The fine folks over at Cinema Guild have recently released Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja, one of our Must See Indie picks, in theatres, and we’re not the only ones throwing high praise around. Jauja stars Viggo Mortensen as Captain Gunnar Dinesen, who travels to the Argentinian desert with his teenage daughter Ingeborg to work for the army. Dinesen is extremely protective of Ingeborg due to his coworkers not hiding their attraction towards her, but his attempts to shield her fail; she runs off with a young soldier in the desert, and Dinesen heads into the vast landscape to find her.

It sounds like a standard set-up for a mystery/drama, but what makes Jauja so wonderful is where it ends up. Without getting into too much detail, Dinesen’s search in the desert brings him to a time and place that comes out of nowhere, and suddenly the tale of a man trying to reunite with his daughter becomes something more magical and transcendental. It’s one of the boldest cinematic moves I’ve seen in recent years.

Just don’t call what happens in Jauja a plot twist, though. A better term might be plot explosion. Everything changes in the last act of Alonso’s film, to the point where it seems like a completely different movie has come out of nowhere. It’s a risky move, but when it works it can defy expectations in the best way possible. It’s natural to settle into a one track mindset while watching a film, implicitly trusting that a movie will stay within the boundaries it establishes from the start. So when something successfully shatters a viewer’s expectations, it can provide a jolt of adrenaline that elevates the experience to another level.

Jauja, along with the movies listed below, are films that successfully redefine themselves into something else entirely. Through the element of surprise, they transform from one kind of film into a completely different one, and in doing so create an unforgettable experience. To varying degrees, they all serve as reminders that the cinematic possibilities are truly endless.

Warning: There will be SPOILERS for the films mentioned throughout. You’ve been warned.

L’Avventura

It’s hard to understate the importance of Michelangelo Antonioni’s feature, considering how influential it’s been since its 1960 premiere at Cannes. At the time, audiences did not take kindly to the film; there was booing throughout, with people yelling ‘Cut!” at the screen if a scene felt especially long. The volatility of the screening made Antonioni and star Monica Vitti leave the theatre, but an impassioned response by the film’s defenders after the premiere turned the tides in L’Avventura’s favour, and at the end of the festival Antonioni wound up walking away with a prize. Today, L’Avventura is considered one of the greatest films of all time.

Why did people react to the film with such hostility? Because Antonioni deliberately used cinematic conventions and expectations to trick viewers. L’Avventura starts out as a mystery, when a woman’s disappearance during a boating trip causes her friend (Vitti) to start searching for her. But Antonioni has no interest in explaining the whereabouts of the missing woman. Slowly but surely—with an emphasis on slowly—the film drifts away from the mystery, instead focusing on the decadent, bored lifestyles of Vitti and her friends. Watch almost any film that Cannes lauds now, and you can see Antonioni’s ghost lingering somewhere in the frame (Jauja premiered at Cannes, and its similarities to L’Avventura are easy to notice). L’Avventura starts this list because it was the first film to defiantly change itself into something far deeper and more impacting than its initial plot would suggest. With L’Avventura, Antonioni kicked open the door that the rest of the films on this list wound up going through.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Everyone knows how influential and brilliant Kubrick was, and 2001 has rightfully earned its place as one of the best films ever made. Most films on here redefine themselves once, but 2001 slams its fist on the reset button multiple times as it goes from the dawn of man to humankind’s next stage of evolution. But the key turning point for Kubrick’s masterpiece would obviously be “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite,” the final section of the film, where astronaut David (Keir Dullea) takes a psychedelic journey across the universe, ending up in a room where he sees himself age over a matter of minutes. Only Kubrick could make such a vast, large-scale film and insert what was essentially an avant-garde short in the middle of it, and get audiences to eat it up. Kubrick didn’t just redefine his own film; he managed to redefine cinema itself.

Anguish

Bigas Luna’s 80s cult horror film certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of L’Avventura or 2001, but this deceptive little movie is brilliant in its own right. Luna’s film starts off as an ultra-silly, yet highly entertaining piece of cheese, with an optometrist (Michael Lerner) telepathically commanded by his mother (Zelda Rubenstein) to murder people and keep their eyeballs as souvenirs. It comes across as a fun throwback to B-movies, until Luna throws in a complete curveball: it turns out the film is actually “The Mommy,” a movie that the real main characters are watching inside a theatre. From then on, Luna cuts between the film and the film-within-a-film until a crazed theatregoer begins slaughtering everyone in the screening.

