• Home
  • Podcast
    • Specials
  • Interviews
  • Movie Reviews
  • TV Reviews
  • DVD Reviews
  • Columns
  • News
    • TV News
    • Film News
    • DVD News
    • Online Entertainment News
    • Space News
    • Music News
    • On Stage
    • Geeky, Funny & Weird

Slice of SciFi

This is How We Geek Out: Interviews, Reviews & More

  • Writers, After Dark
  • The Babylon Podcast
  • Slice of SciFi TV
  • Charlie Jade Verse
  • Contact Us
    • About Us
“Buster’s Mal Heart” Twists Realities, Dreams and Perceptions A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Well Worth the Mindwarp

“Buster’s Mal Heart” Twists Realities, Dreams and Perceptions A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Well Worth the Mindwarp

June 16, 2017 By Ro Leave a Comment

Written and directed by Sarah Adina Smith, Buster’s Mal Heart is a twisted psychological exploration of a person’s breaking point told by sifting through time and memory. It’s a moving dreamscape told through three seemingly parallel storylines.

As the film starts, you see a wild-eyed man resembling a crazed grizzly living in the mountains of Montana you don’t know exactly what’s going on but you realize something set him off. The stark setting and narration delivered via television reports swiftly clue you into the fact you’re watching a man living a deep paranoid dream yet somehow still aware enough to know how to come in out of the cold.

Buster's Mal Heart

But almost immediately, you find yourself watching Jonah (Rami Malek) a man with a simple dream: to buy a piece of land and build a safe home for his family away from the chaos (and his mother-in-law).

To earn that dream, he works the overnight shift manning the front desk of a hotel. He’s a quiet, unassuming, severely sleep deprived, loving husband and father.

Buster's Mal Heart

A late night encounter, at work, with a conspiracy-theory obsessed visitor who calls himself The Last Free Man (DJ Qualls) and claims to live “off the grid,” sets Noah (you think) on path that ultimately pushes him past his leads to his unravelling.

With perfectly placed flashbacks and cut scenes, you discover how this simple man comes to be known as the deeply disturbed and conspiracy driven Buster. With aptly placed what drove him to wander the mountains hunted.

Buster's Mal Heart

But in some other place and time, you see Jonah as a horribly dehydrated man floating in a rowboat adrift in a vast sea. He’s shouting at the moon and ranting in Spanish yet seemingly resigned to his fate.

All these men are one — but not — and all strangely linked in some tragic yet partially inexplicable way. Each mini story-arc imparts a new piece to the puzzle and stretches the veil between reality and hallucination ever thinner.

Buster's Mal Heart

This film keeps you off balance and ultimately unsure if events actually occur how you see them or at all. It raises questions about perception, reality and the costs of living while believing the world may just be out to get you through a precise use of silence, tension, and startling revelations and deeply convoluted conspiracies.

It’s a beautifully rendered film where every scene and piece of dialogue creates an engrossing yet disturbing tale you’re never quite sure you’ve figured out.

Buster’s Mal Heart is ultimately the tale of being driven far past the breaking point to be left splintered and reeling in the aftermath. I watched this film more than once, and I’m still not convinced which sequence of events is actual reality. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Smith’s sophomore directorial offering is an existential quandary well worth the lingering questions and haunting feeling Jonah’s “whale” swallowed him whole but spit him out in pieces.

Grade: B+

Buster’s Mal Heart had a limited theatrical release starting April 28, 2017 and is now available Video on Demand through most cable networks and streaming services.

Amazon Video: Buster’s Mal Heart


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 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.

Stars: Rami Malek, DJ Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil
Director: Sarah Adina Smith
Writer: Sarah Adina Smith

"Buster's Mal Heart" Twists Realities, Dreams and Perceptions
3.5

Summary

This film keeps you off balance and ultimately unsure if events actually occur how you see them or at all. It raises questions about perception, reality and the costs of living while believing the world may just be out to get you through a precise use of silence, tension, and startling revelations and deeply convoluted conspiracies.

It’s a beautifully rendered film where every scene and piece of dialogue creates an engrossing yet disturbing tale you’re never quite sure you’ve figured out.

Share on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Email

Filed Under: Film Reviews Tagged With: Indie Films

About Ro

I'm a blerd with a law degree who stumbled into a career in healthcare regulatory compliance. I'm a pop culture junkie, social justice and political back-talker living and working in Southern California. In my free time, I read and review books at shelfenvy.com, live tweet action, sci-fi/fantasy shows and often contemplate a career change so I can write that story that just won’t leave me alone.
shelfenvy.com | Twitter: @BookBlerd

Related Posts

Midsommar (2019)
“Midsommar” is a mesmerizing tour de force
Slice of SciFi 905: Matt Allen, Cheryl Texeira, "Hoax"
Indie Horror: “Hoax” director Matt Allen, actress Cheryl Texeira
Uncanny
Reviewing “Uncanny”

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Active Contests
Audio Productions
Awards News
Book News
Book Reviews
Columns
Comics News
DVD News
DVD Reviews
Entertainment Business News
Events
Fan Films
Fan Productions
Film News
Film Reviews
Gaming News
Geeky, Funny & Weird
Human Interest
Interviews
Music News
On Stage
Online Entertainment News
Science News
Slice of SciFi
Slice Video News
Space News
Specials
Technology News
TV News
TV Reviews

Slice

Follow Slice of SciFi

  • twitter
  • youtube
  • facebook

Listen to Slice of SciFi

  • iheartradio
  • playerfm

Subscribe to Podcast

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsiHeartRadioPodchaserTuneInRSS
  • Movie & TV Reviews

Father's Day - Deals on 4K UHD Collections

Recent Comments

  • Lou Tambone on Finding “The Joker”: Rich Handley and Lou Tambone on a complex villain: “Thanks! Always a pleasure!”
  • Sean on “Oppenheimer” is a cinematic tour de force: ““Tour de Force” is exactly what I said to the buddy who invited me to this as we left the…”
  • Erik on “The Lazarus Project” Episode 3 and who controls the singularity: “Louis, I agree with most of what you are saying here. Vinette’s portrayal of the multiple birth scenes however; while…”
  • Mark on Reviewing “Return to Sender”: “It was a movie settle down”
  • Greg R. on “Hotel Artemis” offers splendid lodgings: “Hotel Artemis – I just had the chance to watch Hotel Artemis again on SHO and looking for an answer…”
Tweets by Slice of SciFi
death to humans 160x600
Save 20 on all pre-order statues at TFAW.com!

Slice of SciFi
415 Pisgah Church Rd #302
Greensboro NC 27455
602-635-6976

Artwork:
Slice of SciFi spiral logo designed by Tim Callender

Theme Music:
Slice of SciFi music and themes
courtesy of Sci-Fried

Sister Sites:
Writers, After Dark
The Babylon Podcast
Charlie Jade Verse
Slice of SciFi TV

Slice

Copyright Slice of SciFi © 2005–2023 · WordPress · Log in