Buster's Mal Heart

{{use mdy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox film | name = Buster's Mal Heart | image = Buster's Mal Heart poster.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = [[Sarah Adina Smith]] | producer = {{Plainlist| *Travis Stevens *Jonako Donley }} | writer = Sarah Adina Smith | starring = {{Plainlist| * [[Rami Malek]] * [[DJ Qualls]] * [[Kate Lyn Sheil]] }} | music = Mister Squinter | cinematography = Shaheen Seth | editing = Sarah Adina Smith | studio = {{Plainlist| * Everything is Everything * [[Gamechanger Films]] * [[Snowfort Pictures]] }} | distributor = [[Well Go USA Entertainment]] | released = {{Film date|2016|9|11|[[Toronto International Film Festival|TIFF]]|2017|4|28|United States}} | runtime = 96 minutes | country = United States | language = {{Plainlist| * English * Spanish }} | budget = | gross = $62,382<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=bustersmalheart.htm|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[Box Office Mojo]]|accessdate=May 23, 2017}}</ref> }}

'''''Buster's Mal Heart''''' is a 2016 [[Surrealist cinema|surrealist]] [[mystery film]] written, directed, and edited by [[Sarah Adina Smith]]. It stars [[Rami Malek]], [[DJ Qualls]], [[Kate Lyn Sheil]], [[Lin Shaye]], [[Toby Huss]], Sukha Belle Potter, [[Lily Gladstone]], and [[Nicholas Pryor]].

The film had its world premiere at the [[Toronto International Film Festival]] on September 11, 2016. It was released on April 28, 2017, by [[Well Go USA Entertainment]].

== Plot == An eccentric mountain man is on the run from the authorities, surviving the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes in a remote community. Regularly calling into radio talk shows — where he has acquired the nickname "Buster" — to rant about [[Year 2000 problem|the impending inversion at the turn of the millennium]], he is haunted by visions of being lost at sea, and memories of his former life as a family man.

Buster was once Jonah, a husband and father whose job as the night-shift concierge at a hotel took its toll on his psyche and, consequently, his marriage to Marty — until a chance encounter with conspiracy-obsessed drifter Brown changed the course of their lives forever. As the solitary present-day Buster drifts from house to house, eluding the local sheriff and law enforcement, the film portrays the events that fractured his life and left him alone on top of a snowy mountain, or in a small rowboat in the middle of an ocean, or both.

==Cast== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * [[Rami Malek]] as Jonás "Jonah" Cueyatl, a hotel concierge turned [[mountain man]] who acquires the nickname Buster * [[DJ Qualls]] as Brown, a computer engineer who self-identifies as "the Last Free Man" * [[Kate Lyn Sheil]] as Marty Cueyatl, Jonah's wife * Sukha Belle Potter as Roxy Cueyatl, Jonah and Marty's daughter * [[Lin Shaye]] as Pauline, Marty's mother * [[Toby Huss]] as Deputy Winston * Mark Kelly as Oscar Cueyatl, Jonah's father * Teresa Yenque as Adelita Cueyatl, Jonah's mother * Bruce Bundy as Ranger Meg * Jared Larson as Dale * Sandra Ellis as Mrs. Bowery * [[Nicholas Pryor]] as Mr. Bowery * [[Lily Gladstone]] as Kelly, the morning shift concierge at the hotel * [[Sandra Seacat]] as a public access psychic * [[Ross Partridge]] as the psychic caller {{div col end}}

== Production == After producing her first feature film ''[[The Midnight Swim]],'' Smith knew that she wanted to create a story about a man and a mountain. She wrote the script at the Screenwriters Colony in [[Nantucket|Nantucket, MA]]. It was a non-traditional script, that combined illustrations with scene descriptions so that it almost read like a short story.

While finding financing came surprisingly easily for such an unusual script, the biggest challenge was finding someone to cast as the lead. Originally planning to cast a Latino actor due to the bilingual nature of the main character Jonah, Smith widened the search to expedite the casting process, eventually deciding on Rami Malek who she had seen in ''[[Short Term 12]]'' and ''[[The Pacific (miniseries)|The Pacific]]''. A tarot-card reading confirmed her casting choice.<ref>{{cite web| work= FilmMaker| title=TIFF 2016: Five Questions for Buster's Mal Heart Writer/Director Sarah Adina Smith| author= Scott Macaulay | date=September 10, 2016| url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/99764-tiff-2016-five-questions-for-busters-mal-heart-writerdirector-sarah-adina-smith/}}</ref>

