Unspool Hollywood

‘Magazine Dream’ Starring Jonathan Majors

Director and Writer: Elijah Bynum
Starring: Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, Harrison Page, Harriet Sansom Harris, Mike O'Hearn
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Run time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Language: English
Country: United States

Director and writer Elijah Bynum’s ‘Magazine Dream’ share the life and challenges of Killian Maddox (Jonathan Majors), an aspiring bodybuilder and mentally ill grocery store worker, who lives with grandfather Paw-Paw after his father killed his mother and committed suicide.

The other stars of the film are Jessie (Haley Bennett), a grocery store worker and Killian's love-interest; Pink Coat (Taylour Paige), a sex worker; Brad Vanderhorn (Mike O'Hearn), a professional bodybuilder and Killian's idol; William Lattimore (Harrison Page), Killian's grandfather; Patricia Waldron (Harriet Sansom Harris), Killian's counselor; Ken Donaghue (Bradley Stryker), a roofing and plumbing worker who assaults Killian; Dr. Prescott (Dan Donahue), Killian's doctor; (Craig Cackowski), as a bodybuilding contest judge who placed Killian poorly; the Head Judge (David Maurice Johnson) of the regional bodybuilding competition.

Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment
Production Companies: Los Angeles Media Fund, JF Productions
Producers: Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy, Jeffrey Soros, Simon Horsman, Luke Rogers
Cinematographer: Adam Arkapaw
Editor: Jon Otazua
Music: Jason Hill

Tribeca Festival is proud to present… TV and NOW

They’re here! Announcing the Official Selections for television and indie episodic series at this year’s Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX. From June 4-15, we’ll be screening some of the most exciting (and entertaining) programs on network and streaming, and we want you there.

Buy a Hudson pass or ticket package today to secure your seat at the Festival, and take advantage of our special announcement sale pricing while it lasts!

From never-before-seen series premieres to the new seasons of multiple fan-favorite shows, this year’s Festival has it all.

Settle into dynastic family dramas with the Season 3 premiere of Max’s The Gilded Age (starring Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector and Cynthia Nixon) and the series premieres of BritBox miniseries Outrageous and Prime Video’s We Were Liars. Enter the unknown with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, and step into the 60’s with the Season 4 finale of Godfather of Harlem. Scratch your true crime itch with the World Premieres of AMC docuseries The Furry Detectives: Unmasking a Monster and Apple TV+ detective thriller Smoke.

Check out the full TV program here.

But wait—there’s more! Tribeca prides itself on celebrating independent filmmakers across every medium, including television. Our NOW category boasts some of the most daring indie episodic programs in the marketplace today.

In the NOW Special Screenings category, find the New York Premiere of sibling dramedy Hal & Harper from writer/director/actor Cooper Raiff. Or, catch a docuseries World Premiere: see a unique side of the beauty pageant circuit with Mrs. America and discover the untold battle of the famed ‘90s ‘Got Milk’ campaign in The Price of Milk.

The NOW Showcase might just have your next favorite show. Fans of Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody will delight in the marital dramedy Seasoned, and the family fun keeps coming with mother-son kidney transplant drama Mother, May I Have a Kidney? Comedy legends lift off to new heights in Jeremy Beiler’s Earth to Percy and check in to unexpected places with Joanna Leeds’ Bulldozer.

See the full NOW program here.

Now that we’ve got you excited, it’s time to get those tickets. To secure your seat before everyone else, buy a Festival pass or package, or sign up for Tribeca Membership today. The most anticipated events will sell out before tickets go on sale to the general public on April 29.

‘Uncle Roy’ from acclaimed LGBTQ+ filmmaking team Keri Pickett and Dawn Mikkelson

“Uncle Roy” is a poignant exploration of family, memory, and artistic legacy. Filmmaker Keri Pickett delves into the life of her 93-year-old uncle, Roy Blakey, a trailblazer in theatrical ice skating and gay male photography. Their deep bond, as the last members of their family tree, is revealed through decades of recent and archival footage.

