Now in its seventh year, BAMcinemaFest is once again kicking off the summer season with a wide variety of independent cinema from this year. While film fests happen throughout the year, there seems to be a flood of festivals in the winter/spring (Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Cannes) and the fall (TIFF, Telluride, Venice, NYFF), leaving the summer season wide open for the most part. That’s what’s so nice about BAM; it acts as a nice bridge between the two major festival seasons, providing a nice selection of this year’s biggest highlights in independent cinema so far.

This year, the festival has gotten a hold of some big titles that we’ve all been eagerly anticipating since their premieres earlier this year. Opening the fest is James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour, with Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth getting a Centerpiece slot and Sean Baker’s Tangerine closing the fest (keep reading to see our thoughts on two of these titles). But that’s only a small portion of the 35 films playing at BAM from this week until the end of June, and some of these films might be your only shot at catching them in theaters (but let’s hope they all get distribution of some sort!). The same goes for some of their excellent retrospective programming, which includes an outdoor screening of Richard Linklater’s Slacker and a 20th anniversary screening of Larry Clark’s Kids.

While we weren’t able to catch everything playing at BAMfest this year (we’ll see you soon enough, Queen of Earth and Krisha), we did get a chance to check out more than a few films that’ll be playing over the next two weeks. Read on to see our thoughts on what’s playing, and be sure to check out the full line-up and buy tickets over at the BAMcinemaFest website.

Call Me Lucky

For the first half of Call Me Lucky, Bobcat Goldthwait’s tribute to Boston comedy legend Barry Crimmins, it feels like a boilerplate documentary portrait. Complimented by talking head interviews with David Cross, Marc Maron, Steven Wright and Goldthwait himself, the documentary’s beginning details Crimmins’ roots as a rare liberal in his conservative upstate New York town to his status among the elite Boston comics and founder of the Stitches comedy club. Catalogued clips from Crimmins’ past shows a man whose timelessly hysterical satirical stand-up was far ahead of its time. Gradually, Call Me Lucky reveals its intentions to be significantly more altruistic, as it delves into a darker aspect to Barry Crimmins’ story. By the end, the film becomes a stunning look at a survivor’s story, and how a man changed his life to settle the demons of his past. This surprisingly emotional doc is not one to overlook. [Zach]

The End of the Tour

When iconic American author David Foster Wallace committed suicide in 2008, writer David Lipsky returned to the tape recorded interviews he conducted with Wallace for a planned 1996 Rolling Stone profile. Over the course of a few days at the end of Wallace’s book tour for Infinite Jest, the writers spent many long hours together in the snowy Midwest having a conversation that Lipsky would later describe as “the best one I ever had.” Indeed, their talks, as portrayed in The End of the Tour by Jesse Eisenberg (Lipsky) and Jason Segel (Wallace) are funny, poignant, and considered. Adapted from Lipsky’s 2010 book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, The End of the Tour continues writer/director James Ponsoldt’s (Smashed, The Spectacular Now) streak of empathetic, humanist stories that explore people struggling to cope with internal pains. This new film is like the best, most analytical late night sleepover talk. The rich, dialog-heavy The End of the Tour is completely engrossing, occasionally profound, and deeply moving. [Zach]

The Invitation

As far as horror films go, Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation is one of the best slow burns I’ve seen in years. Will (Logan Marshall-Green), still grieving after a tragic accident that destroyed his marriage 2 years ago, gets an invite out of nowhere from his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) to join her and their old friends for a dinner party. Will hasn’t seen Eden or his friends since his marriage fell apart, but he goes with his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), hoping to reconnect and move on from the past.

From the moment Will arrives, things seem off to him, and as the night goes on he suspects that Eden and her new boyfriend David (Michiel Huisman) have something sinister in mind for him and the other guests. Kusama thankfully doesn’t make the central mystery about whether or not Will’s suspicions are valid (this is, after all, a horror movie). This is more about how and when things will go terribly wrong, and Kusama (along with cinematographer Bobby Shore) masterfully dangles the other shoe over viewers’ heads as they wait for it to drop. Every scene leading up to the exhilarating final act—which had me so involved I started yelling at the screen any time I disagreed with a character’s actions—is meticulously composed to increase the paranoia and dread exponentially with each passing moment. And once things finally take a turn for the worse, Kusama and Shore brilliantly betray their own form from the first hour, relying on frantic, handheld camera work and jagged cuts to amplify the tension. Their method works extremely well, and turns The Invitation into one of those rare delights where the payoff works just as well as the buildup. [C.J.]

