The math of contemporary cinema is broken. A blockbuster costs $200-300 million to make. The result is usually a 2-hour assembly of explosions, IP exploitation, and dialogue that sounds like a marketing pitch. Meanwhile, indie directors are making films for $500K that are actually about something.
Here are 7 indies worth your weekend. None over $30 million budgets. All better than most of what costs ten times more.
1. The Worst Person in the World (2021, Joachim Trier)
Budget: About $4 million.
What it is: A Norwegian film about a woman in her late 20s navigating relationships, career, and the question of who she wants to be. Sounds boring. Is actually riveting.
Why it is great: The script is impossibly good. The lead performance (Renate Reinsve) is one of the best of the decade. The film respects your intelligence in a way Marvel films forgot how to do.
Verdict: Buy or stream it. One of the films that genuinely justifies "must-see."
2. Aftersun (2022, Charlotte Wells)
Budget: About $4 million.
What it is: A father-daughter holiday in Turkey, told through the daughter's memory years later. Quiet. Devastating.
Why it is great: First-time director making a complete masterpiece. Paul Mescal performance you will remember for years. The final scene is one of the most quietly powerful endings in recent cinema.
Verdict: Watch it on the biggest screen you can find. Have something happy planned for after.
3. Past Lives (2023, Celine Song)
Budget: About $12 million.
What it is: Two childhood friends from Korea, separated by emigration, reconnected as adults. About immigration, identity, the lives we did not live.
Why it is great: Most romantic films are silly. This one is genuinely about love in ways most romantic films cannot manage. The script is precise. The performances are restrained.
Verdict: Watch it. Then think about it for a week.
4. Drive My Car (2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Budget: About $1.5 million.
What it is: A widowed actor-director rehearses Chekhov in Hiroshima with a young female driver. Three hours long. Sounds like nothing. Is actually everything.
Why it is great: Patient direction that earns its runtime. Extraordinary script. Won Best International Feature Oscar but is much better than that label suggests.
Verdict: Long but worth it. Plan a weekend evening with no other commitments.
5. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, Martin McDonagh)
Budget: About $20 million.
What it is: Two friends on a remote Irish island. One decides he no longer wants to be friends with the other. It escalates.
Why it is great: Funny, sad, brutal in equal measure. McDonagh script (he also did In Bruges). Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson at the top of their game.
Verdict: Best film about male friendship in years.
6. Petite Maman (2021, Céline Sciamma)
Budget: About $5 million.
What it is: An 8-year-old girl, after her grandmother's death, befriends a child in the woods who is somehow her own mother as a child. Magic realism done with restraint.
Why it is great: Sciamma is one of the best directors working. Total runtime: 72 minutes. Maximum impact for minimum runtime.
Verdict: Watch it in one sitting. Easy weeknight option.
7. Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet)
Budget: About $7 million.
What it is: A novelist is suspected of murdering her husband. Most of the film is the trial. Director Justine Triet won the Cannes Palme d'Or.
Why it is great: The lead performance (Sandra Hüller) is extraordinary. The script raises serious questions about truth, marriage, and how stories get constructed. The trial structure works.
Verdict: Two and a half hours that earn their length.
What this list demonstrates
Total budget for all 7 films: roughly $54 million. About a quarter of one Marvel movie's budget.
Total cumulative quality: way higher than any 7 Marvel films. Way higher than most 7 American studio releases of any year.
The math just is not close. Indie directors are doing the actually interesting cinematic work right now. The big-budget Hollywood film as an artistic format is in a particularly weak period.
Where to find more
If you want to keep up with indie cinema:
- MUBI: Curated selection of indie and international films. About $12/month. Worth it.
- Criterion Channel: Classic and arthouse cinema. About $11/month. Different focus than MUBI.
- Festival circuits: Sundance, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto. The films that win awards at these festivals are usually worth seeking out.
- Independent cinema chains: Look for IFC, Landmark, or local independent theaters in your city.
- The Film Stage / Indiewire: Trade press that covers indie cinema seriously.
What to skip
Some indie films that get hyped that are not worth the time:
- Most "Sundance films" with celebrity casts. The combination usually signals safe choices over interesting ones.
- Films with one-line marketing concepts. "It's like X meets Y" usually indicates the film is mostly its concept.
- Films with the most generic indie aesthetic. Twee scoring, quirky characters, predictable third-act revelation. The format has been done.
- Most films "about a writer struggling to write." Almost always self-indulgent and not what audiences want.
The takeaway
Total cost to watch the 7 films above: maybe $20-40 (rentals or one streaming subscription).
Total hours of substantive cinema: about 14 hours.
Total cost of one weekend's blockbuster output: $30+ for a movie ticket and snacks, 2 hours of usually-disappointing entertainment.
The math favors indies. The quality favors indies. The time investment favors indies. Skip the next blockbuster you were vaguely planning to see. Watch one of these instead. You will have a better weekend.