''Buster's Mal Heart'' was filmed near [[Glacier National Park (U.S.)|Glacier National Park]] and in [[Kalispell, MT]], as well as on the ocean in open water. Originally, Smith planned to film in her home state of Colorado but, in the end, decided to shoot in Montana for the available state grant as well as the unique and dramatic landscape. The film was shot in 18 days.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Where I Shot It: Finding the Right Backdrop for a Character's Spiritual Quest in 'Buster's Mal Heart'|url = http://www.indiewire.com/article/where-i-shot-it-finding-the-right-backdrop-for-a-characters-spiritual-quest-in-busters-mal-heart-20151223|website = Indiewire|access-date = 2016-02-22|first = Chris|last = O'Falt| date=December 23, 2015 }}</ref>

== Release == ''Buster's Mal Heart'' premiered at the [[2016 Toronto International Film Festival|Toronto International Film Festival]] on September 11, 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tiff.net/films/busters-mal-heart/|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=www.tiff.net|access-date=2016-09-19}}</ref> The film had been offered a slot at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, but the filmmakers opted to premiere earlier due to Rami Malek's schedule. Shortly after the film's Toronto premiere, [[Well Go USA Entertainment]] and [[Netflix]] acquired distribution rights to the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/rami-malek-thriller-busters-mal-heart-well-go-1201901503/|title=Rami Malek's Thriller 'Buster's Mal Heart' Sells to Well Go USA|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|first=Dave|last=McNary|date=October 26, 2016|accessdate=October 26, 2016}}</ref> The film went onto screen at the [[AFI Fest]] on November 11, 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://afifest.afi.com/2016/sections/T4898|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[American Film Institute|AFI]]|accessdate=April 7, 2017|archive-date=January 19, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119174600/http://afifest.afi.com/2016/sections/T4898|url-status=dead}}</ref> and screened at the [[Tribeca Film Festival]] on April 26, 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2017/legit/news/2017-tribeca-film-festival-slate-full-list-1202000457/|title=Tribeca Film Festival Unveils 2017 Feature Film Slate (FULL LIST)|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|first=Gordon|last=Cox|date=March 2, 2017|accessdate=April 7, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/busters-mal-heart-2017|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[Tribeca Film Festival]]|accessdate=April 7, 2017}}</ref>

It was released on April 28, 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-sneaks-list-20170115-story.html|title=Listing a winter's worth of movies|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|first=Kevin|last=Crust|date=January 16, 2017|accessdate=January 26, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.varietyinsight.com/featurefilm_releases.php?limit=20&offset=120&currenttotal=&DO=&from_date=&sort=|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|accessdate=February 10, 2017}}</ref>

===Critical reception=== ''Buster's Mal Heart'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 70% approval rating on review aggregator website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 50 reviews, with an average score of 6.2/10.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/busters_mal_heart/|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|date=April 28, 2017 |accessdate=November 3, 2018}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film holds a [[Weighted arithmetic mean|weighted average]] score of 63 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/busters-mal-heart|title=Buster's Mal Heart|website=[[Metacritic]]|accessdate=April 7, 2017}}</ref>

John DeFore of ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' gave the film a positive review, writing: "Fans of [[Mr. Robot]] won't be disappointed in the least by this vehicle for Emmy-winning series star Rami Malek, which both fits in with Mr. Robot's delusion-prone paranoia and lets the charismatic actor stretch out in his first feature lead."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/busters-mal-heart-931132|title='Buster's Mal Heart': Film Review TIFF 2016|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|first=John|last=DeFore|date=September 20, 2016|accessdate=April 30, 2017}}</ref> Jeanette Catsoulis of ''[[The New York Times]]'' also gave the film a positive review, writing: "If the story is too tricky to realize its themes or welcome the impatient, it also contains enough empathy to humanize a character who's part man, part spiritual symbol."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/movies/busters-mal-heart-review-rami-malek.html?rref=collection%2Fcollection%2Fmovie-guide&_r=0|title=Review: Rami Malek as a Drifter With a Past in 'Buster's Mal Heart'|website=[[The New York Times]]|first=Jeanette|last=Catsoulis|date=April 27, 2017|accessdate=April 30, 2017}}</ref> Geoff Berkshire of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' also gave the film a positive review, writing: "Whether he's playfully interacting with his wife and daughter, or delivering a madman's rant to thin air, Malek has the range to be utterly charming, utterly creepy, or both at once."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/busters-mal-heart-review-rami-malek-1201855535/|title=Toronto Film Review: 'Buster's Mal Heart'|website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|first=Geoff|last=Berkshire|date=September 11, 2016|accessdate=April 30, 2017}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|5173032}} * {{Rotten Tomatoes|m/busters_mal_heart}} * {{Metacritic film}} * {{Mojo title|bustersmalheart}}

[[Category:2016 films]] [[Category:American drama films]] [[Category:American independent films]] [[Category:Films shot in Montana]] [[Category:Films about schizophrenia]] [[Category:American murder mystery films]] [[Category:2016 American films]] [[Category:2016 English-language films]] [[Category:2016 drama films]] [[Category:English-language drama films]]