Jason and Shirley

This low-budget biographical drama focuses on the day in 1966 when Oscar-winning filmmaker Shirley Clarke invited black gay hustler and drug addict Jason Holiday into her room at the Chelsea Hotel. She filmed Holiday for several consecutive hours as he told the story of his life, and the result was Clarke’s daring documentary Portrait of Jason, which was both hailed for its uncompromising look at many of the period’s most controversial social issues, and criticized for its exploitative nature. Jason and Shirley is a recreation of this day, and it consists primarily of intensely personal interview segments between actors Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters, who play the documentary filmmaker and her subject. The film’s brief 77 minute runtime is also intercut with short skit-like portions alternating between surreal depictions of Holiday’s fragile, drug-induced mental state and interactions with his friends of the time, including a heroin dealer and a fellow male prostitute. The intimate exchanges between Schulman and Waters come across as surprisingly genuine, which can be a difficult feat for biographical films. This one manages to transport its viewers into the past, and into the minds of its characters, rather smoothly, even though the more experimental aspects of the film, such as the insert skits, don’t work quite as well. In the end, Jason and Shirley is certainly worth spending just over an hour with; it’s the graphic nature of the content, rather than the quality of the filmmaking, that may frighten off some viewers. [Eli]

Nasty Baby

Nasty Baby is a bait-and-switch kind of movie, one that offers up a perfectly adequate story, only to pull the rug out from underneath audiences at some point in the third act with a dark tonal shift. Starring writer/director Sebastián Silva as a gay Brooklyn-based multimedia artist working on an exhibit of adults as babies, Silva’s Freddy gets extremely excited about the idea of becoming a father by artificially inseminating his friend Polly (Kristen Wiig); however, when Freddy’s sperm won’t take, he and Polly attempt to convince Freddy’s boyfriend Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) to become the donor. Freddy finds himself caught between Polly’s anxieties about her ticking internal clock, and Mo’s hesitation to launch himself into fatherhood. As it develops and introduces outside unsettling elements, Nasty Baby subtly builds the tension in its subplot until a climactic moment. Silva’s film serves as an intimate portrait of a group of characters that grow into family unit just in time to face an unthinkable challenge. [Zach]

Pervert Park

“Because of its subject matter, Pervert Park is a challenging watch, but one very much worth the effort. Over the course of the film’s lean 77-minute run time, the filmmakers find success in presenting their subjects as honestly as possible. They don’t ask for sympathy, but they do ask for consideration, and they earn it.” Read our full-length review of Pervert Park from Hot Docs earlier this year.

The Russian Woodpecker

If The Russian Woodpecker doesn’t turn out to be one of the most talked about documentaries of 2015, it will be a shame. Fortunately, the fact that it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at this year’s Sundance Film Festival will likely help spread the word about this courageous and well-meaning work of nonfiction. The focus of the film is a man by the name of Fedor Alexandrovich who uncovers a terrifying theory regarding the potential true cause of Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster. However, this is less a film about conspiracies, and more about how the notion of “conspiracies” can impact a person’s relationship with their friends, their family, their country and even themselves. Throughout the duration of its concise runtime, The Russian Woodpecker shifts from being a detailed history lesson to a political mystery to a character study of a man, his paranoia and his national pride. Crisp cinematography and sharp editing aside, this film is essential viewing for anyone interested in international politics or, as Alexandrovich himself would describe it, the ever-present ghost of the Soviet Union. [Eli]

Stinking Heaven

Taking place in 1990 and shot on Betacam video, Nathan Silver’s experimental Stinking Heaven feels like an ideal guide for showing off how improvisation can help and hurt a film. Silver’s film takes place at a New Jersey home, where married couple Jim (Keith Poulson) and Lucy (Deragh Campbell) host a group of people who, like them, are trying to overcome their battle with addiction. From the outset, the living situation is a fragile one, and with the arrival of a new member named Ann (Hannah Gross), the group dynamic turns into a toxic one.

Silver actually had his cast live together on set during the entire length of shooting, and let everything play out through improvisation. When this method works, Silver and his ensemble produce some remarkable results, giving the film a visceral energy that couldn’t be created through more conventional means. But for every sublime moment, there’s another that feels like watching an awkward actor’s workshop. It’s hard to shake the feeling that a lot of Stinking Heaven is a work in progress, as if we’re getting a glimpse into the cast beginning to explore their own characters. It’s an interesting combination of intensity (some scenes here can give Heaven Knows What a run for its money) and uncomfortable histrionics, one that works in fleeting glimpses, but it’s enough to see that Silver is working towards something special. [C.J.]

Tangerine

Filmmaker Sean Baker’s third feature Tangerine is a hilarious, raw glimpse into the lives of characters rarely depicted with a comparable level of complexity. This chaotic, colorful, vulgar adventure through the grimy streets of Hollywood follows two transgender prostitutes, Alexandra and Sin-dee (Mya Taylor and Kiki Rodriguez, respectively), as they spend their Christmas Eve tracking down Sin-dee’s cheating boyfriend and pimp, Chester (James Ransone). It’s the day after Sin-dee’s been released from jail, and as soon as Alexandra lets Chester’s infidelity slip while the two eat donuts, Sin-dee is out the door pounding the pavement in search of answers. Baker swiftly cuts from scene to scene keeping the pace of his film at a dizzying high. It’s a ridiculous amount of trashy, lurid fun to spend time in the company of these precisely drawn characters. Their sharp quips and flair for melodrama make Tangerine consistently entertaining. [Zach]