It’s a hell of an audacious choice by Luna’s part, and it amazingly pays off because of the way he juxtaposes the two films. In “The Mommy,” Luna throws plenty of style and over the top camera tricks, but the theatre massacre is filmed in a realistic, straightforward manner. The combination of both styles makes the violence far more disturbing, especially when the two films start showing parallels between each other. It’s a fascinating look at the way horror films and reality mutually influence each other, and a brilliant transition from popcorn cheese to the something truly unnerving.

Audition

For those brave enough to get through Takashi Miike’s mortifying film, this selection shouldn’t come as a surprise. Audition’s switch between the mundane and the horrific isn’t exactly a shock, but only because Miike throws one scene in early on hinting at what’s to come. Even then, it’s impossible to get prepared for the stomach churning final act. Audition starts off as a bit of a romantic dramedy; Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) hasn’t gotten over his wife’s death, which triggers his friend to come up with the brilliant idea of holding an audition for a new wife. Aoyama finds himself stricken with the quiet Asami (Eihi Shiina), even though everyone warns him not to bother with her.

Since this is a horror film in disguise, Aoyama finds out the hard way that people were right about his new love. Audition isn’t too bold in its switch from drama to horror given its foreshadowing, but it makes up for it by going full-blown batshit crazy; druggings, needles, pedophilia, decaptiations, flapping severed tongues, piano wire and vomit eating are just a few things Miike throws on-screen within the final half hour. The fact that everything leading up to this is a gentle, human story about a man trying to find true love only makes the graphic content hit even harder. If you know it’s a horror film going in it’s easy to get prepared; Miike prefers to let viewers figure it out while watching, which makes the switcheroo hit like a bag of hammers. Miike’s shift from romance to nauseous horror is so jarring, it can feel like a betrayal.

The Loneliest Planet

Last year, Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure became an arthouse hit, but Julia Loktev beat that film to the punch 3 years earlier. And while Ostlund quickly starts his film with the main character’s selfish act during a life-threatening crisis, Loktev takes her sweet time. The film starts with engaged couple Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) taking a backpacking trip through the country of Georgia. For the first half of The Loneliest Planet, nothing really seems to happen. Alex and Nica travel around the Caucasus Mountains with their travel guide, and Loktev lets the absolutely stunning location carry her film along.

But then Alex and Nica bump into a man with a loaded rifle, and in a miscommunication the man points his gun directly at Alex. Alex immediately grabs Nica,  putting her in front of him as a shield, and with that single act everything changes. Once the scene ends, Loktev goes back to the quiet, slow-moving style from the first half, except now every moment of silence sounds deafening. There’s little communication between Alex and Nica for the rest of the trip, and Loktev lets every wordless moment between them linger with a thin layer of tension and discomfort. It’s astounding to see how one tiny action can have such a pronounced influence over an entire film.

Romancing in Thin Air

Every film on this list has made a bold, defiant and risky change, but this film, which is slowly becoming one of my favourite Johnnie To movies, changes itself so gracefully it almost feels natural. To, a master of efficiency, quickly sets the story through an opening montage: A-list movie star Michael Lau (Louis Koo) gets dumped at the altar by his fiancée, and after a drunken bender winds up at an old resort high up in the mountains. Sau (Sammi Cheng), the resort’s owner, finds Michael, and decides to let him stay so he can get over his breakup.

It starts off as an absurd setup for a romantic comedy, with Michael awkwardly adjusting to the high altitude as he falls in love with Sau. But then To slowly reveals Sau’s tragic history—her husband went missing several years ago—and throws in several clever twists to the story. By the halfway point, Romancing in Thin Air has gone from a quirky romcom to a graceful, moving meditation on loss. But that switch doesn’t even begin to prepare for the emotional final act, where Michael finds a way to give Sau the exact thing she needs to move on with her life. Romancing in Thin Air opens up in the most beautifully unexpected of ways, as it slowly turns itself into a celebration of the power of film. Many movies have celebrated the way films can move us, but To takes it a step further; he suggests that film can be therapeutic, and a tool to help people better their own lives. It sounds a bit schmaltzy, but in To’s hands it’s impossible for any film lover to not get choked up by the time the credits roll.

Film Independent announced the nominations for the 28th annual Independent Spirit Awards this morning by Zoe Saldana and Anna Kendrick. Last year many of the award winners went on to win Oscars but I suspect that will be a little different this year. The winners will be announced at the 28th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23th and the broadcast will air at 10 p.m. ET/PT on IFC.

