2025 Tribeca Review Roundup: Part 2

Tribeca has given us another outstanding lineup of shorts this year. We continue highlighting our favourites of the fest so far with Brandon's review of the impeccably crafted The Hicks Happy Hour. Robin and Pedro talk about some incredible shorts from their home countries of Sweden and Brazil with Terror Night and Pavilhão and Josh reviews the perfectly styled Attagirl! Check out our full thoughts below!

The Hicks Happy Hour, dir. Kate McCarthy

The Hicks Happy Hour is far from the same old song and dance and has been a standout so far at Tribeca. The short puts you in a time machine and takes you back to 1972, during the season finale taping of the titular “The Hicks Happy Hour." You quickly find out the situation isn’t as happy as the family's smiles make it seem. The father is not at the show's taping, in fact, he's nowhere to be found. Reminiscent of last year's Saturday Night, The Hicks Happy Hour just as aptly (perhaps even more so without the character familiarity to lean on) takes you behind the scenes of the show as the night progresses and the stakes are made clear: Nail this finalw, or the show is cancelled.

Director Kate McCarthy and co-writer Michael Kefeyalew pen a great script with leading actress and mom of the family Jill (played by Phoebe Kuhlman) at the centre. It’s rare to see in a short film a character as nuanced and developed as Jill is. 

“Stars stay smiling,” is something you hear her say throughout the short. It's a centerpiece line that morphs in meaning as the short goes on. It starts as a way to keep her children in line and smiling and becomes a mantra, something she tells herself to keep going. When her husband hollowly parrots the line, it marks a turning point in her perspective.

From mothering three children to her complicated and mutually unfaithful relationship with her husband, Jills character is complex. She is seemingly trying to keep it together for the kids but just as the family's TV show is in crisis, so is her identity. “And do what? This is everything” is her response to the idea that she take a break. Despite her being the glue holding everything together, her husband Richard is put on a pedestal, having the final say in everything despite his perpetual absence. What is best for the show, best for the kids and best for Jill collide at once. 

The Hicks Happy Hour is an impeccably crafted gem. There are so many elements that give it an authentic 70s look and feel, starting with production designer Yun Gu and costume designer Sofi Kaufman. It’s all in the fine details: The Hicks Happy Hour lunch box, the corded phone, the pink sequined costumes of Babby & Cherie Olson, Jill's blue frilly ruffled blouse and vest. The whole set is everything you imagine the 70s to be. The music by Simon Hanes falls in line , only enhancing that feel right from the opening number. It’s easy to forget you are watching originally written music and not actual snippets taken from a 70s variety show. Casting Director Lisa Zambetti does a fantastic job piecing the Hicks family together. The kids are extremely believable as both child performers and siblings and nothing feels forced. 

The Hicks Family Hour is a student-produced film from the American Film Institute (AFI) and is fresh off a Student Emmy win at the 44th College Television Awards. It was also longlisted for the 2025 BAFTA Student Awards.

Review by: Brandon MacMurray

Terror Night (Epadunk), dir. Jakob Arevärn

Within recent years there has been a resurgence of the titular Epadunk (english Terror Night) throughout many smaller cities of Sweden. Jakob Arevärn perfectly captures the momentum and essence of the music and lifestyle that comes with it. The name stems from a combination of epa, which is colloquialism for a type of small car restricted to 30 km/h, which in Sweden you are allowed to get a license to drive at 15 years old, and dunk which is another colloquialism for the throbbing bass sound typically associated with the relevant songs. The second of which the general public usually gets to enjoy/endure when these cars slowly drive by outside their homes at any and all times of the day.

Cleverly leveraging this well known phenomenon as a focus for the film, we follow the young girl and epa-driver Josefine (played by Edith Vallo) as she installs a new bass box in her car in an effort to impress her love interest Billy (played by Toft Svedjeland). All goes well until the couple run into a sleep deprived and deranged elderly man (played by Sven Björklund) who has had enough of the musical disturbance.

Having grown up in a smaller town in Sweden and experiencing not only the bump in popularity of this genre in recent years, but also prior iterations it, I could not help but smile throughout watching this film. Arevärn completely nails the whole vibe. Everything from the casting, accents and script, to the songs used and costumes worn, even down to the car itself, it all perfectly distills what this way of life is about. Blending these raw, somewhat trashy elements with horror only elevates the material even further. It is an absurd story (as many splatter horror films tend to be) but it is aware of this fact and fully leans into it. If I were to offer any critique it is perhaps that Arevärn could have ended it on the crescendo of the hilarious punch line and skipped the additional couple of shots past that. But whether you stick around for the after credit scene or not I assure you Terror Night it is a wild ride you do not want to miss!

Review by: Robin Hellgren

Pavilhão, dir. Victoria Fiore

Brazil has the most extensive African diaspora in the world. During the colonization of the country by Portugal, the owners negotiated millions of slaves within the territory. This commercialization of Black individuals lasted until 1888, making it the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery. After their freedom, the government did not provide infrastructure to allocate the former slaves, and they organized themselves in the mountains near major cities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. It is the ignition of the favelas formation, a process that solidified the institutionalized racism in Brazil.Its in those favelas and villages that Black communities would reunite to celebrate their culture and practice African traditions in forms such as food, religion, and music.  

In this sense, one of Brazil's most known national symbols, the Samba music, is a Black product. In Pavilhão by Victoria Fiore, the director approaches Samba beyond the dances and music as a cultural expression of Brazilian heritage. Each year, forty days before Passion Friday, Brazil organizes an immense party called carnival. It symbolizes the joy before the pain caused by Jesus' death on the cross. It is noteworthy that Brazil is the most catholic country in the world - more than one hundred million Brazilians are Catholic. Fiore reminisces about the origins of Samba within African religions, such as Candomblé. The Samba sound is from the anthems that people would sing at religious gatherings, but has since transformed outside of the faith context for mainstream outreach. It became a parade in which institutions, the Samba Schools, designed hundreds of costumes, massive set pieces, and dancers to narrate a story. It became a competitive space that gathers millions of visitors to watch in the Sapucaí.  

