Independent Films I've Seen and Loved
Submitted by Ischyros on Wed, 04/13/2005 - 09:33
Tags:
- Swimming - I first saw this movie on the fabulous Sundance Channel and without that, I probably never would have seen it. A young lady is torn between her best friend and the new girl in town. And the movie is about how she grows. It's very touching and Lauren Ambrose does a wonderful job with her part.
- Suburbia - The movie is essentially about a group of teens that hangs out in front of a convenience store causing trouble all night. One of Giovanni Ribisi's first movies, the whole cast is very good. Once again, Steve Zahn gives a show stopping performance.
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Hard to believe that this was an independent film considering how much money it made. I do think it's a very funny and very sweet movie. The perfect date movie.
- But I'm a Cheerleader - I went into this one not sure what to expect, but it's actually a very sweet comedy about a girl who's parents send her to a special school after she starts showing homosexual tendencies.
- Kissing Jessica Stein - Another sweet romantic comedy about a lady who, for a chance of pace, answers a want ad for a gay woman. The movie has a lot of heart but manages to be very funny at the same time.
- Roller Coaster - I found this drama to be very gripping. A group of teenagers sneak into an abandoned amusement park to fulfill a suicide pact two of them have made. The ending is very powerful.
- Girlfight - A girl decides to become a boxer as a way to vent her anger. But then she falls in love. This is a very good coming-of-age drama.
- Ghost World - I had to watch the featurette in order to actually under the underlying message of the movie, but even without that, it's still very good. It's about a pair of teenage girls that start to drift apart as each follows their own heart after high school. Steve Buscemi is brilliant in his role.
- Thirteen - One of the most believeable movies I've ever seen, it is also one of the scariest. A thirteen-year-old girl starts hanging out with a "cool" girl at school and gets into drugs. I love how the movie's color fades as the family starts to get torn apart until the movie is almost in black and white.
- Pi - A very powerful, gripping suspense thriller about a man who believes the answer to everything in the universe, including God, is hidden in a mathamatical equation, if only he can figure it out.
- Amelie - Another sweet comedy from France. It is subtitled but I still laughed a lot.
- Lost and Delirious - This movie is about a girl who is sent to an all-girls bording school where she ends up with two roommates who are romantically involved. Piper Perabo has several powerful scenes as her secret relationship starts to fall apart and she does everything she can to save it.
- Hangman's Curse - Not my favorite, but I must include it because the first hour or so was excellent. A family of investigators goes undercover at a high school to solve the mystery of the ghost that is haunting it. Sounds like a Scooby-Doo episode, it does start to feel like it toward the end, but again, I loved the first hour or so.
- Saw - One of the scariest movies I've ever seen. Two men are locked in a bathroom and in order for one to get out alive, he must kill the other. Let me tell you, I didn't see the twist ending that was coming.
- Employee of the Month - This was such a fun, albeit dark, movie! A guy loses his job, then his fiance finds out he's been cheating on her and confronts him in front of her parents, all in the same day. Highly recommended, of course, I love anything with Steve Zahn in it.
Many more to come!