May 2013
5 posts
8 tags
Fresh Starts for Stale People (2013) dir: Robert Malone & Zach Weintraub
***NOW SCREENING! Unemployed college graduates Zach and Rob find themselves adrift in the wake of their education’s real-world uselessness, looking for immediate gratifications wherever possible. A road trip buddy comedy with less than zero production value and the goofiest vibe all year. It’s hard to...
9 tags
Outside (2013) dir: Zach Fleming
A young woman with a rare disorder is confined to a dark house. Generates a remarkable sense of darkness, both physical and psychological.
[[MORE]]
OUTSIDE - A SHORT FILM BY ZACH FLEMING - 2013 from Tony Oswald on Vimeo. Watch on YouTube here.
7 tags
Bad Penny (2012) dir: Ricky Camilleri.
Barry’s childhood friend Shawnsey is staying for a week in Barry’s NYC apartment. Barry has a date and needs Shawnsey to leave for an evening. Starring Linas Phillips, one of the strangest figures (& one of my favs) in current true indie film.
[[MORE]]
BAD PENNY from CamLin Productions on Vimeo.
Watch on YouTube here.
3 tags
Special Presentation Julien & Claire (2012) dir: Adam Neustadter.
A lush, music-driven mood piece that examines the romance between a young American dancer and a struggling French musician after their chance encounter on the streets of Paris. Beautifully shot, rich with sentiment, impossibly romantic.
[[MORE]]
***This film is available to purchase though Chill Direct. Click above for...
9 tags
Re-release KWAK (2012) dir: Ahmed Khawaja & Andre Puca.
Sherman’s March by way of David Holzman’s Diary made by an Indian Muslim living in Boston. A remarkable film. A vivid portrait of a lovelorn outsider, visually expressive, profoundly elliptical, and very funny.
[[MORE]]
KWAK from STRANGERS LIKE ME on Vimeo.
CAST: Ahmed Khawaja Man with the beard Andre Puca his portly...
April 2013
7 posts
9 tags
Sun Don’t Shine (2012) dir: Amy Seimetz
***Now available on iTunes, Amazon, etc. A tense and mysterious road trip through the desolate yet hauntingly beautiful landscape of central Florida. “An exemplary work of modern cinema, made with an impressive curiosity and spontaneity.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker
[[MORE]]
Directed by Amy Seimetz Starring Kate Lyn Sheil and...
9 tags
The Confabulators (2013) dir: Luke Jarvis and Sean Dunn.
A young man named Walter struggles in his relationship with a long-term girlfriend while attempting to climb the corporate ladder at Cobb Inc. Loosey-goosey mystery comedy, anything goes.
[[MORE]]
The Confabulators from Luke Jarvis and Sean Dunn on Vimeo. Watch the trailer here. Watch the full film on YouTube here.
...
9 tags
FAKE IT SO REAL (teaser) from prewarcinema on Vimeo.
Fake It So Real (2012) dir: Robert Greene
The film follows a ragtag group of wrestlers in North Carolina, exploring what happens when the over-the-top theatrics of the wrestling ring collide with the realities of the working-class South. “There is a rough nobility in the way they strive for fame and success. The film is alive at every...
8 tags
Holy God Holy Mighty Holy Immortal Have Mercy Upon Us (2013) dir: Robert Barnett. A supernatural thriller about a woman dealing with the void left by her recently deceased father. Mysterious tone piece with razor sharp editing & gorgeous images.
Holy God Holy Mighty Holy Immortal Have Mercy Upon Us from BENDING HOUSE on Vimeo. | Watch the trailer here. | Watch the film on YouTube...
5 tags
Primer (2004) dir: Shane Carruth
Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there’s something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they’ve built, wrestle over their new invention. One of the most intriguing indies of the last decade.
[[MORE]]
Watch the trailer on YouTube here.
Rent / Purchase through the film’s Official Site. Or...
6 tags
Upstream Color (2013) dir: Shane Carruth
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives. “Bold, impassioned, ecstatically beautiful…in a class by itself at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.” Scott Foundas, Village Voice
[[MORE]]
Original Post: Jan. 30th,...
5 tags
Roadside Picnic (2010) Dir: Michael Higgins
Two old friends drift through the Icelandic plains. They spend most of their time consumed in the forgotten moments of the everyday that underpin touristic adventure. Black & White travelogue with almost no speaking, notable for its exotic locations and calm pacing.
[[MORE]]
Watch on YouTube here.
March 2013
3 posts
9 tags
Monster Flu (2011) dir: Brian Wiebe. Vincent, a reclusive germaphobe, must venture from his apartment for the first time in four years in order to find his best friend, a monster named Toby. Charming 16mm short.