Uncle Kent 2

Remember Uncle Kent? No? That’s understandable, considering it was one of six films Joe Swanberg made back in 2011. The film was a funny, melancholy look at its title character (writer/animator Kent Osborne, playing himself) as he spends an awkward weekend with a woman he met on Chatroulette. Now, over 4 years later, Osborne wants to make a sequel, and in a meta opening sequence—directed by Swanberg, with directing duties for the rest of the film handled by Todd Rohal—Swanberg rejects Osborne’s pitch because he hates sequels. Swanberg does allow him to find someone else to make the sequel though, and in a matter of minutes the aspect ratio changes (from full-screen to widescreen) and Osborne starts jiggling his man boobs over the credits.

If you’re like me and find the idea of making a sequel to a barely seen micro-budget indie funny (a decision made even funnier by its recklessness, considering it guarantees almost no one will want to release it), Uncle Kent 2 is the film for you. The fact that this sequel owes little to the original means that Rohal and Osborne (who wrote the film) have carte blanche, and they make the most of it. Uncle Kent 2 continually makes one surreal and hilarious turn after another, starting with a weird visit to the doctor (Steve Little, who seems incapable of being unfunny) before involving Ray Kurzweil, Comic-Con, simulation theory and an apocalyptic scenario where people get datamoshed to death. It all amounts to a bunch of zany, frequently funny nonsense that will probably end up being the best sequel of this year (a specific honour befitting a film that’s all about specificity). Uncle Kent 2 is the sequel none of us knew we needed, and even though I can’t believe I’m saying this, I can’t wait for Uncle Kent 3. [C.J.]

Unexpected

After seeing the absolutely embarrassing treatment of Earl in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl—a stereotypical African-American character whose only purpose is to help the white, male protagonist become a better person—Kris Swanberg’s Unexpected feels like a breath of fresh air. The film opens with Samantha (Cobie Smulders), a Chicago high school teacher whose workplace is about to shut down, discovering she’s pregnant. It’s unplanned, but she decides to keep it, and soon finds out that Jasmine (Gail Bean), one of the best students in her class, is also expecting. Samantha decides to help Jasmine try to continue pursuing college applications, and the two strike up a bond.

It sounds like yet another mushy white saviour story that Sundance audiences eat up, but Swanberg and co-writer Megan Mercier have enough awareness to call out and avoid the pitfalls their story could fall into. Jasmine doesn’t turn out to be the poor, helpless student Samantha thinks she is, and Swanberg goes a long way to developing Jasmine into a fully-rounded character who really doesn’t need Samantha’s help. Smulders gives a fine performance (although it doesn’t match her excellent turn in Results from earlier this year), but the film’s MVP is Bean, who has an electric presence any time she’s on screen. Unexpected’s low-key nature might make it come across as slight, but it’s a surprisingly accomplished and slightly subversive take on a story that could have easily turned into something far worse. [C.J.]

A Woman Like Me

“Describing A Woman Like Me to an outsider gets a little complicated. When put as simply as possible its a documentary made by director Alex Sichel, who upon receiving the news that she has metastatic breast cancer decides to process this information by directing a film about a woman facing the same diagnosis with as much positivity as she can…while simultaneously documenting this process and her own treatment for what would become this documentary. It’s not quite a movie within a movie so much as it is two movies playing out side by side with behind-the-scenes footage playing at the same time as well. Confusing? Yes. Meta? Maybe. Moving? Absolutely.” Read our full-length review of A Woman Like Me from SXSW earlier this year.

The predominant theme emerging from Sundance Film Festival coverage of The End of the Tour was the revelatory performance from Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace. Starring alongside Jesse Eisneberg, Segel navigates the complexities of the late author’s troubled mind through the dialog-heavy exchanges about life, identity and anxiety. While Eisenberg has frequently demonstrated his ability to handle dramatic comedy tones, Segel has previously only shown glimpses of nuance through his Freaks & Geeks or Forgetting Sarah Marshall roles. Under the guidance of director James Ponsoldt (Smashed, The Spectacular Now), Jason Segel is said to have given his strongest performance to date, and may even be in store for an Oscar campaign later in 2015 according to some early prognosticators.

The End of the Tour is based on Rolling Stone contributor David Lipsky‘s book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, which chronicled the time Lipsky spent shadowing David Foster Wallace during his book tour for Infinite Jest. In the newly released first trailer, Eisenberg and Segel discuss the root of sadness flanked by the Mall of America’s indoor roller coaster, and debate whether or not they’d like to live as the other person. The contemplative, slightly melancholic first look at The End of the Tour provides a good glimpse for the mood audiences are likely to get from Ponsoldt’s new film, set to be released on July 31st.

Check out a new The End of the Tour trailer and poster below:

The End of the Tour poster:

Summer movies are typically thought of as billion-dollar budget shoot-em ups, exotic car chases, loud explosions, and the latest Michael Bay film (which usually has all of those). But summertime offers more than just mainstream blockbusters. There are plenty of independent films fresh off the festival circuit and ready for public consumption in the summer months.