Roy’s story spans from the Depression-era to the present, beginning with his career in 1950s and 60s ice shows, finding an authentic gay life in the world of touring performances. He became a celebrated photographer in 1970s New York, as a second career, capturing stars like Debbie Allen, Shirley MacLaine, and Divine. He pioneered contemporary male nude photography with his groundbreaking book, HE (1972). Inspired by Roy, Keri followed in his footsteps, becoming a photographer and strengthening their lifelong connection.

FROM DIRECTOR KERI PICKETT
This is a personal documentary about my uncle, our relationship, and our dreams, and there is no one better to tell this story than me. Our family is very small, and we all share a desire to preserve history. Roy’s parents, my grandparents, were polaroid-carrying genealogists and their love story inspired a nation (“Love in the ‘90s” 1995). Roy’s success inspired me to believe in my dream of becoming a photographer. Roy’s 8mm film clips helped turn me into a documentary filmmaker.

I have decades of footage, and it is hard to know where to start to tell such a story. It is all important to me. Having an outside eye on the larger themes, as well as the funny little moments, led me to partner with Dawn Mikkelson, my co-director from our film Finding Her Beat,” as producer and editor. She has helped me find the balance between personal, lived experience and finding the true essence of the story.

Dawn and I have assembled a number of trusted industry allies as well as journalistic-minded friends, leaning on them to see if the emotions resonate, as we work to ensure that “Uncle Roy” entertains as it maintains a unique and authentic intimacy. This is a story clearly connected to universal themes of caregiving, legacy, and family.

Dawn has a history of making documentary films on topics of caregiving, palliative care, and late-life care, and we plan to bring in caregiving consultants as another partnership and data point, ensuring that this project is informed by their insights into these difficult themes.

Los Angeles Premiere for “Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day” Follow-Up to Iconic Indie “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”

Director: Ed Cunningham
Producers: Jonathan Perkins, Seth Gordon and Mike J. Nichols
Writers: Ed Cunningham, Mike J. Nichols, and Paul Leach
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Executive producers: Ed Cunningham, Byron Ashley, Scott Jackson, Harrison Kordestani Kerry, Cathy Loveland and Paul Campoamor
Editor: Mike J. Nichols.

Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day is a musical documentary following 74-year-old Walter Day - the father of esports and star of The King of Kong - as he battles a lawsuit threatening his legacy while fulfilling his dream of recording and performing the rock-opera style love songs he has been hearing in his head since having his heart broken at the height of the arcade era.

Director Ed Cunningham’s Statement: The King of Kong premiered at Slamdance 2007 to a packed house of just the right type of audience. As the filmmakers, we could not have selected a better group of people to be the first to see something we had lived with for three years. The gamers, tech-types and doc lovers were all into it from frame one. “Is this real?” “Get a load of that guy.” The whispers, laughs and touching moments were all hitting. Then the projector overheated and shutdown. As the director sprinted up the aisle to help, I just listened. The break in tension allowed everyone to check in with each other. We knew the film could be seen as mocking people we had grown to love, doubt and admire and had worked tirelessly to present them truthfully and empathetically. And this audience got it. From that night forward, the original documentary has changed many people’s lives – for better and worse – so when Billy Mitchell called to tell me Walter Day was being sued based on things that happened in our movie, I began helping make sure he was properly defended. In a lawsuit strategy meeting I learned that some King of Kong fans were funding Walter to produce and perform the songs he had been hearing in his head since having his heart broken in the ‘80s, a story he shared in the original film. I felt a responsibility to document the conclusion to Walter’s journey and it was also a great opportunity because I love his music and want to help get out in the world.

‘The Accountant 2′ Starring Ben Affleck in Theaters April 25, 2025

Release date: April 25, 2025 (United States)
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Writer: Bill Dubuque
Based on Characters by Bill Dubuque
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, J. K. Simmons
Genre: Action, thriller
Ratings: R
Run time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English

Director Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant 2 is the sequel to the 2016 film The Accountant that tells the story of Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), The Accountant an accountant who launders money for some of the most dangerous criminals in the world; Braxton (Jon Bernthal), Christian's brother; Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), a young Treasury agent; Anaïs (Daniella Pineda); Justine (Allison Robertson); Raymond King (J. K. Simmons), the Director of the Treasury Department's FinCEN, Burke (Robert Morgan), Cobb (Grant Harvey) and Batu (Andrew Howard)

