TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "VERY SEMI-SERIOUS"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...The New Yorker has had comical cartoons appearing in it since the 1930’s. The idea has always been the same, choose jokes that happen quickly, clearly and cleverly. The cartoons that have appeared in the New Yorker for all of these years really is a sort of time capsule to see how our society has changed and what we have gone through.
VERY SEMI-SERIOUS, explores this history, but also delves into how the cartoons get selected and what the process is. Interviews are held between previously published cartoonists and up and comers, as well as the editor and cartoon assistants. Interspersed between these short quirky interviews are some of the best cartoons each artist has sold, or hasn’t been able to sell. Bob Mankoff may be the focus of the film, but it moves quickly from person to person, brilliantly illustrating the world of the New Yorker.
Mankoff sifts through hundreds of cartoons each day, and on Tuesdays has open appointments fr cartoonists to come and share their work. To do this job, he must move quickly, and decide even quicker which jokes work and which do not. The film matches Mankoff’s editing pace, by zipping from one cartoonist to the next, telling short anecdotes and tiny slivers of these artists’ lives and asking some interesting questions. What are their motivations? Where do they come from? Where are they going?
The best part of the film is that it never loses its dryly comedic and quirky voice, but covers some serious material. We revisit the only cartoon that was published in the first New Yorker edition after 9/11. We are welcomed to see the edge of grief that Mankoff and his wife live on after the loss of their son. These are glimpses that keep the film honest, but are dealt in moderation so as to keep the piece upbeat and fast paced. This is a Must See for anyone who likes Farside comics, New York, or art in general.
VERDICT: MUST SEE
DIRECTED BY Leah Wolchok CINEMATOGRAPHY BY Kirsten Johnson
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.