Boston Underground Film Festival

While I highly value New Hampshire Film Festival for its parallel film tracks, presenting tons of viewing options each day (and repeated chances to catch many), I value Boston Underground Film Festival for the personal connections. That it (almost) all takes place in a single room, the historic Brattle Theater, means people tend to sit in roughly the same seat for every film. You get to know those around you over its five days, discuss reactions to each film, and just shoot the breeze in the downtime between screenings. That conversation greatly enriches the experience of watching any movie, even as it inevitably swerves off such a narrow topic. It's so much better than twiddling your thumbs or staring at your phone.

It also helps soften the blow of a slate that largely failed to impress.

That's not entirely fair. The hit ratio was comparable to previous years, but the failures were more palpable due to the handful of features that were strong through the first half or so, but stumbled to the end. The result was that of the dozen feature films I watched across five days, there was only one stand-out, one slightly ahead of the rest, and many more whose redeeming qualities struggled to shine through. That said, far more shorts resonated strongly, such that narrowing down what to feature below was pretty difficult.

So let's get to it!

Narrative Shorts

Check Please

The meager budget (if any) of most shorts playing such a niche festival means extensive stunts are rare, due to the time required for training and safety and choreography. So that director Shane Chung (working with actors Richard Yan & Sukwon Jeong, and stunt coordinator Grace Wagner) pulled off a really good looking martial arts short is remarkable.

Even more remarkable is that it does so while also being very funny, all the while addressing the nuanced tension and complicated sense of identity between two men, one who grew up in Korea and moved to the US as an adult, and the other who relocated as a toddler. All in ten minutes! Just marvelous.

The Fairy Moon

Intrusive thoughts manifest as dark desires and curiosities, often involving harm to yourself or others. James Swanton indelibly personifies it, tormenting a businessman (Johnny Vivash) who just wants to cross the road. From moment one, hilarity and danger intermingle in a thrilling manner that could only end in one, perfect incident.

A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers

With a title that names two titanic Taiwanese flicks, Birdy Wei-Ting Hung's short about sexual awakening and the power of the moving image seeps into your soul through its dream-like imagery. It sneaks in, starting as a simple bit about a teenager (Wei Huang) grabbing a (delicious looking) snack and heading to the cinema, pursued (at a distance) by a boy (Chen Yi-Chun) her own age. But what she witnesses on the screen changes her, bringing her into a more full expression of herself through daydreams and fantasies.

A Reconciliation at the Donut Shop

Sam (Sam Spoll) fancies herself the star of her life, imposing her will of performance on anyone unlucky enough to stumble through the swath of the strip mall she's claimed as her stage. This includes a woman (Rachel Marsh) instructed to play her sister, as her Real Sister (Katie Chang) has stepped away from the donut shop register for a few minutes. Sam's overdramatic, a parody of every self-serious theater kid, with the emotional reactions (and wigs) to match. Her persistence is hilarious and understandable, as is the way so many of her targets just go along with it, because why not? As for her attempts to make-up with her sister...well, there's a reason she has to appoint a surrogate.

Cumbia for the Dead

What if all of a sudden, you could hear the dead speak just by opening their eyelids? And then your friend's body is brought into the morgue in which you work? Would you take a short road trip to recover the small fortune he buried at his house before his death, in return for taking him to see his estranged daughter one last time? Chuy (David Illescas) does just that, and the two men's hilarious back and forth (as well as their questionable antics) make this meditation on the thin barrier between the lands of the dead and the living incredibly enjoyable, from the very first frame to the very last.

Honorable Mentions: Nearsighted;

The Sword of the Sun; I Beg Your Pardon; Human Resource

Narrative Features

Obsession

There have been a handful of YouTubers-turned-filmmakers in recent years, some more successful than others. Thus far, they've come from a corner of the site with which I'm unfamiliar, and Curry Barker is no different. But in Obsession, he's put together the best debut from that small crowd.

The premise is relatively straightforward and recognizable: an awkward dude named Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette), so he wishes for her to fall in love with him. Whether coincidental timing or magic, she begins to pursue him. But what makes Barker's execution feel fresh is how much he focuses on Nikki's experience. Because supernatural or not, it's clear she's going through some shit and Bear is taking advantage of that, which Barker doesn't lose sight of for even a moment. Mix in the distinct sense of humor in the dialog and editing, as well as brutal violence whose sparsity makes it all the more visceral, and you're in for an upsetting yet captivating time.

US Release Status: Theatrical release May 15, 2026

Buffet Infinity

A union of 90s and 00s remix culture with Adult Swim's famous fake commercials, Buffet Infinity spins a tale of cosmic horror played out through the local TV commercials of fictional Westridge County. They paint a picture of the quietly goofy, quirky town, slowly dropping hints of something stranger and darker at play, seemingly stemming from the out-of-this-world (and ever expanding) buffet in the strip mall. There's a religious cult with an L. Ron Hubbard-type figure at its center, a smarmy lawyer, and oh so much secret sandwich sauce. All working to highlight how so often, people are too focused on capitalizing on some crisis to help their neighbors.

US Release Status: Acquired; release date to be announced

Honorable Mentions: Saccharine; The Furious

If you want my thoughts on all of the 57 shorts and features I watched, check out my Letterboxd.