Production companies: Artists Equity, 51 Entertainment, Zero Gravity Management, Filmtribe
Distributors: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (through Amazon MGM Studios; United States)
Warner Bros. Pictures (International)
Producers: Ben Affleck, Lynette Howell Taylor, Mark Williams
Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey
Editor: Richard Pearson
Music: Bryce Dessner

Tribeca Festival Announcing the 2025 Feature Film Lineup

Tribeca Festival’s 2025 Features Lineup is Here

Festival season is officially upon us! Announcing our complete lineup of feature films for the 2025 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX. Running June 4-15 all over NYC, this year’s festival will kick off with a night of music, featuring the world premiere of Billy Joel: And So It Goes.

Make sure you’re at the front of the line for tickets to your top-choice screenings. Buy a Hudson Pass, ticket package, or membership now to secure your spot before single tickets go on sale on 4/29 (and take advantage of our exclusive announcement sale pricing!).

Here is just a sampling of our incredible slate of features this year. See the full list.

Our buzziest films, with the biggest stars, divided into three must-see categories.

Spotlight Narratives brings audiences the most anticipated premieres from acclaimed filmmakers and stars. You’ll find everything from true life dramas like Tow starring Rose Byrne, Demi Lovato, and Octavia Spencer, romantic comedy The Best You Can starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick (together again on screen for the first time in 20 years!), and even something for the kids (or kids at heart) with Universal Pictures’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon starring Mason Thames, Nico Parker and Gerard Butler.

Spotlight Documentaries is where you’ll find the biggest names in nonfiction, both onscreen and off the camera, premiering high-profile new work. Including titles like Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything, Andy Kaufman is Me, and Titan: the OceanGate Disaster, these are the documentaries you’ll be thinking about long after you leave the theater.

And then there’s Spotlight+, where special events extend the film experience beyond the screen with live conversations and performances. Here’s where you’ll get to see the highly-anticipated world premiere of Miley Cyrus’ self-directed visual album Something Beautiful, followed by a conversation with Cyrus herself. And that’s not all – our Spotlight+ programming also features conversations with comedian Marc Maron, music legends Depeche Mode, Ty Dolla $ign, and the members of Metallica, and a slate of intimate performances by artists like Billy Idol, Eddie Vedder, Becky G, and so much more.

Check out our Spotlight Narratives, Spotlight Documentaries, and Spotlight+ here.

From US Narratives to International Films, and Documentaries to Viewpoints, these are the awards-eligible films that blew us away with their poignant takes on the world around us. Featuring 118 feature films from 135 filmmakers across 36 countries, our Features Competition finalists are where you’ll see the next big thing in film.

See all the films in competition here.

Genre film fans, get ready to scream (in delight). Escape from Tribeca showcases the most surprising, shocking, frightening, and thrilling late-night films of the Festival. This year’s program features titles like the zombie + drag horror comedy Queens of the Dead, One Spoon of Chocolate directed by RZA, a double feature from the legendary Andy Milligan, and much, much more.

Check out our full list of Escape from Tribeca features here.

With 118 feature films representing 94 world premieres, 135 filmmakers, 36 countries, and big names like Bryan Cranston, Kevin Bacon, Lucy Liu, Allison Janney, Orlando Bloom and more, Tribeca Festival 2025 is stacked with can’t-miss events.

Passes and packages are the key to selecting your films before single tickets go on sale April 29. Buy a pass or package before this Friday (4/18) to get our exclusive announcement pricing and to make sure you don’t miss out on your first choice of films, events, and experiences.

Award-winning author Mariana Enriquez-‘FIRST WORD ON HORROR’ (ETCH): View New Clip

FWOH-Episode Poster- Adela's House by Santiago Caruso (ETCH)

Director: Philip Gelatt
Producers: Will Battersby
Director of Photography: Sean Kirby, Composer Peter Scartabello
Editor: April Merl
Sound Designer: Ben Cheah

Documentary series FIRST WORD ON HORROR is now available on Substack and currently featuring episodes from Stephen Graham Jones (The Only Good Indians, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter), Paul Tremblay (The Cabin At The End Of The World), Elizabeth Hand (A Haunting On the Hill, Hokuloa Road, The Cass Neary Crime Novels), Laird Barron (The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All; The Wind Began to Howl; and Not a Speck of Light (Stories)) and Mariana Enriquez (Our Share Of Night, A Sunny Place For Shady People) premiering NEXT WEEK on APRIL 24. Four of the authors featured in the series (Including Enriquez) have recently been shortlisted for this year's prestigious Bram Stoker Awards.

