The entire industry of filmmaking is made up of two concepts that often times seem to be fundamentally at odds with one another. On the one hand, it is certainly intended to be a work of art, but on the other, it’s an industry that is in the business of making money. But one certain facet of the film industry has always been devoted to the artistic endeavor of making movies, and that is the independent film world.
Independent films are kind of a double-edged sword, because on one edge they can be a fountain of creativity unlike anything that anyone would ever see in a mainstream movie theater, but the other edge is that they are such a small production that most people might never even hear of many independent masterpieces, let alone see them. So here are 10 independent masterpieces that you absolutely need to see, but probably haven’t.
Clerks
Although making an independent film on a shoestring budget is an undeniably difficult task, it oftentimes seems like it brings out the best creativity from truly gifted filmmakers. That is certainly the case with Kevin Smith’s debut movie Clerks.
This film cost Smith under $30,000 to make and he actually financed it by putting it on credit cards. And apparently, that was a smart move on his part, because it took him from a run of the mill retail store clerk (the movie was actually filmed at the convenience store where Smith worked at the time) to a legitimate big-time director.
Eraserhead
Director David Lynch is kind of the unofficial king of independent filmmaking, so it would be plain wrong to have a list of indie gems that didn’t include at least one of Lynch’s movies. And Eraserhead is one amazing independent movie that is not for the faint of heart.
This bizarre story about a man living in a post-apocalyptic world who becomes the father of one of the grossest looking babies in the world is probably exactly what most people are imagining when they think of independent films, and this absolute labor of love (it took David Lynch about five years to complete) is worth at least one watch.
My Own Private Idaho
Queer cinema is definitely having a moment right now, but director Gus Van Sant was doing it way before it was cool. Van Sant has made plenty of great movies before, but few were as unique as and had the impact that My Own Private Idaho had.
The film stars River Phoenix as a narcoleptic street hustler and connoisseur of roads, as well as Keanu Reeves as a spoiled rich boy who is getting a taste of the slum life before going off to his gilded cage for good. This bizarre and surreal movie is truly unlike anything that had been made before or has been made since.
Bottle Rocket
Director Wes Anderson is one of the many directorial darlings of independent cinema, but his first venture into movie-making was a hilarious and bizarre crime comedy that was a commercial failure but a critical success. Bottle Rocket was also the debut film of famous actor brothers Luke and Owen Wilson, and Owen also co-wrote the script with Anderson (who knew he could actually write?).
The brothers star as a pair of friends who decide to go into the business of semi-professional heists, and it goes just about as well as you would expect a foray into criminal activity would go for two incompetent half-wits.
Mysterious Skin
Childhood abuse is not an easy subject to tackle in film, and it’s even more difficult to get right. But Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin follows two young men who were abused by their baseball coach when they were just little kids, and it manages to capture the strange horror and unpredictable after-effects of that abuse quite handily.
Neil (the coach’s favorite victim) copes with his trauma by acting out in inappropriate ways and becoming a male prostitute, and Brian has repressed all memories of his abuse and now remembers the experience as some kind of alien abduction. Eventually, the two come together to rehash their experiences, but much like real-life abuse, there’s not any real absolution offered.
Memento
Christopher Nolan is undeniably a master of filmmaking, and it has been wonderful to see Hollywood grant him the kind of limitless budgets that allow his wild and inventive ideas to come to full fruition on screen. But one of Nolan’s earliest films is also one of his best, and was a clear indication that he was destined for greatness.
The movie Memento focuses on a character who is not capable of making new memories and who forgets what has happened after a few minutes have passed, so he uses tricks like pictures, notes, or even tattoos to tell himself the information he desperately needs to hold on to. Oh yeah, and it’s also told backwards.
Run Lola Run
If you ever thought that the movie The Butterfly Effect was a really cool idea that was executed really badly, then Run Lola Run is the movie for you. This German thriller focuses on Lola, a woman who finds out that she has twenty minutes to somehow obtain $100,000 Deutsche marks or else her boyfriend is going to die.
Lola goes through the entire twenty minutes before the film goes back to its start, and this time Lola does things differently. But once those twenty minutes are up, the movie goes back to it’s start again, with Lola making different choices and hopefully being able to finally save her boyfriend this time around.
This Is Spinal Tap
Christopher Guest is the absolute master of the mockumentary style film, and honestly, anyone of his films is worthy of being on this list. But nothing can really top his ode to hair metal, This Is Spinal Tap.
This Is Spinal Tap was Guest’s first mockumentary-style movie and is basically the lone film that started the entire genre, and this satire of popular eighties bands and rock documentaries features some of the most famous names in comedy. The movie is actually made up of mostly improvisational dialog and scenes, but when your cast is made up of people like Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, and Christopher Guest himself it’s no surprise that it’s one of the funniest movies ever made.
Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is an absolute must-see movie for anyone who is starting to dip their toes into the world of independent cinema, and it’s the kind of movie that almost defies description. The film is about a teenage boy in the late eighties who starts having visions of a giant bunny named Frank and other various prophecies of doom.
Donnie seems to be doing some pretty dark deeds in his sleep, and he also apparently discovers time travel. On paper, it certainly sounds like some nonsensical fever dream, but it’s actually a brilliant movie that has earned a huge cult following since it’s release in 2001.
Pi
A lot of directors seem to get their start in independent film but then move on to more mainstream, audience-friendly material once they hit it big. But director Darren Aronofsky doesn’t fall into that category.
Aronofsky’s debut film Pi is arguably the best movie he ever made, and it follows the story of a number theorist named Max who is working on a way of programming his computer to predict the stock market. And one day it spits out a random number before making one prediction and then crashing. But Max later realizes that the prediction was exactly correct, and believes he may have uncovered some kind of key to the universe in this one number.
