Paint It Black

Waking up from a hard-partying night in the '80s LA's punk scene, Josie (Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development) learns that her boyfriend Michael has committed suicide. At the funeral, Josie encounters Meredith (Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds, MVFF 1999), Michael's icy, couture-clad mother, and begins to realize she might not have known her live-in love as well as she once thought. As Josie and Meredith attempt to cope with Michael's death, they teeter between mutual dependency and a dangerous rivalry that sparks a psychological tug of war over his memory. Their individual quests for answers escalate into obsession as they try to reconcile who Michael was with what he ultimately did. Shawkat and McTeer crackle with electricity and emotion as these two extremely different women grieving the loss of one young man. In her striking directorial debut, Amber Tamblyn brings a creative and evocative visual style to Janet Fitch's (White Oleander) beloved novel. (Mill Valley Film Festival)