It’s an interesting sensation, and one of the more unique aspects of film, to experience the flux between spectator and consort. To pass judgment one moment, and then to find oneself represented on-screen the next. With his first foray into writing, directing and starring in a feature film, young filmmaker Matthew Brown presents a very natural, and at times tediously sincere, portrayal of one night in the life of a group of high school friends. The longer we’re given time with these four average, Normaltown, USA friends, the more their range of emotions and life approaches resonate and serve to remind those of us who left high school behind many years ago of just how significant a period of time it really is in forming our selves.

Brown plays William, the eldest in his group of friends and designated driver. One cold winter night he and his three best friends Eric (Gabriel Arant), Gary (Joshua Pagan), and Alissa (Emma Corley Geer) do their best to avoid going home but also decide against heading to a party going on. When they hear the party was broken up by the police, Alissa’s friend Kate asks for a ride home from the party for her and her friend Alexa. William, harboring a long-time crush on Alexa finds himself presented with the ingredients for what could be a truly memorable evening. He agrees to pick them up and is almost immediately thwarted when Kate and Alexa decide to just go home and sleep at Kate’s. But Kate’s mom won’t let Alexa in and William invites her to join the group as they wander toward morning.

The group heads first to a hot tub at Eric’s house where Alissa does her best not to be self-conscious around the beautiful and popular Alexa, joking to her about how happy she is to no longer be the only girl in the group for once, her face betraying that she clearly feels the opposite. William does his best to play it cool around Alexa, but sad news puts a serious spin on their fanatics as they learn that one of the teens who left the party earlier died in a car accident on his way home. William is the only one of the group to have known him in close capacity and he conceals the gravity of this news under his teenaged ambivalence.

Admittedly the film’s slow opening feels like we are about to be shown an iPhone’s view of the banal nightlife of rural teenagers. I felt like 30-going-on-90 as I refrained from yelling at the characters to stop mumbling and wasting gas just to avoid their warm beds. But watching William cope with the news of a friend’s death (and indeed mortality altogether) over the course of the evening, and seeing the very real possibility that he may get what he most hopes for with Alexa, and hearing him casually but endearingly discuss his future prospects and plans with his optimistic and encouraging best friend Alissa, slowly sucked me back into my 18-year-old body facing the cusp of adulthood and cleaving to my friends and everything that felt familiar.

It may not be at all times enlivening, amusing, or all that intricate in its plot, but In the Treetops is one of the most authentic representations of that magic moment before one transitions to adulthood. It’s a moment with very little perspective given the shortness of one’s life, and yet every emotion is felt so hugely and every detail seems so significant. Despite his casual coolness, William’s affection for his friends is made clear, his sympathy around their family situations, and his burgeoning adult understanding of the difference between lust and love and how one comes fast and fades quickly, while the other comes slowly and can last forever.

The film’s visuals—camerawork by Donald Monroe—aren’t especially complicated, but are just handheld enough and tightly focused on the characters so as to give off a feeling of being another member of the group. This film isn’t meant to be watched casually, the gems within it lie in seeing the way Alissa’s eyes watch William as she tentatively scopes out his plans for the future, her hope for her own part in that future made obvious in what those eyes convey. Or in how Gary and William bicker over Gary borrowing his jacket, only for William to understand the broader significance of showing his best friend that he has his back even if it’s in the simple act of sharing clothing.

While other teen-centric films tend to focus on the nostalgia, ease, or the comparatively silly drama of the teen years, this film expertly—and it may have to do with the age of its filmmaker—depicts a true-to-life window into the average American teenage experience. Looking past its slower moments—though they hold their importance in the accuracy of boredom in the teenage world—In the Treetops establishes two very naturalistic actors in Matthew Brown and Emma Corley Geer, and if Brown continues to grow with his art, and maintains his attention to truth and nuance, it appears we have a very promising new filmmaker on the scene.

