Reviews

Kurt Brokaw's top shorts from Tribeca 2013 include The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars, Wilt Chamberlain: Borscht Belt Bellhop, Snow in Paradise, Fool’s Day and The Root of the Problem.

Tribeca Film Festival has wrapped but Kurt Brokaw's critic's choices from the fest will no doubt be in theaters near you and on the Oscar Red carpet. So far he's named his features: Before Midnight, Some Velvet Morning, Trust Me, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Shorts to come!

"Perhaps Fanni and Anna will soldier on down the road together, like an Austrian Thelma and Louise," writes senior critic Kurt Brokaw, about Soldate Jeannette, one of his critic's choices from New Directors/New Films 2013. Films about pirate hijacking, reality show competitors, and family secrets also make his cut.

From speed typing to horse jumping, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendez-vous With French Cinema serves up its 18th year from February 28th through March 10th. Kurt Brokaw chooses his favorites, at least one, he says, may make your heart melt "into your knees."

You know the story, writes Maddy Kadish, about Fruitvale, but you also know THE story. Director Ryan Coogler's fictionalized account of the shooting of an unarmed young man in Oakland, California picked up two of Sundance's most prestigious awards.

Neil Kendricks sizes up three award-winning documentaries from the Sundance line-up: Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer, Cutie and the Boxer, and American Promise. The latter two, he writes, "deliver life-affirming and memorable stories without surrendering to sentimentality or phony uplift."

"Koch is one of us. He's family," writes Kurt Brokaw about the documentary that lifts up the imperfect politician. Koch is among Brokaw's critic's choices from the 22nd New York Jewish Film Festival, screening at Lincoln Center from January 9-24, 2013.

Beth Toni Kruvant's David Bromberg: Unsung Treasure, Jorge Hinojosa's Iceberg Slim: Portrait Of A Pimp, and the pot-stirring Ken Burns/Sarah Burns/David McMahon doc, The Central Park Five, are Kurt Brokaw's critic's choices from DOC NYC. The third annual all-documentary festival takes place November 8-15, 2012.