By Betsy Sherman

There’s not a weak effort in the five-film bunch.

Shorts Dartmouth: Narrative – April 27 at 12:15 p.m. and on April 28 at 5:45 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre. One of the programs in this year’s IFFBoston.

The Independent Film Festival Boston has been a major showcase for short films from New England and beyond. This year is no different, with ten programs of narrative and documentary shorts, a program of Indigenous shorts and a Student Shorts Showcase.

Here’s a roundup of one of those slates, Shorts Dartmouth: Narrative (collections are named after streets in the Back Bay). There’s not a weak one in the five-film bunch, which runs for a total of 69 minutes. Most of Dartmouth leans towards the slicker side, not that that’s a bad thing — the tools of the trade are well employed to create dramatic tension and pay homage to various movie genres. Expect in-person appearances by some of the filmmakers at the screenings.

A scene from Ambush at St. Mary’s. Photo: IFFB

Ambush at St. Mary’s–Directed and written by Anthony Parisi. This handsome take on the Western pits good against evil within the walls of a “humble frontier chapel,” as its elderly priest, Father Jacob, puts it. On a lonely evening, as coyotes wail, two menacing men wearing cassocks and white collars show up with designs on the church’s treasure, as well as accusations that the institution is hypocritical for hoarding it. Veteran character actor Richard Riehle plays the assailed Father Jacob and Luke Barnett the ruthless and cynical Noah. But the one with a character arc is Jeremy Hoffman as Wesley, for whom this heist connects with bitter memories of his minister father. Pretending to be “Father Wesley,” he has a pithy interaction, Bible verses at the ready, with a local woman in distress, Hannah (BU grad Kate Hackett). Their discussion brings a touch of real-life into the genre piece, until it suggests a divine intervention may be happening. Ambush’s visuals are tip-top, with penetrating close-ups emerging out of the chiaroscuro setting, and its music and sound effects pull us into the drama.

A scene from Buyback. Photo: IFFB

Buyback–Directed and written by Jared Goodman. Boston native Goodman, who has a background as a documentarian, infuses one of our national tragedies, gun violence, into a fictionalized setting with Buyback. This suburban nightmare finds Rockland County, New York, teenager Will (Luca R. Stagnitta) on summer vacation. Hearing news reports of a gun buyback, $500 per gun turned in, he heads for his father’s toolbox, where he knows there’s a revolver. With friends Nikki (Anastasia Martin) and Alexey (Emmet Smith), he  consults an online database of gun owners in their town to find where they can add to the stockpile they’ll cash in (the controversial db comes from a true story, as does the Rockland County buyback). They convince themselves their effort to get rich is also civic-minded. We can guess what might go wrong, but the setting is convincingly created, the performances are good, and the film bristles with energy.

A scene from Chooch. Photo: IFFB

Chooch—Directed and written by Peter Horgan. Horgan’s How to Rob won the audience award for narrative shorts at the 2022 IFFBoston. He’s back with a story about two mobster friends, the younger one Irish and the older Italian. Frank (Joshua Koopman), though he’s wearing a Celtics jacket, seems solitary among a crowd of Celts fans as he walks in broad daylight from North Station to a building in the North End. He’s welcomed into his buddy Enzo’s (Anthony Firicano) apartment with the hearty greeting, “my Irish chooch.” The walls sport shelves holding well-protected superhero comic-book collectibles, their juvenile appeal incongruous with their tough-guy ex-con owner. When he shows off his Wolverine blades, that makes more sense. Setting the scene is the most I’d want to do here, except to say that Frank’s is a tight spot and Enzo gives him some advice. The terrific acting is the key in this two-hander, as gesture and expression allow us to read between the lines of the sharp dialogue.

A scene from Hustle Mode. Photo: IFFB

Hustle Mode–Directed and written by Jeffrey Liu. The camera points at a New York City street scene so scruffy you almost expect to glimpse the young Al Pacino in the throng. Instead, it picks out a young woman in baggy clothes holding a garbage bag of bottles and cans and leading an old, waddling dog named Lucky. All-business, she redeems the returns and cashes them in at a supermarket where the checkout clerk knows her well. This routine — finding whatever she can use to scrape together cash or food for herself and her little daughter — is part of an ordinary day in the life of Lexi, the subject of this richly atmospheric short that concentrates more on feeling than plot. It’s a judgment-free zone, even when Lexi leaves Lucky in charge of her kid. Or when, doing some housekeeping as a favor for a friend, she pilfers a few objects and heads to a pawnshop for a comical attempt at monetizing them. Director-writer Jeffrey Liu seems to be in the Safdie Brothers orbit, using a similar guerrilla-cinema style and casting one of their talisman figures from Uncut Gems, Mitchell Wenig, as a guy who squawks when Lexi raids his recycling bin. Clara Barnstone, with rings of fatigue around her eyes yet a fire in her belly, is wonderful in the lead role. It’s a succinct portrait of poverty in America.

A scene from The Lot. Photo: IFFB

The Lot–Directed by Raffaele Vesco, written by Vesco and Jesse Townes. Three thousand miles away from Lexi’s New York, Nico too is in hustle mode. The hilarious pressure-cooker that is The Lot is the perfect short to end on. Nico (Jesse Townes) is an aspiring actor in L.A. working a day job as a used-car salesman. Yes, he has a crucial callback today, but is confident he can seal a deal beforehand that will win him a bonus (more importantly, take it away from a hated rival). Of course, complications ensue, with Nico having to divide his attention among an in-person customer, his manager and colleagues, plus texts from another customer and his agent about the callback.  Camera moves and editing ratchet up the tension. Townes is superb as the smooth-talking Nico, and there are vivid characterizations by the supporting cast, especially John Bradford as car detailer Robert, who could make or break Nico’s day.

Betsy Sherman has written about movies, old and new, for the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, and Improper Bostonian, among others. She holds a degree in archives management from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. When she grows up, she wants to be Barbara Stanwyck.