There’s something really satisfying in a well-done adaptation, especially if it manages to walk its own original trail. Directed by brothers Adam and Aaron Nee, Band of Robbers takes the Americana classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and brings them to the present day in a hilarious crime comedy of errors that manages to maintain Mark Twain’s youthful silliness and broader themes of friendship and justice. Adam Nee also stars in the film as the scheming glory-glutton Tom Sawyer, and Kyle Gallner (Dear White People) stars as his best friend Huck Finn.

Their adventure begins with Huck Finn’s narration explaining the nature of his and Tom’s lifelong friendship. Since they were children, they’ve been on a search for an old pirate’s lost treasure, thwarted by local bad guy Injun Joe (around whom a hilarious recurring joke of cultural identity consistently delivers laughs). Years later, Huck, the one born into an abusive family, ends up spending some time in jail, and Tom, always looking for a way to glean some attention, has wound up as a police officer forced into the shadow of his hot-shot detective older brother. When Huck gets released, Tom gets their gang of friends together, including Joe Harper (Matthew Gray Gubler), Ben Rogers (Hannibal Buress), and Tommy Barnes (Johnny Pemberton).

Never one to waste a minute, the eccentric Tom takes advantage of the not-so-secret surprise party they’ve thrown for Huck and explains to the men that he’s hatched a full-proof plan to make them all rich, not to mention earn himself some deserved respect at work. He’s been given insider information from Muff Potter (Cooper Huckabee) that Injun Joe (Stephen Lang) has that long-lost treasure and has placed it in the safe kept at the local pawn shop. With his fast-talking ways and earnest eagerness,Tom convinces his band of misfits to agree to a preposterous plan that includes pretending to be Latinos in order to rip off the pawn shop, present Tom as a cop who happens upon the scene and tries to help, and then make off with the treasure they’ve sought for so long.

Of course things don’t go as they expected. Tom is matched with an unexpected new partner, Becky Thatcher (Melissa Benoist, Whiplash), and suddenly has an eager-to-please police officer in the way of his plan. He isn’t the only one who scrimps on the details of the plan, and soon the haphazard band of robbers have more than just the law out for them. But they can’t quit just yet when they come to realize they are closer to finding the treasure then they realized.

The film breaks down the heist into neat sections, the stakes steadily building. In the same way Twain’s classic tale provides very real danger for Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, so do the Nee brothers keep the dark edge to their quirky comedy. But more significant is how consistent and true their characters remain. Not only to their boyish source material, but as wholly likable even in the midst of their scatterbrained venture.

Those familiar with the original stories will find the clever references to the character’s personalities and adventures amusing. Those unfamiliar will find a mischievous caper featuring perfectly delivered jokes, colorful charm, and sincere performances. The cinematography is grand enough to imbue an adventuresome vibe, but is mostly centered on its main characters in the midst of their action. The music is especially well curated, fitting the idiosyncrasies of the film and adding an extra layer of fun.

With such a large ensemble some of the talented co-stars aren’t given as much screen time as would satisfy, but this is truly Tom and Huck’s tale, and Nee and Gallner have a tangible chemistry that makes their unlikely friendship feel fitting. While Gallner narrates as Huck and is the moral compass to Tom’s crooked cop, Nee really shines with his comedic timing and bizarre charm. Band of Robbers is an exceptional ensemble comedy and an adventurous and original update that surely even Mark Twain would find flattering and quick-witted.

Whether they were inspired by the similarly titled Kanye West song or not, the title of this warm but silly caper comedy quite aptly fits the film’s rather obvious but chucklesome plot. Directed by Ian Edelman and starring Luis Guzman and Edgar Garcia as the titular Puerto Ricans, Luis and Eddie, the film starts with the pair as brothers-in-law and police partners working in the rather un-sexy field of handbag knockoffs. After a particularly clever undercover operation where they take down a Louis Vuitton fake manufacturer, they are handpicked by a popular French handbag designer, Colette (Alice Taglioni), and her business partner, to track down which of their colleagues has stolen one of Colette’s bags and may be intending to sell it to the knockoff market.

