Though the 98th Annual Academy Awards ceremony is, at press time, more than five months away, cinephiles are already gearing up for the so-called “Oscar season,” the mad, year-end push in which movie studios trot out their best (or at least most prestigious) titles. It can get daunting fast for even the most voracious moviegoer – which is yet another reason we’re lucky to have the Independent Film Festival Boston. Each year around this time IFFBoston sets up shop at The Brattle Theatre for its annual Fall Focus series, a multiday bonanza of early screenings of some of the season’s most anticipated titles. This year, the release slate is so stacked that Fall Focus had to be split into two series, the first of which runs from Thursday through Sunday (the second is Oct. 30 through Nov. 5). To help you plan your weekend, here are some of the Day’s picks for the most intriguing titles screening in the first half of the Fall Focus.
‘Queens of the Dead’
(Tina Romero, director) The official opening night selection is Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” an arch fable of the #MeToo era starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Dorchester’s favorite daughter Ayo Edebiri. Those with adventurous tastes, however, may want to stick around for Thursday’s late show. Directed by Tina Romero (whose father, George A. Romero, more or less invented the zombie movie with 1968’s “Night of the Living Dead”), “Queens of the Dead” is an outrageous new zom-com starring Katy O’Brian (“Love Lies Bleeding”) as the proprietor of a Bushwick drag club besieged by hordes of the bloodthirsty – but fabulous – undead. Romero carries on her father’s legacy of socially conscious and wryly satirical (yet still satisfyingly gruesome) horror, with a cast of queer icons including Nina West (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”), Cheyenne Jackson (“American Horror Story”), and comedy legend Margaret Cho. (9:30 p.m. Thursday)
‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’
(Mary Bronstein, director) While Josh and Benny Safdie make solo directorial debuts this fall, the most Safdie-esque film of the year may be from longtime associate Mary Bronstein (who directed the brothers in her 2008 debut “Yeast,” and whose husband Ronald co-wrote “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems”). “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” stars comic actor Rose Byrne in an already award-winning dramatic performance as a put-upon single mother desperately trying to keep the wheels on her increasingly chaotic existence. The film looks to be an anxiety-inducing, jet-black comedy, with a suitably eclectic supporting cast including Conan O’Brien (as Byrne’s witheringly unhelpful therapist), Christian Slater and rapper A$AP Rocky. If your nerves can take it, this one looks like a can’t-miss. (7 p.m. Friday)
‘It Was Just an Accident’
(Jafar Panahi, director) The Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival went to “It Was Just an Accident,” the latest film from the great Iranian director Jafar Panahi, and it’s hard to imagine a filmmaker working harder for the award. Panahi was famously arrested by the repressive Iranian government in 2022, remaining in custody for nearly a year before forcing his captors’ hand with a hunger strike. “Accident” is Panahi’s first film since his arrest, shot in secret with assistance from foreign producers (it has been selected as France’s official entry for the Academy Awards). The film itself sounds to be appropriately blistering, telling a tale of suspense and revenge involving a former political prisoner and the man who may or may not have been his jailer. If you’re looking for a timely and vital film, this may be your pick. (5:30 p.m. Saturday)
‘Sentimental Value’
(Joachim Trier, director) Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier broke through with international audiences in 2021 with “The Worst Person in the World,” thanks to its wrenching coming-of-30s narrative and a star-making performance from Renate Reinsve. Reinsve reteams with Trier in “Sentimental Value” as an acclaimed actor confronted with a chance to work with her estranged filmmaker father, played by the great Stellan Skarsgård. Skarsgård has been attracting a lot of career-best buzz for his role as the temperamental Scandinavian auteur (a subject he surely knows a thing or two about, having worked with Ingmar Bergman and Lars von Trier in his extensive acting career). Like “Worst Person,” “Sentimental Value” promises to be a tearjerker – but one with performances from some of the greatest actors on the planet (8:15 p.m. Saturday)
‘The Mastermind’
(Kelly Reichardt, director) When one thinks of heist pictures, the image that comes to mind is usually that of a glitzy, high-octane affair in the “Ocean’s Eleven” vein – a far cry from the intimate character studies of Kelly Reichardt (“First Cow,” “Showing Up”). But “The Mastermind” promises to be no ordinary caper, and a must for fans of local cinema. Set in the 1970s, “The Mastermind” stars Josh O’Connor as a working class Framingham dad who decides, for no reason in particular, to steal several works of art from a local museum (not the Gardner, though parallels will likely be inevitable). Early word is that “The Mastermind” falls closer to Reichardt’s quiet, cockeyed idiom than your average Thomas Crown affair, with a deep bench of supporting actors including Gaby Hoffman, Hope Davis, Bill Camp and Alana Haim, the latter of whose Boston accent is one of my personal most anticipated cinematic events of the year. (6 p.m. Sunday)
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 WBUR’s 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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