The newly released trailer for Sarah Adina Smith’s “Buster’s Mal Heart” goes to some heady and heavy places, but the spot kicks off with a hilarious interaction between a man and his boss. “Jonah, I need to see you in my office,” the boss demands. And the not-so-dutiful employee’s response? “In a minute,” Jonah says, continuing to eat his burger in no particular rush.
But “Buster’s Mal Heart” isn’t just a quirky comedy — it’s also a surreal thriller. According to its official synopsis, “the film follows a mountain man on the run from authorities who survives the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes. He’s haunted by a recurring dream of being lost at sea only to discover that the dream is real: He is one man in two bodies.”
“Mr. Robot’s” Rami Malek plays both men — one known as Buster, the other as Jonah. We’re introduced to both characters in the trailer, the former a husband and father, the latter an isolated fugitive who resembles Tom Hanks in “Castaway.”
Smith described the film to Women and Hollywood as “the story of a man split in two. Each side demands a conversation with the unnameable forces of the Universe. I like to think of it as a comedy,” she explained, “because there’s nothing more absurd than screaming into the void!”
“Buster’s Mal Heart” was financed by Gamechanger Films, which provides equity financing to narrative feature films directed by women. The film had its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Along with Malek, the cast includes Kate Lyn Sheil (“House of Cards”), DJ Qualls (“The Man in the High Castle”), Toby Huss (“Halt and Catch Fire”), and Lin Shaye (“Ouija”).
Smith made her feature debut with 2014’s “The Midnight Swim,” a drama about three half-sisters who return home after their mother drowns in a nearby lake. The film won numerous prizes on the festival circuit, including the Audience Award at AFI Fest. Smith directed a segment in last year’s “Holidays,” a horror anthology.
When we asked the writer and director what she wants people to think after they watch “Buster’s Mal Heart,” she answered, “I suspect there will be many different interpretations of the movie, but that’s not because I didn’t have my own very clear ideas about it: It’s because there are many different outlooks on the human condition, freedom, sanity, and God, or lack thereof,” she speculated. “My hope is that the audiences will leave with a feeling of peace — a rare and special peace, however fragile or fleeting.”
“Buster’s Mal Heart” opens April 28. Check out the trailer below.