As per usual in these sorts of buddy comedies, one of the men is married, Eddie, and one is determinedly single, Luis. Eddie is married to Luis’s sister Gloria (Rosie Perez, and ridiculously underused) and can’t seem to get things right as he forgets their anniversary and then fails to deliver any sort of celebration to make up for it. Luis is (inexplicably) dating Vanessa (Rosario Dawson) who is getting antsy that he won’t pop the question and gives him an ultimatum when he lets slip that he may never want to marry.

When the offer to track down the stealer of the handbag in Paris comes along, not to mention a hefty reward offer, they decide taking the job may be their opportunity to make things right with their chicas. The usual sort of aloofness ensues, as two hard-nosed NYPD Puerto Ricans could never be expected to know how to behave in a chic a place as Paris *sigh*. Some deserved laughs arrive in the form of Eddie’s willingness to learn and experience the Parisian life. Luis is more determined to track down the thief, get his money, and go. Luis, usually the ladies man (aren’t all middle-aged Puerto Rican men?) is confused to find Eddie and his mild Dad-like empathetic married-man qualities seem to win over the Parisian ladies more than Luis’s attempts.

The two interview a few women close to Colette, dressing up in silly costumes and making up ridiculous cover stories in order to win trust. At one point they have a lead, and then it becomes obvious they don’t. They butt heads with the Paris police. They generally bumble about. It’s all rather predictable. Strangely the writers, Ian Edelman and Neel Shah, decided that the wrench in Luis and Eddie’s relationship would be around Luis’s misconception that Eddie and Colette are spending a little too much time together. As if anything in Eddie’s already established personality makes him appear like an adulterer?

The end result is a weak plot and silly concept utilizing two genuinely talented hispanic actors who just can’t quite make up for it all. The entire thing reeks of formulation and rather generic comedy. While Luis Guzman should probably have been given a headlining platform long ago, and as much as we love Guzman and Garcia in Edelman’s How to Make it In America, the content here is far too weak for the talent involved. Garcia, a relatively inexperienced actor, is surprisingly lovable here if somewhat flat in his delivery.

Considering the stated cultural identity of the film, it really doesn’t play off of this much at all. Only with the usual hispanic tropes. The fact that both Rosario Dawson and Rosie Perez were cast and then given all of maybe 15 minutes combined screen time, is just puzzling. It may just be Edelman hasn’t quite grasped the long-form of feature films, as the entire premise of Puerto Ricans in Paris would make for a great short sketch on television, but over the course of 80 minutes (short even for a comedy feature) the film is agreeable but not all that winsome.

It’s rare I start a movie immediately believing I hate it, end the film feeling like maybe I’d misjudged, and two days later feel even more convinced it’s an interesting if not groundbreaking film. Filmed on 35mm and left in its grittiest state—the colors have a relatively untreated feel, like a ’70s Dirty Harry film—Too Late is an L.A. noir shot in five continuous take scenes. With old-fashioned noir lines spouted from the mouths of modern LA characters, the film feels exceptionally off in its attempts to homage older films, but the building mystery and the always engaging John Hawkes, elevate the film much further than it possibly deserves.

Told out of order, the film opens on Dorothy (Crystal Reed), who looks like more of a Little Red Riding Hood in her red sweatshirt, and who quickly becomes the prey of several men as she hangs out in the hills of Elysian Park overlooking downtown L.A. When she has trouble making a call from her dated flip phone, she asks two passing drug dealers (Ryder Strong and Dash Mihok) for the use of their phone. The men, who had just previously been discussing movie tropes and discussing how much easier things would be if at the climax of a film all could be revealed by one character simply handing another character a copy of the film to catch them up—Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead being their example of a time this would have come in handy—lend Dorothy their phone. She calls John Hawkes’ Sampson, a private detective, who seems to have an affection for the girl despite the two having only spent one night together a year previous. The camera sloppily zooms in over to Chinatown from the hilltop to focus on Sampson as he takes the call.

