The Independent Film Festival Boston trends to greatness

Cures for pain

By PETER KEOUGH | April 29, 2011

movies at the Independent Film Festival of Boston

CURE FOR PAIN Mark Sandman’s life and work are explored in this new documentary.

If you had to find a common theme among the films in this year’s Independent Film Festival of Boston (recently honored in the Phoenix Best of Boston Poll as the Best Film Festival), you might say that there are a number of deranged old coots who turn out to be possessed by genius, as in Last Days Here and Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis. Or maybe the dominant trend is stylistically bold black comedies about marginal people adrift: The Future, Bellflower, The Trip, Submarine, even Stake Land. Or maybe it’s documentaries about urgent issues and desperate solutions, like If a Tree Falls and Better This World. But one thing you can say about them all is that they’re better than just about anything else out there.

Read the movie reviews and watch the trailers:

Better This World (4 stars)
Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story (3 stars)
The Future (3.5 stars)
Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis (3.5 stars)
Last Days Here (3.5 stars)
Littlerock (3.5 stars)
Stake Land (3.5 stars)
Submarine (3.5 stars)
Troll Hunter (2 stars)
Push: Madison vs. Madison (3 stars)
Project Nim (3.5 stars)
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (3.5 stars)
God Willing (2.5 stars)
Dragonslayer (2.5 stars)

Topics: Features , Movies, Somerville Theater, film, More

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