We’ve compiled our most anticipated indie titles for you to watch this summer. So if you’re looking for a break from the next superhero sequel, try some of these.

Slow West

(May 15th)

The fact of the matter is, we’ll watch anything with Michael Fassbender. The actor has been unstoppable for the past several years, turning out one mesmerizing performance after another. Even more, Fassy is clearly a loyal guy, forging relationships with a handful of directors, which has in turn resulted in some incredible films (12 Years a Slave being the high water mark of his collaborations with Steve McQueen). Now he’s at it again with Slow West, this time with first-time feature director John Maclean (the pair teamed up for Maclean’s first two shorts, Man on a Motorcycle and the very fun Pitch Black Heist). Slow West, also written by Maclean, is an absurdist western that sees young Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a journey across the American west chasing after the woman he loves and accompanied by the enigmatic Silas (Fassy). To boot: the film co-stars the always terrific Ben Mendelsohn playing the depraved baddy like only he can. The film popped up first at Sundance earlier this year where it took home the World Cinema Jury Prize for drama—another good sign. All of this piled on top of the ridiculous first trailer and the fact that both of Maclean’s shorts are rich—and mostly successful—experiments in mood and great showcases for the actors involved. Consider Slow West an intriguing alternative to the bonkers (Mad Max: Fury Road) and the bubbly (Pitch Perfect 2) on May 15th. [Gary]

Heaven Knows What

(May 29th)

Even when you get the opportunity to cover more than one festival in a year, there’s always going to be a movie (or two, or three..) that will inevitably elude you. This was the case with me, last year, during TIFF, where our very own Dustin watched and praised Heaven Knows What and its sensation of “never knowing what’s going to happen next that makes for a fixating film.” The story is distressingly bleak, following the life of heroin junkie Harley (Arielle Holmes) as she wanders through the drug-addled streets of NYC, making one poor decision after next. In all honesty, though, it’s the remarkable tale from behind the scenes that’s peaked my interest in this indie, directed by brothers Bennie and Joshua Safdie. It’s a case of subject matter choosing its creator, since the Safdies happened on Holmes, a former heroin junkie who used to be homeless, completely by chance. The story of Heaven Knows What is very much a semi-autobiographical account of Holmes’ experience. This blurring of the lines between fiction and real-life makes for an especially revealing and fascinating viewing experience, and with the buzz ringing throughout all of last year, my hopes are considerably high for this one. [Nik]

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

(June 12th)

After winning both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards during its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was one of the first 2015 films we put on our highly anticipated list. Writer Jesse Andrews adapted the screenplay from his own novel, telling the story of a teenage filmmaker forced to befriend a classmate who has just been diagnosed with cancer. As the two slowly form a friendship, the teenager decides to make a short-film about his dying friend, putting his classic film parodies on hold. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl sounds like a mashup between The Fault in Our Stars and Be Kind Rewind, taking a heartfelt young adult story (minus the cheesy stereotypes) and presenting it with unique stylistic flourishes and Criterion Collection references. Fox Searchlight quickly bought the rights for the film after premiering to standing ovations and glowing reviews from Sundance, and the studio plans to release the film on June 12th. Until then, we’ll attempt to contain our excitement and stock up on tissues. [Dustin]

Dope

(June 19th)

With the accolades it picked up at this year’s Sundance—including a lovely little bidding war for its distribution before finally landing with Open Road Films—and as it prepares to close out the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, Dope hardly needs any more festival love before it opens June 19 (though it will get one last send off to theatrical release at the LA Film Festival). This vibrant film, directed by Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood, Brown Sugar), looks like the cool geeky-gangster ‘90s throwback movie I didn’t know I was waiting for. Starring Shameik Moore as Malcolm, a high-schooler trying to get by, keep his grades up, and make it into Harvard while traversing his rough Compton neighborhood, the film looks fast paced and clever. Like John Hughes took the wrong exit off the freeway and landed in the hood. The misadventures of a black teen and his friends, navigating the drug scene with nerdy hilarity just sounds fresh. And since teen tales have been needing a revamp for a while, this one looks like it’s got the smarts, the laughs, and sure as heck has the beats. We can’t wait to watch—and buy the soundtrack. [Ananda]

Tangerine

(July 10th)

Ever since seeing Sean Baker’s Starlet, I’ve been anxiously anticipating what he would do next. Starlet, for those who don’t know, is an odd couple tale about a young porn star who befriends an old woman she meets at a garage sale. Everything about Starlet screamed bad Sundance movie to me: the unlikely pairing, the unconventional hidden secret (She’s a porn star! Shock!), and the inevitable bonding of both characters despite their differences. And yet, Starlet completely won me over. Yes, it’s clichéd, but Baker, working on a low budget, has two incredible lead performances, along with a screenplay that brought out a winning, human side to the story. It was also gorgeously shot, with a look that could only be described as Californian. Tangerine looks like an entirely different and more abrasive experience, following two transgender prostitutes around Los Angeles on Christmas Eve as one of them hunts down her cheating boyfriend/pimp. The red band trailer promises a film full of frantic energy, sun-kissed visuals (Baker remarkably shot the whole thing on an iPhone, and even on a low budget he still nails the California look) and an earnest, humanistic portrayal of its characters. This summer is bound to be filled with big budgets and high concepts, but I won’t be surprised if this lo-fi work turns out to be this season’s true stunner. [C.J.]

