It seems every blog and magazine releases a summer movie guide. Looking through them, you might notice some redundancies. Per usual, anything with a big budget and a strong marketing push receives the attention it pays for. But since we already know about Sex and the City 2, Toy Story 3, and Eclipse, we’re making the effort to deliver to you some of the more overlooked movies with a summer release date. Presented in rank order, here are Limité’s Top 10 Indie Summer Flicks.
What summer movies are you most excited about? Share them with us in the comments section below.
1. Winter’s Bone
by Daniel Quitério
Director: Debra Granik
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt
Release Date: July 11 (limited)
Genre: Drama
Official Website: www.wintersbonemovie.com
Taking the top spot is this year’s recipient of the Grand Jury Prize (Best Picture – Narrative) at the Sundance Film Festival. Director Debra Granik follows up her acclaimed Down to the Bone (2004) with Winter’s Bone, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell. Stunning newcomer Jennifer Lawrence (The Burning Plain) plays Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old form the Missouri Ozarks who sets out to find her meth-dealing father who ditched his family after offering their home for his bail bond.
Kentucky-native Lawrence (a true face to watch) channeled her Southern roots to pull off a performance that’s being much hailed by critics. While working on location in the Ozark Mountains, she and fellow professional castmates worked alongside some real residents in front of the camera. Furthering the sense of authenticity that Granik sought, real homes and families were used while shooting. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Granik spoke of the importance of using these non-actors. She said, “They had already had life experiences that made them feel very concerned and saddened by meth. They had a real-life understanding of the way it can insidiously work its way through a community and the lives it can touch.”
While running the festival circuit, the film that’s enjoying some early Oscar hype garnered several awards, including Best Feature Film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Best Screenplay at Sundance, and the aforementioned Best Picture at Sundance, as well as multiple audience awards.
Learn More: Filmmaker Debra Granik will be discussing Winter’s Bone at the SoHo Apple Store in New York City on Thursday, June 10 at 7pm.
2. Restrepo
by Stephanie Dawson
Directors: Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
Release Date: June 25 (limited)
Genre: Documentary
Official Website:www.restrepothemovie.com
On June 25, the new documentary Restrepo will take audiences to the heart of war, as experienced by the soldiers who live it. Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, near the Pakistan border, is considered to be a crucial relay point for the Taliban. It has earned the nickname “Valley of Death” by American forces. Restrepo is a remote outpost in the Korengal Valley, named for a platoon medic who was killed in action. The filmmakers “dug in” with a platoon over the course of a year in the “Valley of Death” to create a neutral, human-centered documentary.
The film was produced and directed by Tim Hetherington (Liberia: An Uncivil War) and Sebastian Junger (author of The Perfect Storm, Fire, and A Death in Belmont). Hetherington was the sole photographer, capturing images of the recent Liberian war. Junger has been reporting on Afghanistan since 1996, and has reported from Liberia during its civil war in 2003. Their combat exposure likely helped ingratiate them with the soldiers they followed so closely. They had unprecedented access and lived as the soldiers lived. The cameras remained in the valley for the duration of the tour, never interviewing soldiers’ families, politicians, or high level military officers. The only footage outside the “Valley of Death” is poignant interviews with the soldiers following their deployments to provide context, insight, and narration.
In 2010, audiences have been inundated with combat images in documentaries and news stories, and this one follows suit. However, peppered in are surreal moments like a soldier making small talk during a shoot-out. Restrepo promises to focus on the experience of the soldiers and not the politics or belief systems that shape other documentaries into anti-war commentary. This film is the recipient of the 2010 Grand Jury Prize (Documentary) at the Sundance Film Festival.
