Tom Hanks is so charming, you know, he cannot go wrong. On stage Wednesday night for a Q&A at the Tribeca Film Festival screening of “A Hologram for the King,” he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Luckily, “Hologram” is the kind of movie where that Hanks persona also plays a big part– the people in the theater wanted to hear how the movie was made.

Hanks, director Tom Tykwer, and actors Alexander Black and Sarita Choudhury talked about how difficult the film was to shoot, from sand and thunder storms in Morocco to finding a place (it turned out to be the Dead Sea in Egypt) for an amazing underwater sequence. While the other three were describing the logistical difficulties, Hanks was wide eyed with enthusiasm.

“Come on,” he said in his sort of nasal California good guy voice, “it was an ad venture.”

Hanks plays Alan Clay, an American businessman sent by his company to sell a hologram technology to the King of Saudi Arabia. His marriage is over, his finances are a mess, and health is questionable. He gets a Westernized driver (Black, in his first movie ever, very impressive) and a lover (Choudhury, brainy and gorgeous). The key to “Hologram” is the detail work, the nuance, excellent editing and cinematography, and the humor.

You knew this was an important film for Tribeca because the big shots came– Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro– plus lots of celebs from writer Gay Talese to Ann Curry, Carolina Rhea, rock manager Jane Rose, Trevor Noah, Ashleigh Banfield, Amy Heckerling, and Tom Skerritt– making a rare NY appearance– who plays Tom’s dad in the film.

You also knew it was a big deal because Roadside Attractions (which I often criticize) put their best feet forward with a swanky dinner at White restaurant in Tribeca. I sat with Talese, RA’s erudite Howard Cohen, director J.C. Chandor, and filmmaker Robin Leacock. There was a lot off the record gossip. Cohen did talk about a big slate of upcoming good movies including Kenny Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea.”

As for “Hologram,” it’s a fish out of water story, told smoothly and with a lot of grace and humor.  Don’t take Tom Hanks for granted– he’s a comfort to see on the screen because he’s so accomplished. But he’s always doing something new. His Alan in his wheelhouse, but a character you root for all the way.

The story, by the way, is based on Dave Eggers’ popular book. As Hanks noted, Eggers doesn’t have many film adaptations. The author, who’s a very serious spent a lot of time on set. Twyker noted, “He laughed a lot.” That’s a good sign.

Former USA Today film critic Marshall Fine has been working on his Robert Klein doc for a long time. Last night “Robert Klein Still Can’t Stop His Leg” screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s the most enjoyable film I’ve seen so far at the fest.

Fine did just fine (sorry) mixing archival footage, new material, and interviews with Klein’s many comedy disciples. They include Jerry Seinfeld, who lavishes praise on Klein, as well as Billy Crystal, Jay Leno, and others. Klein himself was a disciple of Rodney Dangerfield, of whom he does a hell of an impersonation.

Klein is credited by Seinfeld, et al for inventing observational humor. Much is also made of Klein’s classic comedy album “Child of the 50s.” Maybe the best pay off comes toward the end, with Don Rickles as the insults fly but also so does the respect.

It was then that I realized what Fine and Klein did so well here was make an excellent companion piece to the very good Joan Rivers doc of a few years ago, “A Piece of Work.” Since Alan King died rather young, and abruptly, and nothing’s been done on Stiller and Meara, there is very little documentary record of the great Jewish comics who launched from the Ed Sullivan show era. Fine’s film serves as not just a personal look at Klein, but as something larger. It’s a real piece of history.

But it’s also very funny. Klein is incredibly endearing and corny, while at the same time maintaining an edge. That’s why he made 40 appearances on Letterman. I hope The Weinstein Company can give “Still Can’t Stop His Leg” a good release in major markets before VOD or Netflix. Like a Robert Klein show, the film is intimate and hilarious.

PS Klein recalled during the Q&A of Rivers that while they shot a love scene once for a bad movie, she also managed to sell him three bracelets. Bah-dum!

