We’ve been watching a lot of SIFF screeners lately—at our desks, after work, on laptops in the kitchen—and it’s still impossible to see everything on our shortlist. We’re sad we missed you, Trollhunter. And we wish we had gone to see Page One: Inside the New York Times instead of halfheartedly laughing through indie comedy Surrogate Valentine. And what of Circumstance, Submarine, or Mysteries of Lisbon?

But then there were a few films that we actually loved. In alpha order:

Boy
Screening May 26, June 4 & 6.
How did I not hear about the New Zealand version of Napoleon Dynamite until now? It’s not a strict tribute, but wow: quirky outcasts, dance sequences, a lush setting, and a goat for a pet instead of a llama? Only thing missing are the tater tots. Boy follows an 11-year-old Maori kid (named Boy) who idol worships the two most important men of 1984: Michael Jackson and his jailbird dad. Unfortunately, only one of those kings lives up to the hype. When his gang-leader pops gets out of prison, Boy holds out hope that he’ll take him to an MJ concert. Instead, Dad teaches him the finer points of pot procurement, picking up chicks (“just don’t get her pregnant”), and understanding that even our heroes are human. It’s a tender film with a killer Maori “Thriller” dance at the end. Laura Dannen

The Future
Opening nationwide this summer.
To quote writer-director Miranda July: She went to her “dark place” for indie drama The Future, in which she plays one-half of a going-nowhere couple that tries everything—adopting a cat, changing jobs, an affair—to end their middle-class malaise. Filmed during the height of the recession, The Future is gloomier than July’s debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know (which opened SIFF 2005), but the artist still has a twinkle in her eye and deadpan delivery. It helps that costar Hamish Linklater is equally adorable with his matching flop of curls and quick wit. In the end, whimsy balances out the sadness, particularly a stray cat that narrates and an extra-large yellow T-shirt—July’s real-life security blanket—that chases her character Sophie until she comes home. LD

Natural Selection
Screening May 25 & 27.
How’s this for a plot: God-fearing Houston housewife Linda White can’t get her God-fearing-er husband Abe to sleep with her. She’s barren, and in Abe’s eyes, sex is only meant for procreation. But when Abe has a stroke at the local sperm bank, Linda finds out that he’s been making regular deposits for 25 years. Dutiful even in the face of betrayal, Linda honors his request to find one of the presumably dozens of children he’s sired. Sounds like a comedy, and for the most part it is. The one son Linda (Rachel Harris) can locate is a tattooed, tweaked-up manchild named Raymond (Matthew O’Leary), who’s just escaped from prison by stowing away in an oversized lawnmower bag. But as they travel from his Florida trailer park to Abe’s bedside, first-time director Robbie Pickering finds a way to mine their road trip for heartfelt moments of newfound family angst and regret. As the pair exposes its emotional scars over waffles in a diner, Natural Selection becomes less about a wife searching desperately for a way to reconnect with her husband and more about a woman on a wacked-out journey of self-discovery. Matthew Halverson

Close, but not quite:

Amador
Screening May 31, June 2 & 4.
Desperation knows no bounds in this Spanish drama, when Marcela, a poor, pregnant immigrant worker—low on cash and options—keeps the death of the elderly man she’s caring for a secret to collect her final paycheck. It’s an interesting moral dilemma that gets more and more twisted as the days drag on and…well, the smell gets worse. Unfortunately, the film suffers from sluggishness and a flat lead: as Marcela, Magaly Solier walks around in a dreary, non-blinking state of depression. When she finally cracks a smile at the end, it’s jarring—especially since the ending is far from cheery. LD

Tornado Alley
Screening June 4 & 6.
In light of the recent tornados in Missouri and Oklahoma, it’s hard not to feel a little skeevy rooting for two teams of meteorologists chasing billowing harbingers of doom across the heartland. And to his credit, director and pro storm chaser Sean Casey makes a point of documenting the devastation they leave behind, underscoring the need for a more accurate weather warning system. But let’s be honest: Casey is clearly a storm porn fetishist, and watching him drive right into one menacing cloud formation after another can be riveting. Unfortunately, though—from a strictly thrill-seeking perspective (this doc is made for IMAX)—not enough of those moments yield much to scream about. Even with Bill Paxton narrating. MH

Seattle International Film Festival is the nation’s largest film fest. It runs through June 12.