Tribeca Film Festival Fantasies (Part 2)

By Gwen Orel

With a title like "What Richard Did," you might expecting a teenage thriller like "I Know What You Did Last Summer." And just as in that book by Lois Duncan, there is a crime and a death that is covered up.

But that's where the similarity ends.

The Irish film, which opens on Friday, May 10 at Cinema Village, 29 East 12th Street, is a moody character study. Richard, played by Jack Reynor, is a handsome athlete, and a decent fellow.

We meet him on a senior trip, forming a crush on Lara, played by Roisin Murphy, looking out for his mates, tidying up the beach house when the other kids have left.

This isn't one of those Law&Order: SVU episodes about a sociopathic teen who just feels no empathy.

We're more than half an hour in before the crime even happens. Conor, a teammate of Richard's, played by Sam Keeley, gets in between Richard and Lara, and a fight breaks out. Connor walks away afterwards -and later dies.

Much as I enjoyed vicariously experiencing a Dublin teenage life, I wished the story would move along. I suspect that the introspective look at how guilt preys on decent people works better in Kevin Powers' book, "Bad day in Blackrock," from which the film is adapted.

We see how Richard's privilege works against him, as his father learns the truth but won't help him step forward.

We see Richard hook up with another girl to feel better for a moment.

We see Conor's poor mother at the funeral accusing all the teens there that they know what happened and won't step forward.

But this is not episodic television and the story is not about external consequences.

Unfortunately, filming internal consequences is problematic.

Often the characters are difficult to understand, mumbling jokes and atmospheric dialogue, as if it's cinema verité. This sometimes works to set a mood, and sometimes is just frustrating.

Still, the natural, nuanced acting has a growing mass of impact by the end of the movie.

Director Lenny Abramson pulls subtle performances from all of the cast, that leave one pondering just what is really going on long after the film has ended.

The Girl With The Mechanical Maiden

Director/writer Andrew Legge's 15-minute short, "The Girl with the Mechanical Maiden," tells the story of a young girl raised by a female automaton after her inventor father is blown up in his factory.

But don't think "science fiction." These are robots the way Czech playwright Karel Capek used robots; they have a poetic meaning beyond their quirkiness.

It's a silent film, scored with beautiful classical music by Liam Bates, set in what looks like the turn of the century.

The girl, Sophie Scully, has ginger hair and a doll-like face.

For a long time she and her robotic mother do well together.

Mother has working breasts, built by the inventor before he died, and to see her breast-feeding the girl, and offering a necklace to play with, is adorable.

Then the girl sees a picture of a little boy in a book - she's lonely.

Mother makes her a robot boy, but she sneaks away to real children, who pick on her, leading to a direct confrontation between man and machine.

Turns out machines are more human.

Without pretension, Legge's film investigates the bond between mother and child, and the nature of real interaction.

The trailer for "What Richard Did" can be seen at www.tribecafilm.com/whatricharddid.

Gwen Orel runs the blog and podcast, New York Irish Arts