There were two films that tied for the most amount of nominations and those were Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and David O. Russells’s Silver Linings Playbook with five total nominations. Both of the films will be competing for the top award of Best Feature.

It was a little shocking to see that the Sundance standout Beasts of the Southern Wild did not have quite as many nods but four is a healthy amount of nominations to receive. The film bypassed Best First Feature even though it is technically Benh Zeitlin’s first and step up to the bigger category Best Feature (rules prohibit a film from being in both). Beasts of the Southern Wild was ousted from the Best Screenplay category.

John Hawkes makes his third straight appearance in the nomination list with his role in The Sessions. This time he will move up to the Best Lead Male category against some pretty strong contenders. Hawkes was nominated for Best Supporting Male last year for Martha Marcy May Marlene and won the award in the previous year for Winter’s Bone. Matthew McConaughey will get two chances to win for two different films. He got a nod for Best Male Lead (for Killer Joe) and Best Supporting Male (for Magic Mike).

Perhaps the most interesting category this year belongs to the Best International Film section as there was quite a bit of potentials for it this year. Michael Haneke’s Amour made the cut, unsurprisingly, and will likely be the favorite to win (as well as for the Oscar). It was a bit of a surprise to not see Holy Motors in that list but seeing War Witch get a nod was lovely as it is definitely a film worth seeing. I didn’t expect to see Paradise: Love or Goodbye First Love on this list but it would have been if it were up to me.

Watch for our predictions for the 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards post to come in the coming weeks.

Full List of 2013 Independent Spirit Award Nominations:

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev – The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs – Keep The Lights On
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Fill The Void – Rama Burshtein
Gimme The Loot – Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed – Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice – Zal Batmanglij
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chobsky

Jack Black – Bernie
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes – The Sessions
Thure Lindhart – Keep The Lights On
Matthew McConaughey – Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce – Four

Linda Cardellini – Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi – Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary E. Winstead – Smashed

Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike
David Oyelowo – Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena – End of Watch
Sam Rockwell – Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis – Moonrise Kingdom

Rosemarie DeWitt – Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd – Compliance
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Brit Marling – Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint – Middle of Nowhere

Breakfast With Curtis – Laura Colella
Middle of Nowhere – Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari – Aurora Guerrero
Starlet – Sean Baker
The Color Wheel – Alex Ross Perry

How To Survive A Plague – David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present – Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
The Invisible War – Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room – Peter Nicks

Amour – Michael Haneke
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard
Sister – Ursula Meier
War Witch – Kim Nguyen

Yoni Brook – Valley Of Saints
Lol Crawley – Here
Ben Richardson – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov – End of Watch
Robert Yeoman – Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan – Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh – Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias – Keep The Lights On

Rama Burshtein – Fill The Void
Derek Connolly – Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford – Robot & Frank
Jonathan Lisecki – Gayby
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack – Celeste and Jesse Forever

Starlet
Director: Sean Baker
Casting Director: Julia Kim
Ensemble Cast: Dree Hemingway, Besedka Johnson, Karren Karagulian, Stella Maeve, James Ranson

Alicia Van Couvering – Nobody Walks
Mynette Louie – Stones in the Sun
Derrick Tseng – Prince Avalanche

Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel – Leviathan
Peter Nicks – The Waiting Room
Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims – Only the Young

David Fenster – Pincus
Adam Leon – Gimme The Loot
Rebecca Thomas – Electrick Children

The Loneliest Planet is an experimental film that observes more than it explains and will ultimately test your patience as a viewer. The film is based on the short story by Tom Bissell entitled, Expensive Trips Nowhere. It definitely feels like a short story with little added to it despite its two hour runtime. The film was not what I was expecting, mainly because I was expecting more.

Backpacking through the Caucaus Mountains in Georgia are the thirty-something couple Nica (Hani Furstenberg) and Alex (Gael García Bernal). But they are not alone. The couple hires a local travel guide named Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze) to help them explore the wilderness on the summer before their wedding.

Early on in the expedition it truly feels like a lonely planet with wide open stationary shots of just the three of them hiking along the desolate paths. The Loneliest Planet does a good job of setting an empty vibe early on. Adding to this is the fact that the dialog slowly diminishes over time, to the point where we are mostly observing them and nothing else.

Dialog is a very interesting part of The Loneliest Planet. Not only is there little of it to begin with but even when it is spoken it is hard to pick up. That is because their guide speaks broken English that is difficult to discern. But what is most interesting is that everything that is spoken in Georgian is not subtitled, which puts us in the same shoes as the couple who do not speak it.

