Topic: Independent Film (USA)

Explore the top movies, series, and documentaries on Independent Film (USA). Enjoy the must-watch titles that define this topic.


Lost, Lost, Lost

1976 · Documentary · 180 min. · United States

8.1

79 votes

8.1

79 votes

Reservoir Dogs

1992 · Movie · 99 min. · United States

Direction Quentin Tarantino

Cast Tim Roth · Harvey Keitel · Chris Penn · Steve Buscemi

Plot They were six strangers, assembled to pull off the perfect crime. Hired by mob boss Joe Cabot and given fake names so no one could identify the others, they thought...

8.1

134K votes

8.1

134K votes

Juvenile Court

1973 · Documentary · 144 min. · United States

Direction Frederick Wiseman

8.0

28 votes

8.0

28 votes

Memento

2000 · Movie · 115 min. · United States

Direction Christopher Nolan

Cast Guy Pearce · Carrie-Anne Moss · Joe Pantoliano · Mark Boone Junior

Plot Leonard (Guy Pearce) is an insurance investigator whose memory has been damaged following a head injury he sustained after intervening on his wife's murder. His quality of life has been...

7.9

145K votes

7.9

145K votes

Earthlings

2005 · Documentary · 95 min. · United States

Direction Shaun Monson

Cast Joaquin Phoenix

Plot EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human...

7.8

5K votes

7.8

5K votes

Requiem for a Dream

2000 · Movie · 102 min. · United States

Direction Darren Aronofsky

Cast Jared Leto · Jennifer Connelly · Ellen Burstyn · Marlon Wayans

Plot Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) are lovers in Brooklyn with dreams of setting up a small business and spending the rest of their lives in love--their...

7.8

119K votes

7.8

119K votes

Walden: Diaries, Notes and Sketches

1969 · Documentary · 180 min. · United States

Direction Jonas Mekas

Cast Timothy Leary · Ed Emshwiller · Jack Smith · Mario Montez

Plot Poet and hero of the American counter-culture, Jonas Mekas, born in Lithuania in 1922, invented the diary form of film-making. Walden, his first completed diary film, an epic portrait of...

7.8

394 votes

7.8

394 votes

The Straight Story

1999 · Movie · 111 min. · United States

Direction David Lynch

Cast Richard Farnsworth · Sissy Spacek · Harry Dean Stanton · Everett McGill

Plot A portrait of one man's real journey across America's Heartland. Filmed along the 260-mile route that the actual Alvin Straight traversed in 1994 from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin,...

7.8

41K votes

7.8

41K votes

Koyaanisqatsi - Life Out of Balance

1982 · Documentary · 87 min. · United States

Direction Godfrey Reggio

Plot An art-house circuit sensation, this feature-length documentary is visually arresting and possesses a clear, pro-environmental political agenda. Without a story, dialogue, or characters, Koyaanisqatsi (1983) (the film's title is a...

7.8

5K votes

7.8

5K votes

Whiplash

2014 · Movie · 103 min. · United States

Direction Damien Chazelle

Cast Miles Teller · J.K. Simmons · Melissa Benoist · Paul Reiser

Plot An ambitious, talented young drummer (Miles Teller) enters a prestigious music academy to fulfill his dream of becoming one of the greatest known drummers of all time. He's initially ecstatic...

7.8

61K votes

7.8

61K votes

It's Such a Beautiful Day (Film)

2012 · Movie · 62 min. · United States

Direction Don Hertzfeldt

Plot Compilation movie who includes Everything Will be OK (2006), I Am So Proud of You (2008) y It's Such a Beautiful Day (2011). The newly unified trilogy is titled IT'S...

7.7

2K votes

7.7

2K votes

Johnny Got His Gun

1971 · Movie · 111 min. · United States

Direction Dalton Trumbo

Cast Timothy Bottoms · Jason Robards · Donald Sutherland · Marsha Hunt

Plot A young American soldier, hit by a shell on the last day of the First World War, lies in a hospital bed, a quadruple amputee who has lost his eyes,...

7.7

17K votes

7.7

17K votes

Nobody's Business

1996 · Documentary · 60 min. · United States

Direction Alan Berliner

Cast Alan Berliner · Oscar Berliner

Plot With this documentary, Berliner's camera focuses on the life of his curmudgeonly father Oscar who resists his son's efforts nearly every step of the way because he feels his life...

7.7

313 votes

7.7

313 votes

Down by Law

1986 · Movie · 107 min. · United States

Direction Jim Jarmusch

Cast Tom Waits · Roberto Benigni · John Lurie · Nicoletta Braschi

Plot DJ Zack and pimp Jack end up in prison for being too laid-back to avoid being framed for crimes they didn't commit. They end up sharing a cell with eccentric...

Max

7.7

12K votes

7.7

12K votes

Opening Night

1977 · Movie · 143 min. · United States

Direction John Cassavetes

Cast Gena Rowlands · Ben Gazzara · John Cassavetes · Joan Blondell

Plot A young woman gets killed in an accident trying to meet her favorite actress Myrtle Gordon after a play. Then Myrtle Gordon felt responsible for the killing leading her down...

Max

7.7

3K votes

7.7

3K votes

A Woman Under the Influence

1974 · Movie · 155 min. · United States

Direction John Cassavetes

Cast Gena Rowlands · Peter Falk · Katherine Cassavetes · Fred Draper

Plot John Cassavetes's A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is an emotionally devastating drama that charts the mental disintegration of a California housewife. Mabel Longhetti (Gena Rowlands) has no emotional or creative...

Max

7.7

5K votes

7.7

5K votes

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004 · Movie · 108 min. · United States

Direction Michel Gondry

Cast Jim Carrey · Kate Winslet · Kirsten Dunst · Mark Ruffalo

Plot Joel (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of...

7.6

102K votes

7.6

102K votes

Into the Wild

2007 · Movie · 140 min. · United States

Direction Sean Penn

Cast Emile Hirsch · Marcia Gay Harden · William Hurt · Jena Malone

Plot Freshly graduated from college and with a promising future ahead, 22-year-old Christopher McCandless chose instead to walk out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure....

7.6

68K votes

7.6

68K votes

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

2001 · Movie · 94 min. · United States

Direction John Cameron Mitchell

Cast John Cameron Mitchell · Michael Pitt · Miriam Shor · Alberta Watson

Plot Hedwig (played by John Cameron Mitchell) was born as Hansel in East Berlin. In his twenties, Hansel agrees to undergo a sex change in order to marry a U.S. soldier...

7.6

8K votes

7.6

8K votes

Little Miss Sunshine

2006 · Movie · 101 min. · United States

Direction Jonathan Dayton · Valerie Faris

Cast Abigail Breslin · Steve Carell · Toni Collette · Greg Kinnear

Plot Meet the conflictive Hoover family: a grandfather who snorts coke and swears, the father, a struggling motivational speaker, a mother who can't cope, an uncle recovering from a failed suicide...

7.6

107K votes

7.6

107K votes