In Pavilhão, the director drifts from a conventional talking heads styled documentary to create a beautifully poetic film. In a simple structure, she combines the voice-over of a young Black girl from the favelas and images of Candomblé and Samba. The girl is from Tuiuti, a favela that hosts a school, the Paraiso do Tuiuti (Tuiuti's Paradise). Fiore and Karol Jurga, her cinematographer, capture the lyricism in the dances, the costumes, and the historical context of it all. Samba is a celebration of Brazilian Black culture, and Carnival is the culmination of all efforts to celebrate it as a fundamental aspect of society. In this sense, the director clashes two contrasting elements: religion and dance. Plenty of religious individuals are opposed to the celebration of the popular party, calling it a heathen's celebration.

Carnival is inherently a result of Candomblé, and a lot of Brazilian society is intolerant of it. It is a hatred for the grandiosity of a Black product, Samba, the cultural expression by music, dance, and belief. As a Brazilian myself, it is hard to see a country with the most prominent Black population outside the African continent continue to hate its Black population. This results in the intolerance of African religions, and leads to police violence in the favelas that predominantly kills Black Youth. 

Fiore, in only thirteen minutes, elaborates on a vivid portrayal of the communion that is Samba. A cultural expression from the religious and celebration of the slaves, a central element of our history. Ultimately, Victoria Fiore uses the voice of a young Black child to narrate the story of the last hundred years of Black Brazilian existence as free people in Brazil. Although Samba is a Black product, white executives still profit from it. In the end, films like Pavilhão explore the magnetic beauty and power that a group of dancers, instrumentalists, and religion can achieve by pouring their hearts and culture out into the streets.

Review by: Pedro Lima

ATTAGIRL!, dir. Klimovski

“If you can’t handle the boss, stay outta the business”

A glamorous New York City bookie is looking to collect money from her deadbeat client. She’s been calling for him for a week—its almost like he wants her to come looking for him. ATTAGIRL! lives in the high-stress, high-stakes world of sports betting as Uncut Gems—“You really think $1000 on the Marlins in overtime is a smart idea? And a parlay?” sets up the whole backstory. ATTAGIRL! Is the second short film by the mononymous director Klimovski, whose work blends the pulp aesthetics of 1970s exploitation films with an emotional grit, exploring where queerness, rage, and identity collide.

ATTAGIRL! doubles down on Klimovski’s commitment to transgressive queer cinema—shattering the usual boundaries of queer characterization and narrative. Klimovski already has an Emmy Award win for the documentary Trans in America: Texas Strong, created in association with the ACLU, and ATTAGIRL! continues his work of breaking the boundaries of genre while staying deeply rooted in his queer identity. It's a film that doesn't ask for space but takes it, by any means necessary. Klimovski flips the script on the “expected” at every chance, from the casting of queer and trans actors to the layer after gaudy layer of impeccable style.

After the set-up, ATTAGIRL! goes non-verbal and the actors lipsync for their life to on screen dialogue. Old-fashioned silent movie-style intertitles flash by with a fluorescent pink font, scrawled with modernly irreverent dialogue like “Can’t believe I gotta go all the way to Brooklyn for this shit.” Though they characters are not speaking, the incredible disco-inflected score by Grant Steller features a funk and soul jazz soundtrack that carries Siren and her crew through their day. The heavy bass, funky beats and wah-wah guitars absolutely rip along as our girl stomps through Chinatown and Brooklyn in the sexiest thigh-high boots you’ve ever seen, a Glamazon bitch ready for the runway.

Klimovski has assembled a small but absolutely ferocious cast from the worlds of drag, ballroom, and Club Kids. As the commanding Siren, Leyna Bloom, who made her feature acting debut in 2019’s Port Authority, and then starred in season 3 of FX’s Pose, dominates every inch of the screen; its no wonder she dominates the face category when she walks in vogue balls for the house of Miyake-Mugler. The incredibly iconic Amanda Lepore plays The Boss holding court on the street in ATTAGIRL! like she has since the Club Kids, the Gen-X phenomenon of New York partygoing tastemakers which included the likes of RuPaul, Chloë Sevigny, and Björk. Model and Drag Race champion Violet Chachki hijacks the last act of the film as Vixen, another badass babe that runs the city with her high-heeled foot on idle men’s necks.

ATTAGIRL!’s cast, and actually its whole ethos and aesthetic are lifted straight from drag and ballroom: the jewellery and hair are huge, and the egos and attitudes are absolutely gigantic. Klimovski has spent much of the last several years directing and photographing for high-end brands and glossy magazines, and his experience in glam and haute couture fashion shows in every expensive-looking frame of ATTAGIRL!—it’s not for nothing that this is the type of film that has the first two special thanks in the credits go to cosmetics brands MAC and Brujita. In ATTAGIRL! the style is the substance, and the style is impeccable.

Klimovski wears his wide-ranging references on his sleeve, creating a vibrant pastiche of everything from blaxploitation heroines like Foxy Brown to Kill Bill’s vengeful Bride, but ATTAGIRL! achieves its own kind of violent transcendence. Every frame of ATTAGIRL! is lovingly shot on retro Kodak 35mm film, making it look like some lost VHS treasure from the Blockbuster video era, the beautifully textured grain of a favourite underground film shared for years from friend to friend as it generates a well-deserved cult following.

Review by: Joshua Hunt