This is really disappointing.
The Tribeca Film Festival is opening with an infomercial about Jennifer Lopez. Thanks, but I’ll pass.
This will ensure that I don’t get a press pass to Tribeca this year but they’re already angry with me. Why? I criticized them for selling out to James Murdoch a couple of years ago. That’s right. The Murdoch family money, derived from years of fake news, bought the high minded Tribeca.
Now comes this news. The infomercial is called “Halftime,” and it’s described as something that “follows global superstar Jennifer Lopez, as she reflects on her milestones and evolution as an artist, and navigates the second half of her career as she continues to entertain, empower, and inspire.”
This is all being done for publicity. JLo and Ben Affleck will show up, get a lot of press, lots of flashing lights at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights, which is nowhere JLo’s Bronx, by the way. If you were looking for the Bronx and went to Washington Heights you’d really be in the wrong place.
Anyway. you’d think Tribeca would have learned their lesson from “In the Heights,” the last movie they premiered at that theater. The movie was a bomb at the box office. It also wasn’t good. But this is no longer the Tribeca Film Festival, it’s the Tribeca Festival. And it’s no longer in Tribeca. It’s at the opposite end of Manhattan.
“Half Time” is not a documentary. Don’t for a minute think that Lopez doesn’t have total editorial control of its contents. Years ago, JLo wanted a documentary from some pretty prominent filmmakers. The idea lasted five minutes when the situation was explained. Do you think the film will include Lopez’s running of 11 red lights with Sean Combs after a nightclub shoot out? (The incident sent an innocent man to jail.) Will A Rod be mentioned? Or just the green engagement ring that looks like a coffee table from the shire?
If only the Tribeca (Film) Festival would begin with an important, or good, movie.
I’ll stay home and watch the real Bronx-ers, the Yankees, play Minnesota.