3. Get Low
by Janice Y. Perez
Director: Aaron Schneider
Cast: Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Scott Cooper
Release Date: July 30 (limited)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Most people have an “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there” attitude towards death, but for bedraggled hermit Felix Bush (with an impeccable performance by Robert Duvall), a “funeral party” for himself while he’s still alive sounds doable. Wait, what? A living funeral? The concept is hard to contemplate, but Bush, who’s shut himself off from a small Tennessee town for the last 38 years in his cabin, wants to come in contact with the townsfolk again and discover what they believe are his reasons for his self-imposed isolation. The only person willing to help him is the town’s struggling funeral parlor director, Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), whose ulterior motive of cashing in on this grand funeral party might be jeopardized by his own assistant (Lucas Black) who unearths an old mystery about the elusive Bush in this Depression-era gem of a story.
A writing collaboration between Mad Men scripter Chris Provenzano and Blood Diamond writer C. Gaby Mitchell, Get Low was one of the most lauded films in the three prestigious festivals where it’s been showcased so far – Toronto last year and Sundance and Tribeca this year. That, alone, has been much cause to celebrate for first-time feature-length filmmaker Aaron Schneider, whose short film, Two Soldiers, won 2003′s Oscar for Best Short Film, Live Action. And now with the genuinely comedic, yet sharp and intelligent Get Low, Schneider might be seeing another Oscar statue in the near future.
4. The Kids Are All Right
by Daniel Quitério
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Cast: Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson
Release Date: July 9
Genre: Comedy
The idea of the “traditional” family unit is challenged in this Lisa Cholodenko-directed comedy. Set in Los Angeles, Nic’s and Jules’s (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) teenaged children set out to find their father – the guy who lent his sperm to help make the aforementioned couple’s family take shape. Before setting off for college, Joni reluctantly calls the sperm bank where it all began, leading her and her brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) to their birth father, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). This inevitably changes everything for the family.
In March of this year, 21-year-old Australia native Mia Wasikowska (pronounced vash-i-kov-ska) was named one of Limité’s 2010 Faces to Watch, and she’s definitely earning her place on the list. Coming off the title role in Tim Burton’s fantastical Alice in Wonderland, Wasikowska faced another challenge in playing the role of Joni, the college-bound daughter who seeks to find the father she never knew – and she does it opposite Hollywood heavyweights Bening, Moore, and Ruffalo.
The Kids Are All Right is one of three “gay friendly” films on this Top 10 list (see numbers 6 and 9), indicating that the times, they are a-changin’, and perhaps audiences are ready for a less-than-traditional helping of Hollywood family comedies and love stories. Coming off a Best Feature Film win at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, The Kids Are All Right hits American theatres on July 9.
5. Ondine
by Stephanie Dawson
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda, Tony Curran, Tom Archdeacon
Release Date: June 4
Genre: Drama
Ondine is the latest film by writer/director Neil Jordan (The Brave One, The End of the Affair) starring Colin Farrell as Syracuse, a divorced, alcoholic, down-on-his-luck Irish fisherman who finds the body of a woman in his trawler’s fishing nets. The presumably dead woman comes to life before his eyes. The rescued Ondine, played by Alicja Bachleda (Trade), becomes a good luck charm whose singing increases Syracuse’s daily catch. She also has healing powers for Syracuse’s wheelchair-bound daughter, Annie (Alison Barry). The film is heavy on fantasy and romance as Annie comes to believe Ondine is a “selkie,” a mermaid-like creature from Irish folklore. Syracuse is reluctant to believe it at first, but Annie’s unshakable belief in miracles and subsequent unexplainable events convince him otherwise. Tensions mount when a strange man from Ondine’s past arrives in town.
In true indie fashion, Jordan cast little-known Bachleda purposefully to add to Ondine’s mysterious character. Critics claim Farrell’s performance is endearing and he won the Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) for Leading Actor. Dirvla Kirwanalso won the IFTA for the role of Annie’s mother. It’s no doubt the romance between Farrell and Bachleda will sizzle on screen – the two fell in love on set and had a son in 2008. Assisting in the creation of this fairy tale is photography by Christopher Doyle.
6. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
by Daniel Quitério
Director: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg
Cast: Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, Don Rickles, Melissa Rivers
Release Date: June 11 (limited)
Genre: Documentary
Joan Rivers. Her name undoubtedly elicits a variety of reactions from anyone who’s even remotely followed the entertainment industry for the last 40-plus years. Regardless of what people know her for, it’s all covered in one of this year’s most prominent documentaries. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work follows the legendary comedienne as she approaches her 75th birthday. The façade is stripped away, exposing Rivers’s successes and struggles throughout her lengthy career, as well as the insecurities she faces when Hollywood deems her no longer relevant.
Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg deliver a comprehensive overview of the now 77-year-old pop icon’s life and career. Accomplished in their own right, the filmmakers previously earned praise for their film The Trials of Darryl Hunt, which was nominated for the 2006 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the 2007 Spirit Award for Best Documentary.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work has been receiving praise on the festival circuit this year, having had its world premiere at Sundance and receiving a Grand Jury Prize (Documentary) nomination. The film also played the Tribeca Film Festival, was the closing night selection at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and is the Centerpiece Film at New Fest: the New York LGBT Film Festival.
7. Cyrus
by Daniel Quitério
Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Cast: John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Catherine Keener
Release Date: June 18
Genre: Comedy
Official Website: www.foxsearchlight.com/cyrus
The brothers Duplass enter this year’s summer film arena with Cyrus, the story of two men competing for the time and affections of one woman. John C. Reilly plays John, a lonely, divorced man who’s facing the upcoming re-marriage of his ex-wife. Believing he’ll never find love again, John is convinced by his ex, her fiancée, and friend Jamie (Catherine Keener) to attend a party, where he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei) – and sparks fly. Despite the flourishing relationship, Molly is reluctant to introduce John into her home life, and after following her home, he discovers why. Molly lives with her 21-year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill), a New Age musician who will do whatever it takes to keep his mother to himself.
Oscar nominee Reilly arguably breaks his trend of unusual roles in this indie gem, having in recent years appeared in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009), Step Brothers (2008), and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007). He joins indie film darling Tomei, an Oscar winner, herself, for 1992’s My Cousin Vinny. And then there’s Hill, who will likely appeal to a different audience than what he’s used to. Known for popcorn comedies like Superbad (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), and the currently released Get Him to the Greek (2010), Hill stretches his acting chops in what will likely turn out to be a more mature comedy that perhaps hits the mark on a much deeper level.
8. Io sono l’amore (I Am Love)
by Janice Y. Perez
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Diane Fleri, Maria Paiato, Marisa Berenson, Waris Ahluwalia, Gabriele Ferzetti
Release Date: June 18 (limited)
Genre: Drama
Turn of the millennium Milan comes back to life in Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s sweeping, vivid masterpiece, Io sono l’amore (I Am Love). The film is headlined by Oscar-winning, British actress Tilda Swinton as Russian émigré Emma Recchi. She leads a nothing-less-than-extraordinary life in haute bourgeoisie Milan where her husband’s family leads society’s richest industrialists. The Recchi family dynamic shifts drastically when the patriarch, Edoardo Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti), cedes the reins equally between his son and Swinton’s husband, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), and one of Swinton’s sons, Edoardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti). Ironically, the elder Recchi is unhappy with the power split while Edoardo Jr. would rather start his own new business with chef friend Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), who enters the Recchi family and eventually transforms Emma’s own life to a very tragic climax.
Ever since it premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, I Am Love has jolted the cinematic world in Italy and beyond for its mesmerizing visuals and bombastic score, but more importantly for its execution of melodrama, reminiscent of the grand classics of Michelangelo Antonioni and Sergio Leone about upper class Italy. This ambitious story took its own epic 12-year journey by collaborators Swinton and young, rising auteur, Guadagnino. And if that’s not already amazing, the fact that Swinton speaks both Russian and Italian (which she never spoke prior to filming) in this film will surely draw loyal fans and film lovers alike to gorge on this rich, cinematic feast.