In “Elvis & Nixon,” the King of Rock (Michael Shannon) requests a visit with the President of the United States (Kevin Spacey), and the result is a sort of screwball comedy. Directed by Liza Johnson about one of the weirder moments of American political history, the movie is based on a true story in which the King leaves Nashville for the White House to persuade Nixon to deputize him as a federal agent at large for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous drugs, a post which didn’t exist. After much Marx brothers behind the scenes goings on, Elvis got his request and the iconic photograph of Nixon giving the medal to Elvis and shaking his hand is the inspiration of the film.

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival Monday evening.

Have they shown the film to any of the Nixon family or to Priscilla, I asked Kevin Spacey?

Spacey replied, dryly, “We’ve invited them all to a screening together in a tent but they haven’t said yes. We’re hoping.”

Spacey said of getting the role that, “Weirdly I had a kind of previous experience in attempting to play Richard Nixon when I tested for “Frost/Nixon,” which I will just point out is a movie I did not get.” He added, “So this is my revenge film.”

Shannon is an interesting choice for Elvis even if there is no physical resemblance he gets into the essence of the rock legend, mainly by watching Elvis films and documentaries. “I watched ‘That’s the Way It Is: Elvis on Tour.’ I watched press conferences, much like this one, particularly one he did in Houston, which pre-dates the events in this movie by a few months. I also had a great gift from Gary Schilling that Alex (Pettyfer) plays in the movie in the 45-minute interview that Elvis had recorded for Elvis on Tour, which they didn’t wind up using in the movie at all, so it’s an interview that not many people have heard. As all these people here will attest I listened to it constantly.”

Shannon is currently on Broadway in “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” He’s also in another Tribeca film– he does outstanding work in Bart Freundlich’s “Wolves.” Plus, never forget, he’s the seemingly dead General Zod in “Batman vs. Superman.”

I asked what surprised him the most about Elvis?

“His spiritual side, just how he was an intelligent person, and I don’t think people, I don’t that think they associate that with him as much as they should. He was a big reader. He was a big fan of cinema. I think the thing that I ultimately I walk away with is as much as success Elvis had, he was also very frustrated because I think that was an aspect of himself that he never got to show to the world.”

As for the karate moves and swiveling hips, “I Just watched him, just watched as much as I possibly could. The clothes helped, the costumes helped a lot.” And then to get away from the scrum of journalists, Shannon had one of the more original exit lines, “I am about to urinate on myself.”

Photo c2016 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz

On the red carpet of the New York premiere of “The Meddler” at the Tribeca Film Festival Tuesday evening, I asked Susan Sarandon what she learned about herself making the film?

“That’s a good question,” she told me, surrounded by a scrum of photographers and journos with audio recorders in her face. “I learned that I could carry a movie again cause I hadn’t had to really be in every single scene for a few years and that was really fun. And I realized that I had a lot more stamina than I would have thought.”

It’s been a while since Sarandon had a starring role on the big screen and it’s clear why the camera loves her, which is a good thing since she’s in nearly every frame in the appropriately titled “The Meddler,” by first-time director Lorene Scafaria, who also wrote the screenplay.

Sarandon plays Marnie Minervini, a fireball, who moves from New Jersey to L.A. after her husband’s death to be close to her daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne). Lori’s a television screenwriter who’s beginning to feel smothered by her mom and also depressed after her boyfriend (Jason Ritter) dumps her for a younger woman (Megalyn Echikunwoke).

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons as Marnie’s love interest – the kind of part he rarely gets to play – is a plus. Also appearing in the film, Cecily Strong from “SNL” and Tony nominee Billy Magnussen of Broadway’s “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike.”

Sarandon, in a black smoking jacket cut low and showing off cleavage, looked great even with one foot in a walking boot. A tall reporter nearly lunged at her to get a quote, and introduced himself as a journalist from Colombia, adding that he was from the region where she incurred her foot injury.

“I fell at the bottom of the mountain,” she said. Then she reassured him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Photo c2016 Showbiz411 by Paula Schwartz