2025 Tribeca Festival Preview: Part Two
Here we are. Back for part two of the 2025 Tribeca Festival preview! You can find part one here and part two down below. See you at the movies!
RIDE OR DIE
Courtesy of Tribeca
There’s something thrilling about high school crushes running into each other again, years after graduation. That’s the beginning of Ride or Die. As the connection deepens, the reunited twosome decides to drive across the country together. Of course, road trips never go as planned, and certainly not when they involve people who haven’t spoken to each other in years.
BACKSIDE
Courtesy of Tribeca
I am not, nor was I ever, a Horse Girl. No disrespect to the Horse Girls who live among us (and I recommend you check out Horsegirls, also playing at Tribeca). What’s drawing me to Backside is not the animals, but the behind-the-scenes look at the migrant workers who are the backbone of the horse racing industry. When you think of the Preakness or the Kentucky Derby, you think of the hats and the opulence, but the people who are responsible for the maintenance of the horses do not live that life.
NATCHEZ
Courtesy of Tribeca
Like Backside, Natchez looks to shine a light on a dichotomy that plays out before our very eyes. Named for the small town in Mississippi, Natchez offers an intimate look at the unreconciled history of the American South. Natchez is a town that needs antebellum-related tourism to keep them afloat, but how do they move forward if their means of existence is so rooted in the past?
ONE SPOON OF CHOCOLATE
Courtesy of Tribeca
Only a few people truly recognized the magic of the 2017 Power Rangers. I am one of those enlightened individuals. I’m bringing Power Rangers into this to say that I’ve been loving RJ Cyler for a long time, and he’s one of the main reasons I’m intrigued by One Spoon of Chocolate. The film is part of the Escape from Tribeca program, a place for the weird and strange. One Spoon of Chocolate is a bloody, throwback, action thriller about two Black men who get to the bottom of the large number of missing Black men in their Ohio town.
A BRIGHT FUTURE
Courtesy of Tribeca
I simply love the look of retrofuturism. It’s such a visual treat for me, and if I could, I’d make my home look like it belongs in Her or Fallout (before the bomb goes off). It’s that style that caught my eye when I was looking at A Bright Future. Tribeca describes it as “dystopian yet hopeful,” which honestly describes some of my favorite movies. A Bright Future takes place in a town that exists out of time where a young girl, Elisa, is selected to go to work in the North. It’s supposed to be a great honor, but Elisa begins to wonder if there’s something going on that’s different from what they’ve been told.
Honorable Mention: HAL & HARPER
Courtesy of Tribeca
You really thought I was going to make it through this whole list without mentioning that my guy Cooper Raiff’s television show is playing at the festival? Yeah, I already covered it when it premiered at Sundance, but since there are still no plans for this show to air anywhere, I’m begging you to see it if you can. It’s funny, gentle, and lonely-yet-hopeful, like all of Raiff’s lovely work.
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