Learn More: Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton will be discussing I Am Love at the SoHo Apple Store in New York City on Thursday, June 17 at 8pm.
9. I Love You, Phillip Morris
by Janice Y. Perez
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Cast: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro
Release Date: July 30
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Not to be confused with anything relating to the cigarette brand, though some unhinging side-effects may occur due to the film’s daring take on comedy, I Love You, Phillip Morris chronicles the roller-coaster, double life of Steven Jay Russell (Jim Carrey), a happily married police officer in Texas whose irreversible change to a homosexual socialite in Miami upsets all balance around him. Russell soon realizes that the high life is really quite expensive, and when his coffers run out, this former cop soon turns to a conman to keep up with the luxurious lifestyle. When his debaucheries eventually land him in jail, Russell meets a saving grace in Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a fellow inmate to whom Russell will give everything up for, even his own release from jail.
In spite of the apparent comedic texture of the story, I Love You, Phillip Morris presents a very heavy subtext that supersedes the majority of Jim Carrey’s previous high camp films. In fact, an initial April 2010 release date was postponed by distributor Consolidated Pictures Group for what might have been its risqué gay theme, especially with big names Carrey and McGregor playing such roles. However, a majority of film reviews that have already circulated give the film two thumbs up for its fresh take on a gay love story, where Carrey shines for taking on a character that doesn’t play anything like his generic, Hollywood-pleasing personas.
10. Happythankyoumoreplease
by Stephanie Dawson
Director: Josh Radnor
Cast: Josh Radnor, Zoe Kazan, Kata Mara, Pablo Schreiber, Malin Åkerman, Tony Hale, Michael Algieri, Richard Jenkins
Release Date: August 27 (limited)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) makes his writing and directing debut in Happythankyoumoreplease, the Sundance Audience Award-winning Woody Allen-esque comedy about six New York twenty-to-thirty-somethings. Radnor plays Sam Wexler, an unsuccessful writer who sees a young African American boy become separated from his family on a subway train. He makes the questionable decision to take the boy home, and over the course of their exposure, the two form a brotherly bond. Sam also meets Mississippi, played by Kate Mara (Nip/Tuck, 24), a singer from Mississippi. The two engage in the modern-day borderline non-committal romantic entanglements.
Favorite indie actress Zoe Kazan (The Exploding Girl, Me and Orson Welles) stars as Mary Catherine, a young woman living with her boyfriend Charlie (Pablo Schreiber). The couple contemplates separation when Charlie considers a career move to the West Coast. Malin Åkerman (27 Dresses, The Watchmen) plays Annie, a woman with a disease that leaves her bald. She also happens to have horrible taste in men. Sam #2 (Tony Hale), the nice guy from work, may be the guy Annie is actually looking for.
Most critics like the film but hate the title, which isn’t a bad weighted average. Among indies that are heavy in subject matter and darkness, a smart comedy is a welcome change – if for nothing else than to detox before seeing another heart-wrenching indie. In addition to the Sundance win, the film was chosen as the opening film for the GenArt Film Festival in April.
The Best of the Rest:
Kynodontas (Dogtooth)
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley
Release: June 25 (limited)
The Killer Inside Me
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, Simon Baker, Bill Pullman
Release: June 18 (limited)
Life During Wartime
Director: Todd Solondz
Cast: Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Charlotte Rampling, Ally Sheedy, Gaby Hoffman
Release: July 23 (limited)
Mao’s Last Dancer
Director: Bruce Beresford
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan, Joan Chen
Release: August 6 (limited)
Valhalla Rising
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives, Gary Lewis
Release: June 4
Les herbes folles (Wild Grass)
Director: Alain Resnais
Cast: André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Devos
Release: June 25 (limited)
