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Details: Category: Note; Published on 14 March 2011; Hits: 11685

We've had film award season, and now film festival season is well on the way. The Tribeca Film Festival has come back with a bang, offering everyone glimpses of the films that are yet to be released. And a lot of them are well worth a look, from the reviews we've been reading. Some of these gems will definitely be worth sacrificing your daily dose of FoxyBingo or your favourite TV show for.

Here are some of the films that were a highlight.

The Five Year Engagement

Opening the festival with some laughs was the Nicholas Stoller comedy 'The Five Year Engagement'. A far cry from your usual Rom-com, the combination of Emily Blunt and Jason Segel was incredibly charming. The audience was laughing within minutes, and Blunt's character is refreshingly different from the usual whimsical and shrewish depiction of women in these films. Stoller summed up the movie best when he introduced the film: “Marriage is a three-ring circus: the engagement ring, the wedding ring and suffering.”

Struck By Lightning

A surprise for many was this gem on Saturday. You would be forgiven for casting it aside, when you heard it was written by and stars a Glee actor, but this dark comedy has received positive feedback. Written by and starring Golden Globe winner Chris Colfer, the film gives us flashbacks of the last year of a young man's life, when he blackmails fellow students into writing for the school newspaper, in a bid to get into his choice of college. Co-starring Alison Janney, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Hyland, Rebel Wilson and Christina Hendricks, the film was directed by Brian Dannelly.

Francophrenia

If you wanted to take a look at something a little more unusual, Francophrenia was the film of choice this year. Premiering on the Sunday, it is an experimental pseudo-documentary starring James Franco. The actor plays a murder obsessive artist called Franco in a film that is quite confusing. It'll take more than one viewing to get your head around it. The film was shot by Ian Olds and written by Paul Felten.