[[MORE]]
Watch on YouTube here.
11 tags
The Men of Dodge City (2013) dir: Nandan Rao
Twentysomething J. and two of his close friends are in the process of realizing their utopian dream: turning an abandoned cathedral into a grant-powered, environmentally sustainable art space. “A film that moves in small steps. Viewers are given little in terms of plot, but are richly rewarded by thoughtful and charming characters, confident...
10 tags
DEATH TO THE TINMAN (short film) from NoBudge on Vimeo.
Death to the Tinman (2007) dir: Ray Tintori
Bill loves Jane, the pastor’s daughter. When Bill becomes a threat to the community, the pastor is forced to curse his ax. One of the most stylish & kinetic films of the true indie era. (Made by Court 13, the team behind Beasts of the Southern Wild). Watch on YouTube here.
February 2013
4 posts
7 tags
Septien (2011) dir: Michael Tully ***Watch on Netflix.
A reclusive sports hustler returns home to his family farm after years of absence to reunite with his two eccentric, unhinged and emotionally damaged brothers. “Tully has forged an original independent work of spirit and intelligence, perhaps the best American feature so far in 2011.” Gerald Perry, Boston Phoenix.
[[MORE]]
...
10 tags
Red Flag (2012) dir: Alex Karpovsky ***Watch on iTunes or VOD. An indie filmmaker gets dumped by a longtime girlfriend and takes to the road with a reluctant old pal for a misbegotten tour screening his movie. “Utterly hilarious…the meta quality is entirely irrelevant to its low key charm and persistent irreverence.” Indiewire
[[MORE]]
Written and directed by Alex...
10 tags
Frames (2012) dir: Brandon Colvin
A young filmmaker uses his camera to transform the banality of his hometown into art. When a friend goes missing, however, his footage exposes a disturbing mystery … one he might be inventing. Begins as a high school coming-of-age drama (by way of DOGTOOTH perhaps) but turns into a tense mystery regarding obsession and perception. Impressive debut film...
5 tags
Lord Byron (2011) dir: Zach Godshall ***Watch on Netflix Instant.
Middle-aged romantic Byron doggedly pursues women when he isn’t smoking pot and living with his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. Unsatisfied, he sets out on a quest to reinvent himself, encountering myriad bizarre characters along the way. “A provocative collage! Built around unreliable narrators, delusional Southerners,...
January 2013
3 posts
7 tags
Computer Chess (2013) dir: Andrew Bujalski. A 1980s-set story centered around a man vs. machine chess tournament. “A brilliantly conceived study…Bujalski really has pulled off something extraordinary here.” Andrew Pulver, The Guardian
[[MORE]]
More info here.
8 tags
How To Live With Bed Bugs (2013) dir: John Wilson. A hopeless tutorial on how to locate, obtain, and fall in love with bed bugs. Another ingeniously conceived installment of John Wilson’s life tutorials.
[[MORE]]
6 tags
You Won’t Miss Me (2009) | dir: Ry Russo-Young
*** Buy the Special Edition DVD from Factory 25. Or digital from iTunes or Netflix, etc. A kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. “A living, breathing demonstration of pure cinema.” Tom Hall, Indiewire
[[MORE]]
An unforgettable 2009...
December 2012
9 posts
7 tags
Sophie (2010) dir: Sean Rourke Meehan
A young woman works another day at her strange and intimate job. Official Selection: SXSW Film Festival.
[[MORE]]
5 tags
Go Down Death (2013) dir: Aaron Schimberg
Physical and psychological devastation ravage a forsaken town. A frail boy learns the meaning of malignant, ghosts haunt a war hero (but he’ll haunt no one), an outcast must protect his precious face, and a village crumbles in this adaptation of the folk-tales of Jonathan Mallory Sinus. Uncompromising feast of vision & atmosphere. Film...
9 tags
The Game Store (2012) dir: William Gerardi
A pitch black snapshot of the low life employees at a video game store. Offensive + unapologetic, delivered with assured self amusement. In the tradition of Michael Haneke & Harmony Korine.
[[MORE]]
Watch on YouTube
9 tags
Gabi on the Roof in July (2010) | dir: Lawrence Levine
*** Watch on iTunes or Netflix, or many other places. An ambitious painter on the verge of a big break confronts his moral decay when his idealist, hell-raising, younger sister comes to stay with him in New York City for the summer. “A fresh, smart, warm, and funny, Brooklyn comedy, sort of J.D. Salinger meets early Woody Allen.”...
