MVFF47 - RSVP Guide

Summer. Suburbia. Everyone is out having fun…except our 14-year-old hero, who in his pretentious precocity aims to write and stage the Great American Stage Drama. Even he gets distracted, however, once mom hires a hunky young handyman.

“Basically, it’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets American Beauty,” says the titular figure of his magnum opus Regrets of Autumn, a searing expose of the tarnished American Dream involving alcoholism, infidelity, and abortion. Rehearsals are just starting, but one senses the playwright probably already has that Pulitzer acceptance speech prepared. Trouble is…Griffin (Everett Blunck) remains as yet a pubescent suburban middle school student whose few friends and long-suffering mother (Melanie Lynskey) are already tired of his humorless devotion to the dramatic arts. While they reluctantly bend to his will, he faces distraction from "the work" this summer when mom hires young handyman Brad (Owen Teague, Eileen), who’s like a latter-day James Dean with better abdominal definition. Surprisingly, it turns out this monosyllabic hunk has theatrical ambitions, too. Nicholas Colia’s alternately hilarious and discomfiting debut combines an eccentrically singular coming-of-age (and coming out) story with elements of poignant insight.

Expected In Person Guest

How much hero worship is too much? Growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley, budding millennial Claudia Lerner only needs one aspirational model: Steve Jobs, whose products, career, image, and philosophy she idolizes from an early age. So much that at one point her mother (Judy Greer) asks, “Did you join a cult or something?” Viewed throughout her first couple decades of life, our heroine’s relentless drive to excel like guess-who isn’t necessarily a help as she must confront hurdles like her parents’ divorce and mom’s cancer diagnosis. Turns out, “What Would Steve Do?” isn’t a guiding principle that applies to everything in a teenage girl’s existence. In the autobiographically inspired seriocomedy of writer-director Kayci Lacob’s heartfelt debut feature, the irresistible force of Claudia’s ambition meets an unmovable object—reality—and she must learn “to become me,” not the Apple of an icon’s eye.

Expected In Person Guest

Two longtime friends, unpredictable and laidback Rickey and organized and anxious Glenn, embark on a road trip to scatter the ashes of Rickey’s father. Longtime best friends Glenn (Michael Cera, Molly’s Game, MVFF40) and Rickey (co-writer-director Michael Angarano) could not be more different. Glenn is organized and anxious; Rickey is unpredictable and laid-back. Glenn lives a quiet life with his wife preparing for the birth of his first child, while Rickey just got kicked out of a convalescent home and has nowhere to go. Despite their divergent paths, the pair have maintained a tight bond over the years. So, when Rickey suddenly appears in Glenn’s backyard, it’s not surprising that this unannounced visit leads to the two taking a spontaneous road trip to Sacramento to spread the ashes of Rickey’s father. Throughout the journey, the two explore the bounds of their friendship and finally learn to process their emotions. Kristen Stewart (Seberg, MVFF42) and Maya Erskine costar in this heartwarming and emotional comedy.

Michael Angarano is an Emmy-nominated actor who most recently appeared in the films Oppenheimer (2023) and Horizon (2024) and the Peacock series Laid (2024). He made his writing and directing debut in 2017 with Avenues (2017). He received a 2019 Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for an episode of This Is Us.