Irrational Man

(July 17th)

I found myself in the minority last year as I very much enjoyed Woody Allen’s mystical rom-com Magic in the Moonlight, which starred Emma Stone and Colin Firth as a pair of illusionists stripping away each others’ guises on the French Riviera in the 1920s. I was charmed; sue me. Irrational Man, Allen’s annual movie offering this summer, stars Stone yet again, this time partnering up with another older man (though the gap is a bit narrower this time), Joaquin Phoenix. It’s a mystery drama about an existentially tortured philosophy professor (Phoenix) who falls for one of his students (Stone), who may be lifesaver that keeps him from drowning in his sea of alcoholism and depression. I loved the ebullience of Magic in the Moonlight, but it’ll be nice to see Allen tackle more turbulent material. His last drama, Blue Jasmine, was a face-melting showcase of star Cate Blanchett’s raw talent; with Irrational Man, it may be Phoenix’s turn to wow us. [Bernard]

Mr. Holmes

(July 17th)

Sometimes there is just a perfect role for an actor. That’s what we have with Mr. Holmes, another vision of the master sleuth—this time aged and retired, and played by Sir Ian McKellen. It’s been easy to take the veteran actor for granted recently, with a majority of his recent credits as Gandalf or Magneto. Don’t get me wrong, he’s more than dependable in those roles, but I’m excited to see him put away the staff and helmet and do something a little different. Sherlock Holmes has always been a character with a lot to offer for a smart and reserved performer, and McKellen will no doubt bring grace and wisdom. I also like the idea of setting the character in a small-set film, allowing the appeal to be more about character work than mystery. Mr. Holmes also pairs McKellen back with director Bill Condon, who has also been recently wrapped up in a franchise. Their collaboration on Gods and Monsters was perhaps the best work of both men—Condon won an Oscar for his script, and McKellen received his first acting nomination. Mr. Holmes may be too small to get much notice from the Academy, but it might be their best shots in a long while. [Aaron]

Southpaw

(July 24th)

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal stung me with his performance in 2013’s Prisoners, then he put me on the ropes in 2014 with the one-two punch of Enemy and Nightcrawler. With that kind of prowess, why wouldn’t his next role be that of a boxer? In the upcoming sports drama Southpaw, Gylenhall plays Billy Hope, a champion fighter who has it all until tragedy strikes his family, sending his life into an uncontrollable spiral. Reduced to nothing, Billy seeks redemption and prepares for a comeback with the help of trainer Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker). Gyllenhaal’s past film-to-film character transformations have been tremendous, and whatever he does will have my interest, but here he takes “commitment to craft” to the next level, with a physical transformation for the ages. He looks like an absolute beast in the ring, and if the trailer is any indication, his emotional intensity will be just as fierce. While I’m not convinced direction from hit-or-miss Antoine Fuqua equates to an Oscar win for Gyllenhaal (Fuqua directed Denzel Washington to Oscar glory as another kind of beast in 2001’s Training Day), I am convinced the actor has more than a fighting chance thanks to a screenplay written by the guy who created TV’s Sons of Anarchy, Kurt Sutter. [Michael]

Unexpected

(July 24th)

Like several other films on this list, Kris Swanberg’s highest profile work yet, Unexpected, made its debut back in January at the Sundance Film Festival to a strong reception among critics and festivalgoers. The film stars Cobie Smulders as Samantha Abbott, a high school teacher in Chicago who discovers she is pregnant around the same time she finds out Jasmine, a student of hers played by Gail Bean, is also facing an unplanned pregnancy. In focusing on the friendship that forms between the two as they face a similar (and at times wildly different) situation, Swanberg has delivered a film that seems to have impressed a lot of people back in Park City, Utah. Hopefully this film (along with Andrew Bujalski’s Results) can also serve as a breakout towards many more interesting roles for Smulders, who has always shown a lot of potential but has until recently been mostly wasted on How I Met Your Mother and as Maria Hill, the most thankless role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unexpected also stars Anders Holm (Workaholics) and Elizabeth McGovern (Once Upon A Time in America), it is set to be released on July 24th. [Ryan]

The End of the Tour

(July 31st)