Sampson jumps in his Thunderbird to come get the distraught Dorothy, Jesse and Matthew the drug dealers leave her with some ecstasy, and soon enough Dorothy finds herself chatting with a slimy park ranger who uses such unbelievably charming and flirtatious language any woman watching would have their creeper-radar at DEFCON 1. That Dorothy, a supposedly somewhat street-wise stripper, continues to chat with him becomes increasingly unbelievable. And its only the first instance of almost every female in the film being given highly implausible and slightly exploitive material to work with.

The mystery unfolds at the end of this scene and we jump ahead to the end of the story, then back to before the beginning, then back to the middle, then over to what would be the penultimate scene if anything went chronologically. It’s a good pace, though it takes some catching up to understand. The stakes often don’t feel quite high enough, though there is a satisfying sort of twist at the end. Mostly the film grows more intriguing the more we get to see of Sampson. Hawkes is the only one in the film able to pull off the constant spout of silly speech. Every scene sees him interacting with a different female—in fact, every one of the five scenes is anchored on a male-female dynamic—and he seems to add respect to the table which makes all the difference in their interactions. The film’s second scene involves a doting and cooped up housewife, Janet, wallowing in the truth of her husband’s disaffection and infidelity, played superbly by Vail Bloom. That Bloom was directed to play this entire scene bottomless was at first humorous, and then simply suspiciously distasteful. Another scene follows Sampson’s ex-lover (Dichen Lachman) as she works both a boxing match and a drive-in theater in nothing but a bikini and heels, the camera staying just far enough away to allow her half-naked bottom to maintain focus.

While clearly first time director Dennis Hauck has a real love for the old-timey-ness possibility of film—in addition to being shot on 35mm the scene at the drive-in focuses on Sampson’s ex Jill’s ability to change a film reel—he hasn’t quite grasped the way to incorporate this passion into a film with modern flourishes. His writing reflects a childish amusement at his own clever wordplay, but seems to forget that the best noir had as much to do with silence as with dialogue.

This film proves several things: John Hawkes can elevate a film far beyond where it would be without him, females are usually the more intriguing elements of a noir so don’t abuse them, and witty dialogue does not an intelligent film make. For a first-time film, Hauck proves he has ambition aplenty, and if honed even more he is certainly someone to keep an eye on. Too Late is engaging and at times amusing in spite of itself, its whole being somewhat better than its parts. But there’s no denying why this film works in any small way, and his name is John Hawkes.

So the thing about the LA Film Festival is that making a recommendation list is pretty futile. So any other articles you’ve read telling you what you MUST see are bullsh***ing you. This is because the LA Film Festival is one of the few American film festivals that truly takes risks on its acceptances.

With films in a variety of categories, such as LA Muse (dedicated to Angelino inspired films), Zeitgiest (films that reflect the times), and Nightfall (for us late night horror fans), the offering is a mixed bag, and while there are a few festival-tested films (which is what their Buzz section is for), most films are 100% indie and 100% full of potential. We couldn’t have predicted last year how much we’d love Man From Reno, Runoff (which gets a release later this month), and The Mind of Mark DeFriest. Not to mention last year’s gala screenings of Snowpiercer (among our favorites over all last year) and Dear White People.

As if to prove just how unexpected they can be, the curators of LAFF waited until today—the day before the festival begins—to announce their closing night film. And turns out it isn’t a film at all. It’s a live read-through of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And guess who’s directing? Just guess. No, don’t. You won’t get it. It’s Eli Roth! Not exactly the dude who comes to mind when you think light-hearted high school humor. Maybe he’ll have a squirt gun of blood to spray at the actors?

As varied as the festival is, there are a few already-buzzed about films (and ones we’ve personally seen) that we can recommend right off the bat. Opening night’s Grandma is one of the best things we saw at Tribeca and has been discussed since Sundance. Lily Tomlin will also be receiving the Spirit of Independence Award so extra reason to catch that one. Additionally The Overnight, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and Chuck Norris vs. Communism are also playing and have been garnering buzz wherever they are screened.

As for potential diamonds in the rough, here are a few we can’t wait to check out, and don’t forget about all the fun free things to do like a screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit at Union Station on Friday!