6 tags
The Beast Pageant (2010) dir: Albert Birney, Jon Moses. Abraham drifts through daily life until a tiny singing cowboy bursts from his stomach and leads him into the wild.
[[MORE]]
*** DVDs, download or on-demand available from IndiePix here.
Official selection: Slamdance Film Festival, Maryland, San Francisco Indie, Boston Underground, et...
16 tags
Open Five 2 (2012) dir: Kentucker Audley. A relationship drama set amid a winter van trip from New York to New Orleans. A loose continuation of the 2010 film. “The fact that Open Five 2 was made for the web is intriguing, but just for the quality of its winter light and the restraint of the direction, it would be worth a theater release.” Nicholas Elliott, Cahiers du Cinéma
[[MORE]]
...
7 tags
St. Nick (2009) dir: David Lowery. The adventures of a brother and sister trying to survive, all on their own, out on the plains of Texas. Official Selection: SWSW, Sarasota, AFI Dallas, Maryland
[[MORE]]
PRAISE FOR ST NICK:
NYTimes Critic Pick
“Decaying rustic interiors evoke Andrew Wyeth still lifes; pastoral long...
9 tags
Richard’s Wedding (2012) dir: Onur Tukul
*** Now available on iTunes & VOD. Tuna and Alex ramble their way to their friends’ spontaneous wedding in Central Park, all the while meeting up with old and new friends. The hilarious and irreverent new film from no budge legend Onur Tukel. (DING-A-LING-LESS) featuring a brilliant ensemble cast. See this movie.
[[MORE]]
Starring...
3 tags
Mutual Appreciation (2005) dir: Andrew Bujalski
*** Watch the film on iTUNES or NETFLIX. Alan is a musician who leaves a busted-up band for New York, and begins a flirtation with a good friend’s girlfriend. “Bujalski is making what may prove to be the defining movies about a generation, marked by its very lack of definition.” Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
[[MORE]]
MORE PRAISE for...
November 2012
4 posts
6 tags
New Jerusalem (2011) dir: Rick Alverson
*** Available on iTunes. Returning from Afghanistan, Sean is befriended by lke, a strong willed evangelical who endeavors to ensure the fragile Sean’s salvation. “Focused and seriously relevant and insightful.”Mike Ryan, Hammer to Nail
[[MORE]]
Released by Factory 25
7 tags
The Color Wheel (2011) dir: Alex Ross Perry
*** Now Available on iTunes, VUDU, Amazon Instant & VOD. JR has broken up with her professor. She enlists her nervous and obnoxious younger brother Colin to take a short road trip in order to help move out her belongings. “Sly, daring, genuinely original and at times perversely brilliant.” - A.O. Scott, The New York Times
[[MORE]]
...
9 tags
Bad Fever (preview) | 2011 | dir: Dustin Guy Defa
*** Now Available on iTunes, VUDU, Amazon Instant and VOD. A humorless loner attempts to win the admiration of a drifter with his debut performance at the local comedy club.
[[MORE]]
“Bad Fever has the empathetic soul of ’70s American filmmaking.” - Nick Schager, The Village Voice
“Highly...
6 tags
The Comedy (2012) | dir: Rick Alverson
*** Now available on VOD & iTunes. Indifferent to the notion of inheriting his father’s estate, a Williamsburg guy passes the time with his friends, playing games of mock sincerity and irreverence. Starring TIM HEIDECKER. “A powerful, generational statement.” Indiewire
[[MORE]]
Directed By Rick Alverson Starring Tim Heidecker,...
October 2012
1 post
9 tags
Happy Birthday (2011) dir: Ryan Thompson. A Randy Moss fan spends his days hawking $1 buttons and swilling Robitussin. Very funny + raw short / robo-trip.
[[MORE]]
Starring Beck DeRobertis
September 2012
7 posts
7 tags
Frownland (2007) | dir: Ronald Bronstein
*** Watch on NETFLIX, or buy the Special Edition DVD from FACTORY 25. A pitch-black character study of Keith Sontag (Dore Mann), a neurotic, manipulative, stridently unlovable New Yorker. Directed by RONALD BRONSTEIN. “This is personal cinema at its most uncompromising and fierce.” Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
[[MORE]]
7 tags
Exit Elena (2012) dir: Nathan Silver
A darkly comedic home movie about a live-in aide and a family in crisis. “Beautifully observed…intelligent, and carefully structured.” Patrick Gamble, Cine-Vue
[[MORE]]
Elena KIA DAVIS Cindy CINDY SILVER Jim JIM CHIROS Florence GERT O’CONNELL Daisy DAISY Nathan NATHAN SILVER Larry LAWRENCE BALIN Barbara BARBARA WHITE Owen OWEN WHITE...
