the use of archival footage and interviews (some of which are decades old, others taped more recently), the history of the Negro Leagues, the collective of Black baseball leagues that popped up, rose, and fell in the decades after Black players were barred from playing on Major League Baseball teams. It’s not because they didn’t deserve those spots: White players’ refusal to play against Black athletes, Jim Crow, and a long-serving racist MLB commissioner played big roles in keeping those players out of the MLB for decades.
The breadth of talent that emerged from the Negro Leagues before heading to an integrated MLB is vast (not just Jackie Robinson). The influence, from how athletes play the game to the invention of the screwball, is immense. But there are also so many fascinating stories shared in The League that you get annoyed that you’re only learning about them now.
First Time Female Director
Release Date: 2024 (Roku)
Chelsea Peretti’s feature directorial debut gets meta as she directs herself in a movie where she’s playing a first-time female director. Only, instead of making a movie, Sam (Peretti) is a playwright propped up to direct her own play at a local theater in Glendale, California, when the play’s original director is canceled for sexual misconduct. Like many women hired in leadership positions in the aftermath of a scandal, she’s being set up to cover the venue’s ass and set up to fail. And she has a lot on her plate as she is faced with a temperamental cast, an usher who wants to step into one of the roles, her boss, donors, an unhelpful therapist, and bubbling insecurity.
Much will probably be made about the murderer’s row of comedians Peretti got to appear in First Time Female Director, but it’s hilarious and depressing in its own right. And with Roku snapping up the rights before its premiere, it’s also one of the big gets of the festival.
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
Release Date: June 28, 2023 (MAX)
Director Stephen Kijak leans on clips from the vast filmography of matinee idol Rock Hudson to convey the depth of meaning in a heartfelt exploration of the actor’s life. Positioned as one of the last big movie stars who would become one of the first major figures to die from AIDS (in 1985, at age 59), Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed depicts the double life that, as a closeted actor, Hudson would’ve had to navigate in a time when fanzines were invested in the fantasy of hetero-masculinity that he sold, and the tabloids would’ve been all too happy to blow up his career and ruin his life by outing him on the cover of a magazine. In some ways, it echoes something some actors in Hollywood are still facing, as they still feel they can’t publicly embrace who they are.
Hudson isn’t around to tell his story, but many of the people whose lives he touched over the years—colleagues and old friends alike—fill in some of those gaps. When the very future of cinema history is threatened, it’s more important than ever to remember the past.
