Somebody doesn’t trust the human mind. Well, two people, actually. Writer/director Sarah Adina Smith and star Rami Malek have both worked on projects questioning the efficacy of our brains before, and they team up to go down that rabbit hole yet again in Buster’s Mal Heart.
The titular heart is also examined, but as this trailer makes clear, this is largely a descent into one man’s feverish head, twisted as it is by sleep deprivation, paranoia, and much, much more. Like Smith’s previous film, The Midnight Swim, it’s hard to pin down this film’s genre because it’s hard to pin down precisely what is happening. Her uniquely oddball debut is what drove me to fit Buster into my schedule at TIFF, where the film debuted last year, and I’m still scratching my head about it months later.
If anything, this trailer is too straightforward. Yeah, you’re probably wondering why Malek appears as both a clean-cut hotel concierge and a hairy mountain man, but I guarantee you the answer is weirder than you’re guessing. Malek’s presence means more people will see Buster than Midnight Swim, but this wasn’t an intentional move. He was cast before his television series Mr. Robot took off, making the overlapping themes more a coincidence than a calculated marketing move. That and it seems he’s mastered this brand of mercurial yet lovable character.
Buster’s Mal Heart is directed by Sarah Adina Smith and stars Rami Malek, DJ Qualls, and Kate Lyn Sheil. It will be released in the U.S. on April 28th, 2017. Further release dates are not currently known.
Are you interested in finding out if Buster’s heart is really mal? Let us know in the comments!
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