It’s easy to understand why a large portion of film journalists have responded so enthusiastically to The End of the Tour since the movie premiered at Sundance. Based on Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky’s book, this drama recounts the time Lipsky (here played by Jesse Eisenberg) spent interviewing the late author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel, in a performance several have already deemed “transformative”) during Wallace’s book tour for his iconic release “Infinite Jest.” Maybe that prospect of a writer interviewing a writer about writing holds a greater cachet if you’re already a Way Too Indie interviewer; however, considering that The End of the Tour comes from director James Ponsoldt, the movie’s qualities should appeal more broadly. Ponsoldt’s last two films, Smashed and its spiritual prequel The Spectacular Now, feature characters in varying levels of crisis struggling to articulate their true feelings. Tour has already been labeled “dialogue-heavy,” and Ponsoldt’s ability to steer scenes around natural yet increasingly tense conversations should serve Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel particularly well. An opportunity to hear Eisenberg and Segel exchange bits of introspective self-analysis could turn into a surprisingly poignant summer diversion. [Zach]

Sinister 2

(August 21th)

Any time a sequel is announced to a movie where all of the main characters were killed off at the end, you have to wonder what direction the filmmakers are going to venture in with the follow up. With Sinister 2, co-writers Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill seem to be giving fans of the original exactly what they asked for. The highly-anticipated sequel will bring the original film’s comic relief character, fan favorite Deputy So & So (James Ransone), to the frontlines alongside series newcomer Shannyn Sossamon. Though Scott Derrickson isn’t returning to the director’s chair, his replacement is no slouch, and should be a familiar name to genre diehards. Director Ciaran Foy previously tackled a movie with lots of creepy children in 2012’s Citadel, so while he may have some pretty big shoes to fill, Foy may very well be the right man for the job. While it’s doubtful that Sinister 2 will sweep the Oscars, it looks to be a fun, creepy follow-up to one of the best wide-release horror films to come along in the past few years. [Blair]

In a press conference yesterday the San Francisco Film Society announced the complete lineup for the 58th annual San Francisco International Film Festival, running from April 23rd – May 7th. Festival Executive Director Noah Cowan led the presentation, emphasizing SFFS’s mission to champion films and filmmakers from around the globe.

“I think this festival doesn’t get as much credit as it’s due as being among the most significant champions of emerging filmmakers from around the globe,” said Cowan at the press conference. “There’s a lot of focus right now in the festival world on American independent cinema. There’s lots of great stuff going on here, but sometimes it happens to neglect the quite extraordinary artists coming from other parts of the globe.”

Emblematic of the festival’s initiative to spotlight films on a global scale is its “Global Visions” section, which boasts an array of narrative and documentary films from Japan (Wonderful World End), Brazil (The Second Mother), Germany (Stations of the Cross), China (Red Amnesia), the United Kingdom (Luna), South Korea (A Hard Day), France (Fidelio: Alice’s Odyssey), New Zealand (The Dark Horse), and many more countries with exciting, emerging filmmakers and films worthy of our undivided attention. Also celebrating global storytelling are the Golden Gate Award Competitions, in which will award films from around the world nearly $40,000 across 14 awards categories.

The festival’s “Marquee Presentations” section takes a look at some buzzy titles from the festival circuit. Highlights include Eden, Mia Hansen-Løve’s French DJ drama starring Greta Gerwig and Brady Corbet; Best of Enemies, Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s doc about Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.’s legendary 1968 televised debates; Results, Andrew Bujalski’s awkward comedy starring Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce as personal trainers; Francois Ozon‘s latest drama, The New Girlfriend; and What Happened, Miss Simone?, Liz Garbus’ piercing doc about legendary vocalist Nina Simone.

The festival will open with lauded documentarian Alex Gibney‘s Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, which should be a perfect kick-off for the Bay Area audience. The End of the Tour, James Ponsoldt’s follow-up to The Spectacular Now, is the fest’s Centerpiece presentation, while Michael Almereyda’s biopic Experimenter, starring Peter Sarsgaard as scientist Stanley Milgram, will be the Closing Night Film.

Late additions to the festival lineup are still rolling in, but three additions confirmed are Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Sundance darling Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Patrick Brice’s uncomfortable comedy The Overnight, and Helen Hunt’s Ride.

Special awards will be handed out to two of the industry’s most enduring luminaries. Guillermo del Toro will be in attendance to receive the Irving M. Levin Directing Award, and Richard Gere will be on-hand to receive the Peter J. Owens Award. Also receiving awards are documentarian Kim Longinotto and film translator Lenny Borger.

For the complete lineup, visit www.sffs.org

One of the world’s biggest student film festivals will be bolstered by screenings of some of the year’s most hotly anticipated movies. John Maclean’s western Slow West with Michael Fassbender, Judd Apatow‘s Trainwreck starring Amy Schumer & Bill Hader, as well as James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour featuring Jesse Eisenberg & Jason Segel, will all have pre-release screenings during this year’s Ivy Film Festival, which runs from April 6th to the 14th. Along with a selection of student works, the 14th annual IFF expands the festival beyond its Brown University home to Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Northwester, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Twenty-seven films will compete in four separate student competitions.

