Stealing Magic (2026) Tribeca 2026

Some one is taking the secrets behind various magic tricks and illusions and selling them. . A team of investigators go after them.

This is a nifty little doc. Its a wonderful little mystery that grabs us from the first moment and then drags us along the trail of the trick thieves. It's a twisty and turny ride that constantly makes you wonder what the next twist is going to be.

While the film is a probably a a little too much by the numbers in construction the quest to find out who is stealing the secrets over comes any reservations and keeps us watching.

This is an absolute delight that I can't wait to see again.

Lost in the Shuffle (2024)

After years master magician  Shawn Farquhar had been plying the trade he started to look into the history of playing cards and he discovered that hidden in plain sight was the story of a murder specifically of  the King of Hearts (King Charles).

Bright breezy and a great deal of fun, LOST IN THE SHUFFLE is a film that is going to make you wonder what else is hiding in plain site and you never recognized.  The whole thing is set in motion when Farquhar is told some facts about the design of playing cards that he never knew. The fact that he didn’t know about the history of playing cards and their designs despite spending his whole life manipulating them came as a shock to him and it sends him scurrying down the rabbit hole to know more. And based on the interviews in the film, many magicians didn’t know the history of cards either. (Honestly I think probably the only magicians I’ve ever run across who would know the history would be Teller and Ricky Jay)

While the journey through the history of cards is good, what sets the film apart from other films is the presentation. Farquhar is constantly performing tricks as we go and it makes us lean in farther than we would have had this been a “typical” doc.  Additionally his patter about the history and the tricks is first rate and I’m glad he’s a good guy because he could probably sell us tanker trucks of snake oil and make up happy about it.

While this may not be the heaviest documentary you’ll see this year, it just may be the the most entertaining.

Highly recommended

Shadow Bird (2021)

 

Every morning in the time between being fully awake and asleep a young girl dreams of spending time with her shadow bird and the mysterious Timekeeper, a man with a clock for a heart. When they don’t appear one morning she must venture into the forest to see what happened to them.

Beautiful dream of film is the sort of cinematic treat that you will want to disappear into. It’s a magical tale whose spell you will hope will never end. This is the very definition of movie magic.

I loved this film. I loved it so much that when it was done I emailed Liz Whittemore to thank her for insisting that I see the film. I foolishly wasn’t planning on covering the film but Liz  put me in a virtual headlock and wouldn’t let go until I said I would watch the film. She was absolutely right- this is a film that will make you feel good.

I know with a lot of shorts I will say that I want the film to be expanded but in this case I don’t. Everything is so perfectly modulated that expanding it would almost certainly result in the loss of the magic. This is a perfect 25 minutes and I don’t want that ever to change.

Highly reommended.

Brief thoughts on ABRACADABRA (2020) Fantasia 2020

In a world of magic a magician makes a young boy disappear and then can't bring him back...

Hands down one of the most magical movies of the year. A stunning celebration of life, stories and the movies. This is a film that is a must see for anyone who loves the movies or story telling.

I don't want to say too much but I have to say that this is kind of like if Fellini made Tarsem Singh's THE FALL. Its a magical mix of reality and fiction that simply delights as it moves us deeply.(Some people have compared it to Wes Anderson as well, and I can happily throw that into the mix too- though truthfully ABRACADABRA is ultimately it's own wonderful dish)

And that dear friends is all I will say other than this is a must see.

Think of this as exactly the sort of wondrous films that made long time NYAFF attendees fall in love with the festival all those years ago.

Stay At Home Festival Bonus FIlm: The Art of Magic

Stay At Home Festival Bonus FIlm: Magic's Greatest Illusions

Dealt (2017)

Dealt is a documentary about 62 year old Richard Turner. Richard Turner is a blind card magician. Although he doesn't consider himself a magician, he calls himself a card mechanic. He's able to control the outcome of a card game. He wants to be known for being a great trickster card player. He doesn't consider himself to be disabled. He got a black belt in karate, and when the newspaper posted an article about it and the headline read that a blind man received a black belt, he was sad. He wants to be recognized for his achievements alone, and not for the fact that he's blind.

He wasn't born blind, but became blind as a young boy. He says his hands and fingers can feel things that other people can't.

The movie was fascinating. It was interesting to see Turner spending hours playing with cards, shuffling them as he falls asleep with them in his hand, waking up with them in his hand he continues to shuffle them. He says he's made love while shuffling. haha

He says it's hard for people to believe he's blind because how are the card tricks he does possible?

What was even greater, was at the screening I went to, Richard Turner was there and he performed for us. It was amazing to see him in action, and it really just blows your mind! I really don't know how the things he does with the cards are possible. Maybe he has a sixth sense of sorts.

Prior to seeing this film, I had never heard of him before. I'm so glad that I saw it and now am made aware of him.

I highly recommend everyone see this documentary and if Turner is scheduled for a screening in your city, definitely go.

Here is Richard Turner doing card trick at the New York Comic Con

Richard Turner and Luke Korem at New York Comic Con 2017 - a preview of coming attractions

On Thursday I went to New York Comic Con to see Richard Turner and Luke Korem talk about their film DEALT about Mr Turner.  Turner is a blind magician who does all sorts of amazing things with cards and Mr Korem has done a documentary about him.

