Indie Movies
Independent movie reviews from film festivals, theaterical releases, video-on-demand, home video and streaming.
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Polisse
Polisse, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, is a very hectic film. Subplots come and go at an alarmingly fast rate, the main cast comprises of almost a dozen characters with each one being focused on...
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Nobody Else But You
Nobody Else But You is a light neo-noir French thriller about a celebrity model that hides behind her famous figure in public while her personal life is crumbing around her. Her sudden death inspires a writer to become a...
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Urbanized
Urbanized is the third and final documentary installment of the design trilogy by Gary Hustwit. First, Hustwit focused on how one typeface that is everywhere is often overlooked in Helvetica before moving on to showing how industrial design affects...
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Hick
Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 was Hick, a film directed by Derick Martini about a teenager who aimlessly drifts away from her Nebraska home. Aimlessly drifts are a common theme here because the entire film...
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The Double Hour
Some call The Double Hour a foreign art house thriller while I would lean slightly more toward film nior, maybe it’s all of the above. I saw glimpses of Tell No One in this heart pounding Italian thriller from...
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Marianne
It’s hard to criticize a movie like Marianne considering its ambitions. Aside from a few surprises over the years the horror genre has mostly been dead in the water, and Marianne has the balls to try and put more...
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Shame
Steve McQueen’s Shame is a mesmerizing film about a man that has a severe addiction to sex who finds it impossible to have emotions around others. The film is dark and depressing with shame present in each of the...
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In the Family
In the Family is an indie first feature film from writer, director, and lead actor Patrick Wang. The film is about a man who must deal with the loss of his same-sex partner and the subsequent legal battles he...
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A Better Life
After watching A Better Life, a story about a poor hard working father trying to provide for his son, it is not all that surprising that the director’s (Chris Weitz) previous work includes About a Boy. Although, it is...
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Jeff Who Lives at Home
Jeff Who Lives at Home is the forth feature film by the Duplass brothers, who were part responsible for the “mumblecore” movement with their first film The Puffy Chair. Similar to The Puffy Chair, Jeff Who Lives at Home...
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Puncture
Puncture is based on a true story about a drug addicted lawyer who tries to save lives by working on a case that exploits hospitals’ failure to use available safer needle equipment. The film was directed by Adam Kassen...
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Cold Weather
Cold Weather is a low-budget indie film by Aaron Katz that firmly believes less is more, focusing often on subtle interactions between characters. The film’s dialog is natural enough to be considered mumblecore, meaning seemingly improvised. Cold Weather goes...
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Miss Bala
Miss Bala is Spanish film about how much corruption the Mexican drug wars have. The storyline is engaging the whole time even though there are times it drags a little. Miss Bala was Mexico’s official submission for the Best...
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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a French film based on a true story of an Elle magazine editor that suffers a massive stroke at the age of 43. One of the most terrifying situations I can imagine...
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Martha Marcy May Marlene
Martha Marcy May Marlene is a haunting psychological thriller from first time filmmaker Sean Durkin, about a young woman trying to recover from her years of being part of a cult. Escaping her past is nearly impossible for her...
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Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter is a gripping thriller about a man who is convinced that his dreams of an earth ending storm are a warning signs of impending doom. In almost every scene it is storming out which blend...
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The Artist
The Artist is a silent black-and-white film by French director Michel Hazanavicius that is easily the most entertaining film of 2011. Essentially, it is a silent film about silent films. The film benefits from being made in modern times...
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Midnight in Paris
Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen’s latest film about a man who loves Paris and nostalgia which Allen gracefully provides in a whimsy and romantic manner. Allen does for Paris what he has done for New York in the...
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Tyrannosaur
Tyrannosaur is the first feature film by actor Paddy Considine (Submarine) who switched up his traditional role for writer and director on this film. It is a dark look into a lonely man whose life is filled with drinking...
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Circumstance
Circumstance is an indie foreign film written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz, about two teenage girls who are in love but are forced to live under circumstances of modern-day Tehran, Iran where that is forbidden. While the premise sounds...
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The Kid with a Bike
The Kid with a Bike is an independent French film written and directed by brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne about an abandoned adolescent boy who refuses to believe his father has left him. Doing everything he can to...
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Beginners
Beginners is a semi-autobiographical film written and directed by Mike Mills about how to find love in relationships. It is also about how much ones upbringing influences their lives as an adult. A young man must deal with his...
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Margin Call
The release of Margin Call was done at a perfect time, a time where Occupy Wall Street is currently going on in New York protesting the top 1% of the wealthy. This film is about that 1%. Written and...
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Another Earth
Fresh off the independent film festival circuit is Mike Cahill‘s first feature film entitled Another Earth. Reciting the synopsis of the film, a discovery of another planet that is incredibly similar to ours that it is labeled Earth 2,...
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50/50
The name of the film comes from when Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) finds out his odds of survival are 50/50 after finding out he has spinal cancer. The film was written by Will Reiser, who was actually diagnosed with spinal...
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The Future
The Future is Miranda July’s long-awaited second full-feature film which she once again directed, wrote and starred in. Her first film was the highly acclaimed Me and You and Everyone We Know (I adored it enough to give it...
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Objectified
Objectified is a documentary directed by Gary Hustwit who may be most recognized for making the documentary Helvetica which was nominated for a Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. What Hustwit caught us about the...
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The Southern Belle
Patrick Biesemans directs The Southern Belle, a 12 minute indie short film about two men on opposite sides of the same problem.
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Win Win
Win Win is an indie drama from Thomas McCarthy whose third film proves he knows how to write genuine human behavior. Although there are some similarities between his other films, Win Win should appeal to a wider audience with...
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Submarine
Submarine is a Welsh film that director Richard Ayoade adapted a screenplay based off the novel by the same name, about an awkward teenage boy and his first real relationship with a girlfriend. It is an honest coming of...