25 Indie Movies You Will Want to See This Year
All the small films that deserve big attention.
With a new year comes a new crop of must-see blockbusters to populate your favorite multiplex from now until next Oscar Bait SZN™. We've already detailed which among the hundreds of movies deserve the most attention (as well as the ones that don't), but as any halfway cinephile knows, that list goes deeper than sequels, superheroes, and franchises. A new year also means new indies—the smaller films, most of which are destined for cult status, and that's only if they can snag a wide release date at all. To try and slot those in amongst the big boys would be unjust and overshadowing, so we're narrowing the spotlight. Here are all the VOD gems, indies finally going wide, and brand spanking new releases that you need to pay attention to if you're really about this Film Nerd life.
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Stephen Tyrone Williams, Zaraah Abrahams, Steven Hauck, Elvis Nolasco, Rami Malek, Felicia Pearson
Release date: Feb. 13
A Spike Lee joint that has all of his hallmarks—urban city race relations, a predominantly black cast, and social criticism—that also sees the god charting new genre territory? Where can we watch? (Answer: a VOD near you on Valentine's Day weekend.) Recently, Spike's been trying whatever tickles his fancy. For his last go-around, he tackled the action-crime epic via an Oldboy remake with Josh Brolin. Now he's trying his hand at horror, and all that's really known about the plot is the inclusion of vampires—excuse us, "humans addicted to blood"—and that Snoop from The Wire's in it. In a few short weeks, we'll see if Spike did right by his Kickstarter funders, which included Steven Soderbergh's respectable $10,000 contribution. —Frazier Tharpe
What We Do in the Shadows
Director: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
Stars: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh, Ben Fransham, Jackie Van Beek
Release date: Feb. 13
If the buzz from pretty much every relevant movie festival in the last year is even 50 percent accurate, then the creative clowns behind Boy and Flight of the Conchords are about to come through with a new defining horror comedy for the decade. But instead of zombies, this time vampires get the send-up in this mockumentary-style satire as a camera crew records the day-to-day misadventures of three roommate vampires who have more in common with the Workaholics than they do Lestat (excluding the swag, which is very Anne Rice). The hijinks really ramp up when a newly-turned vamp joins the fold and is instantly cooler than the rest of the gang. —Frazier Tharpe
'71
Director: Yann Demange
Stars: Jack O'Connell, Richard Dormer, Charlie Murphy, David Wilmot, Sean Harris, Killian Scott, Sam Reid
Release date: Feb. 27
Jack O'Connell gave a dope performance in an otherwise meh Oscar bait film from Empress Jolie—Unbroken. Now's his chance to floss his impressive chops amidst a movie worthy of his talents in this action thriller that takes place during the historical Belfast riots of, you guessed it, 1971. O'Connell's British soldier Gary Hook (fictional this time, unlike Unbroken's Louis Zamperini) finds himself stranded by his unit on the deadly Belfast streets. Alone and at the mercy of kind locals, Hook must evade bloodthirsty IRA soldiers and the local angry mob in what last year's festival goers are calling a successfully taut survival movie. If the buzz is true, '71 could end up being the starting point of a long O'Connell reign. —Frazier Tharpe
Faults
Director: Riley Stearns
Stars: Leland Orser, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Beth Grant, Jon Gries, Lance Reddick, Chris Ellis
Release date: March 6
Former Complex cover girl Mary Elizabeth Winstead is quietly becoming the queen of indie dramedies. After giving a hauntingly real portrayal of an alcoholic in 2012's Smashed, she's back with Faults, the black comedy that takes a funny, but very honest look at parental manipulation and brainwashing. Apparently it's Winstead's performance that balances the tones and grounds the film from full-on dark humor into something more affecting and sobering. We can't wait to see how. —Frazier Tharpe
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Director: David Zellner
Stars: Rinko Kikuchi, Nobuyuki Katsube, Nathan Zellner, Kanako Higashi
Release date: March 13
Taken at its meta, art-influencing-life premise—an utterly lonely and sad Japanese woman's only source of escape is an old VHS of Fargo, to the point where she takes the film's claims of being a true story at face value and decides to search for the buried satchel of money—Kumiko would already be a must-see. But director David Zellner has taken a pseudo-true story (the inspiration didn't actually seek out Carl Showalter's cash, sadly she just committed suicide) and turned it into what may end up as one of the most visually arresting films to [officially] drop in 2015. Who would have ever thought the Coen Brothers classic would inspire some of the most crucial art around almost two decades later? —Frazier Tharpe