I arrived late because of the crowds and arrived at the panel just in time to see one last card trick. I was blown away.

A short time later I went over to the IFC Films table and spoke, briefly with both Mr Turner and Mr Korem and had a grand old time. I only spoke with them for about five minutes bt it was clear that I had to do an interview with them, so after getting a signed poster I headed off  making notes to be sure to arrange an interview. Five minutes with the master and I was stammering like a kid so I can't wait to do a sit down.

Ladies and gentlemen you need to see DEALT when it opens and hits VOD on October 20th.  Based on what I've seen of Richard Turner in action it's a must see. Must see was also what Ariela told me Thursday night after she saw the film (her review is coming) and a special performance by Mr Turner for writers. She was simply blown away.

Lots of coverage of the film is coming so keep reading.

Richard Turner and Luke Korem pose for an awe struck fan

Tribeca Day 4: A surprise, Mondo and I make a lunch date and Happy Easter INTRAMURAL,POINT AND SHOOT, GLASS CHIN and AN HONEST LIAR

Outside the SVA theater  on a lovely spring day

Happy Easter

Actually Easter kept the press screenings this morning quiet and sparsely attended. On the other hand my one public screening was packed to the rafters.

The day today was really just movies- which is good because I have a lot of films to write up and an interview to transcribe.

The first film of the day is the biggest and best cinema surprise of the festival-INTRAMURAL is a fall down funny spoof of every sports film ever made done in the style of a 1970's or 1980's low budget comedies like the ones that helped found Troma.

The plot of the film has a bunch of fifth year seniors getting their once mighty intramural football team back together. I don't want to spoil the jokes but they are funny, clever, vulgar, funny and really funny. Its a seemingly low brow comedy that's way more intelligent then you'd ever expect. How good is it? I was planning on leaving the film early on to catch something else but instead I ended up staying to the very last credit. I loved this film. (And yes it is fall down funny- the seats at Bow Tie Cinema have arm rests that lift up so I was sitting across a couple of seats like it was a couch- and when one of the games happened I was laughing so hard I almost fell over onto the floor.) A must see for anyone who likes to laugh.

The second film is the okay POINT AND SHOOT is the story of Matthew Van Dyke a young man with a wicked case of OCD and a burning desire for adventure. After traveling the world on motorcycle he ended up going to join the rebellion in Lybia. The story of what happened is the film. A good but unremarkable film, the film seems like any number of other films destined for PBS. For me the film suffers from telling the story but never really letting us know VanDyke. When the film ended I felt I knew his story but not the man. I think its worth seeing but I can't suggest paying theater prices to see it.

GLASS CHIN is one of my least favorite films at Tribeca.  A modern film noir it hits every god damn noir cliche with such wild abandon that I groaned as each one showed up. Its really a kind of an just fair film, but the technical skill of the filmmaking and the first rate performances which leads me to believe to believe that the writer should have known how horribly stupid the plot is.

The plot follows Bud Gordon, a retired boxer and failed restaurant owner who has offers to help train an up and coming fighter for HBO and a chance to open a new restaurant via a really really bad but really really slick man.

The problem is that the film has very little connection to reality. Things are WTF from the instant that Bud meets JJ since its never believable that some one as smart as Bud would buy into JJ's bullshit- especially since he knows how bad he is. I never really excepted Bud and his girlfriend being an item since they never seem to be on the same page. There are tons more problems including the ending hinging on a radio broadcast of a low level HBO prize fight (not in this day and age). I got to the point where I stayed just to see how stupid the plot would get...and it just kept getting worse and worse.

I really dislike this film.

Before the final film Mondo and I finally managed to make lunch plans for Tuesday. This may not sound like much considering that we've been trying to sit down together and just chill since Thanksgiving. One of the things I love about Tribeca is the chance to reconnect with friends.

The final film was a public screening of AN HONEST LIAR about James Randi. The screening was packed, and regrettably I missed friend Sam Juliano and his wife who were,unbeknownst to me at the screening as well. The film is a very good and it lays out Randi's life and battles against fake preachers and psychics.  The trouble for me is that as a life long fan (and occasional critic) of Randi, the film had nothing new in it other than seeing his partner. The film also steers away from some the darker episodes of Randi's life. If you don't know about Randi this is an excellent place to start. If you do know Randi you may want to wait for the eventual TV run.

After all that I headed home for Easter dinner- and an early trip to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow for more films and coverage of the red carpet for the showing of the film on the National Theater's production of Richard III.

Max Maven's Mind Games (1983)

Not so much a movie as a party tape Max Maven’s Mind Games is a great deal of fun. Sure the program is almost 30 years old, but it still is fun, even if you have seen before.

The program is a series of magic trick and (rigged) games that have been set up to always work in Maven’s favor. Maven may be treating you a friend and a buddy but he’s clearly in control. For some things you’re going to need some items that he lists and for others you’ll have to be standing at the TV screen and moving your fingers around as if it were your smart phone. Most of the tricks are slightly more complicated versions of beginning magic tricks you may have seen in books, but done with a skill and dexterity that is to be marveled at.

