Comedy

At once a celebration and playful subversion of the action genre and a soulful exploration of aging and autonomy, Sundance hit Thelma is a showcase for our oldest generation, those rarely centered in life let alone on-screen. When 93-year-old Thelma Post (June Squibb) gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city, with the help of her good friend Ben (the late Richard Roundtree) to reclaim what she lost. The path to the perpetrator is anything but straight as Thelma must make an important stop or two and she encounters complications along the way. For first-time feature writer/director Josh Margolin, the film serves as a love letter to the exploits of his real-life grandmother. And after 70+ years of acting (perhaps most memorably as the henpecking wife in Nebraska) Thelma gives June Squibb, in a memorable performance, her first starring role to become the year’s oldest action hero.

In Attendance: Josh Margolin, Director; Zoë Worth, Co-Producer (April 7 only)

East Coast Premiere. Puddysticks is a dark, joyously twisted comedy following Liz (Megan Seely), a workaholic at Braindead, a brutal, elite gaming company with the chance to be recruited by her gaming hero only if she’s the best at her job. One day she collapses from overwork and, despite the doctor’s warnings to take it easy, she chooses instead to join Puddysticks — a secret society that increases stamina and creativity, promising to make her the best at her work. She joins seeking a quick fix for work and instead revolutionizes her life but when she finally gains the courage to share her own deep-rooted shame, things don’t go as anticipated. Fresh, funny and smart, Puddysticks traces the odyssey of a young woman whose world turns upside down and who must find her own way to free herself of her past.

In Attendance: Megan Seely, Director

Florida Premiere. Nestled amongst the falling feathers of a chicken factory in industrial North Wales—and featuring the perennially uplifting music of Neil Diamond, Janis Ian, and Minnie Riperton—Chuck Chuck Baby follows Helen (Louise Brealey), a thirty-something woman packaging poultry by night and caring for her dying ex-mother-in-law by day. Her mundane routine is jolted when Joanne (Annabel Scholey), her secret childhood crush, returns home. As they reconnect, their romance begins to flourish, but can they move on from the weight of their pasts? With plenty of heart, director Janis Pugh delivers a joyful, honest story about finding the courage to let go and allow love to prevail.

Florida Premiere. Philosophy lecturer Sophia is an expert on love. She can effortlessly wield quotes from Plato and Schopenhauer, among others, on the subject. She is happily married in an amicable if passionless relationship with fellow intellectual Xavier. But her theoretical and analytical grounding in matters of the heart hasn’t prepared her for the instant, electrical connection she experiences when she meets Sylvain, the rugged building contractor she and Xavier have retained to renovate their new lake cabin. Canadian actress-tuned-director Monia Chokri establishes a rattling screwball-style dialogue pace early on, and combines cynical smarts and deceptively light handling of some undeniably mature themes to deliver a sexy, witty examination of romantic passion in a real-world environment. Sophia may know the nature of love, but there never are easy answers.

Southeastern US Premiere. Sarah and Tom are in terrible financial trouble. On the brink of losing everything, they’ve managed to find a buyer for their stylish London home. When their best friends Richard and Beth come round for a final dinner, an uninvited old friend, Jessica, tags along. What could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty. This black comedy tells the story of two couples who find themselves having to move a dead body to ensure an imminent house sale doesn’t collapse. Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat, A Knight’s Tale), Shirley Henderson (The House Across the Street, Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer, The Sixth Sense) star in the uproarious effort to hide the corpse, an undertaking which features a nosy neighbor and bungling cops. A blueberry clafoutis dessert also plays a significant role.

Griffin Dunne stars as Peter Pearce, a New Yorker reeling from his parents’ recent divorce and his own wife (Rosanna Arquette, reuniting with her After Hours co-star) leaving him after 35 years. When he crashes his son Nick’s (James Norton) bachelor party in Tulum, Peter soon realizes he’s not the only Pearce man in crisis. Set against the spectacular backdrop of the Yucatán, writer/director Noah Pritzker (Quitters) has crafted a witty and deeply human drama about divorce, heartache, fathers and sons, and getting away from it all.

