FIrst Rule of Movie Club is: you don't talk about Movie Club. But you do share, because sharing is caring.
As open-minded as our society has become about gender and race (or, at least, part of our society) when it comes to incest, we're not exactly looking to move that needle forward anytime soon. And that's where art comes in, ready to push us into exploring the very ideas we'd most rather avoid discussing. It's … Continue reading Spanking the Monkey
Allison Anders was America's indie darling for about 5 minutes in the 90's with her Sundance hit Gas Food Lodging, which was a slick and glossy film with a weak script but an indie attitude that captured people's excitement. It made enough buzz to earn her a spot on the box-office bomb Four Rooms, the … Continue reading Mi Vida Loca
Patricia Rozema is not a household name, and she's made an odd smattering of films, including one for the American Girl series... and yet she's been a fiercely independent filmmaker in every sense of the word since the 1980's, the decade she first wrote, directed, edited, and produced her debut, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing. … Continue reading I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
Comedian Mitch Hedberg's reputation has grown since his early death in 2005, and it'll take you just a couple of YouTube clips to fall in love with his absurdist, stoner genius. Before he left us, however, he managed to write and direct a single film- Los Enchiladas- which screened at Sundance in 1999, and only … Continue reading Los Enchiladas
The 1997 Academy Awards were dubbed "Independents' Day" due to the rare prevalence of independent films in all the big category nominations, with films like Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies and The Coen Brothers' Fargo getting more attention than their respective authors were used to. Still, it was the unknown Australian director Scott Hicks who … Continue reading Shine
Sean Baker rose to national attention with his indie hit, The Florida Project, but he's been carrying the torch of American Independent Cinema for a couple of decades now. It's a good thing, too- not many people are continuing this important neorealist tradition anymore; along with the Safdie Brothers, Baker is upholding the John Cassavetes … Continue reading Take Out
Friends, I come to bury Howard Hesseman, not to praise him. Actually, I come to praise him as well- and his co-star, Crispin Glover, in what may be the greatest offbeat un-buddy movie of all time: Trent Harris' cult 90's classic, Rubin & Ed. There are way too many movies floating out there that seemed … Continue reading Rubin & Ed
John Sayles is arguably America's greatest independent filmmaker, having spent a lifetime navigating the backwards industry known as Hollywood as a ghostwriter in order to finance his own fiercely independent productions. As writer, director, and editor, Sayles' stamp is clear- a deeply humanist and compassionate lens, part Ken Loach without the overt socialism, part Cassavetes … Continue reading Matewan
The New York City art scene is a perennial source of American Myth that every hipster- no matter what generation they're from- romanticizes at some point in their life. From the Velvet Underground to Basquiat, the amount of books, movies, and music generated that deal with these various icons seems endless- and most of it … Continue reading I Shot Andy Warhol
In the tradition of minimalist neo-realism comes this unlikely contender from Costa Rica: Alexandra Latishev Salazar's Medea, a film that eschews exposition and just throws you in the middle of its fiercely independent protagonist's life, no context, no three act structure, just a straight-up fly-on-the wall front row seat into this young woman's life. And … Continue reading Medea
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