NOOOOOOOOOOOO! It’s the FINAL DAY of the Boston Underground Film Festival for 2015! BUFF 17 has been providing MetroBoston with some interesting and terrific entertainment for the past four days, and the final day is no exception. But now we’ll have to wait until next year to get more….::sniff::
Today kicks off with Magnetic, a romp into the truly bizarre from the look of it – it sounds like it has the potential to cross into the territory of one of our favorite past BUFF films, The Beast Pageant. Here’s the writeup from the BUFF site:
You’re more than likely to glean something vastly different than the person next to you throughout this locally-harvested, analog sci-fi romp towards self-discovery. Or the discovery of selves. Or something. Musicians-cum-filmmakers Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein have created a tale just as ambitious and beautiful as it is perplexing and infuriating. Stuck somewhere between end-of-the-world verisimilitude and ambiguity, Magnetic will draw you in—but you may never quite be sure just how or why.
Needless to say, we’re going to check this one out – Magnetic screens at 12:00 PM
Next up is Laugh Track, this year’s comedy shorts program. I’ve actually heard of a couple of these shorts (I think, at least they sound familiar) and if laughter is your game, then Laugh Track is your medicine. It screens at 2:15 PM
Then we get into the meat of the show, the final features of the festival. First up is a film that’s already gotten praise from a number of other film festivals, including Slamdance in January – the documentary 20 Years of Madness. The gang from the 1990s Detroit Public Access show 30 Minutes Of Madness are getting the band back together, so to speak, and they’re bringing you along for the ride. Never mind that you may have never heard of the show, because by the end of this film, you’re going to be searching them out online. The East Coast premiere of 20 Years of Madness screens at 4:30 PM.
In the middle of the feature du jour today is Der Samurai. We can’t wait to see this one ourselves. Here’s the writeup from BUFF’s website:
In the Brandenburg countryside of East Germany, a skulking wolf menaces the villagers and silences the lambs. Jakob, a young, by-the-book cop, seeks a humane way to deal with the canine harasser, leaving fresh meat deep in the forest with the aim of luring the creature away from the sleepy hamlet. Out in the darkness, he senses something more sinister prowling their perimeter; before the night is through, wolves will be the least of their worries.
OK, how you get a samurai in Germany is beyond me, but I can’t wait to see how this one plays out. A New England premiere, Der Samurai screens at 6:45.
And finally, it’s the New England premiere everyone is waiting for – one of the most talked about films of the January fest circuit, and one that shock the shit out of everyone – Goodnight Mommy. From the BUFF website:
Twin boys Lukas and Elias reside in the idyllic, isolated countryside with their mother, who is recovering from cosmetic surgery. Requiring absolute tranquility during her recuperation, a silent tension begins to grow between mother and sons as her increasing restrictiveness is met with suspicious resistance. Face puffy and disfigured, something seemingly inhuman begins to emerge from beneath the mask of bandages with each passing day.
Greeted with some of the best reviews coming out of the January fest circuit, Goodnight Mommy is the perfect closing note for BUFF 17! It screens at 8:30 PM.
All screenings take place in that most hallowed of hallowed halls in Metro Boston, the Brattle Theater in Cambridge.
For full info on this year’s entire lineup, check out the official website at http://bostonunderground.org. We’ll have reviews for several BUFF entries running all week long on eCinemaBoston, all month long on Subject:CINEMA’s “Boston Springs A Fehtival” rundown, and more. Don’t forget to check everything out at http://ecinemaone.com and http://subjectcinema.com!