Starting tonight and running through June 10, the 38th Annual Seattle International Film Festival is packed with films you will love (Safety Not Guaranteed! Bestiaire! Under African Skies! Superclásico! Fat Kid Rules the World!) along with worship-worthy special guests (Sissy Fucking Spacek!). For the first time in SIFF history, the opening-night film comes from a Seattle filmmaker: the freakishly lovely and talented Lynn Shelton, whose romantic mumblecore dramedy Your Sister’s Sister—starring Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt, and Rosemarie DeWitt—kicks off the whole SIFF fiesta tonight. (McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, www.siff.net, 7 pm, $50–$100)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...