The reason the show works is the widowed peaked Maven. An amazing magician who’s career parallels Ricky Jay’s in my mind (the pair seemed to come on my radar about the same time and both seemed to be learning from the same mentors) Maven seems not to have gotten the respect he really deserved. I think that his distinctive look, the unique haircut which makes him seem to be almost a comic book villain, which makes him instantly memorable, but at the same time makes some people dismiss him- despite his ability to really amaze you with his feats of dexterity.

I’ve had a copy of Max Maven’s Mind Games almost since it came out. I first ran a copy of the VHS tape that was in the video store I used to manage. I would pull it out now and again when friends were over and no one knew what we wanted to watch. When I got my DVD recorder I made a copy from my tape because the program seems to have fallen into obscurity.

In all seriousness, outside of some 1984 technology, this show still holds up. Maven’s patter is perfect, and the tricks are still amazing even if you seen them before, and trust me I’ve seen this more than a handful of times in the last 28 years and I’ve enjoyed it each time.

Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2012) New York Film Festival 2012

Well, another year, another New York Film Festival. It ended last evening with six, count 'em, six screenings of Robert Zemeckis's Flight...so if you got confused by it, you could have just darted out and duck into another screening so you could catch up on what you missed. But after that, call it a wrap: NYFF12 is over. It's time to roll up the red carpets, put the films back in the cans, and sweep up the mountains of popcorn on the floor. Time to start thinking about the Tribeca Film Festival, that marathon of a movie extravaganza, and to reflect on the movies we've just seen this year at NYFF, both the good and the bad.

Except...I don't think I saw any bad films this year. Some were definitely stronger than others, some delighted and tickled me and drove me to sympathetic tears, but there was never a moment when I was tempted to walk out and just get a sandwich. In fact, the time I did have to walk out...when they cancelled the screening of The Last Time I Saw Macao for technical reasons...both DB and I were anxious to see the rest of it, compelled and hooked from just the first twenty minutes. (Alas, it wasn't to be, as the re-screening passed us both by at an inconvenient time.) I saw many more movies than I did at the 2011 NYFF, and yet I wasn't able to see everything I wanted. There wasn't enough time; there never is.

Which brings me to my last review for New York Film Festival, and my clumsy segue of Go make time to see this film : Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay. Jay is one of the greatest playing card handlers alive—there's a reason why one of his successful stage shows was called Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. Magic is a tough sale on TV or film. It often lacks the same astonishing immediacy and intimacy of see a conjurer or a sleight-of-hand artist on stage. But Molly Bernstein and Alan Edelstein's visually innovative and cleverly edited documentary does the (ahem) trick.


Deceptive Practice is a biography. not merely and not mainly of Ricky Jay, but of sleight-of-hand magic itself, through Jay's education of magic at the hands of, and inspired by, the greatest twentieth-century card illusionists, the last generation of vaudeville magical entertainers, forgotten to most of us: Slydini, Al Flosso, Dai "The Professor" Vernon, Charlie Miller, Francis Carlyle, Cardini...and Ricky's grandfather Max Katz, who taught Ricky and introduced him to the world of magicians. There's a large assortment of great clips of these mentors in the film, as well as archival footage of Jay himself (including the young long-haired Ricky appearing on that archetype of the 1970s variety show, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert). If you're not going to go see the movie (and you really should, you know), go educate and entertain yourself by looking up the above magicians on YouTube, and prepare to be baffled and delighted. There's interviews with Ricky Jay's friends, contemporaries, and collaborators (including an almost perpetually awestruck David Mamet), and wonderfully, warmly filmed close-ups of Jay practicing his card handling. It's visually hypnotizing and compelling: you don't want to take your eyes off the screen.


This is a movie that is joyful but without snark, and a grand celebration of a unique art form that can only be appreciated visually. Sure, it's a documentary and you may say to yourself I'll catch it when it comes on PBS or Sundance or Ovation, or I'll rent the DVD or Netflix ii...but stop, listen here. This movie doesn't require a big screen, true. Jay's card-handling is impressive close-up, but many of the historical clips are blown-up YouTube quality, grainy and old, and yet the effects and the magic are perfectly displayed. No, go see it in the theater for the joy of it: the shared laughter when a trick or move is performed perfectly (or flubbed), for the cornball yet earnest routines of the mentor magicians, for Ricky's acerbic and low-key wit, for the pure joy of learning from these men. Deceptive Practice will leave you grinning, and this is a movie to be shared among an audience, much like a great magic act itself. In that way, actually, it's much like the movies themselves: fine at home, okay on an iPhone, but you're missing out on the true community experience of sharing the emotions of the rest of the audience. That is the magic of film itself, the very heart and soul of what the New York Film Festival itself has celebrated and honored over the past fifty years, and hopefully for many, many more to come. I'll see you at the Festival next year—I'm the one gazing in wide-eyed wonder at the moving pictures of the screen, taken to another world, the magical world of the motion picture.