The Standouts At This Year's Tribeca Film Festival Were TV Shows, Actually

It’s always a crapshoot at a film festival. Countless movies from across genres, formats and languages all vie for attention. Some are marquee titles from big-name talent, while others are smaller films that are catapulted by a flurry of conversations permeating throughout the event.  

Those rarely include TV shows, unless you count “The Idol” at Cannes recently, which most definitely did not fare well there .   

But at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, where 109 feature films screened, TV was by far the standout. And it didn’t have much competition.  

It’s not that there wasn’t potential in the features slate. It was a program that boasted a bevy of documentaries about known figures like costume designer Patricia Field, singer Gloria Gaynor, guitar legend Carlos Santana and news anchor Dan Rather. And they all fell right in line with other recent docs that are more empty fan service than anything else . 

Bold-faced names like actors Pam Grier and Tessa Thompson also starred in dramatic features “Cinnamon” and “The Listener,” respectively.  

Intriguing storytelling from newer voices like director Georden West’s “Playland,” which reflects on a bygone queer hangout in Boston, and Cree filmmaker Cody Lightning’s over-the-top mockumentary “Hey Viktor!” delivered less remarkable outcomes than their premises. 

There were, however, some more interesting fare among the features.  

Gabrielle Union and “The L Word: Generation Q ” star Jillian Mercado anchor the fun and breezy romantic films “The Perfect Find” from director Numa Perrier and Nathan Morris’ short “My Eyes Are Up Here,” respectively. “Hereditary” star Alex Wolff also takes on yet another complicated role of a conflicted fraternity brother in filmmaker Ethan Berger’s “The Line.” 

Meanwhile, Randall Park’s feature directorial debut “Shortcomings” and filmmaker Tim Story’s “The Blackening” aim for subversive comedies with thoughtful racial subtext. But both, at the same time, feel very safe and familiar.   

The episodics delivered far more surprising, bold and thoroughly satisfying stories throughout the festival this year. Well, two in particular: “Diarra from Detroit” and “The Horror of Dolores Roach.” And, of course, they both have already been acquired. “Diarra” is the first project from BET Studios and will stream on BET+, and “Dolores” will be on Prime Video. 

Full reviews are embargoed until closer to their release dates — July 7 for “Dolores” and later this year for “Diarra” — but it shouldn’t hurt to say that they’re so unexpected, darkly entertaining and singular. And that’s surprising to get from “The Horror of Dolores Roach,” since even the trailer reveals its strong “Sweeney Todd” vibes.  

Oh, and while these shows have an array of amazing guest stars, they both star women of color. Justina Machado, most recently known for “One Day at a Time,” plays the title character in “Dolores,” a woman who’s just completed a 16-year jail stint and returns to her old Washington Heights neighborhood trying to pick up the pieces of her life.     

But gentrification and minimal options for former convicts leaves Dolores with no choice but to crash at a shady friend’s (Alejandro Hernandez) home beneath his empanada shop, and try to make money with the one skill she picked up in prison: giving massages. But things take a very, very dark turn when old wounds resurface.  

Circumstances go the same way for creator Diarra Kilpatrick’s similarly well-meaning, self-titled character in “Diarra from Detroit.” Kilpatrick, who previously astounded on Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone” and the other TV comedy she also created, “American Koko,” plays a teacher in the midst of a messy divorce and on the rebound.

She thinks she’s found someone promising on, shockingly, Tinder. But when he ghosts her, her true crime podcast-obsessed mind propels her to pursue a dangerous mystery. 

Both these series are so exciting that to say more would mean getting into a whole conversation about everything that makes them great. And we can’t — not right now, anyway. 

But there’s something to be said about how TV shows could possibly stand out at a festival that champions audacious, often independent, filmmaking. And, in general, there’s been far less online chatter around the festival, outside of traditional reviews — nothing on the level of, say, Cannes or even Sundance this year.  

There could be several factors at play here. Even with the festival’s virtual screening platform offering access to more viewers, it feels like there’s been less fanfare this year. It could be that now in year three of the pandemic some people might still have qualms about heading back to theaters. Others have also felt uninspired by the festival offerings in general.  

Tribeca is also among the first major film festivals, outside of Cannes, to occur amid the WGA writers strike , which certainly was top of mind for many audience members and talent at the recent ATX TV Festival.   

But none of this negates the surprising lack of must-sees at a festival rooted in a heartland of creativity: New York City. It’s also kind of wild that, even with the consistent discussion around the excess of TV right now , the small screen dominated a film festival.  

It’s easy to suggest that this might have something to do with the level of talent drawn to TV right now. But really, “Diarra from Detroit” and “The Horror of Dolores Roach” are just that good.