ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Tribeca 2025

Reviews 

AN EYE FOR AN EYE – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , , , , , ,

How much is a life worth? The provocative documentary An Eye for An Eye raises that question, following one woman in Iran whose in-laws decide whether she deserves execution for killing her husband or their forgiveness for a price. As the film opens, Tahereh has already served fourteen years in prison for strangling her husband, Hossein, but her future is in limbo. Under Iranian law, her in-laws—specifically, her brother-in-law, as head of Hossein’s family—must determine an amount of “blood money” they’ll accept as restitution, or whether she’s even allowed to live.

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Festivals Reviews 

APOCALYPSE BESTIES (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Beth Accomando

Beth Accomando , , ,

Although the feature films get the bulk of the buzz and attention at Tribeca, there is also a rich slate of short films. I confess that the title alone of Apocalypse Besties was immediately appealing to me. It conjured up an absurd collision of dystopian horror and BFF comedy. And it manages to deliver on both.

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Festivals Reviews 

BARBARA WALTERS TELL ME EVERYTHING (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Barbara Walters died in 2022, so it was time for a good survey of her importance to forwarding the path for working women, and her historic place in journalism. In Tell Me Everything, there are no deep insights, and the documentary isn’t breaking any new ground, unlike the woman herself. Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything still makes for compelling tv, and will likely inspire audiences who didn’t know just how important she was and is to American history. It’s a good thing it will stream on Hulu, where a wide audience will have access to it.

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Festivals Reviews 

BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Sherin Nicole

Sherin Nicole , , , , , ,

Director Jonas Åkerlund guides the documentary from gorgeously crisp interviews—shot in rich black and glowing white—to lush but cheeky animated sequences that play out like fever dreams, weaving through the mayhem and pivotal moments that reveal the man behind the wild child persona. Allowing every line on Idol’s face to tell the tale as clearly as his voice and the testimony of those who know him well. Billy Idol Should Be Dead is a compendium of ironies—some delightful and others tragic.

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Festivals Reviews 

BIRD IN HAND (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Sherin Nicole

Sherin Nicole , , , , , ,

Director Melody C. Roscher crafts Bird in Hand as a biting blend of absurdity and insights. The film is as much a farce as it is a deep dive into generational trauma and the quest to understand ourselves through our origins. Alisha Wainwright and Christine Lahti are the tumultuous anchors of this story. Their performances peel back the layers of lifelong resentment with hilarity and heartbreak, while Roscher smartly denies us any illusions about an easy fix. The closest this movie gets to the gold of kintsugi is the mud of Virginia. By the time the credits roll, you’re smiling because broken isn’t an ending, if you can see where the pieces fit together.

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Festivals Reviews 

EMPIRE SKATE (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Beth Accomando

Beth Accomando , , , , , ,

The film introduces us to a collection of misfit kids, mostly from dysfunctional families who found a community in skateboarding in New York City. The film introduces us to a collection of misfit kids, mostly from dysfunctional families who found a community in skateboarding in New York City. But unlike the West Coast kids, who had sunny skies, skate parks, and plenty of shops to buy whatever they needed to pursue their passion, East Coast skaters had to navigate unforgiving city traffic, scavenge to find parts, and had very few shops to congregate at.

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Festivals Reviews 

EVERYTHING’S GOING TO BE GREAT (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Beth Accomando

Beth Accomando , , , , , ,

Everything’s Going to Be Great is a sweet film that hits a lot of familiar notes about a theater kid in a small town and a father who dreams big at the expense of his family. Everything’s Going To Be Great is about family, and about how families navigate ever changing dynamics that pull them apart and then bring them back together. There are no bold strokes of originality here or surprises, but there is genuine comfort in a film about recognizing each other’s weaknesses and strengths, and learning to appreciate each other despite ourflaws.

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Festivals Reviews 

NOBU (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Beth Accomando

Beth Accomando , , , , , , , ,

Matt Tyrnauer helms this documentary portrait, which divides its time between tracking Chef Nobu’s personal history with a behind the scenes look at his signature restaurants, Matsuhisa and Nobu as well as his fine dining empire. Tyrnauer shows how experiences in Peru and Alaska shaped Nobu, and how Nobu innovated his own take on Japanese cuisine. The documentary includes interviews with Nobu’s founding partner Robert De Niro, as well as with celebrated chefs Wolfgang Puck and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Nobu’s daughter explains that her father had no clue who DeNiro was when the actor first came to the restaurant with an offer to partner on a project. It is fun to see DeNiro’s passion for the work he does with Nobu, it’s a side of the star we don’t often see.

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Festivals Reviews 

PINCH (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , , ,

An aspiring travel blogger feels the pressure when she fights back against a creeper in Pinch, director Uttera Singh’s propulsive feature about expectations, consequences, and how much a person is willing to take. With cutting dialogue and flashes of humor that make us feel as if we know these characters, Pinch proves vastly entertaining, with rich performances, rhythmic music, and a colorful mise-en-scène. Pinch skillfully conveys the pinch we all can feel from expectations and power, and the pushback when we decide enough is enough.

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Festivals Reviews 

PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , , , , ,

Broken into three stories roughly twenty minutes each that eventually connect, the film follows three fierce fighters: a Viking mother in 841 A.D., a ninja in 1609 Japan whose twin brother is a samurai, and a draftee from Miami itching to be a pilot alongside a seasoned ace. Each has their own quest and desires yet also encounters a Predator, one of the same alien species from the original action film who hunts other species for sport. Here, the aliens’ purpose is to observe and learn from these various fighters, all to win the ultimate title in their home arena: Killer of Killers.

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