In recent years, “blockbuster fatigue” has gone from a rumored social phenomenon into a diagnosable medical condition. As summer blockbusters have gotten bigger and bigger, certain audience members – longing for any film without scenes of superbeings firing CGI at one another – have begun to more and more passionately seek out the occasional salve. And while Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetary of Splendour might carry you a month or two, a regular injection of daring cinematic art is perhaps more effective.
Luckily, daring things are happening all the time in the world of indie film, and the Summer of 2016 has seen the glorious return of some notable arthouse directors, and the debuts of certain auteurs to look out for. Thrills and spills and chases and escapes are all well and good, but occasionally, these people will provide us with angst, abstract terror, misery, antisocial behavior, period romance, and characters who are at risk of turning into lobsters. This is why we go to the movies.
Also: The 12 Must-See Mainstream Films of Summer 2016
If you live in L.A. or New York, you will likely have ready access to the cinemas playing the following 11 films. If not, then you have something to seek out through home video or streaming services in the post-summer season. Either way, you are henceforth offered that most valuable of cinematic resources: variety.
The 11 Must-See Indie Films of Summer 2016
Top Photo: Amazon Studios
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
The 10 Must-See Indie Films of Summer 2016
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High-Rise (May 13)
Based on the wicked satire by J.G. Ballard, this grown-up version of Lord of the Flies is a bleak vision of a hyper-posh apartment that robs its tenants of their humanity. Tom Hiddleston plays a doctor who tries to keep an objectove view, but who devolves with everyone else.
Photo: StudioCanal
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The Lobster (May 13)
One of the most out-there premises of the year comes from Yorgos Lanthimons, the director of Dogtooth. In The Lobster, boring English people are rounded up and imprisoned in a dull hotel. If they don't find a lifemate in 40 days, they're transformed into an animal of their choice.
Photo: A24
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Maggie's Plan (May 20)
Greta Gerwig stars as an ambitious, if callow, young woman who plots to steal a married man (Ethan Hawke) away from his demanding wife (Julianne Moore). When it works, and she grows bored, she plots to reunite them. Oh yes, and it's a comedy.
Photo: Sony Pictures Classics
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The Final Master (June 3)
Giant epic Chinese kung-fu films are always welcome to American cinemas. This one was directed by Haofeng Xu, the screenwriter behind Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster.
Photo: United Entertainment Partners
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Swiss Army Man (June 17)
Paul Dano plays a man who is stranded on a deserted island. Daniel Radcliffe "plays" the dead man he is stranded with. Using a good deal of know-how, Dano manages to survive using his dead companion as the source of all his tools and resources. For the strong of stomach.
Photo: A24
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The Neon Demon (June 24th)
Nicolas Winding Refn is a spotty but fascinating director, and perhaps one of the more forcefully stylized of his generation. The Neon Demon is his horror opus about a young model (Elle Fanning) who falls in with a cult of beauty-devouring elders. Awesome? Yes. It sounds awesome.
Photo: Amazon Studios
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Wiener-Dog (June 24th)
Todd Solondz is once again spreading his particular brand of suburban misery in Wiener-Dog, the story of a dog witnessing American angst up close. The film is named after, and features, Heather Matarazzo's character from Solondz' 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse.
Photo: IFC Films
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Tulip Fever (July 15th)
Christoph Waltz stars as a painter in 17th-century Holland - right at the height of the nation-altering tulip craze - who falls in love with a married woman (Alicia Vikander). We are promised plush costumes and awesome period detail.
Photo: The Weinstein Company
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Café Society (July 15th)
Woody Allen has slowed in recent years. That is to say, he only makes one film per year instead of two. His 2016 entry is Café Society, a romance set in the 1930s. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star.
Photo: Lionsgate
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Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (July 22nd)
For the uninitiated: Absolutely Fabulous was a cult British TV series that started in 1992, and has been fitfully resurrected here and there ever since. Patsy and Edina (Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders) are a pair of drunken, horny jerks who get into misadventures. Welcome back, gals. You never really left.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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Yoga Hosers (July 29th)
Kevin Smith bounces back from Tusk with this spinoff about two Canadian teen clerks (Lily-Rose Melody Depp and Harley Quinn Smith) seen briefly in an early scene. Weird? Perhaps. A return to form for Smith? Let's hope so.
Photo: Invincible Pictures
