A young Boston man and his kinda girlfriend spend a couple nights together then take separate trips to New York. They sleep together, share forties and sing karaoke duets, but she always seems distant, on the verge of cutting him loose, all the more so when she's offered a summer job in Brooklyn ...

Across a freezing night, confused dropout Cooper Townsend tries to make it home. “Townsend’s Last Night,” directed by Rhys Scarabosio, is a chaotic, lo-fi fever dream about a young man who has lost his way. Left desperately clinging to his only refuge — scribbling lyrics in an old notebook — the ...

As the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts prepares for their annual parade, unsettling occurrences begin to threaten the event. Harrison Fishman directs “The Big Parade,” a lo-fi comic oddity that goes where it wants to go — it’s a gathering of small-town oddballs, mysterious butterflies, and musica...

After an acquaintance gets signed to a major label, two townies try to cook up their own path to success. “Sharon 66,” directed by Jordan Tetewsky and Joshua Pikovsky, is a quietly funny, weirdo slice-of-life portrait of life in a small town for two mid 20’s underachievers. Benjy wanders around S...

In a trash-filled city, a homeless woman's encounter with a fish takes an unexpected turn. Elly Stern directs “Waste Away,” a beautifully designed and executed stop-motion animated film, an allegory of motherhood in various forms, and a depiction of the overabundance, wastefulness and decay of mo...

Linas Phillips continues his Shawnsey series in a quick pic about the man from Boston with bad hearing trying to get his stand-up routine off the ground. Whatever Phillips does, I'm on board with & there's a couple hilarious moments here, as when he's reviewing footage of his routine and tweaking...

A group of young friends in Boston navigate their combustible youth, making moves towards romance, artistic expression, and outer space. A lo-fi jolt of cinematic playfulness, “Maya Forever” is constantly shifting, never tied down to believability or realism, always jump-cutting in and out and aw...

After a difficult break-up, Annie reckons with the imminent departure of another close friend who is moving away from their shared apartment and city. From a script she co-wrote with Hannah Rehak, Nina Slesinger directs “Downbeat,” an intelligent and emotionally astute portrait of friendship and ...

For one night only, a raggedy group of circus performers are upended by a train crash and stranded in Walpole, Maine. In “Circus 196977,” a mysterious documentarian encounters the group in a large barn and tracks their medley of song and dance. The film features avant-garde dance sequences paired...

Over the course of a long evening, a woman celebrating her birthday gets to know a new friend while navigating her relationship with an old one. Jesse Thurston directs “Bad at Birthdays,” a naturalistic portrait about a group of NYC friends spending the night in Stratford, Connecticut. Told in a ...

Two visiting New Yorkers are forced to stay in New Mexico while a serial killer dressed as a leopard stalks the city. “They Cry By Night,” by director Wes Sheridan, is a slow cinema mix of cultural essay and mumblecore character study, placed in an environment of fear and uneasiness. Carlos and A...

On a remote mountaintop in Vermont, a charismatic hippie makes his living selling novelty toasters. “Burnt Toast,” directed by Timothy Racca Morrish, is a documentary portrait of an unconventional online business run by a fun-loving, pot-smoking, guitar-playing, oddball. In lively anecdotes, Gale...

Georgia spends each winter living in a commune in the woods, but when her daughter and granddaughter return home to Vermont, her role in the family unit comes into question. Jo Dery directs “Georgia’s Line,” a quiet character study on family, built with vivid specificity and sense of place. Georg...