146 Best Independent Dramas Movies to Watch On Itunes (Page 7)

Before anything else, Utama will knock you off your feet with its breathtaking beauty. Set in the Bolivian highlands, it captures the arid landscape both in gorgeous wide shots and in unique detail. Then, after you take it all in and remember the vastness of the world and the smallness of humanity, the film ushers you into the lives of Virginio and Sisa, an elderly couple who get by with llama grazing. 

Theirs is a small but peaceful life, but it is endangered when a drought in the area makes it harder for everyone—especially a sickly Virginio—to live. Underlying conflicts start to emerge, such as old vs. new and country vs. city, when everyone but Virginio considers leaving the mountains. It's a simple story told at a purposefully slow pace, but it's one worth viewing for the tender performances, the urgent themes, and of course, the stunning cinematography.

Genre: Drama

Director: Alejandro Loayza Grisi

Genre: Drama

Actor: Alex Manette, Amy Hargreaves, Anna Rose Hopkins, Calamity Chang, Carey Mulligan, Carl Low, Charisse Bellante, Chazz Menendez, Deedee Luxe, Elizabeth Masucci, Hannah Ware, Jake Siciliano, James Badge Dale, Loren Omer, Lucy Walters, Mari-Ange Ramirez, Marta Milans, Michael Fassbender, Nicole Beharie, Rachel Farrar, Robert Montano

Director: Steve McQueen

Rating: NC-17

Based on the documentary short she helmed with actor Taylor Russell, Savannah Leaf’s Earth Mama is an intimate, unabashedly political, and decisively non-judgmental look at one mother’s determined attempts to regain custody of her two children. Gia (Tia Nomore) is struggling to work enough hours at her part-time photo studio job to pay for the home she needs before she can be reunited with her kids — struggling because the state also requires her to attend classes on topics like addiction recovery, which are eating into her time. What’s more, Gia is also heavily pregnant, and her looming due date sets a clock ticking on her efforts to satisfy her caseworker and decide what’s best for her new baby. 

There’s a depressingly cyclical nature to all this heartbreak, as testified to by the real people who sometimes pierce the drama to share their own experiences of the system Gia is navigating. Their contributions — along with Nomore’s lived-in performance and Leaf’s assured touch — deepen the urgency and emotion of the movie, which is as much a commentary on the dehumanizing bureaucracy of the social care system as it is Gia’s own particular story.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Autumn Mirassou, Bokeem Woodbine, Ca'Ron Jaden Coleman, Doechii, Dominic Fike, Erika Alexander, Frank Scozzari, JF Davis, Keta Price, Olivia Luccardi, Sharon Duncan Brewster, Slim Yani

Director: Savanah Leaf

When Mikey Saber’s porn career takes a dip in California, he returns to an estranged wife in Texas, where he meets new and old friends alike and attempts to rebuild his life through a couple of odd jobs. Though Mikey eventually earns his keep, his vanity and eagerness to succeed at all costs threaten to get the best of him.

All this happens against a vibrant backdrop of local sights, beautifully lit and framed by director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine). Quaint, naturalistic, and ever-so-subtly political, Red Rocket is another great entry into Baker’s impressions of the vexed American Dream.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Bree Elrod, Ethan Darbone, Karren Karagulian, Shih-Ching Tsou, Simon Rex, Suzanna Son

Director: Sean Baker

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Actor: Aldis Hodge, Camila Morrone, Hans Christopher, Joe Keery, Ozioma Akagha, Susan Brava, Wayne Duvall

Director: Keir O'Donnell

Cloudburst is the very funny and heartwarming story of two old ladies, Stella (played by Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis) and Dotty (played by another Academy Award winner, Brenda Fricker) who escape their nursing home and drive to Nova Scotia, Canada to get married. Along the way, they meet Prentice, a hitchhiker on his way home to Nova Scotia as well. Cloudburst is the story of their road trip. Dotty is lascivious and loving. Expect to be shocked by Stella's potty mouth. The whole film is a great love story about devotion, acceptance and living life to the fullest.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Brenda Fricker, Jeremy Akerman, John Dunsworth, Juanita Peters, Kevin Kincaid, Kristin Booth, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Michael McPhee, Olympia Dukakis, Randy Boliver, Ryan Doucette, Trina Corkum

Director: Thom Fitzgerald

Rating: Unrated

This is one of those movies people should watch without any prior knowledge. But if you must, it's about a small town priest (Brendan Gleeson) who is threatened with horrible events by a mysterious member of his perish. Dealing with the threat, the priest is also faced with both the various and never ending problems of his church as well as issues with his own family. Excruciatingly beautiful and extremely well-written.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Aidan Gillen, Anabel Sweeney, Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, David McSavage, David Wilmot, Declan Conlon, Domhnall Gleeson, Dylan Moran, Gary Lydon, Isaach De Bankolé, Isaach De Bankolé, Kelly Reilly, Killian Scott, M. Emmet Walsh, Marie-Josée Croze, Marie-Josée Croze, Mark O'Halloran, Mícheál Óg Lane, Orla O'Rourke, Owen Sharpe, Pat Shortt

Director: John Michael McDonagh

Rating: R

Time travelling movies tend to be flashy with its sci-fi wonder, but Aporia takes a more grounded approach to the time altering genre. Instead of time travelling, the protagonists have a mundane, almost lo-fi machine, that almost seems disappointing, but is no less life-altering. Of course, to the grieving Sophie, who lost her husband, it’s easy to understand why she would take the chance to get her husband back again. But the film takes a grounded and realistic approach as Sophie spirals into an unrelenting series of regret and trolley problems, each time she chooses to use the machine. While the pacing may be a tad slow, and the events can feel a bit mundane, Aporia is a startlingly poignant reminder of how each ordinary moment, if changed, can be completely life altering.

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction

Actor: Edi Gathegi, Faithe Herman, Judy Greer, Payman Maadi, Whitney Morgan Cox

Director: Jared Moshé

Rating: R

War Pony is not easy to get through. The film, helmed by first-time directors Riley Kough and Gina Gammell, is slow to move and tackles weighty subjects like poverty, child abuse, and cultural appropriation. You’d be forgiven for asking if it was all too much, especially as the film makes its 12-year-old lead (a stellar LaDainian Crazy Thunder, who plays Matho) perform appalling things children are usually protected from. But ultimately, it also feels necessary. Kough and Gammell co-wrote the script with real-life Rez residents Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, whose personal experiences inform much of the film’s story. Additionally, indigenous actors inhabit most of the screen and turn in naturalistic performances, adding to the film’s sense of urgency. And War Pony also weaves traces of magic into its realistic tale, making it an awe-inspiring and beautiful (albeit heavy) watch. 

Genre: Drama

Actor: Anjeliq Aurora, Ashley Shelton, Jordan Robinson

Director: Gina Gammell, Riley Keough

Rating: R