Ahead of the Ivy Film Festival revealing its full lineup, IFF also announced that iconic director Todd Haynes (Safe, Far From Heaven) will speak with students at the Ivy Film Festival about his career and his upcoming film Carol. Actor Jason Schwartzman (from the upcoming The Overnight) will also be a guest speaker. Past speakers included Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Wes Anderson, Adrien Brody, Laura Linney, Wes Craven, Park Chan-wook, Aaron Sorkin, James Franco, and Lena Dunham, among many others. Find out more at the Ivy Film Festival’s website.

One of the great joys (or miseries, depending on your perspective) of attending a film festival is seeing films that may never be seen by a wide audience. Hundreds of films come to Park City, Utah each January with the hopes of being loved and subsequently picked up by one of the major indie film companies—without being sold at the Sundance Film Festival, there is no real guarantee that your film will ever be seen again.

Check out the up-to-date list of the films that have been sold this year. These are likely the films that will be raved about in 12 months as some of the best of the year, so take note.

A24

The End of the Tour
Director: James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now)
Starring: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Chlumsky
A magazine reporter recounts his travels and conversations with author David Foster Wallace during a promotional book tour.

Mississippi Grind
Director: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Little Miss Sunshine)
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mednelsohn, Sienna Miller
Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, Gerry teams up with younger charismatic poker player, Curtis, in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what’s been lost.

The Witch
Director: Robert Eggers (Debut)
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson
William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another.

Alchemy

Strangerland
Director: Kim Farrant (Naked on the Inside)
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Joseph Fiennes
A family finds their dull life in a rural outback town rocked after their two teenage children disappear into the desert, sparking disturbing rumors of their past.

Zipper
Director: Mora Stephens (Conventioneers)
Starring: Lena Headey, Dianna Agron, Patrick Wilson
A family man who has it all until he risks losing everything due to his inability to fight off his obsessive temptation for other women.

Bleeker Street

I’ll See You in My Dreams
Director: Brett Haley (The New Year)
Starring: Blythe Danner, Martin Starr, Sam Elliott
Carol, a widow in her 70’s, is forced to confront her fears about love, family, and death. After her routine is rattled she decides to start dating again and falls into relationships with two very different men.

Broad Green

A Walk in the Woods
Director: Ken Kwapis (He’s Just Not That into You)
Starring: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte
After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends.

Film Arcade

Unexpected
Director: Kris Swanberg (Empire Builder)
Starring: Gail Bean, DuShon Monique Brown, Anders Holm
An inner-city high school teacher discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely friendship while struggling to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.

Focus Features

Cop Car
Director: Jon Watts (Clown)
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham
A small town sheriff sets out to find the two kids who have taken his car on a joy ride.

Fortissimo

Songs My Brothers Taught Me
Director: Chloé Zhao (Post)
Starring: Irene Bedard, Dakota Brown
High school senior Johnny is fixing to leave the Pine Ridge Reservation when the unexpected death of his rodeo-cowboy father complicates things.

Fox Searchlight

Brooklyn
Director: John Crowley (Boy A)
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Ellis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.

Me, Earl and the Dying Girl
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (The Town That Dreaded Sundown)
Starring: Jon Bernthal, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton
A teenage filmmaker befriends a classmate with cancer.

Mistress America
Director: Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha)
Starring: Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke
A lonely college freshman’s life is turned upside down by her impetuous, adventurous soon-to-be stepsister.

Gravitas Ventures

Being Evel
Director: Daniel Junge (Saving Face)
The real story behind the myth of American icon Robert ‘Evel’ Knievel and his legacy.

HBO

3 1/2 Minutes
Director: Marc Silver (Who Is Dayani Cristal?)
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving November 2012, four boys in a red SUV pull into a gas station after spending time at the mall buying sneakers and talking to girls. With music blaring, one boy exits the car and enters the store, a quick stop for a soda and a pack of gum. 3 1/2 minutes and ten bullets later, one of the boys is dead.

IFC Films

The D Train
Director: Andrew Mogel & Jarrad Paul (Writers, Yes Man)
Starring: James Marsend, Kathryn Hahn, Jack Black
The head of a high school reunion committee travels to Los Angeles to track down the most popular guy from his graduating class and convince him to go to the reunion.

Sleeping with Other People
Director: Leslye Headland (Bachelorette)
Starring: Alison Brie, Jason Sudekis
A good-natured womanizer and a serial cheater form a platonic relationship that helps reform them in ways, while a mutual attraction sets in.

IFC Midnight

The Hallow
Director: Corin Hardy (debut)
Starring: Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Joseph Mawle
A family who move into a remote milllhouse in Ireland find themselves in a fight for survival with demonic creatures living in the woods.

Reversal
Director: Jose Manuel Cravioto (El Mas Buscad)
Starring: Richard Tyson, Amy Okuda
A young girl, chained in the basement of a sexual predator, escapes and turns the tables on her captor.

Kino Lorber

The Forbidden Room
Director: Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg)
Starring: Roy Dupuis, Udo Kier, Louis Negin
A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.

