Welcome to the Indie Film Minute Blog! Browse our curated collection of film essays and explore unique perspectives on the indie film world. Visit our Facebook page and tweet us at @indiefilmminute to let us know what you think.
Here, we gain a broader picture of Nina Simone’s worldwide success: her life in the South, the beginning of her career and ambition to be the first black female classical pianist, her entry into the entertainment business by necessity rather than choice, and her magnetic ability to attract similarly gifted artists who complemented her strengths.
Read MoreWhat if there is just randomness? The thought is terrifying, but seeing it embraced—as it is in Green Room—can be thrilling, if only because we so rarely dive into the void head on. Here is a movie to test us, to scare us, and to show us that we may enjoy the mayhem of the meaningless. Here is violence to serve the purpose of illustrating that there is no purpose.
Read MoreWhether we’re talking about simple entertainment or shows of societal importance, TV has played and still plays an important role in our world. It deserves respect. But the question of which is the higher art emanates from a new phenomenon: that of intelligent, long-form, scripted stories presented on the small screen.
Read MoreThe Daniels have shown in Swiss Army Man that they are ready to expand their voice into narrative filmmaking and develop a newfound emotional core that’s somehow whimsically saccharine, tastefully twee, and artfully what-the-fuck.
Read MoreThe very magic of Persona exists in its relative simplicity—Bergman himself, in his book Images, states that he felt that the film was as far as he could go, and that it allowed him to touch “wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover.”
Read MoreThe Interrupters hones in on an essential component for progress that, I have found, is often lacking in public discourse when it comes to addressing issues of brutality, especially when this violence is perpetuated by or directed toward neglected or marginalized racial groups. This component is as elementary as anything we are taught in grade school: basic human compassion.
Read MoreCaptured on a camera phone as it happened, David Quint's debut documentary Father Unknown is the true story of a man’s struggle to face the emptiness he carries inside. Disconnected from the people closest to him and haunted by the secrecy in his family, he records his desperate search for connection on a journey with the father he's never truly known.
Read MoreIn a way, Riots Reframed is symbolic of the seemingly chaotic nature of the 2011 Tottenham Riots. It asserts that the riots are a product of many layers: the rise of consumerism, self-worth increasingly tied to net worth, geopolitical policing, the national obsession with “security,” the change of social protections to personal burdens, and growing inequality.
Read MoreIf we remove the supernatural and science-fiction elements from Upstream Color, what we’re left with is a striking portrayal of what it feels like to enter into a serious relationship. Shane Carruth forgoes most of the roses and sunshine…and instead opts to explore the sort of existential dread that comes from sharing your life with someone.
Read MoreIn Nicolas Winding Refn’s baroque, quasi-horror film The Neon Demon, Refn sculpts a visual feast for the ages by integrating elemental symbols that aid in his visual storytelling—symbols of yearning for youth, of lusting for success in an industry where success is literally skin deep.
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