Brooklyn hipsters living in their narcissistic bubble in gentrifying neighborhoods are a timely target for satire. Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva now lives in such a changing community, and his Nasty Baby is pitch-perfect at capturing his and his ilk’s worst pettiness, condescension, and isolation from those who came before them into their brave new politically […]

Entertainment is one odd film. Possibly the weirdest I’ve seen in quite a while. If you can imagine the Coen Brothers’ deadpan stare, Sam Shepard’s white trash western goth aesthetic, and David Lynch’s dream-fuck phantasmagoria skillfully mulled together, you have an idea. Still, you will be shaking your head in disbelief at what you have […]

Before Quentin Tarantino set the world afire with blazing guns in Reservoir Dogs, indie films were dominated by character studies of quirky people who did not quite fit in. There tended to be a sense of irony and distance that deepened rather than lessened your emotional experience. Hal Hartley was the prince of that realm […]

This masterful balancing act of docudrama and morality tragedy is set in 2010, but we aren’t given that date until more than halfway through. It doesn’t matter, as the events of the film—taking place in Orlando, Florida—could be taking place right now. This goes to show how in the moment and forceful Ramin Bahrani’s fifth […]

The directorial debut of cinematographer Reed Morano (The Skeleton Twins, Kill Your Darlings) is an emotional roller coaster from its first moments as it follows a young couple in the aftermath of a horrifying tragedy. Morano keeps Meadowland hauntingly realistic; its devastating subject matter feels all too possible. New Yorkers Sarah (Olivia Wilde) and Phil […]

Writer, producer, and director Michael Almereyda is one of the more exciting filmmakers working today. He is interested in serious, intellectual themes, adapting Shakespeare in Cymbeline earlier this year or dramatizing the life and work of famed social scientist Stanley Milgram in his latest film, Experimenter. Yet Almereyda is not so much paying homage to […]

Oh, Little Miss Sunshine, what hast thou wrought? Due to one adorably off-color indie film, we are subjected to quirky dysfunctional families bickering their way across the land in an effort to a) save their family home b) win an absurd competition or c) in the case of the terminally dull This Is Happening, retrieve […]

“Why do you come like you want a war?” protagonist Augusta (indie-darling Brit Marling) asks her Union soldier attacker. He states that, after all the fighting he has done, it is impossible to stop. Set during the last days of the Civil War, The Keeping Room presents a distinctly revisionist Western, taking a feminist approach […]

In Ashby, clichés and tongue-in-cheek quips abound. Set in a high school where students strictly adhere to stereotypes, the jocks and the geeks keep to themselves. But lo, one Very Special Boy (Nat Wolff) has just enrolled. Will he be doomed to geekdom forever or will he man up and ascend the high school social […]