World Premiere! Local filmmaker Stryker Spurlock’s debut feature is an abstruse and challenging work that captures with droll black humor the anxious torpor of go-nowhere middle-class life. Set amidst the drab, freeway-clogged suburbia of North St. Louis County, Part Time evokes the opaque psychological inquiry of Cristi Puiu’s Aurora, inviting the audience to try to make sense of the directionless deportment of a puddering, inarticulate twentysomething part-time book sorter (Casey Paulsen) who doesn’t understand himself. Peppered with motor-mouthed soliloquies, sudden jolts of enigmatic surrealism, and a couple of abrasive meta-pranks, Part Time’s somber black-and-white surfaces mask a subtle, audience-tweaking playfulness. Q&A with the director will follow the film. —Keith Watson

Director’s Statement: I started writing Part Time four years ago, when I was 20, as a 10-15 minute short. I wanted to make it completely impenetrable for an audience, almost unreadable and meaningless. Luckily, it grew into a feature, and I think meanings can be gleaned from the finished film pretty easily. Or the movie can just be enjoyed as a weird, dark comedy. There’s no wrong way to watch it. My dad fell asleep during it. This is perfectly acceptable.