It Follows
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Stars: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Jake Weary, Daniel Zovatto, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe
Release date: March 27
Each year, we search for the Next Great Horror Movie. In 2015, the award goes to It Follows, starring emerging Scream Queen Maika Monroe. Like all good horror, the plot flips a real-world nightmare into something with a more supernatural context. After Monroe's heroine sleeps with a guy, he warns her "you have it now." We're guessing "It" entails something nastier than a STD. —Frazier Tharpe
While We're Young
Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Grodin, Brady Corbet, Adam Horovitz, Maria Dizzia
Release date: March 27
White God
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Stars: Zsofia Psotta, Sandor Zsoter, Lili Horvath, Szabolcs Thuroczy, Lili Monori
Release date: March 27
What happens when a pack of dogs organize and take over an entire city? No, this isn't an Aesop fable, this is an epic tale of a canine uprising directed by Hungarian Kornél Mundruczó. A winner at Cannes last year, White God is the tale of a young girl who is forced to abandon her beloved pet dog. The abandoned animal then escapes from a pound and leads a war against horrible humans who are devoid of compassion and only approve of pure breeds. It's part comedy, part parable, and it's already received glowing reviews from critics worldwide. —Lauretta Charlton
True Story
Director: Rupert Goold
Stars: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones, Gretchen Mol
Release date: April 10
True Story tells the, um, true story of a journalist and a man who murdered his family who are brought together after the latter claims to be the former. Jonah Hill plays said journalist, Michael Finkel, while BFF James Franco plays the deranged man posing as Finkel, Christian Longo. You should be excited about this for a couple reasons. First of all, True Story digs at the relationship between a journalist and his source, and the kind of twisted exchange that happens between the two—especially when the stakes are so high. But on a dumber level, don’t you want to see what happens when both Hill and Franco put their Oscar faces on, and pretend like they were never in a movie in which one of them got raped by a gigantic demon dick? —Andrew Gruttadaro
Ex Machina
Director: Alex Garland
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander
Release date: April 15
Before they face off in Star Wars (or join forces, because who really knows anything yet), rising stars Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson will get their introductions out of the way in this twisty sci-fi thriller and directorial debut from the mind that brought you 28 Days (and Weeks) Later. The intricacies of the plot are, naturally, under wraps but Gleeson will play a coder who gets a once in a lifetime chance to spend a week with his company's genius, albeit reclusive, CEO at his mountain getaway. But instead of a one-on-one seminar, expect some mind-blowing new artificial intelligence and, probably, some super-sinister ulterior motives. Sounds like a layup. —Frazier Tharpe
Felt
Director: Jason Banker
Stars: Amy Everson, Kentucker Audley, Roxanne Lauren Knouse
Release date: April
A woman whose day-to-day life offers increasingly diminishing returns slowly loses herself in an alter-ego. That's about as typically indie as a premise could possibly get. But with Toad Road director Jason Banker behind the camera again for his second feature, we're positive the final product will be anything but parody, and more of a crushing presentation that will probably leave us searching for a fantasy escape to recover. —Frazier Tharpe
Eden
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve
Stars: Felix de Givry, Hugo Conzelmann, Roman Kolinka, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne
Release date: May
Mia Hansen-Løve used her brother (and co-writer) Svenn as a loose inspiration to tell the tale of DJ Paul, an electronic spin-artist who rode a huge wave in the 1990s before an inevitable downfall. The early buzz from TIFF sounds promising; at the very least it's all we've got until someone steps up to tell the real DJ Paul's story. —Frazier Tharpe
Knight of Cups
Director: Terrence Malick
Stars: Christian Bale, Imogen Poots, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Release date: Premieres at the Berlin Film Festival
