Tribeca Film Festival (Wednesday)

Brave Story: Even with an incredible plot like "young boy's father abandons the family, boy's mother tries to kill herself so boy befriends another boy (whose father killed his family) and together they travel through a magical door in a spooky old house to a far-off land to learn that suffering is an inextricable part of life," Brave Story is actually pretty standard fare as far as anime goes. It's got occasionally gorgeous, almost 3D animation, but with other near-flawless heavy-hitters like Spirited Away and FLCL telling similar stories, Brave Story has some stiff competition. Still, if you're into movies of that sort - and I am - and you're looking forward to some downtime after a hectic workday - and I was - then Brave Story does a great job.