MOTERN MANIA – Spectacle Theater

Matt Farley is the “greatest songwriter ever,” according to himself. If you have any issues with that, you can contact him on the personal phone number provided in his Twitter bio—he’d be happy to hear you out. The Massachusetts native has successfully gamed the streaming system, releasing enough music to cover every possible search engine niche on Spotify—as noted in a recent write-up in the New York Times. The Spotify residuals are enough to afford Farley a middle-class life and to continue making his backyard, low-budget films, with director, co-writer, and long-time friend Charlie Roxburgh. Farley has been passionate about making films for most of his life, but he’s collaborated on 15 entirely independent features for the past two decades with Roxburgh, his college friend (aside from LOCAL LEGENDS, thus far Farley’s only directorial credit).

Under the curtain title of Motern Media, Farley and Roxburgh have remained overwhelmingly underground for the past 25 years. But their eccentric work has begun to swim to the mainstream surface through word of mouth, spurred back in 2018 by way of Will Sloan and Justin Decloux’s Important Cinema Club Podcast. Their films are absurd, uniquely told narratives made with the time, skills, and resources available—often stretched to their furthest limits. Imbued with creative spirit, “for the love of the game” mentality, and almost entirely non-actor casts plucked from family and friends, Motern films are free from typically held filmmaking ideals and produce a completely singular means of storytelling and filmmaking. Whether it’s a B-movie homage (DON’T LET THE RIVERBEAST GET YOU!), absurd auto-fiction (LOCAL LEGENDS), heartwarming fantasy (MAGIC SPOT), or brooding drama (HEARD YOU GOT MARRIED), Farley and Roxburgh have almost certainly crafted a type of film that you have never seen before. Following our pandemic-era streaming-only retrospective, the Spectacle is proud to welcome Farley and Roxburgh to the theater for presentations of four Motern classics.

Programmed in collaboration with Brianna Zigler.

DON’T LET THE RIVERBEAST GET YOU!
Dir. Charlie Roxburgh, 2012.
United States. 99 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 21 – 7:30 PM, Q&A with Matt Farley & Charlie Roxburgh, moderated by Will Sloan. This event is $10.
MONDAY, JUNE 24 – 10 PM

[ BUY TICKETS ] [ BUY SPECIAL EVENT Q&A TICKETS ]THIS FILM CONTAINS FLASHING LIGHTS.

An homage to low-budget creature features, DON’T LET THE RIVERBEAST GET YOU! tells the sad tale of an exiled tutor who returns to his hometown in the hopes of resuming his once exalted educational rapport and win back the love of his life. But he becomes become wrapped up in a deadly saga involving the mysterious beast who got him ostracized from his loved ones in the first place.

DON’T LET THE RIVERBEAST GET YOU! has everything you could possibly want in a film: a bloodthirsty aquatic monster, a conniving muckraker, a world class tutor, a vagabond, an original song and dance number, and former professional athlete Frank Stone (played by Motern fan favorite Kevin McGee). Arguably Motern’s biggest crowd-pleaser, the film is a hilarious, labyrinthine odyssey into one man’s quest for redemption—and one New England town’s search for the truth about what really lurks in their woods.

LOCAL LEGENDS
Dir. Matt Farley, 2013.
United States. 74 min.
In English.

MONDAY, JUNE 3 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 11 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 21 – 10 PM, Q&A with Matt Farley, moderated by Charlie Roxburgh. This event is $10.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26 – 10 PM

[ BUY TICKETS ] [ BUY SPECIAL EVENT Q&A TICKETS ]Autobiographical with fictionalized elements, LOCAL LEGENDS is a unique look at Matt Farley’s creative process and a must-watch for struggling artists. Farley is hilariously frank about his methods of distribution and self-promotion, flashing his personal phone number on screen multiple times and admitting that he sneaks copies of his CDs into stores. But his complicated relationship with the realities of making art should be resonant for anyone pursuing a creative field.

Farley’s first and only (thus far) directed feature, Local Legends weaves confessional narration with dramatized subplots that highlight Farley’s eccentricities, creative hangups, and work ethic, painting a portrait of a distinctive and undaunted artist. Any watch of Local Legends should be followed by a read-through of Farley’s self-published book, The Motern Method.