Florida Premiere. In this droll, uniquely humorous, refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, filmmaker Joanna Arnow portrays Ann, a 30-something New Yorker suffering from aging millennial malaise with the various threads of her life each marked by a sense of discomfort and stagnancy. As she awkwardly shuffles from her low-level, corporate job – whose stated mission is to create her own obsolescence – through a series of carefully orchestrated, though just as self-effacing, submissive sexual encounters, dissociation gives way to hints of self-conscious introspection. While the introduction of her charmingly argumentative family provides context as to how relinquishing a sense of control and feeling yourself fade into non-existence might be liberating, Ann soon discovers there may be limits. With a deadpan, sardonic humor and an unabashed authenticity, Arnow’s boundary-pushing narrative debut speaks to the frustrations of a generation terrified of sincerely wanting anything.

Christina and Sara find themselves stood up while they wait for their online dates to arrive. What happens during the course of the evening surprises them both. It’s a story about connection, self-empowerment, and the joy of spontaneity.

When a phone scammer makes one last late night call, the woman on the other end gives her much more than she bargained for.

A young man tries to grow an oak tree by combining soil, an acorn, and the ashes of his dead father.

Halloween night, three friends high in a van, and an urban legend surrounding a cult singer’s mysterious death in a fire – what could go wrong?

He’s bald. Well, no, he’s going bald. He still has hair. On like, the sides. Does that count? It counts, right? Maybe? Either way, he’s pathetic. And he’s getting old.

A Day in the Life of a thirty-something immigrant caught in a rut. He lives in a place where everyone speaks a different language and no one understands anyone else. When his wife asks him to buy ice cream, his day unravels as misunderstandings sink to absurd misadventures. A satirical view about a day where the effects of a new immigrant’s mounting hardships and dizzying realities all converge into one big mess. The Subtitles Are Color Coded: Serbian (white) Spanish (yellow) Broken Serbian or Broken Spanish (orange) English (not subtitled)

When a new “love drug” is released, two seemingly compatible people decide if dating is worth the risk to find true love or if all their problems can be solved in one little pill.

Contagious Swagger is a branded entertainment romantic comedy film about a Black young man visiting his Asian girlfriends’ parents house for dinner for the first time. His Air Jordan footwear could be the answer to solve a dramatic forbidden love story.

After meeting in their therapist’s office, two women battling their own mental health issues form an unlikely friendship when one helps the other confront a pregnancy scare.

When a young convict is caught by law enforcement, his only way out is to infiltrate and deceive his own team as they gear up for their biggest score yet.

A 13-year-old refugee from Afghanistan living in an emergency shelter in Germany joins a Christian boys’ choir to save his father who was left stranded in Hungary, and clashes with the strict choir master.

Stanley’s last shift at his fast food job takes an unexpected turn.

One cold winter day, a little girl decides to make a new scarf for her friend, the local mailman, but she soon discovers what is truly troubling him deep inside.

Keta is s big girl, with big hair who has big dreams but somehow she finds herself selling drugs.

Three New Yorkers will stop at nothing to get Paul Giamatti his own wax statue at Madame Tussauds.

Misguided people from various walks of life meet in a craft brewery’s parking lot to joust on bicycles of double the normal height, raise money for a nonprofit bicycle shop that focuses on urban transportation equity, and to attempt to recapture the American Dream.

This is definitely a documentary, as it highlights the frenetic event that is The Tall Bicycle Joust. But, it is also a pilot for the unscripted TV/ web series, “Smart People Being Stupid”.

Alice has been blacking out and craving things she dare not name. When her girlfriend’s dog goes missing, Alice wonders if it could be inside her.

Screen time alert! Marco, 11, is obsessed with his electronics — his iPad, his Xbox, his VR headset — and hardly leaves the house. But when his grandmother dies and his grandfather moves in, Marco’s life is turned upside-down and he’s forced…to go play outside. “Nonno” (Grandpa) introduces him to bocce — the world’s oldest game — and to the neighborhood crew of old Italian men who play daily at the local court. With sport, laughter and love, Marco finds connection to other people “in real life” and rounds up a team of neighborhood kids to take on his grandfather and his pals. Learn more at www.teammarco.movie or get full details at www.meetborofive.com/team-marco-festivals