Robert De Niro’s annual festival begins on April 16, and though BuzzFeed has only begun to see the offerings, here are the feature films we’re most looking forward to.
About Alex
Starring: Maggie Grace, Max Greenfield, Jane Levy, Max Minghella, Nate Parker, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Ritter
Directed by: Jesse Zwick
Zwick's upcoming directorial debut brings together some of the stars of the best comedies currently on television — Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza, New Girl's Max Greenfield, and Suburgatory's Jane Levy — to tell the story of a group of former college friends who reunite after one of them suffers an emotional breakdown. The drama is specific to twentysomethings of today in that the seven former classmates realize that once they're together again, despite keeping up with each other facelessly through technology, they don’t know each other as well as they once did. Of course, with a cast with such comedic prowess, the movie will have its lighter moments. Zwick, who also wrote the screenplay, told Entertainment Weekly that About Alex is "a drama but with comedic elements," which, he explains, is "much truer to life this way, especially in the wake of tragedy." Considering his other writing credit is a Season 4 episode of NBC's Parenthood, which also starred Ritter, Zwick should be able to master that balance. —Jaimie Etkin
Andre Lascaris
Alex of Venice
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Don Johnson, Derek Luke, Katie Nehra, Chris Messina, Skylar Gaertner
Directed by: Chris Messina
Playing everyone’s favorite curmudgeonly heartthrob doctor on The Mindy Project, popping up on The Newsroom, and acting in multiple movies every year isn’t enough for Chris Messina, who makes his debut as a filmmaker with Alex of Venice. Messina also appears in the film as a man who leaves his marriage, but the focus is on his workaholic lawyer wife, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who struggles to get her life and family back in balance after the end of the relationship. Actors turned directors tend to give more emphasis to the performances in their films, and with Winstead, terrific in 2012’s Smashed, in the starring role here, that’s a very good thing. —Alison Willmore
Melissa Moseley
Begin Again
Starring: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine, James Corden, Yasiin Bey, Cee Lo Green, Catherine Keener
Directed by: John Carney
Once writer-director John Carney is back on the romantic musical movie beat with Begin Again, which will close this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The Judd Apatow–produced movie sees college sweethearts Gretta (Keira Knightley) and Dave (Adam Levine) head to New York when he lands a deal with a major label. But as they drift apart, she meets disgraced record label exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo) while performing in the East Village. After the movie, which was originally titled Can a Song Save Your Life?, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Variety's Peter Debruge wrote, "Precious few music producers seem to pay attention to lyrics anymore, but the words matter here, often more than the dialogue itself (some of which Carney allows the actors to improvise, to mixed effect, clearly taking a cue from Apatow) as the songs say what the humans sometimes can't." I will be bringing tissues. —J.E.
The Weinstein Company
Electric Slide
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Isabel Lucas, Chloe Sevigny, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Lambert
Directed by: Tristan Patterson
Tristan Patterson’s first film was Dragonslayer, a dreamy, poetic documentary about a pro skateboarder’s struggles with maturity that won multiple festival awards. Electric Slide finds the filmmaker taking the leap into narrative movies and, by the looks of it, not shedding one bit of his sense of style. Jim Sturgess (Cloud Atlas) plays Eddie Dodson, the real-life “Gentleman Bank Robber” who supported his swank lifestyle and taste for drugs with a record number of holdups. Isabel Lucas, Chloe Sevigny, and others join Sturgess in donning ‘80s duds for this true crime story that appears to have plenty of swagger. —A.W.
Beth Dubber
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