Hammer to Nail

Tully’s 2009 Tribeca Film Festival Wrap-Up

by Michael Tully

Racing Dreams — Or, as I like to call it, The Highest Grossing Documentary of 2009. Just kidding. Or not. Marshall Curry follows three adolescent go-karters who dream of becoming Nascar drivers when they grow up, and the result is an automatic crowd-pleaser. For me, the best moments are the non-racing ones, in which we get lovely little glimpses and reminders that kids are pretty much still the same. Curry gets to scratch the happy surface a bit further with one boy’s difficult relationship with his father. Of course, the film does take place over the course of one year and is leading up to the climactic national championship, so there is that undeniable element as well. Whoever buys this movie has a hit on their hands.

05 / 04 / 09