ABOURT MARIANA ENRIQUEZ
Mariana Enriquez is a writer based in Buenos Aires. In English, she has published the novel Our Share of Night and three story collections, A Sunny Place For Shady People, Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which was a finalist for the International Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction. She has also recently been shortlisted for this year's prestigious Bram Stoker Awards.

ABOUT SANTIAGO CARUSO is an Argentine artist. His work cultivates a language of novel and personal rhetoric, although grounded in the symbolist aesthetics. Among his many works are illustrated versions of Jane Eyre (Folio Society); The Chants of Maldoror (Valdemar); The Dunwich Horror, The Bloody Countess, The Monk and the Hangman´s Daughter, The King of Yellow (Libros del Zorro Rojo); Materia Oscura, El Eco de mis Muertes (Aguijón de la Noche); The Walls of the Castle, The Booking (Black Labyrinth).He has made book covers for Tartarus Press, Actes Sud, Planeta, Sudamericana and Páginas de Espuma. Also he develops album covers for various bands in America and Europe. You can find his artwork in galleries and museums of Argentina, United States, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.

ABOUT ETCH

Etch is an independent animation and production company run by the award-winning trio of Philip Gelatt, Will Battersby and Morgan Galen King. Specializing in the provocative, intelligent and innovative, as well as fantastical and horrific, Etch seeks to put the dark magic back into moving images.

Etch has expertise in animation, documentary and feature production and a core philosophy of maintaining ownership and creative control through novel approaches to production and distribution.

‘ONE to ONE: JOHN & YOKO’ in IMAX Today!

Magnolia Pictures, HBO Documentary Films & Mercury Studios Present A Plan B/KM

Exclusively in IMAX today April 11

TICKETS NOW ON SALE:
https://www.imax.com/johnandyoko

Director: Kevin MacDonald
Producer: Peter Worsley
Editor and Co-directed: Sam Rice-Edwards
Producers: Kevin MacDonald, Alice Webb
Executive Producers: Sean Ono Lennon, Marc Robinson, David Joseph, Steve Condie, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
Music: Sean Ono Lennon

Director Kevin Macdonald’s ‘ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO’ provides the ultimate behinds the scenes of his monumental One to One Benefit Concert that took place on August 30, 1972t, his one and only full-length concert after the leaving Th e Beatles, to raise money for disabled and abused children, after watching a Geraldo Rivera special on television. A television habit that went to the extreme
It provides an in dept look at their lives, after giving up their 70 acres estate in England to live in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village, New York

The use of actual audio recording of their telephone conversation, video footage brings them both to life.

Hearing Yoko talk about the verbal abuse she suffered in England, after meeting John, reminds me of what Prince Harry and Dutchess Megahn have suffered after her relationship and marriage. She talked about how she developed a stutter because of the bullying and abuse

Listening to their performances, you think it could not get any better and then, they have these wonderful musical guests that takes things over the top.

One to One: John & Yoko is a great documentary , whose story gives a inside look at the Man and his Lady.

‘The Amateur: When Love Turns You into The Pro’ Starring Rami Malek in Theaters Today, April 11th

Director: James Hawes
Screenplay: Ken Nolan, Gary Spinelli
Based on: The Amateur by Robert Littell
Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Laurence Fishburne
Genres: Vigilante, Action, Spy
Rating: PG-13
Country: United States
Language: English

Director James Hawes’ spy thriller ‘The Amateur” takes you on the harrowing journey of Charles "Charlie" Heller (Rami Malek), a CIA cryptographer, whose job it is to practice and study the techniques necessary for secure communication in the presence of potential or actual threat , loses his wife Sarah Horowitz (Rachel Brosnahan) in a London terrorist attack and decides to take matter into his own hand, after being trained by Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), when all else fails.