Dato is not overly friendly, maybe it is because he barely cracks a smile. He seems like he is either being extremely professional or on a mission of some sort. But perhaps it just seems that way because Nica and Alex are so much more playful, they stop at one point to see who can stand on their hands the longest while counting in increments of “one chimpanzee”.

Some say that describing the “incident” that occurs in the film would be a huge spoiler and therefore a disservice to the viewer. I suppose going into The Loneliest Planet knowing little as possible is probably ideal, but can you not say that about nearly every film? So “spoilers” for The Loneliest Planet will not be present in this review because frankly, there is not a whole lot to spoil. However, I will refrain from describing what the incident is out of generosity.

There is a strong sense that something terrible is going to happen at any moment. This becomes especially apparent when Dato is showing off his knot tying skills to tie up Nica’s hands together. He gets the knot so tight that he needs Alex to pass him a knife in order to cut the knot free. If you watch closely there is plenty of subtle foreshadowing throughout that something is going to happen.

At the same time, the film is in no hurry to progress the story at all. For example, it frequently just shows them hiking along or Nica and Alex playing footsy together. You must be patient not only during the first half of the film but all the way to the credits. If you were expecting more of a plot based film, you came to the wrong film. It is a true slow-burner.

I suppose you could compare The Loneliest Planet to The Tree Of Life in many ways. Both focus more on visually stunning cinematography and spend more time observing rather than offering a typical narrative. Many people walked out on both films. In this case, before one of the screenings of the film at the New York Film Festival director Julia Loktev announced before the start, “I will see you all after the movie, if you are still here.” However, this film did not resonate with me nearly as much as The Tree Of Life did.

The Loneliest Planet does not leave much middle ground between a hit or miss. Even though it was a miss for me, it may be a hit for you, especially if you go in knowing that it is a slow-burner and brace yourself for it. By no means is the film a total flop, there are some really good aspects to it. I just wished this minimalist film eventually went somewhere, anywhere.

The Loneliest Planet has been reported that it is the kind of film that works best if you know the least about going into. The trailer wisely abides by this philosophy by not giving away any crucial spoilers and does exactly what a trailer should do; give us enough to wet our appetites and perk our interest in the film. You might recall that the film landed #5 on our Most Anticipated Summer Films list a couple months back.

The premise is about a young couple (Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg) who go on a backpacking trip in the Caucasus Mountains the summer before their wedding. They hire a local guide to lead them the wild landscape. Then in the matter of seconds something happens that dramatically alters the course of the film.

The Loneliest Planet is in theaters on October 26th, 2012.

Watch the official trailer for The Loneliest Planet:

UPDATE: Review of The Loneliest Planet

Summer officially begins on Wednesday June 20, 2012 for the Northern Hemisphere and the staff here at Way Too Indie wants to make sure your cinema schedule is set when summer begins. After careful consideration we came up with our Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of the Summer. We also had four films that may be worth checking out as honorable mentions that did not quite make our Top 10.

#1 Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild has generated a ton of buzz wherever it has played. New York Times said it was one of the best films to play at Sundance in two decades and Roger Ebert recently said it is the best film he has seen this year. Perhaps what is most impressive is that all this buzz surrounding the film was accomplished by a first-time filmmaker, Benh Zeitlin. To his advantage, the star of the film Quvenzhané Wallis, has people eating out of her 7-year-old palm with her performance. Whether or not it can live up to all the hype remains the biggest question but that did not stop us from putting it as our most anticipated film for the summer. It is safe to say June 27th has been marked on our calendars; you should probably do the same. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Beasts of the Southern Wild

#2 Prometheus

People predictably went nuts when it was announced that Ridley Scott would, after 30 years, be making another science fiction movie. Then we found out it was possibly but not definitely related to Alien in some capacity (it was originally planned to be a prequel). Then we got a cast with the likes of Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce and Idris Elba. Then came the teaser for the actual teaser, the teaser, the teaser for the actual trailer and finally the trailer itself which blew everyone away. If you could sum up 20th Century Fox’s marketing campaign for Prometheus in two words it’d be “blue balls” but the strategy is working beautifully. Prometheus looks like the movie event of the summer, a smart and terrifying sci-fi film that’ll knock our socks off. Even if the movie ends up being a flop, the marketing team deserves some kind of award for their work. [CJ]

