Though as most of you know who have been reading my blog installments, I am not one to be hating on the big budget "event" movies - except for when they star insane men with "please everyone love me" complexes and when films are marketed on my fruit. I, for one, am very excited about the crop of summer-blockbuster-event-sequel-Hollywood-needs-to-make-up-for-the- lull- in- box -office- numbers-by-studio -films movies. I am looking forward to Bryan Singer's Superman as well as Pirates of the Carribbean 2 and the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (because speed needs no translation). But, if you are anything like me, while you love the event, the experience gets old, your brain starts to numb and you get a little deaf from all of the noise of things blowing up and big stars making asses of themselves. I have the perfect cure for what ails you... a sampling of some of the very cool, non mind numbing, least blockbuster quality (and I mean that in the best possible way) laden films coming out this summer. Check your local listings.
Brothers of the Head (Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton) - a film that just floored me when I saw it at Toronto last year all about conjoined twins who form a ultra punk band in the 70s. Creepy and cool, it is being released by IFC Films and Fuse Network.
Wassup Rockers (Larry Clark) - must admit I am not a huge fan of this director but I left this film invigorated and yelling "Wassup Rockers" to all of my friends. The film is about the adventures of Mexican skater kids who travel from the barrio to Beverly Hills. Don;t miss the Janice Dickinson cameo among others.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach) - winner of this year's Cannes Palme d'Or. Cillian Murphy stars, Ken Loach directs and you really do not need to know more than that. Run to the theater.
Gabrielle (Patrice Chereau) - I am not going to lie to you this a difficult film - it is about the final break in an unfaithful marriage (a story that has been told many times before) but in the hands of the French master Chereau and starring the luminous Isabelle Huppert, the film is a stunning work of vulnerability, brutality and utter loneliness.
Road to Guatanamo (Michael Winterbotton) - the unbelievably prolific director has done it again with a stunning film about 3 Britons who go to Pakistan for a wedding and end up being held under suspicion in Guantanamo. Timely and devastating.
The Illusionist (Neil Burger) - you can't get more indie than this film in that it stars some of the indie world's darlings including Lili Taylor, Adrienne Shelly and Fisher Stevens along with Matt Dillon who plays Charles Bukowski's alter ego - a man whose mission is to do nothing but write but life will not let him.
A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater) - technically not really indie but I put it here because Linklater is great at bringing innovation in animation on a more intimate scale - it stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and the fabulous Robert Downey Jr.
The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry) - after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dave Chappelle's Block Party much less all of his fabulous music videos, I will see anything Gondry does - throw in Gael Garcia Bernal and I am in the front row.
Shadowboxer (Lee Daniels) directed by the producer of Monsters Ball and The Woodsman, this film stars Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. I did not catch it a festival so I will see it when released this August.
The Photographer, His Wife and Her Lover (Paul Yule) doc about a photographer who at 73 married a 48 year old woman who stole his work and sold it while keeping him locked in the basement and taking another lover - yes a true story.
So this should give a good base o start with. Keep checking with indieIN weekly to see what may be coming to your town.
Keeping it indie,
Julie
Brothers of the Head (Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton) - a film that just floored me when I saw it at Toronto last year all about conjoined twins who form a ultra punk band in the 70s. Creepy and cool, it is being released by IFC Films and Fuse Network.
Wassup Rockers (Larry Clark) - must admit I am not a huge fan of this director but I left this film invigorated and yelling "Wassup Rockers" to all of my friends. The film is about the adventures of Mexican skater kids who travel from the barrio to Beverly Hills. Don;t miss the Janice Dickinson cameo among others.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach) - winner of this year's Cannes Palme d'Or. Cillian Murphy stars, Ken Loach directs and you really do not need to know more than that. Run to the theater.
Gabrielle (Patrice Chereau) - I am not going to lie to you this a difficult film - it is about the final break in an unfaithful marriage (a story that has been told many times before) but in the hands of the French master Chereau and starring the luminous Isabelle Huppert, the film is a stunning work of vulnerability, brutality and utter loneliness.
Road to Guatanamo (Michael Winterbotton) - the unbelievably prolific director has done it again with a stunning film about 3 Britons who go to Pakistan for a wedding and end up being held under suspicion in Guantanamo. Timely and devastating.
The Illusionist (Neil Burger) - you can't get more indie than this film in that it stars some of the indie world's darlings including Lili Taylor, Adrienne Shelly and Fisher Stevens along with Matt Dillon who plays Charles Bukowski's alter ego - a man whose mission is to do nothing but write but life will not let him.
A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater) - technically not really indie but I put it here because Linklater is great at bringing innovation in animation on a more intimate scale - it stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and the fabulous Robert Downey Jr.
The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry) - after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dave Chappelle's Block Party much less all of his fabulous music videos, I will see anything Gondry does - throw in Gael Garcia Bernal and I am in the front row.
Shadowboxer (Lee Daniels) directed by the producer of Monsters Ball and The Woodsman, this film stars Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. I did not catch it a festival so I will see it when released this August.
The Photographer, His Wife and Her Lover (Paul Yule) doc about a photographer who at 73 married a 48 year old woman who stole his work and sold it while keeping him locked in the basement and taking another lover - yes a true story.
So this should give a good base o start with. Keep checking with indieIN weekly to see what may be coming to your town.
Keeping it indie,
Julie
posted by indieIN | 4:05 PM
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