The location for filming adds to the intrigue of the thrill as you travel through London, south-east of England, France and Turkey with Charlie as he becomes the pro in his quest to find his wife’s killers.

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe, editor Jonathan Amos and music man Volker Bertelmann brings The Amateur all together for an enjoyable movie experience,

The additional cast members are Inquiline Davies (Caitríona Balfe), Sean Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg), CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore, Charlie's boss, Samantha O'Brien (Julianne Nicholson), Caleb Horowitz (Danny Sapani), Jackson O'Brien, a.k.a. The Bear (Jon Bernthal), Carlos (Adrian Martinez), The Professor ( Takehiro Hira), Mishka Blazhic (Marc Rissmann), Ellish (Joseph Millson) Ali Park (Alice Hewkin), Henry Garrett

The Amateur provides plenty of excitement as Charlie starts his travels in Europe as an amateur and becomes the ultimate professional.

Release date: April 11, 2025
Distributor: 20th Century Studios
Production company: Hutch Parker Entertainment
Producers: Hutch Parker, Dan Wilson, Rami Malek, Joel B. Michaels
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Cinematographer: Martin Ruhe
Editor: Jonathan Amos

Los Angeles Premiere Monkey Wrench Films’ Theatrical Release of “Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day” Follow-Up to Iconic Indie “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”

Director: Ed Cunningham
Producers: Jonathan Perkins, Seth Gordon, and Mike J. Nichols
Writers: iEd Cunningham, Mike J. Nichols, and Paul Leach
Executive producers: Ed Cunningham, Byron Ashley, Scott Jackson, Harrison Kordestani Kerry, Cathy Loveland and Paul Campoamor
Editor: Mike J. Nichols

Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day is the feature film directorial debut of award-winning filmmaker Ed Cunningham that tells the story of 74-year-old Walter Day - the father of esports and star of The King of Kong - as he battles a lawsuit threatening his legacy while fulfilling his dream of recording and performing the rock-opera style love songs he has been hearing in his head since having his heart broken at the height of the arcade era.

Director’s Statement: The King of Kong premiered at Slamdance 2007 to a packed house of just the right type of audience. As the filmmakers, we could not have selected a better group of people to be the first to see something we had lived with for three years. The gamers, tech-types and doc lovers were all into it from frame one. “Is this real?” “Get a load of that guy.” The whispers, laughs and touching moments were all hitting. Then the projector overheated and shutdown. As the director sprinted up the aisle to help, I just listened. The break in tension allowed everyone to check in with each other. We knew the film could be seen as mocking people we had grown to love, doubt and admire and had worked tirelessly to present them truthfully and empathetically. And this audience got it. From that night forward, the original documentary has changed many people’s lives – for better and worse – so when Billy Mitchell called to tell me Walter Day was being sued based on things that happened in our movie, I began helping make sure he was properly defended. In a lawsuit strategy meeting I learned that some King of Kong fans were funding Walter to produce and perform the songs he had been hearing in his head since having his heart broken in the ‘80s, a story he shared in the original film. I felt a responsibility to document the conclusion to Walter’s journey and it was also a great opportunity because I love his music and want to help get out in the world.

About Monkey Wrench Films:
Denver & LA-based, with distribution partners in more than a dozen countries, Monkey Wrench Films is making literal and metaphorical waves in the indie film world with multiple award-winning acquisitions and a plethora of feature films in recent distribution. As self-proclaimed “industry disruptors”, Monkey Wrench Films specializes in bringing well-deserved indie films (narrative and documentary) to the big screen and creating post-show buzz in the entertainment industry. Their current and recent feature film slate includes, “Who Is Stan Smith”, from Lebron James’s Uninterrupted studio, the BAFTA Award-winning feature, “The Hermit of Treig”, the much-anticipated followup to “The King of Kong” the 2007 box office wunderkind, “Arcades and Love Songs”, “Geoff Marslett’s “Quantum Cowboys”, starring Lily Gladstone and David Arquette, Tom Putnam’s “The Dark Divide”, starring david Cross and Debra Messing. See their full release lineup at monkeywrenchfilms.com