The Last Rites of Joe May, written and directed by Joe Maggio which had its world premiere in competition at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, will be released in October on VOD and theatrically by Tribeca Film.
In the spirit of classic 1970’s filmmaking, Joe May is the story of a sixty-something Chicagoan named Joe May (Dennis Farina, Get Shorty, Midnight Run, Snatch), a short-money hustler of Rolex knockoffs and bootleg DVDs. Joe returns home from a lengthy hospital stay only to find that his landlord thought he was dead and rented out his apartment to Jenny (Jamie Anne Allman, AMC’s The Killing), a single mom with a young daughter. Begrudgingly, Joe accepts Jenny’s offer to share the apartment. Joe attempts to plot his comeback scheme with help from an old contact (Gary Cole), but instead a domino effect gets everything going against him. With his health failing and resources dwindling, Joe is presented with one last shot at redemption in the eyes of a community that’s all but left him for dead. Farina’s Joe May “is designed in the classic tough-guy mold, but the veteran character-actor’s performance also serves to disassemble it,” observed indieWIRE when the film played TFF.
“I’m thrilled to have Tribeca handling the release of The Last Rites of Joe May,” said Maggio. “It’s a really personal film and Tribeca was so passionate about it, right from the beginning. I couldn’t have asked for a better fit.”