Guides

9 Indie Anti-Blockbusters to Watch This Summer

The summer movie season isn't all monsters and explosions. Here are some smaller films of all different genres you should see this season.

With Transformers still raging senselessly at the box office, we are firmly in the thick of the summer blockbuster season. But increasingly, the onset of July means that another, less noisy movie season has begun. It’s the start of the alternative summer-movie slate, a two-month period where a slew of smaller, hopefully more interesting films is released before autumn comes and attention turns to awards mania. So if you’re sick of all the clank and boom of stadium-seating viewing, here’s a list of some of this summer’s smaller movies that are worth seeking out.

Begin Again

Photo: Andrew Schwartz/© 2014 The Weinstein Company

Sure it’s a little corny, with all its sappy New York romanticizing, but writer-director John Carney’s glossy followup to Once is still pretty charming. Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley make a nice musical pair, playing two sad-sacks who revive their stalled lives by recording an album in locations around New York City. Scenes hum with romance, the city looks beautiful, and the songs sound pretty good. This is a different kind of summer escapism than a superhero movie, but no less effective. (Out now)

Life Itself

Photo: Kevin Horan/Magnolia Pictures

This documentary about the late, great film critic Roger Ebert is understandably earning raves from his fellow critics, but that doesn’t mean it’s some insidery thing that only people in the industry will care about. What made Ebert so special is the way he brought film criticism, and film appreciation, to as wide an audience as possible, urging people to think critically about what they watched. Not to make them jaded cynics, but to ensure that they enjoyed the moviegoing experience that much more. If you want to be reminded why you bother schlepping to the theater anymore, Life Itself will do just that. (Out now)

Snowpiercer

Photo: Radius/TWC

Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s bruising, beautiful science-fiction thriller is bleak and chilly enough to provide its own air-conditioning. A grimy, bloody post-apocalyptic fable about the remnants of humanity surviving on a train, Snowpiercer is plenty action-packed to suit your popcorn-chomping needs, but also comes equipped with urgent moral questioning and loads of artistic flair. If your movie date is uncertain about plunking down $12 for something unknown, just remind them that it stars Captain America himself, Chris Evans. (In limited release now)

Boyhood

Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Richard Linklater’s astounding project—he made this film over 12 years, as his child actors, and his adult ones (Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette), aged naturally—finally makes it to theaters after a rapturous Sundance reception. While you may expect big, stirring coming-of-age stuff, Linklater has, as Linklater does, instead crafted something understated and easygoing. But watching the film, which chronicles one boy’s semi-suburban upbringing in Texas, is nonetheless a quietly profound experience. It’s a joyous, rueful, bittersweet poem about the ebb, flow, and meander of life in America. A perfect movie to contemplate as you take a nighttime stroll, listening to crickets and staring at the stars. (Opens July 11)

A Most Wanted Man

Photo: Kerry Brown/Roadside Attractions

Our opportunities to see new work from Philip Seymour Hoffman are sadly dwindling, but here is a great one. In this adaptation of a John le Carré novel, Hoffman plays a German security agent working with U.S. officials to thwart a possible terrorist. Hoffman is joined by a stellar supporting cast, including Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, and Rachel McAdams. The film’s director, Anton Corbijn, made the stylish, moody thriller The American a few years ago, so we have reason to believe this will be just as captivating. The movie has the potential to be as thrilling as any big-budget action movie, but 10 times as smart. (Opens July 25)

Magic in the Moonlight

Photo: Jack English/© 2014 Gravier Productions, Inc

Woody Allen heads to the south of France in his latest, about a 1920s master magician (Colin Firth) traveling to the Cote d’Azur to debunk a psychic (Emma Stone) whom he suspects of bilking a wealthy family out of its money. This is mostly a fizzy romantic comedy, but Allen also spends some time chewing over heavy existential questions about faith and reason. While seeing Firth and Stone as a romantic duo might stir up some uncomfortable associations with Allen’s personal issues, if you’re a fan of his movies and like your summery screwball with a side of philosophy, this just might do the trick. (Opens July 25)

Rich Hill

Photo: Andrew Droz Palermo

A Sundance sensation that won that festival’s Grand Jury prize for documentaries, Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos’s film follows three boys living in poverty in the rural Midwest, an economic and social stratum not often seen on film. We haven’t had a chance to watch the film yet, but man oh man is that trailer beautiful. The film looks to be a mix of dispiriting and uplifting, in the same vein as other great documentaries of its ilk, like the sublime Hoop Dreams and Country Boys. Maybe see this one by yourself some humid night and then go for a long drive to give yourself time to think. (Opens August 1)

The Trip to Italy

Photo: Ciro Meggiolaro/Courtesy of Sundance Institute

A followup to 2010’s series-turned-movie The Trip, this rambling, melancholy, improvisatory comedy finds Steve Coogan and his frenemy Rob Brydon traveling around sun-soaked Italy as they enjoy fine food, tour beautiful hotels, and chatter away the hours. Like the first film, Italy features lots of prickly humor and fair-to-perfect celebrity impressions from these two mordant, bone-dry wits. But this sequel teases out the first film’s arresting strain of despondency and uses it to create something delicately searching, even deep. You’ll swoon at the gorgeous Amalfi Coast vistas, but the film’s subtle ruminations on the compromises and disappointments of aging will send you out of the theater in a pleasantly ponderous mood. (Opens August 15)

The Congress

Photo: Courtesy of BFI London Film Festival

This might be the nuttiest movie to come out all year. From Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman, The Congress is a hybrid of live action and animation, telling the story of Robin Wright, the actual Robin Wright playing herself, selling the rights to her likeness to a studio. After that, weird stuff happens and the movie enters what looks to be the realm of dreamy fantasy. (This is another one we haven’t seen yet, but will definitely be reviewing later this month.) Without outright encouraging illegal behavior (depending on what state you live in) this might be a movie you’ll want to watch after partaking of a certain plant and getting yourself a Big Gulp and a whole bunch of snacks. What better way to spend a summer afternoon than blissed out with Robin Wright? (Available on iTunes July 15, in theaters August 29)