Independent Film Festival Boston will be showing two films at The Coolidge on this penultimate night of the festival.

Little Men @ 7pm

When 13-year-old Jake’s (Theo Taplitz) grandfather dies, his family moves from Manhattan back into his father’s old Brooklyn home. There, Jake befriends the charismatic Tony (Michael Barbieri), whose single mother Leonor (Paulina Garcia, Narcos), a dressmaker from Chile, runs the shop downstairs. Jake’s parents, struggling actor Brian (Greg Kinnear) and psychotherapist Kathy (Jennifer Ehle), soon ask Leonor to sign a new, steeper lease on her store. For Leonor, the proposed new rent is untenable, and a feud ignites between the adults.

At first, Jake and Tony don’t seem to notice. The two boys, so different on the surface, begin to develop a formative kinship as they discover the pleasures of being young in Brooklyn. Jake aspires to be an artist while Tony wants to be an actor, and they dream of attending a prestigious arts high school together. All too soon, however, the adults’ conflict intrudes upon the borders of their friendship. Directed by Ira Sachs (LOVE IS STRANGE, KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, FORTY SHADES OF BLUE) with his trademark humanism and insight, LITTLE MEN highlights the New York City landscape with a story of life-defining friendships in the midst of familial turmoil.

TICKETS

Don’t Think Twice @ 9:45pm

For 11 years, an improv group called The Commune has reigned as the big fish in the small pond of New York improv theater. Its six members invent comedy without a script and without a net. They’re ingenious, they’re fast, and they build on each other’s ideas like they are all best friends—because they are. Night after night, this team kills onstage and waits for their big break. Day after day, they work menial jobs to support themselves. Then comes the news that The Commune’s theater is shutting down, and scouts from a hit TV show come to a performance, looking for talent. Only two cast members get the nod, upsetting the group’s dynamic and leaving its future in doubt. Relationships begin to crack as six best friends face the truth: not all of them will make it big, and for some, it may be time to give up on the dream and move on.

Funny, insightful and honest, DON’T THINK TWICE looks at a common experience that is an uncommon subject for a film: failure. As he did in his acclaimed debut about a stand-up comedian, SLEEPWALK WITH ME (IFFBoston 2012 Opening Night Film), writer/director/actor Mike Birbiglia culls universal human experiences from the lives of professionally funny people. With a top-flight ensemble of comic actors—including Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, and Tami Sagher—DON’T THINK TWICE tells a nuanced story of friendship, aspiration, and the pain and promise of change.

TICKETS