4 tags
IF A TREE FALLS (short film) dir: Michael Hayes. A mosaic of middle-age angst concerning a blonde, a preacher, and a drag queen. Directed by MICHAEL HAYES. Avant-garde slow cinema made by a roofer in South Carolina.
[[MORE]]
10 tags
Marriage Material (2011) | dir: Joe Swanberg
Emily and Andrew, a young couple living in Memphis, agree to babysit their friend’s 7-month-old for a day. “A substantial and memorable piece of work.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker
[[MORE]]
Produced, directed and edited by Joe Swanberg photographed by Adam Wingard sound mix by John Bosch written by and starring Kentucker...
9 tags
People Parade (2012) dir: John Wilson & Chris Maggio
A surreal comedy about the end of the reign of a long-running television variety show. From the makers of the NoBudge hit HOW TO CLEAN A CAST IRON STOVE.
[[MORE]]
Click HERE for more info on Future Machine, the creators of PEOPLE PARADE.
Original Post Aug 8th, 2012 | Film posted Sept. 19th
*** The film screened at the...
6 tags
Me The Terrible | dir: JOSEPHINE DECKER.
A little girl pirate invades New York.
Official Selection Maryland, Austin, Cucalorus.
[[MORE]]
*** The film screened at the 92Y Tribeca in NYC September 14th and 15th as part of the inaugural La Di Da Film Festival. ***
6 tags
Ok, Good (2012) | dir: DANIEL MARTINICO
A series of demoralizing auditions and an intense movement workshop push a struggling actor towards the edge.
Official Selection: Slamdance, Atlanta, Independent Film Festival Boston, Raindance
[[MORE]]
OK, Good from DM on Vimeo.
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes deranged, always compelling. OK, GOOD, an uncompromising new film by Daniel...
August 2012
8 posts
5 tags
[[MORE]]
CIRCLES | 2012 | dir: Sam Fleischner
Screen test from a film about a young autistic boy who runs away from his family and lives on the New York Subway for eleven days.
There is no trailer available for this film.
[[MORE]]
*** The film screened at the 92Y Tribeca in NYC September 14th and 15th as part of the inaugural La Di Da Film Festival. ***
5 tags
Kuichisan (2012) dir: Maiko Endo | A story from the lost town of Koza - a silver paradise. “The discovery of the year.” Copenhagen International Documentary Festival
There is no trailer available for this film.
[[MORE]]
*** The film screened at the 92Y Tribeca in NYC September 14th and 15th as part of the inaugural La Di Da Film Festival. ***
10 tags
Open Five (2010) dir: Kentucker Audley. Jake, a struggling musician, and Kentucker, a maker of “poor” films, host two Brooklyn girls in Memphis for a long weekend. “One of the Top 25 films of 2010” Richard Brody, The New Yorker
[[MORE]]
Watch on YouTube here.
Created by Kentucker Audley and Jake Rabinbach Starring Jake Rabinbach, Shannon Esper, Kentucker...
7 tags
Kid-Thing (2011) | dir: the ZELLNER BROTHERS.
[[MORE]]
On the outskirts of Austin, 10-year-old Annie tears around on her BMX bike, hurls dough at cars, and smashes things up with her baseball bat.
Official Selection: Sundance, Berlin, SXSW…
Watch on YouTube.
9 tags
The Guatemalan Handshake (2006) dir: Todd Rohal
A mysterious power failure in a small mountain town coincides with the disappearance of one of its most eccentric young residents. Directed by TODD ROHAL. “A revelation…holds a place in my heart that is normally reserved for Easter candy” Jared Hess (director of Napoleon Dynamite)
[[MORE]]
The Guatemalan Handshake (2006)...
7 tags
The Black Balloon (preview) | 2011 | dir: JOSH and BENNY SAFDIE.
[[MORE]]
While trying to move 40 kids six New York City blocks all by himself, a stressed man accidentally loses a bouquet of a hundred balloons.
Winner at Sundance & South By Southwest.
The film screened at the 92Y Tribeca in NYC September 14th and 15th as part of the inaugural La Di Da Film Festival. ***
13 tags
Marvin Seth & Stanley (2012) dir: Stephen Gurewitz
Marvin’s estranged sons, Seth and Stanley, return home for a camping trip. As past grudges are exposed, their weekend getaway slowly unfurls. “Extraordinarily touching and quietly hilarious.” Richard Brody, The New Yorker
[[MORE]]
Written and directed by Stephen Gurewitz starring Marvin Gurewitz, Alex Karpovsky...