There’s a chance that Knight of Cups, Terrence Malick’s latest journey into the complexities of human existence, is going to be a dizzying trek through a muck of ideas. But there’s no doubt that it’ll be one of the most beautiful, mind-blowing pieces of art (it has to be called art) you'll see in 2015. In Knight of Cups, Malick is moving from the vast expanses of middle America to the claustrophobic wasteland of L.A., with Christian Bale as a screenwriter sleepwalking through the fantasyland that is life in Hollywood. Based on the trailer, the change of scenery may have given Malick more focus, along with a bunch of shiny new toys to play with, while Bale looks more at home than he has since he was murdering hookers in American Psycho. —Andrew Gruttadaro
Zeroville
Director: James Franco
Stars: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jacki Weaver, Megan Fox, Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Dave Franco, Craig Robinson, Joey King, Horatio Sanz
Release date: T.B.D.
Inconsistent artiste James Franco adapts and directs Steve Erickson's popular novel of the same name, starring a cast comprised of basically his friends and family. Franco also stars, as the lead Vikar, a new Hollywood transplant so obsessed with Tinseltown that he has a tattoo of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift on the back of his bald head. Vikar's journey into the film world parallels with an increasing surrealist tone that should give Franc a lot of material to either flex his directorial craft or fail amazingly. Whether slam dunk or trainwreck, the world is still very much in an atmosphere where everything Franco does deserves due attention, for better or worse. —Frazier Tharpe
Spring
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Stars: Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker
Release date: T.B.D.
The last time Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead teamed up, they gave us Resolution, a smart, funny horror film (also their directorial debut) that simultaneously played as a love letter to the genre while also advancing it. Now they're back with a new festival charmer that's being described as Before Sunrise with a supernatural spin. An American backpacker in Europe meets and falls for a beautiful, charismatic local girl and naturally, she's hiding a big family secret that's doomed to implode the burgeoning romance. And if Benson and Moorhead's track record is indicative of anything, that's likely where the clichés will begin and end. Fingers crossed that one of the year's most promising films gets its due wide release date very soon. —Frazier Tharpe
The Nightmare
Director: Rodney Ascher
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
Rodney Ascher, the man who brought you the Stanley Kubrick/Shining deep dive Room 237, is back with another docu-horror that seems scarier than straight up fictional joints. Seriously, take another look at that image. Ascher will be recreating nightmares from the minds of his poor, tortured subjects, individuals who suffer from sleep paralysis, a condition (which Ascher also reportedly endured) wherein visions of menacing figures at their bedside literally render the subject unable to move upon awaking. Nightmare is set to make its first impact at Sundance, whereupon it'll probably create a whole new host of potential candidates for future showcases. —Frazier Tharpe
Dope
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Stars: Zoe Kravitz, Forest Whitaker, Blake Anderson, Tony Revolori, Keith Stanfield, Rick Fox, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, A$AP Rocky
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
Easily one of Sundance's buzziest movies this year, Dope follows a group of high school geeks obsessed with '90s rap and aesthetics as they navigate being high school outcasts and growing up in The Bottoms, aka Inglewood's roughest hood. As if the refreshing premise (one time for black geeks) and pedigree (Rick Ramuyiwa, of The Wood and Brown Sugar fame) weren't enough, the final product has hip-hop fingerprints all over it. A$AP Rocky scored a supporting part after falling for the script while helping then girlfriend Chanel Iman practice her role, and Pharrell contributed original music for the group's '90s garage band. The talent is too stacked for this to be anything short of a success, critically if not commercially. —Frazier Tharpe
The End of the Tour
Director: James Ponsoldt
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Segel, Anna Chlumsky, Mamie Gummer, Joan Cusack, Ron Livingston, Mickey Sumner
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
Jason Segel portrays David Foster Wallace opposite Jesse Eisenberg's David Lipsky, in the big-screen adaptation of Lipsky's popular book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, which transcribes the two authors' eventful five-day road trip. Do we really have to say any more? Every AP English student already copped a ticket. —Frazier Tharpe
99 Homes
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Noah Lomax
Release date: T.B.D.
