While there were plenty of large Summer blockbusters to preview this week, they all seemed to fall short on originality and just show us the same overdone action styles that have become popular over the past few years (Conan the Barbarian).  Instead, I thought it was the perfect time to do a spotlight on some of the more obscure independent films coming up, right in the middle of this year’s Sundance hits finding distributers and buzz beginning to form around the film showing at Cannes.

This week we have two breakout hits from Sundance, one disturbing foreign thriller premiering at Cannes, and a documentary that is food for your soul.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Click to see the trailer

Yes!  There is a third Olsen sister and she can act!  While this is only Elizabeth Olsen’s second feature since appearing that in Mary-Kate & Ashley videos as a kid, this film could definitely be a break-out role for her.

The other performance to watch in this trailer is from John Hawkes, an underrated but diverse actor that always delivers solid work in some great projects.  You may know him from his comedic role on HBO’s Eastbound and Down, or from his Oscar nominated role as Teardrop in Winter’s Bone last year.  This lesser-known cast could be set to become of the strongest ensemble performances of the year.

This film is going to be a hard one to miss, combining strong storytelling with powerful performances.  LA Weekly describes the film as “a triller that shifts nearly imperceptibly between dream, memory, and reality.”  The subtle psychological element of this trailer is sure to make for an intriguing film.

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This week’s Christmas war pick is the 1992 release of Keith Gordon’s A Midnight Clear which was adapted from the novel by William Wharton. The film stars Ethan Hawke (Sgt. Will Knott), Peter Berg (Pvt. Bud Miller), Kevin Dillon (Cpl. Mel Avakian), Arye Gross (Pvt. Stan Shutzer), Gary Sinise (Pvt. Vance ‘Mother’ Wilkins), Frank Whaley (Pvt. Paul ‘Father’ Mundy), Larry Joshua (Lt. Ware), and John C. McGinley (Maj. Griffin).

The film tells the story of  a six man U.S. Army intelligence squad which is hand picked by their regimental commander (Griffin) to scout out an old French chateau in the Ardennes forest in December of 1944 which may house forward German patrols who are trying to push through a gap on their way towards Bastogne, Belgium. Sgt. Knott (Hawke) and his men are at the breaking point fighting the war and try very hard to disassociate themselves from the normal chain of command.

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It’s not very often that you see the words “Muslim” and “Punk Rock” in the same sentence, but the tagline for the upcoming film The Taqwacores is, “Punk. Muslim. American.”

Directed by Eyad Zahra, The Taqwacores played at South by Southwest and Sundance film festivals.  Now Strand Releasing will be rolling out a slow limited release of the film starting on Friday, October 22 in New York, followed by California on November 12.

Synoposis: Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student, moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York.  His new “unorthodox” housemates soon introduce him to Taqwacore – a hardcore, Muslim punk rock scene that only exists on the West Coast.

The film is based on a book by Michael Muhammad Knight, who co-wrote the movie.  Originally the novel was handed out for free in parking lots, but it has since been published in the US, France, England and Italy. The novel is said to have inspired a real life birth of Muslim Punk Rock in the United States.

Want to know what Muslim Punk Rock sounds like?  Check out the album on iTunes.  The film stars Bobby Naderi, Noureen Dewulf, and Dominic Rains.

You can watch the intriguing trailer after the jump.

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There are plenty of genre films flooding Hollywood today. What was once a niche market has now become quite a popular section of the box office on a week-to-week basis. With remakes, reboots, and sequels taking over, it’s nice to see a truly original film sneak by and surprise us all.

Catfish first popped up during the Sundance Film Festival, surprising nearly everyone in attendance, and confusing the rest. At that time, the film was declared “ready to blow away the public” but now we’re finally getting our first trailer for the film.

We don’t want to give too much away, but the title doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the film itself, so we’ll let the synopsis do the heavy lifting.

In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

Interest piqued? Well, check out the trailer after the jump, and make sure to sit through the first half so that you get to the good stuff. Catfish hits theaters on September 17th.

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Welcome to the second part of my look at the duplicity that is the Hollywood we know and love (or love to hate in some cases).   Yesterday I delved into the mainstream films, such as Transformers, which get little to no recognition by the Academy.  These are movies that represent the very monetary foundation of which Hollywood is built.

Today I’m going to slide the other way and talk about the performance side of Hollywood.  Films with limited budgets, little to no marketing and have to fight tooth-and-nail in some instances for distribution as well as theater screens.  They are the darlings of Hollywood, praised for often dramatic portrayal of characters and deeply emotional stories.  Yet, even with all the attention they receive when nominated for an Oscar, only a select group of viewers end up seeing these films.

In contrast to their mainstream counterparts, performance films have always been the underdog.  It starts from the very point the script is completed all the way to getting onto the screen.  It’s the latter which ultimately proves the most critical because without theaters to show it, what good is a movie?

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It’s debatable, but many say that John C Reilly is one of the funniest working actors today. His range from such films as Chicago and Magnolia to Step Brothers or his recurring role as Dr. Steve Brule on Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! proves that the man has the chops to pull off just about any role — as long as that role can be a middle-aged man with curly hair.

He’s now taking on something else humorous, with a bit of a darker tone: the Duplass Brothers’ Cyrus. The film is about a rundown guy who meets and falls for an attractive older woman, played by the new indie queen Marisa Tomei. Things are going well until he finds that she’s got a 30 year old son, played by Jonah Hill.

The synopsis reads like a different take on Step Brothers, but after watching the trailer, you can be assured that this film actually has a script, rather than Ferrell and Reilly riffing off of each other for 90 minutes. It also sounds a bit like science fiction, if we are to believe that Marisa Tomei birthed Jonah Hill, but we can suspend disbelief for this one.

The film is currently screening at Sundance and turning quite a lot of heads. Check out the official trailer after the jump, and we’ll be sure to have more on a release date and distributor as they happen.

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