Lionsgate

Don Verdean
Director: Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite)
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Amy Ryan, Jemaine Clement
Biblical archaeologist Don Verdean is hired by a local church pastor to find faith-promoting relics in the Holy Land. But after a fruitless expedition he is forced to get creative in this comedy of faith and fraud.

Knock Knock
Director: Eli Roth (Hostel)
Starring: Keanu reevs, Lorenza Izzo
A pair of femme fatales wreak havoc on the life of a happily married man.

Magnolia

Best of Enemies
Director: Robert Gordon & Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom)
Documentary about the legendary series of nationally televised debates in 1968 between two great public intellectuals, the liberal Gore Vidal and the conservative William F. Buckley Jr.

Results
Director: Andrew Bujalski (Computer Chess)
Starring: Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders, Kevin Corrigan
Two mismatched personal trainers’ lives are upended by the actions of a new, wealthy client.

Tangerine
Director: Sean Baker (Starlet)
Starring: Kiki Kitana Rodriguez, Mya Taylor
A working girl tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve searching for the pimp who broke her heart.

The Wolfpack
Director: Crystal Moselle (Debut)
Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch.

Netflix

Hot Girls Wanted
Director: Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus (Sexy Baby)
A documentary about young women who have been drawn into the sex trade – and how easy it is for a web-savvy generation to end up making porn.

Open Road

Dope
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Stars: Zoe Kravitz, Forest Whitaker, Tony Revolori
A coming of age comedy/drama for the post hip hop generation. Malcolm is a geek, carefully surviving life in The Bottoms, a tough neighborhood in Inglewood, CA filled gangsters and drugs dealers, while juggling his senior year of college applications, interviews and the SAT.

Orchard

Digging for Fire
Director: Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies)
Starring: Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Orlando Bloom, Brie Larson
The discovery of a bone and a gun send a husband and wife on separate adventures over the course of a weekend.

Finders Keepers
Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel (Print the Legend)
Shannon Whisnant has a nose for a bargain. But when he bought a used grill at a North Carolina auction, the severed human foot he found among its ashes was not part of the deal. Soon the gruesome discovery becomes the toast of the infotainment world, and the new owner spies a golden opportunity to cash in on the media frenzy, until struggling addict and amputee John Wood recognizes his missing member and demands his own foot back.

The Overnight
Director: Patrick Brice (Creep)
Starring: Judith Godreche, Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling
Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, are new to Los Angeles. A chance meeting at the park introduces them to the mysterious Kurt, Charlotte, and Max. A family “playdate” becomes increasingly interesting as the night goes on.

Oscilloscope

The Second Mother
Director: Anna Myulaert (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes)
Starring: Regina Casé
When the estranged daughter of a hard-working live-in housekeeper suddenly appears, the unspoken class barriers that exist within the home are thrown into disarray.

Relativity

The Bronze
Director: Bryan Buckley (Debut)
Starring: Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole
A foul-mouthed former gymnastics bronze medalist must fight for her local celebrity status when a new young athlete’s star rises in town.

Relativity Sports

In Football We Trust
Director: Tony Vainuku & Erika Cohn (Debut)
Presenting a new take on the American immigrant story, this feature length documentary transports viewers deep inside the tightly-knit Polynesian community in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Samuel Goldwyn Films

Fresh Dressed
Director: Sacha Jenkins (debut)
Fresh Dressed chronicles the history of Hip-Hop | Urban fashion and its rise from southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in-between.

Screen Media Films

Ten Thousand Saints
Director: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor)
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Ethan Hawke, Asa Butterfield
Set in the 1980s, a teenager from Vermont moves to New York City to live with his father in East Village.

Showtime

Dreamcatcher
Director: Kim Longinotto (Sisters in Law)
For twenty-five years Brenda Myers-Powell called herself ‘Breezy’ and she dominated her world, or that’s what she thought. It was a world that had turned her into a teenage, drug-addicted prostitute. After a violent encounter with a ‘john,’ Brenda woke up in the hospital and decided to change her life.

Sony Pictures Classics

Dark Horse
Director: Louise Osmond (Deep Water)
An inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men’s club who decide to take on the elite ‘sport of kings’ and breed themselves a racehorse.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Director: Marielle Heller (Debut)
Starring: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig
A teen artist living in 1970s San Francisco enters into an affair with her mother’s boyfriend.

Grandma
Director: Paul Weitz (About a Boy)
Starring: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.

Sundance Selects

City of Gold
Director: Przemyslaw Reut (Paradox Lake)
As the unabashed cradle of Hollywood superficiality and smoggy urban sprawl, Los Angeles has long been condemned as a cultural wasteland. In the richly penetrating documentary odyssey City of Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold shows us another Los Angeles, where ethnic cooking is a kaleidoscopic portal to the mysteries of an unwieldy city and the soul of America.

Tribeca Film

Misery Loves Comedy
Director: Kevin Pollak (Actor, The Usual Suspects)
Over fifty very famous American and Canadian funny people (filmmakers, writers, actors and comedians) share life and professional journeys and insights, in an effort to shed light on the thesis: Do you have to be miserable to be funny?