Is your taste in movies a little alternative, and a little less mainstream? Not everyone wants to see a big blockbuster with loud sound effects and billion-dollar budgets. If you love a good independent film, you’re not alone. Some of the best movies in the last few years are not only indie films, they’re female led!
Looking for your next new favorite film? Try one, two, or all five of these!
#1 Kajillionaire
Are you a fan of Evan Rachel Wood? Who isn’t! This film is considered some of her best work as an actor. Kajillionaire, both written and directed by Miranda July, is a film focused on a family that’s deep into petty crime. The story follows the adult daughter of manipulative con-artist parents, as they recruit a new accomplice to their swindling ways.
#2 Promising Young Woman
The protagonist of the film, Cassie (Carey Mulligan), acts as a femme fatale whose mission it is to get revenge on predatory men. Writer and director Emerald Fennell created this film to capture the social contradictions we regularly see in sexual assault cases, especially when it comes to victim-blaming. Promising Young Woman is empowering, not demoralizing.
#3 Time
Love true crime stories? Love black and white films? Love female-led movies? Time is the movie for you. This film follows the efforts of Sibil Fox Richardson as she fights against the 60-year prison sentence of her husband, Rob. Many reviewers call it a much-needed wake-up call regarding America’s prison industrial complex.
#4 Mangrove
A good courtroom drama never goes out of style, and Mangrove is incredibly timely. Based on the true story of the Mangrove Nine, the independent film follows the uncovering of unbelievable British police racism in 1970. Mangrove centers around the owner of the Mangrove restaurant and the leader of the British Black Panther Party, Altheia Jones-LeCointe (Letitia Wright), as their community relies on the Mangrove restaurant to protest racism and police brutality. In the film and in real life, their protest against the police is wrongly construed in the media as a riot. Sound familiar? A trial of nine high-visibility participants arises, and the film follows their trial.
#5 Annihilation
If you’re looking for a movie where women are weak, timid, and mild- look elsewhere. These women are nothing short of fierce! The basic premise of the movie centers around a team of four highly skilled female scientists, led by a possibly duplicitous mission commander. They venture deep into the heart of a mysterious supernatural zone along the northern coastline of Florida known only as “The Shimmer.” None of the previous expeditions have returned the same way they left, either not returning at all or returning differently and oddly-behaving. The expedition’s biologist is played by Natalie Portman. This film is heavily influenced by the metaphysical horror of H.P. Lovecraft, and culminates in a grand psychedelic climax that’s something you won’t soon forget.
Be sure to visit angelikafilmcenter.com to see which movies are playing on the big screen right now.