Have an awards-season hangover? Well, grab the Pedialyte and whip up a big plate of scrambled eggs and sausage, because even though the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards (not to mention that other show where people occasionally get slapped) are over—check out our recap and video highlights on YouTube if you missed it—doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of bold new Don’t-Miss Indies to feed our collective cinematic appetites.

 

MY HAPPY ENDING

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Directors: Sharon Maymo, Tal Granit

Cast: Andie MacDowell, Miriam Margolyes, Sally Phillips, Rakhee Thakrar, Tamsin Greg, David Walliams

Why We’re Excited: Based on the play Sof Tov by the late Israeli playwright Anat Gov, this UK-Israel co-produced dramedy stars Andie MacDowell (a 1990 Spirit Award winner for Sex, Lies, and Videotape) as Julia, a once-famous American actress in the last act of her career, who finds herself in a British hospital after a surprise late-stage cancer diagnosis. In her chemotherapy group, she meets three women: Holocaust survivor Judy (Margolyes), relentless optimist Mikey (Phillips) and a young Muslim mother, Imaan (Thakrar). Together, they help each other on the long but rewarding trek to healing and recovery.

 

 

UNSEEN

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters, VOD

Director: Yoko Okumura

Cast: Midori Francis, Jolene Purdy, Missi Pyle, Michael Patrick Lane

Why We’re Excited: Shot primarily in New Orleans, this Blumhouse horror-thriller follows a nearly blind Japanese-American woman, Emily (Francis), who is on the run from her murderous ex-boyfriend Charlie (Lane). In the chaos, she manages to reach depressed gas station clerk Sam (Purdy) on a random video call. If Emily has any chance of surviving this ordeal, Sam must become her eyes from afar to guide her out of her precarious predicament. Clocking in at only 76 minutes, the film marks Okumura’s feature debut. After the film’s theatrical debut, the film will also be available to watch on streamer MGM+ (formerly Epix).

 

 

CHAMPIONS

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Bobby Farrelly

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens, Matt Cook, Joshua Felder

Why We’re Excited: Washed-up and mercurial minor league basketball coach Marcus (Harrelson, a Spirit Award winner for 2010’s The Messenger) has suddenly found himself in a legal bind. His only way out? To coach a basketball team made up of players with intellectual disabilities. Directed by Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Shallow Hal), this underdog sports dramedy is a remake of the 2018 Spanish-language film Campeones—which itself was inspired by the true story of Valencian Special Olympics team Aderes. Farrelly’s reimagining picks up after Marcus plows his vehicle into a parked police car while heavily inebriated. Forced to choose between 18 months in jail or serving 90 days of community service in the form of coaching the Friends, an Iowan basketball team with special needs, he reluctantly opts for the latter.

 

 

PUNCH

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited)

Director: Welby Ings

Cast: Tim Roth, Jordan Oosterhof, Conan Hayes, Abigail Laurent

Why We’re Excited: New Zealand writer-director Ings’ feature debut is an Auckland-shot drama filmed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a 17-year-old boxer in a small town, Jim (Oosterhof) is hard at work training to prepare for an upcoming fight, one that he hopes will propel him to professional status. His father and coach Stan—played by three-time Spirit Award nominee Tim Roth (Chronic, The Hateful Eight, Pulp Fiction)—is the butt of jokes as the town drunk, and is desperate for his son to find a way out of the brutal realities of their small provincial world. But everything changes when Jim crosses paths with a young gay man, Whetu (Hayes), who challenges the goals he has set for himself.

 

 

INSIDE

When You Can Watch: March 17

Where You Can Watch: Theaters, Fi Presents

Director: Vasilis Katsoupis

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck

Why We’re Excited: Two-time Spirit Award winner Willem Dafoe—The Lighthouse, Shadow of the Vampire—plays high-end art thief Nemo in Greek writer-director Katsoupis’ feature directorial debut. After breaking into a Manhattan penthouse belonging to an art collector to steal some portraits, Nemo is trapped inside the heavily fortified residence when the security system malfunctions, separating him from his cohort outside. Premiering last month at the Berlin Film Festival, the claustrophobic psychological thriller has Dafoe onscreen all by his lonesome for almost the entire film (save for a couple of brief dream sequences) as he descends into madness in an increasingly futile attempt to escape. Film Independent Members can sign up for a members-only screening of the film happening tonight, March 13, at the Harmony Gold in Los Angeles.

