‘Buster’s Mal Heart’, ‘Below Her Mouth’, ‘Sleight’
Three modest 2017 releases arrived with distinct tones and modest expectations. Buster’s Mal Heart offered a cryptic mountain fable, Below Her Mouth delivered an intimate relationship drama, and Sleight mixed street-level sci-fi with family stakes. Each one has since settled into different corners of the catalog, yet their core stories remain intact.
The first feature film from Sarah Adina Smith, Buster’s Mal Heart follows the story of an eccentric mountain man on the run. Haunted by the dream of being lost at sea, he survives the tormenting winter by breaking into empty vacation homes, only to eventually discover that his dream is more real than he’d ever imagined. Starring Rami Malek in the lead alongside supporting cast that includes DJ Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, and Lin Shaye, the film opened in limited theatrical release in 2017.
Critical Reception and Legacy
Retrospective numbers place Buster’s Mal Heart at 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 63 on Metacritic. Below Her Mouth sits at 21 percent and 42, respectively. Sleight lands higher at 83 percent and 62. The spread reflects how each picture landed with reviewers at the time and how little the scores have shifted since.
Director Career Updates
Sarah Adina Smith moved from Buster’s Mal Heart to Birds of Paradise in 2021 and The Drop in 2022. J.D. Dillard followed Sleight with Sweetheart in 2019 and Devotion in 2022. Both filmmakers kept working in features after their debuts, though the scale and tone of later projects shifted away from the intimate registers of their first films.
Cast Career Milestones
Rami Malek’s performance in Buster’s Mal Heart arrived shortly before his Oscar-winning turn in Bohemian Rhapsody. Storm Reid, who appeared in Sleight as a younger sister in jeopardy, later took roles in A Wrinkle in Time and the series Euphoria. The supporting players in each picture continued steady work, yet the leads’ post-2017 credits stand out most clearly.
Current Availability
None of the three titles remain in theatrical runs. Viewers now find them primarily through rental or purchase on major platforms, with occasional rotation on subscription services. Physical media editions exist in limited quantities, but digital access remains the most consistent route.
Below Her Mouth, written by newcomer Stephanie Fabrizi, was the first feature from director April Mullen. The story centers on a passionate weekend affair between two women. Though initially sharing a powerful and intimate connection, the relationship ultimately ends up derailing both of their lives. The production used an all-female crew, a detail noted in coverage at the time, and the film received mixed notices before moving into home viewing.
Sleight brought science fiction and drama together in the directorial debut from J.D. Dillard. Jacob Latimore plays a young street magician in Los Angeles who turns to the city’s underworld to support his younger sister. As things take a turn for the worse and his sister is kidnapped, he is forced to use his magic and talent for illusions to save her and free himself. The picture was produced by WWE Studios and Blumhouse and opened in limited release in 2017.
Box-office returns for Buster’s Mal Heart stayed modest around seventy-three thousand dollars worldwide. Below Her Mouth earned roughly thirty-six thousand. Sleight performed more strongly, grossing four million against a reported two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar budget. Those figures help explain why two of the titles faded quickly from theaters while the third found a slightly wider audience.
Plot details have not changed in the years since release. The mountain man still drifts between dreams and break-ins, the weekend affair still unravels two lives, and the street magician still leans on sleight of hand when the stakes turn deadly. What has shifted is the way each film sits in the larger catalog, available for discovery rather than tied to a single release window.
