A couple of indie films worth checking out

There are a couple of independent films out there that are in limited release and worth checking out according to film critics out there.

The first is my own recommendation: In Bruges. You can read my glowing review right here, but if you can still find it around, it’s one of the best and funniest films of the year so far. I liked Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but if I had a choice, I’d see In Bruges a second time.

The next two indie film highlights come from Richard Roeper and his guest host Michael Phillips, but also from a ton of other critics. In fact, both are ranked above 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The first is The Visitor (92%), which stars Richard Jenkins as an economics professor who has lost all passion for life. When he returns to Manhattan after a long time away, he finds a couple who have taken up resident in his apartment: One is a Syrian man named Tarek, and the other is his Senegalese girlfriend called Zainab.

Trouble finds the couple as Tarek is arrested by police and held for deportation. Jenkins’ character, Walter Vale, who has befriended the couple, finds his passion when he tries to help them both.

Here is the trailer:

The last movie worth checking out is Young @ Heart (87%), a film that I was going to try and see at the Phoenix Film Festival earlier this month, but just found no time to do so. This is a documentary about a New England senior citizen chorus group that have charmed the pants off people around the world.

They do covers of songs from The Clash to Coldplay, and even Roeper said that their version of Fix You is probably more inspiring than Coldplays’.

It looks like a warm-hearted, inspiring film with a ton of laughs, and perhaps some tears.

Here is the trailer:

Usually checking out these little indie films takes a bit more work than just running down to your nearby theater. Likely there are only one or two cinemas that play independent and art films in your town and they may not even have that many screens.

But it’s worth it once and a while to make a little adventure to one of these places. We discovered Once last year because of word-of-mouth and Camelview 5 up in Scottsdale.

In fact, all three of these films are there right now. And in places other than Phoenix, I’m sure they are available somewhere.