 

 

ALL THE WORLD IS SLEEPING

When You Can Watch: March 17

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited)

Director: Ryan Lacen

Cast: Melissa Barrera, Jackie Cruz, Kristen Gutoskie, Luis Bordonada, Valentina Herrera

Why We’re Excited: Writer-director Lacen’s sophmore feature is an incisive addiction drama based on the experiences of seven different real-life women. Through the nonprofit Bold Futures, the women collaborated with the filmmakers through every stage of the project, from script to screen. The film takes a harrowing look at how generations of the same family can become mired in the cycle of addiction. As a child of an addict, Chama (Barrera) once vowed to steer clear of her mother’s path. But now, she finds herself spiraling down in a familiar pattern, as she fights hard to raise her own daughter. But when she loses custody of the child after an accident resulting from her disease, Chama has no choice but to fight to win back her family.

 

 

A GOOD PERSON

When You Can Watch: March 24

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Zach Braff

Cast: Florence Pugh, Molly Shannon, Chinaza Uche, Celeste O’Connor, Morgan Freeman

Why We’re Excited: A Spirit Award winner for his directorial debut Garden State, writer-director Zach Braff’s latest feature outing is his first since 2017’s Going in Style. Since then, the actor and filmmaker has personally overcome much grief and heartache in the form of losing his father, his sister and two friends, experiences which all have informed this upcoming drama. After a fatal accident that takes the life of her future sister-in-law, Allison (Pugh) spirals into the messy vortex of prescription drugs and alcohol to numb her pain. Healing comes in unexpected ways; for her, when she runs into her would-be-father-in-law Daniel (Spirit Award winner Freeman), who is likewise grief-stricken despite steeling himself for the responsibility of raising his orphaned granddaughter post-tragedy.

 

 

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

When You Can Watch: March 24

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Chad Stahelski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane

Why We’re Excited: After four long years, everyone’s favorite puppy-loving quasi-mythical assassin is finally back for another installment of director Stahelski’s signature brand of fluid, intense, adrenaline-pumping and ass-kicking action cinema. Along with the titular Wick (Reeves), former boss Winston (McShane)—who seemingly betrayed Wick at the end of the last film—and long-time ally The Bowery King (Spirit Awards nominee alum Fishburne) are also back. This time, the three contract-killer cohorts will do whatever it takes to help Wick gain freedom from the criminal underworld’s most powerful organization, The High Table. In this globe-trotting saga, Wick takes his fight to the council of 12 crime lords, from New York to Paris, Osaka and Berlin, as the bounty on his head continues to rise.

 

 

SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING

When You Can Watch: March 31

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited)

Director: Quentin Dupieux

Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Oulaya Amamra, Benoît Poelvoorde

Why We’re Excited: The Members of a superhero squad made up of cigarette ingredients known as the “Tobacco Force”—Benzene (Lellouche), Mercury (Zadi), Nicotine (Demoustier), Methanol (Lacoste) and Ammonia (Amamra)—are at a week-long retreat to strengthen their team chemistry after losing a most recent battle to a giant foam turtle. The “Emperor of Evil” Lézardin descends to Earth to destroy the planet. Can Tabacco Force get it together to save the planet? Premiering last year at the Cannes Film Festival’s Midnight Screening section, the French language parody by writer-director-editor Dupiex is distributed by Magnolia, following their release of his two previous films, Mandibles and Deerskin.

*PROGRAMMER’S PICK* PALM TREES AND POWER LINES

When You Can Watch: March 3

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited)

Director: Jamie Dack

Cast: Lily McInerny, Jonathan Tucker, Gretchen Mol, Emily Jackson

Why We’re Excited: From Jenn Wilson, Film Independent Senior Programmer: “A 2023 Spirit Awards nominee for both Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay, Jamie Dack’s feature debut Palm Trees and Power Lines tells the powerful and painful story of a teenager’s seduction into the sex trafficking industry. Seventeen-year-old Lea (Lily McInerny) is enduring a boring summer with her barely-present mother and thoroughly uninteresting friends, when a handsome older stranger named Tom (Jonathan Tucker) catches her eye at a diner. Suddenly the awkward quickie back-seat hookups that Lea is used to with high school boys are replaced by Tom, who actually takes her out on dates, takes an interest in her life and genuinely listens to her. But slowly, Tom’s true intentions for Lea start to reveal themselves to her… and to us. But even after the shock of the brutal truth hits Lea, will she have the strength to break away from the mental grooming (which Tom tells her is ‘care’) when she doesn’t know or receive any real care from the friends and family in her life? Kudos go to Jamie Dack on this bold debut feature and on her decision to cast Jonathan Tucker as the pimp, Tom. His performance leaves no guess as to how young people can become so easily entangled in the spider’s web of sex work.”

 

 

KEY

Film Independent Fellow or Member

Film Independent Presents Screening, Q&A

Microbudget

Filmmaker or Lead Characters of Color

Film Independent Spirit Award Winner or Nominee

Female Filmmaker

LGBT Filmmaker or Lead LGBT Characters

First-time Filmmaker

 

(Header: Palm Trees and Power Lines)