Think about the phenomenon of boutiques: they’re smaller, less well-known, and, most likely, much more expensive than your average department or retail store. So, why do we feel more excited when we enter or buy from a boutique, rather than a retail store? Well, because the things available at boutiques are more uniquely designed and harder to find. Chances are, that dress you buy from a boutique won’t face any competition at a formal event or a night on the town.
The same sort of logic can be applied to movies. You might think all movies are the same, but in fact, they aren’t. Sure, there are good movies and bad movies, action movies and romance movies, fictional movies and documentaries, but there’s only one specific sect of movies that can truly give you that new-dress-straight-from-a-cute-corner-boutique feeling.
Behold the future of movie making: indie movies.
See, while most movies these days spend top dollar on special effects, costumes, and casting the most famous actors (all the while letting their dialogue and storyline suffer), indie movies are creating genius under their very noses. Because they’re made on such a small scale, all of the success depends on the quality of the writing. Take the new “Fast & Furious” for example. Every line out of Vin Diesel’s mouth was nothing short of corny and lame, but, hey, that car explosion was sick! I don’t know about anyone else, but walking out of movies like that give me a “I just watched eight hours of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix and now I forgot what the sun looks like. Or what real pants are like” feeling.
Don’t get me wrong, brain candy movies like that are fun on occasion, but they begin to feel like a waste of time if they’re the only movies you ever watch. If you aren’t at least learning something from a film (well, other than how far a car can be projected upwards when set on fire), then what’s the point? On the other hand, no one wants to spend all of their time watching countless documentaries on how salt built America. There has to be some middle ground, right?
That’s where indie films come in. The thing that makes an indie film special is that it is uniquely born out of the creative vision of a director (or team of directors), who most of the time, write, direct, and produce the film all on their own. They shape the story, cast the characters, film with a low budget, well, everything, and end up creating something truly beautiful and artistically brilliant.
So, next time you’re trying to decide what movie to watch on a Saturday night, try out an indie film! Chances are, you won’t regret it.
Here are some indie films that I have found to be brilliant:
- “Love, Rosie”
- “The Spectacular Now”
- “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (or any Wes Anderson film, for that matter)
- “(500) Days of Summer”
- “Juno”
- If you can believe it, “Mean Girls” and “Napoleon Dynamite” are indie films
- “Still Alice”
- “The Prestige”
- “Chef”
- “Life Partners”
- “A Beautiful Mind”
- “Testament of Youth”
- “Silver Lining’s Playbook”
- “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”
- “Now is Good”
- “The Descendants”
- “The Fighter”
