Sarah Ward

It's the most weird and wonderful time of the year — if you're a cinephile, that is. The annual Sydney Underground Film Festival is back for another round of showing audiences just what seeing movies in a darkened room is all about. Because when you're staring at a screen sans light, you may as well be watching something dark, odd or unusual to match the mood, really. From September 15 to 18, that's exactly what festival directors Katherine Berger and Stefan Popescu will serve up for their tenth edition. You don't reach that milestone without putting together a standout program — so if you're feeling understandably spoiled for choice, we've picked our top ten standouts from the very impressive 2016 lineup. WIENER-DOG Talk about kicking off SUFF 2016 in style. This year's festival all starts with the film Todd Solondz fans have been waiting 21 years to see: a follow-on from his 1995 favourite Welcome to the Dollhouse. None other than Greta Gerwig takes on the role of Dawn Wiener — and yes, a sausage-shaped canine also helps give the feature its name. Expect to also spot Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito and Zosia Mamet across the collection of four stories, and to enjoy Solondz's brand of black comedy while you're doing so. RICHARD LINKLATER — DREAM IS DESTINY You can be excused for hoping that Richard Linklater — Dream is Destiny features Matthew McConaughey, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Jack Black walking and talking in a European city, driving around small-town America looking for parties, or captured every year for 12 years. It doesn't. However all three would prove fitting ways for this informative insider documentary to explore the films and impact of the director behind Dazed and Confused, the Before trilogy, Boyhood and Everybody Wants Some!!. DE PALMA If Richard Linklater's films aren't quite your style, then maybe Brian De Palma's vastly dissimilar output is. With a digitally remastered version of his pig's blood-soaked high school horror Carrie also screening at SUFF to celebrate its 40th anniversary, De Palma lets the iconic filmmaker chat through a career that also includes Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, Mission:Impossible and Snake Eyes. And if that's not enough, it's also co-directed by Frances Ha and Mistress America's Noah Baumbach. THE LOVE WITCH The Love Witch has been popping up at film festivals around the country for months now, and for good reason, as folks in Brisbane and Melbourne already know. Writing, directing, editing and producing — and taking care of both the production and costume design as well — the multitalented Anna Biller not only pays homage to and subverts '70s sexploitation films (though she definitely does that as well). In addition, she crafts a film that merges and moulds her many influences into a brightly coloured tale of romance and sorcery that's completely her own. I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER If the combination of Where the Wild Things Are's Max Records and Back to the Future's "Great Scott!"-exclaiming Christopher Lloyd doesn't pique your interest in the moody and mysterious I Am Not A Serial Killer, then the film's storyline definitely will. Playing a high school outcast who lives in a mortuary, the former starts trailing his seemingly frail neighbour after a spate of murders rock their small town. Favouring an '80s aesthetic like all the best horror throwbacks at the moment only increases the feature's appeal. ROOM FULL OF SPOONS No prizes for guessing what Room Full of Spoons is all about — or what type of plastic cutlery you should take with you to throw at the screen while you're watching it. After all, it was only a matter of time before someone made a doco about the so-bad-it's-still-actually-terrible cult hit that is The Room. Here, Rick Harper chats to the cast and crew that made the movie the uniquely awful (yet inexplicably enjoyable) piece of cinema that it is, complete with an appearance by the man who started it all, Tommy Wiseau. AAAAAAAAH! When we say that Aaaaaaaah! is mostly dialogue-free, we don't actually mean that it's a silent film. A cast that includes writer-director Steve Oram and The Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt make plenty of noise, though don't expect to hear them utter any discernible words. The fact that their characters behave and communicate like primates — while still appearing human — is part of the feature's satirical comedy. This flick makes an absurdist statement alright, and it'll have you laughing in the process. THE VIRGIN PSYCHICS No one makes films like Sion Sono, the Japanese auteur behind previous SUFF hit Why Don't You Play in Hell? And few people make films as often as Sono, with the filmmaker's output as prolific as it is distinctive. With The Virgin Psychics — which is one of five films he made in 2015 — he really does tell the tale the title suggests, and in his expected out-there style. Yep, teen virgins wake up with special powers, put them to erotic use, and then strange things happen. Just try to resist this film with that description. ANTIBIRTH There's unexpected pregnancies, and then there's the seemingly immaculate conception at the centre of Antibirth. In Danny Perez's anti-family-friendly effort, Orange is the New Black's Natasha Lyonne plays a drug-addled party-lover who not only discovers that she's expecting, but comes to realise that her condition keeps doubling in size each and every day. Thankfully, Chloë Sevigny is on hand as her best buddy — though when alien conspiracy theories start coming up, expect things to get even weirder. THE BLACKOUT EXPERIMENTS If documentaries can explore subjects that some of us can't face in reality — or simply don't really want to — then underground film fests can give the darkest and strangest such efforts a big-screen home. Just don't head along to see The Blackout Experiments if the idea of attending an immersive theatre show in a secret location, and then having your deepest fears — such as being restrained, stripped naked, and physically and verbally abused, just for starters — inflicted upon you falls outside of your comfort zone. The Sydney Underground Film Festival runs from September 15 to 18. To view the full SUFF 2016 program, or to buy tickets, visit suff.com.au.