It’s been a joy to see the return to in-person film festivals. The Brattle has recently hosted Wicked Queer and Boston Underground screenings, and on Wednesday, Boston’s premiere movie event, the Independent Film Festival Boston, roars back after a Covid-canceled 2020 and a remote 2021.
The 2022 lineup marks the IFFB’s 19th cinematic rites of spring taking place locally at the Brattle and Somerville theaters (as well as the Coolidge Corner Theatre and WBUR CitySpace on the other side of the river). Looking at the slate, it’s another hats-off to executive director Brian Tamm and programming director Nancy Campbell and their all-volunteer staff. There are 30 features (13 of them documentaries) and seven shorts programs. Anticipated highlights include Sundance crowd pleaser “Cha Cha Real Smooth” (April 29, Brattle), in which a floundering college grad (writer/director Cooper Raiff) falls for a single mom (Dakota Johnson, in a role she recently played in “The Lost Daughter”); fest opener “Emily the Criminal,” in which Emily (Aubrey Plaza, “Black Bear”), a debt-strapped college grad, gets involved in a credit card scam; and “Flux Gourmet” (April 28, Brattle) the latest from eerie ambiance director Peter Strickland, the mind behind such outré curios as “The Duke of Burgundy” (2015) and “In Fabric” (2020).
From world cinema come efforts by two of the very best: “One Second” (May 1, Brattle), a Cultural Revolution prison-escapee film…