Andrew Garfield takes a much needed Spider-Man detox in this drama, which finds him as an unemployed family man forced to work for the greedy real estate developer who just forced him out of his own house. The reliably electric Michael Shannon plays said developer, who just may turn Garfield's blue-collar white as he puts him on to the foreclosure game. —Frazier Tharpe
High-Rise
Director: Ben Wheatley
Stars: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes, Sienna Guillory
Release date: T.B.D.
This movie is basically going to be like Snowpiercer but set in a high-rise apartment in England in the late 1970s during the early days of Margret Thatcher's political ascent. Each resident lives on a floor determined by his wealth and status. When residents from different floors—Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) and Richard Wilder (Luke Evans)—decide to mingle, issues of class warfare threaten to disrupt the delicate balance configured by building architect Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons). The film is adapted from a 1975 novel of the same name written by J.G. Ballard. —Lauretta Charlton
In a Valley of Violence
Director: Ti West
Stars: Ethan Hawke, John Travolta, Taissa Farmiga, Karen Gillan, James Ransone, Toby Huss, Larry Fessenden
Release date: T.B.D.
Few details have been released about this "revenge driven" thriller set in the American West during the turn of the 19th century, but director and writer Ti West, who is best known for his horror films, says that In a Valley of Violence won't be just another scary movie. Ethan Hawke stars as Paul, an itinerate gunslinger who rolls into a small town to avenge the death of a friend. John Travolta stars opposite. Here's hoping Travolta plays the town's merciless villain who loves murdering strangers. —Lauretta Charlton
Green Room
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Stars: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Patrick Stewart, Mark Webber, Macon Blair
Release date: T.B.D.
Skinheads find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place after they commit a heinous act of violence and the witnesses, members of a gutter punk band trapped in a small venue, are held hostage and forced to fight for their lives. Patrick Stewart stars as the Neo-Nazi kingpin and ringleader who inspires a white supremacists agenda in this crime thriller set in a small Pacific Northwest community. —Lauretta Charlton
Sleeping With Other People
Director: Leslye Headland
Stars: Alison Brie, Jason Sudeikis, Natasha Lyonne, Amanda Peet, Adam Scott, Marc Blucas, Jason Mantzoukas, Daniella Pineda, Andrea Savage
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
I Smile Back
Director: Adam Salky
Stars: Sarah Silverman, Josh Charles, Thomas Sadoski, Mia Barron
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
It's always a pleasure when comedians (or in this case, comediennes) switch up their flow and flex dramatic chops. It's a decision that's always met with some surprise at first, but really, is it all that shocking considering the usual inherent sadness and depression that comes with being funny? Sarah Silverman is next up in a long line of comics turning their smiles upside down in this tale of suburban ennui. We've seen this story in various iterations before: beautiful mother with a perfect life is inexplicably bored and delves into a life of danger and recklessness to compensate. The real draw here is seeing what Silverman will no doubt powerfully bring to the table. —Frazier Tharpe
Z for Zachariah
Director: Craig Zobel
Stars: Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine
Release date: Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival
This post-apocalyptic drama is an adaptation of a 1974 Robert O’Brien novel about the lone survivors of a nuclear fall out. It's technically a reboot since the BBC's Play for Today also adapted the novel back in 1984. In this version, Margot Robbie plays a young survivor who lives alone on an isolated farm until other survivors stumble upon her safe zone and cohabitation creates dangerous problems. —Lauretta Charlton