Even among the many wild and wonderful film festivals Greater Boston has to offer every year, the Independent Film Festival Boston stands alone. Since 2003, IFFBoston has served as the cityโs de facto โofficialโ film festival, offering dozens of features and shorts from world-famous directors and up-and-coming local talent alike. For those looking to get an early leg up on the yearโs best films, IFFBoston is a great place to start (last yearโs closing selection, Celine Songโs โPast Lives,โ went on to garner Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Original Screenplay). This yearโs IFFBoston runs from Wednesday through May 8; as usual, the bulk of the screenings will take place at The Brattle and Somerville theaters before taking up residence across the river at the Coolidge Corner Theatre for closing-night festivities. Of course, the sheer scope of the festivalโs offerings โ 20 narrative features, 21 documentaries and 11 programs of shorts, plus a preview of the first episode of HBOโs upcoming series โRen Faireโ โ can be a little daunting. With that in mind, here are some of the titles we happen to be the most excited about.
โGhostlightโ: This yearโs opening-night selection is one of the yearโs most anticipated crowdpleasers. โGhostlightโ tells of a middle-aged construction worker who, to cope with personal heartbreak and family turmoil, decides to join a ragtag local community production of โRomeo and Juliet.โ Directed by Alex Thompson (whose first film, โSaint Frances,โ was among the first released under the โvirtual screeningโ model in 2020) and Kelly OโSullivan, โGhostlightโ stars Keith Kupferer, his real-life family, and โ perhaps most intriguingly โ โTriangle of Sadnessโ breakout star Dolly de Leon. (7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Somerville Theatre with Thompson, OโSullivan, and Kupferer in attendance)
โI Saw the TV Glowโ: Few directorial debuts in recent memory have been as arresting as Jane Schoenbrunโs โWeโre All Going to the Worldโs Fair,โ a near-unclassifiable mixture of found-footage horror and coming-of-age angst filtered through a startlingly realized portrayal of Internet-era teenage life. For their follow-up, Schoenbrun has taken these themes and expanded them to a widescreen fantasia. โI Saw the TV Glowโ tells the story of a pair of teens who bond over their love of a โBuffy”-like cult TV show, only to find the lines between fiction and reality beginning to blur. If advance festival buzz is any indication, Schoenbrun here proves their mastery of dreamy, online-age psychedelia. (7 p.m. Thursday at The Brattle Theatre)
โThe Road to Ruaneโ: He may not be a household name, but anyone who spent any time in the Boston music scene of the โ90s likely has their share of Billy Ruane stories. An eccentric, larger-than-life figure known for his natty style and exuberant personality, Ruane was a conduit for cooler-than-thou bands such as the Pixies and Sonic Youth, and was instrumental in building Cambridgeโs rock โnโ roll landscape (it was he who convinced the owners of The Middle East to start hosting live music; his ashes still sit behind the upstairs bar). Directed by Scott Evans and Michael Gill and co-produced by Looney Tunes record shop manager Pat McGrath (who served as Ruaneโs caretaker late in life), โThe Road to Ruaneโ features interviews with countless of the musicians Ruane championed and a treasure trove of vintage home movies. (7 p.m. Saturday, at the Somerville Theatre, with filmmakers in attendance)
โSecret Mall Apartmentโ: Itโs one thing to squat in an abandoned mall, but quite another to do so when itโs actively filled with shoppers. In what can only be considered a daredevil feat of urban living, eight friends managed to covertly sneak into an unused room in the Providence Place Mall and live there for four years, complete with illicitly smuggled furniture and siphoned electricity. Luckily for us, they also packed video cameras. Directed by IFFBoston alum Jeremy Workman (โThe World Before Your Feetโ), โSecret Mall Apartmentโ promises a unique pie in the face to the forces working to make our cities blander, less affordable places. (7 p.m. Sunday at the Somerville Theatre, with director and subjects in attendance)
โTuesdayโ: In Daina O. Pusiฤโs debut feature, national treasure Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a single mother caring for a terminally ill daughter (Lola Petticrew). It should go without saying that the pair are forced to look death in the eye; less predictable is the fact that Death here takes the form of a sinister, talking macaw. Louis-Dreyfus is, of course, a perfect fit for the material, a gifted comic actress whose knack for pathos often sneaks up on the viewer (as in last yearโs excellent โYou Hurt My Feelingsโ). If the trailer is any indication, you may want to sneak in a handkerchief. (8:45 p.m. Sunday at The Brattle Theatre)
Oscar Goff is a writer and film critic based in Somerville. He is film editor and senior critic for the Boston Hassle and his work has appeared in the monthly Boston Compass newspaper and publications such as WBURโs The ARTery and iHeartNoise. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, and the Online Film Critics Society.
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