HEARD SHE GOT MARRIED
Dir. Charles Roxburgh, 2021.
United States. 76 min.
In English.

MONDAY, JUNE 17 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 22 – 5 PM, Q&A with Matt Farley and Charlie Roxburgh, moderated by Peter Kuplowsky. This event is $10.
SUNDAY, JUNE 30 – 5 PM

[ BUY TICKETS ] [ BUY SPECIAL EVENT Q&A TICKETS ]

Its melancholy tone, slow-burn suspense plot, chilly mise-en-scène, and comically stylized dialogue/acting combine to create a tone and style that deserves the frequently abused term “Lynchian” — but there’s no one term that quite describes what they’ve come up with here.
—Will Sloan, Screen Slate

In line with many Motern films which focus on outcasts and the return of hometown heroes, HEARD SHE GOT MARRIED is part one of a duo saga about the once-great musician Mitch Owens (Farley). Owens found success outside of his familiar “tri-town area,” but a career slump has forced him to return. Here, he considers the price of pursuing your art and the friends that you leave behind, while finding himself in close quarters with his suspicious, bass-playing mailman.

HEARD SHE GOT MARRIED meditates on reaching middle age as a struggling creative, and it presents a stark tonal shift from previous Motern films while still imbued with the same familiar oddball dialogue and quirky acting. While Married stands on its own, viewers are encouraged to seek out the thrilling conclusion to Mitch Owens’s story, 2023’s Heard She Got Murdered.

MAGIC SPOT
Dir. Charles Roxburgh, 2022.
United States. 87 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1 – 5 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 3 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 22 – 7:30 PM, Q&A with Matt Farley & Charlie Roxburgh, moderated by Brianna Zigler. This event is $10.
TUESDAY, JUNE 25 – 10 PM

[ BUY TICKETS ] [ BUY SPECIAL EVENT Q&A TICKETS ]In true Motern fashion, MAGIC SPOT starts out as a simple enough premise that blooms into several branches of varying absurdity, like a series of Russian nesting dolls. The quest to find a time-traveling rock is propelled forth by a talent show host’s journey to win over the big city girl who got away—and she won’t give him a chance until he remembers what she wore on their first date. But the path back in time takes a far different turn when he discovers that his dead uncle is trapped in a realm between worlds and yearns to be set free!

Wistful and sweet, a film which includes an adult character named “Poopy,” MAGIC SPOT is also an incredibly self-reflective look at ephemerality and the limits of living in memories. It also features an original song about the proud, fictional New England town of Tussleville that will lodge itself in your ears permanently.

HEARD SHE GOT MURDERED
Dir. Charles Roxburgh, 2023.
United States. 78 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 22 – 10 PM, introduced by Matt Farley & Charlie Roxburgh. This event is $10.

[ BUY SPECIAL EVENT Q&A TICKETS ]After surprising fans with the thoughtful, melancholy HEARD SHE GOT MARRIED, what did Farley & Roxburgh do for a sequel? The opposite, of course. Picking up shortly after the events of the previous film, struggling singer/songwriter Mitch Owens (Farley) now finds his already stagnant career tarnished by association with tragedy. Venues don’t want to book him, DJs don’t want to play him, audiences don’t want to hear him, and even the local public access channel has moved on to spotlighting other talent. After a while, he faces a choice: give up, or enact every frustrated artist’s darkest fantasies. Cross-pollinating comedy and drama with a slasher pastiche, Farley & Roxburgh build to a climax that reaches unprecedented heights of silliness for the filmmakers.

A fearlessly unhinged genre-bender, and an act of gleeful creative self-immolation by two artists who answer to no one, HEARD SHE GOT MURDERED further develops the key themes of the filmmakers’ recent work: the push-pull relationship between art and commerce; the challenges of remaining creative in middle age; and the frustrations and possibilities of creating art in a world that isn’t asking for it.

Note: HEARD SHE GOT MURDERED exists in several versions. Spectacle is pleased to present a rare screening of the theatrical cut, which is unavailable on digital or Blu-Ray.