And greetings again! After a full day of college football bowl games and at least the first playoff game, for me, it is time to get back to work and post Part 2 of my “Year In Review”, this time highlighting my faves (and NOT so faves) of the less widely-released, and sometimes virtually unknown SMALL BUDGET/INDEPENDENT films. As anyone who knows me can attest, indie films have become something I have a MUCH more greater respect for ever since seeing the first film OF that ilk, Neil Jordan‘s “Byzantium” back in the Summer of 2013, and finding that not only was the story-telling SO much deeper, but the actors actually got to, well, ACT! Characters and story are truly what drive indie film, and the humanness, if you will, IN these offerings can be, overall, so much more engaging to watch and take in. Suffice it to say….I am GLAD I discovered this more than often overlooked genre of movies.
I am choosing to separate my THEATRICAL indie viewing lists and my ON DEMAND indie viewing lists because….well, I just want to! BUT, these WERE all NEW RELEASES of 2014, and NONE of the On Demand films were available (legally, anyway! lol) on DVD or Blu-Ray at the time I screened them, which is also why I counted them toward my totals for the year. And as with my MAINSTREAM lists, the links provided are to my reviews of each. Ok…enough of my ramblings….here they are, in no particular order…..
TOP 10 THEATRICAL INDIE FILMS
- “God’s Not Dead“
- “The Fault In Our Stars“
- “Begin Again“
- “The Identical“
- “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby“
- “Tracks“
- “Kill The Messenger“
- “Whiplash“
- “The Imitation Game“
- “Wild“
TOP 10 ON DEMAND INDIE FILMS
- “The Best Offer“
- “Barefoot“
- “Grand Piano“
- “The Face of Love“
- “Frontera“
- “God Help The Girl“
- “The Two Faces of January“
- “You’re Not You“
- “Before I Disappear“
- “Comet“
TOP THEATRICAL INDIE DISAPPOINTMENTS
TOP ON DEMAND INDIE DISAPPOINTMENTS
And there is that. And as always, not because I don’t stand by my choices of course, but always remember this is just my OPINION and that even among several of the films I listed as OVERALL disappointments, I have to admit that individual PERFORMANCES in many of them were quite solid. But, ALL factors I take into consideration BESIDES the acting (content, story, etc) have to come into consideration. Again, I do know for certain that small budget/indie films are ones I will continue to look for, review, and support as a whole, because honestly….some of THE BEST TOTAL filmmaking I’ve seen over the last year was IN those movies.
As always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Stay tuned for another short, but I feel unique post based on a brief side conversation I ended up in with actor Clayne Crawford of the newly completed indie thriller “Convergence” about indie film in general. Until then, thank you for reading!