Top New & Upcoming Indie Films

Written and directed by respected film critic and programmer Kent Jones, DIANE – Jones’ first narrative feature film – features an acclaimed performance by Mary Kay Place and the best critical response for any American narrative film released in 2019 thus far.

Place plays the titular character Diane – a woman who spends her days helping others, partly as an attempt to avoid working on herself. IndieWire writes, “It’s a pinhole portrait of life on Earth; a non-judgmental story about trying to reconcile meaning with meaningless before the well runs dry and it rains again.”

The film won three prizes when it premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, has a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and continues to receive praise from critics, including the New York Times who wrote, “DIANE amounts to an act of cinematic bravery, not just in its choice of tough-sell material, but in the patience with which Jones tends it.” Admiration for Place specifically continues to grow with some reviewers, like Rolling Stone saying she "delivers one of the year's best performances." 

For his first movie since 2012’s SPRING BREAKERS, writer-director Harmony Korine chose an easy-going tale of a South Florida poet named Moondog – played by Matthew McConaughey. The AP wrote of McConaughey’s performance saying, “In some ways it’s the part he was born to play…. McConaughey gives and bares (nearly) all for this film.” The supporting cast includes Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg, Martin Lawrence, Zac Efron and Jimmy Buffett.

The New York Times wrote the movie, “has an infectiously shambling, loosey-goosey vibe… There’s something haunting, and quietly lacerating, about McConaughey’s portrait of a man who has effectively anesthetized himself to pain, who has made the pleasure principle an all-consuming philosophy.” Time wrote about the film’s light-hearted character saying, “THE BEACH BUM is barely a movie; it’s more of a joyous squiggle adorned with a paper cocktail umbrella, a ‘What did I just see?’ dollar-store trinket. But in these dark times, it’s just the ticket.”

Based on the true story of the 2008 Mumbai attack, thriller film HOTEL MUMBAI focuses widely on the human toll and tragedy accrued by any terrorist action. Oscar-nominee Dev Patel and Armie Hammer lead the ensemble cast to tell the story of how people banded together to survive the days-long attack.

The Chicago-Sun Times, in their review of the intense thriller, wrote the film is, an impressively staged, unfiltered, sometimes shockingly visceral film with stellar performances from the top-tier cast…. HOTEL MUMBAI is a chilling and valuable reminder of acts of madness, and acts of heroism, that should never be forgotten.”

Starring Julianne Moore as the titular character, GLORIA BELL is the story of a free-spirited divorced woman with a zest for life. When Gloria unexpectedly finds love while dancing at a club (with a character played by John Turturro), she experiences the complexities of dating and relationships after marriage and kids.

With a 93 percent Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, the movie is being praised for its “very real” depiction of romance and the challenges of being a 50-something woman in youth-oriented society. AV Club writes, “Extraordinary in its ordinariness, it's an empathetic portrait of a life that women around the world are living every day but rarely get to see on screen."

But it seems the film wouldn’t be the success it is without Moore’s performance as the exuberant Gloria. Entertainment Weekly wrote, “Moore – vulnerable but undauntable – lives every moment in her skin, fantastic to the last glorious frame."

Check out these film in theaters, and available from Swank soon.