Manson Family Vacation

Sunday, June 14 at 7:00 PM (Regal Cinemas LA Live 11)

These days you put the name “Duplass” in front of or after any film and us indie freaks perk up. The Duplass brothers have been giving us a lot of good stuff the past few years and here we have something new produced by and starring Jay Duplass. Directed by J. Davis, the film offers an intriguing premise. Duplass plays Nick Morgan, a man who has family, home, and career all going for him. His brother Conrad (Linas Phillips) has none of this. Conrad shows up for a visit and convinces Nick to partake in a road trip to visit the sites of the Manson Family murders. Sounds like equal parts unconventional and funny. We’re game.

Band of Robbers

Saturday, June 13 at 6:15 PM (Regal Cinemas LA Live 9)

Starring Kyle Gallner, Adam Nee, Matthew Gray Gubler, Hannibal Buress and mascarading as a modern day Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, this looks like a crazy bandit fantasy. I recommend simply watching the trailer (which has a killer soundtrack btw) below and then buying tickets. LAFF is the perfect place to embrace the weirdest things you can find. They almost always impress.

Too Late

Thursday, June 11 at 7:30 PM (Bing Theater at LACMA)

John Hawkes’s name has carried weight for us ever since Winter’s Bone—and probably should have sooner—so seeing his name among those listed for LAFF means we’re up for what’s next from this dedicated and intense actor. In this one he plays a private investigator named Mel Sampson, hired to track down a missing woman. Turns out she’s connected to his own past and the search takes him through southern California and among some eccentric personalities. Shot on 35mm, we look forward to some gritty California and some gritty John Hawkes.

Crumbs

Sunday, June 14 at 9:30 PM (Regal Cinemas LA Live 9)

As part of the dark and twisty Nightfall category at the festival, this one just reads as straight up enticing. Set in Ethiopia and directed by Spanish filmmaker Miguel Llansó, the basic premise is that an alien mothership has lied dormant for many years floating on the horizon. Then it comes to life and one man decides to make it his quest to board the ship. He crosses a post-apocalyptic landscape to get there as others barter with the aliens using pop cultural artifacts. Slap a big old question mark over my head and consider me intrigued.

The Final Girls

Tuesday, June 16 at 7:30 PM  (Regal Cinemas LA Live 1)

So if you happen to have written your college thesis on slasher films and the concept of the Final Girl, like a certain writer penning this article *ahem*, then the title alone will have wooed you in months ago when first you heard of this film when it premiered at SXSW. Not as in the know? No worries. In this film a girl, Max (Taissa Farmiga), gets sucked into an ’80s slasher flick with her friends. Her mother, a former scream queen actress, stars in the film, and Max has to use her knowledge of the genre to ensure she and her friends survive until the end and make their way back home. If the film simultaneously honors and pokes fun at this most revered of horror genres, then it’s already made my all-time favorite list.

Seoul Searching

Wednesday, June 17 at 7:30 PM (Regal Cinemas LA Live 1)

Another of the festival’s Gala screenings, this one is similar to The Final Girls in its ’80s genre homage. This time to the high school films of John Hughes. Based on filmmaker Benson Lee’s personal experiences, the film centers on a group of Korean high school misfits during the summer of 1986. Hailing from around the world, the teens are forced to go to a “propaganda” camp in Seoul over the summer in order to connect with what it means to be Korean. Filled with ’80s nostalgia and cultural hilarity, it looks like the situational comedy we never knew we were missing.

Dude Bro Party Massacre III

Saturday, June 13 at 10:20 PM (Regal Cinemas LA Live 8)

I’m tempted to say the title alone is weird enough to warrant a viewing. And as it falls under that never-know-what-your-gonna-get Nightfall category, it could be super bad. Or so bad it’s good. Or intentionally bad so as to be so good. Watch the trailer below, it reeks of satire but seems especially dedicated to mimicking those direct-to-VHS horror franchise films we sometimes got suckered into back in the day when a person could still rent a video. If you love (fake) blood and sheer tongue-in-cheek ridiculousness, this looks like great fun.