BEING THERE (Hal Ashby)

A sheltered man with an unconventional mind lives a golden-spoon life far removed from the poverty right outside his not-so-humble abode. Some may call him simple, but his distinct perspective is a direct result of his only access to the outside world: obsessive television watching. Almost everything he knows about life has been gleaned from the boob tube. Through this small-screen understanding, he dupes his way into the highest offices of America, convincing the country he’s someone that he’s not.

Don’t worry: this is not yet another think piece about Donald J. Trump.

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BUSTER’S MAL HEART (Sarah Adina Smith)

Unlike most enigmatic movies that feel manipulatively vague in order to simplistically drum up the audience’s interest with an artificially confounding plot (the mystery often intentionally masks – through superficially bolstering – a throwaway story in a classic example of style over substance), the structure of Buster’s Mal Heart is not only justified by, but also imperative to cinematically conveying the title character’s reconceptualization of reality.

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