UPDATE: Our review of Prometheus

#3 Killer Joe

Let me start off by saying that I’m a huge William Friedkin fan. I actually wanted to see this at TIFF last year it just didn’t fit into my schedule. I wish I had. The film supposedly has Matthew McConaughey’s best performance to date and is rumored to feature some outlandish scenes involving fried chicken. McConaughey is hired by a red neck family to kill one of their family members for the life insurance. When they can’t foot the bill, McConaughey takes interest in the young girl of the family. I imagine things don’t go as planned in this gruesome thriller. [Blake]

#4 The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan’s newest film has so much buzz around it one wonders if the film will overcome it. Of course, every other film Nolan has done has so you’d think this will have no problem. Based on trailers this trilogy will not have a good ending. Batman’s newest villain Bane seems to want Gotham to burn to the ground. From bringing a football stadium to rubble to blowing up bridges, Bane looks to be giving a serious makeover to the city. The Dark Knight will be a hard movie to outdo, but knowing Nolan, he should have no trouble with this feat. [Blake]

UPDATE: Our review of The Dark Knight Rises

#5 The Loneliest Planet

If you haven’t heard of Julia Loktev (and odds are you haven’t), go seek out Day Night Day Night. The movie, which followed a suicide bomber as she prepared for an attack in Times Square, was a nerve-wracking experience that kept piling on as much tension as possible until its final act. While Day Night Day Night had its share of issues, it sounds like Loktev has improved considerably with her next film. The Loneliest Planet premiered last fall on the festival circuit to rave reviews and is finally getting a limited release in August. The synopsis, about a couple backpacking in the Georgian wildness, sounds simple but according to reviews there will be a lot more surprises in store. [CJ]

UPDATE: Our review of The Loneliest Planet

#6 To Rome With Love

Would you have ever expected a light comedy about time travel with Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Salvador Dali to become a hit? I don’t think Woody Allen even imagined that Midnight in Paris would go on to become his highest grossing movie yet, but it ended up being his best film in years and one of the most entertaining movies of 2011. This year Allen continues his tour of Europe, landing in Italy with the likes of Alec Baldwin, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Penelope Cruz. It’s unlikely that Woody Allen will have the same amount of success as last year (looking at the rest of his recent output, Midnight in Paris was the exception and not the rule) but even at his worst Allen’s films are light enough that they serve as a nice counterweight to the big blockbusters filling up the majority of the screens over the summer season. [CJ]

#7 Moonrise Kingdom

It is hard not to be excited for a film that has Wes Anderson’s name attached to it. Add in the fact Moonrise Kingdom has a plethora of talent cast members that include; Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton and is about enough for anyone to be excited for the film. From watching the trailer you can see that Wes Anderson’s uncompromising style is present here as it is in most of his other films. The film is about a boy and girl who fall in love and run away. Laughs, claps, and even tears may be in store for this film. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Moonrise Kingdom

#8 Your Sister’s Sister

After watching the film Humpday I have kept director Lynn Shelton on my radar. Which has turned out to be an easy assignment because she has not done a film since Humpday in 2009. My ears perked when I heard she would be doing another film called Your Sister’s Sister. It is easy to see the resemblance in Your Sister’s Sister to Shelton’s previous work. The film was shot in just 12 days and apparently was mostly improvised. It certainly looks like it could provide a genuine and fresh take on a relationship film when the lead character starts to fall for his friend’s sister. Update: I saw the film a day after this was written and I can say it was definitely worth being excited for. Read my review. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Your Sister’s Sister

#9 Take This Waltz

Keep in mind I did not see Sarah Polley’s first feature, Away From Her. The film went on to receive a couple of Oscar nominations and had a lot of critical support. This is another film I planned to see at TIFF last year, but was sold out before I could get tickets. Take This Waltz stars Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams as a married couple living in Toronto whose marriage is put to the test when Williams starts to fall for a man who moves in across the street. A good supporting turn by Sarah Silverman backs up the leads. [Blake]

UPDATE: Our review of Take This Waltz

#10 Ruby Sparks

It is hard not to compare the plot of Ruby Sparks with Stranger Than Fiction, a struggling writer who in this case does not only hear the voice but can see the fictitious character he made up. However, I believe the creators of Little Miss Sunshine will add something special to the tired plot that has been done before. Paul Dano seems like a perfect choice for the film since directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris worked with him previously in the excellent Little Miss Sunshine. At the very least, it looks like a romantic comedy that is actually worth seeing. [Dustin]

Honorable Mentions: Here are four films that almost made it into our Top 10.
Extraterrestrial
Safety Not Guaranteed
Compliance
Red Hook Summer