BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL

Woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks

By BEN GRAY AND DAVID DAY

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You wake up strapped to a movie theater seat, covered in over-salted popcorn and gummy worms. Quentin Tarantino walks up, foaming at the mouth because he's recently been bitten by a rabid opossum. "Oh good," he says, "you're awake. I've got a lot of movies that you just need to watch right now. And look, my friend rabid Ingmar Bergman brought some of his favorites, too!" One week later, you stagger home and join a recovery group. The Boston Underground Film Festival is something like that. Here's a little preview.

Every film festival worth a damn has to have at least one brilliant tour de force of a movie that is also, like, four hours long. For this film festival, it's Love Exposure, directed by the guy who did Suicide Club. Never heard of Suicide Club? Well, you probably have some idea of what's in it just from the title. Love Exposure, though, is one of those movies that defy description in every way. Stylistically, it's all over the map, hitting on super-slick Scorsesesque montages and Restoration-era sexual comedy with equal grace. Somehow, it manages to be humorous, troubling and downright human all the while. Go ahead, try to leave halfway through. We dare you. [Opening night, Thu 3.25.10, 7pm]

Ever seen exploitation classics, like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! or Sweet Sweetback's Badassssssss Song? No? Then it's time to get educated. American Grindhouse is a documentary about the underside of US filmmaking. This stuff didn't win Oscars, it isn't available instantly on Netflix and most of it is absolutely terrible. Nonetheless, it speaks to the history of American cinema, which we all know is really about gratuitous sex, violence and brilliant marketing. These guys have watched over 80 years' worth of schlock, interviewed a handful of directors and critics, and edited the whole thing together into a slick little package, every minute of which is absolutely riveting. [Fri 3.26.10, 7:30pm. Thu 4.1.10, 7:15pm]

In the same vein, though not as riveting as it is curious, is It Came From Kuchar, a film about a pair of brothers (twins? No one is sure) who make films. The Kuchar brothers are about as far from the Coen brothers as the East is from the West. George and Mike are 8mm auteurs in the most liberal sense of the word. Their world is strung upside-down, and their Bronx "studio" is a mess of an apartment. Through splendidly edited interviews with the brothers and film oddballs like John Waters and Atom Egoyan, director Jennifer Kroot shows us a fascinating, decades-old underground that is completely original ... and completely bizarre. [Fri 3.26.10, 7:45pm. Thu 4.1.10, 7:30pm]

Stuck! is precisely the reason festivals like BUFF exist. Horribly acted and shot on less than a shoestring (a loafer?), it still manages to be a riot. At its simplest, Stuck! is a tribute to the trashy women-in-prison films of the '60s. At its most complex, it's a meditation on our prison system, the imbalance of power within the context of race and religion, and the guilty conscience of unjust accusers ... but not at all, really. [Sat 3.27.10, 7:30pm. Mon 3.29.10, 9:30pm]

BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
THU 3.25.10-THU 4.1.10
KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA
ONE KENDALL SQ.
CAMBRIDGE
617.499.1996
$10 PER FILM, $8 STUDENTS
FESTIVAL PASS $100, RECESSION-SPECIAL PASS $35
BOSTONUNDERGROUND.ORG