TRIBECA REVIEW: ‘Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker Cartoonists’

Every Tuesday: A Portrait of The New Yorker Cartoonists is a simple film about seemingly simple cartoons. But director Rachel Loube is able to find a surprising richness and complexity behind the sketches that appear in the famous magazine.

Every Tuesday, as the title suggests, the cartoonists for The New Yorker drop off their submissions at the magazine’s headquarters and then head out for lunch. The get-together has become a long-standing tradition for the artists, and it comes off as a genuine example of artistic appreciation. They are competitors, but they also identify with each other’s challenges of drawing for a living. It’s nice to see people in the journalism world break bread and let their hair down.

Coupled with these shots of the cartoonists in a midtown Manhattan restaurant are more personal portraits of each cartoonist at work in their home office. The ideas pop into their head and the sketching begins. Sometimes, belabored by deadlines and no new ideas, they hang over their blank pieces of paper wondering how to be relevant, pithy and perhaps poignant.

Nothing is terribly earth-shattering throughout the film’s 21-minute duration. The camerawork is passable and the lighting is acceptable. But the access to this elite group of cartoonists is the main selling point, and Loube knows how to let these creators and their creations shine.

Every Tuesday, a student entry, recently played the Tribeca Film Festival.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

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