Quirky Indie
Some may be more indie than others, but all have a certain quirkiness.
Log in to copy items to your own lists.
1.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(2004)
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories. But it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with. (108 mins.)
Director: Michel Gondry
2.
The Big Lebowski
(1998)
"The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. (117 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
3.
Fargo
(1996)
Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson. (98 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
4.
Little Miss Sunshine
(2006)
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. (101 mins.)
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
5.
Clerks
(1994)
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof. (92 mins.)
Director: Kevin Smith
6.
Office Space
(1999)
Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss. (89 mins.)
Director: Mike Judge
7.
Being John Malkovich
(1999)
A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich. (112 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
8.
Lost in Translation
(2003)
A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. (101 mins.)
Director: Sofia Coppola
9.
Happiness
(1998)
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection. (134 mins.)
Director: Todd Solondz
10.
The Station Agent
(2003)
When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss. (89 mins.)
Director: Tom McCarthy
11.
Adaptation.
(2002)
A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen. (114 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
12.
Rushmore
(1998)
The extracurricular king of Rushmore preparatory school is put on academic probation. (93 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
13.
After Hours
(1985)
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho whom he met that evening at a coffee shop. (97 mins.)
Director: Martin Scorsese
14.
Stranger Than Fiction
(2006)
An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death. (113 mins.)
Director: Marc Forster
15.
Juno
(2007)
Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child. (96 mins.)
Director: Jason Reitman
16.
Sideways
(2004)
Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment embark on a week-long road trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle. (126 mins.)
Director: Alexander Payne
17.
Best in Show
(2000)
A colorful array of characters compete at a national dog show. (90 mins.)
Director: Christopher Guest
18.
Garden State
(2004)
A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade. (102 mins.)
Director: Zach Braff
19.
The Royal Tenenbaums
(2001)
An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill. (110 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
20.
American Splendor
(2003)
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar. (101 mins.)
Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
21.
Trust
(1990)
After being thrown away from home, Maria encounters a lady who complains of not having children. Almost getting raped, she ends up in an abandoned house, where she meets Matthew. When a baby is kidnapped Maria sets out to find the lady. (107 mins.)
Director: Hal Hartley
22.
Ghost World
(2001)
With only the plan of moving in together after high school, two unusually devious friends seek direction in life. As a mere gag, they respond to a man's newspaper ad for a date, only to find it will greatly complicate their lives. (111 mins.)
Director: Terry Zwigoff
23.
The Squid and the Whale
(2005)
Follows two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s. (81 mins.)
Director: Noah Baumbach
24.
Smoke
(1995)
A Brooklyn smoke shop is the center of neighborhood activity, and the stories of its customers. (112 mins.)
Director: Wayne Wang
25.
Waiting for Guffman
(1996)
An aspiring director and the marginally talented amateur cast of a hokey small-town Missouri musical production go overboard when they learn that someone from Broadway will be in attendance. (84 mins.)
Director: Christopher Guest
26.
Raising Arizona
(1987)
When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintuplets, their lives become more complicated than they anticipated. (94 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
27.
Napoleon Dynamite
(2004)
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home. (96 mins.)
Director: Jared Hess
28.
Everything Is Illuminated
(2005)
A young Jewish American man endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately razed by the Nazis, with the help of an eccentric local. (106 mins.)
Director: Liev Schreiber
29.
Lars and the Real Girl
(2007)
A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet. (106 mins.)
Director: Craig Gillespie
30.
Welcome to the Dollhouse
(1995)
An unattractive seventh grader struggles to cope with inattentive parents, snobbish classmates, a smart older brother, an attractive younger sister, and her own insecurities in suburban New Jersey. (88 mins.)
Director: Todd Solondz
31.
Synecdoche, New York
(2008)
A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play. (124 mins.)
Director: Charlie Kaufman
32.
Buffalo '66
(1998)
After being released from prison, Billy is set to visit his parents with his wife, who he does not actually have. This provokes Billy to act out, as he kidnaps a girl and forces her to act as his wife for the visit. (110 mins.)
Director: Vincent Gallo
33.
Melancholia
(2011)
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth. (135 mins.)
Director: Lars von Trier
34.
Safety Not Guaranteed
(2012)
Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel. (86 mins.)
Director: Colin Trevorrow
35.
Brick
(2005)
A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. (110 mins.)
Director: Rian Johnson
36.
Pirate Radio
(2009)
A band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that wanted classical music, and nothing else, on the airwaves. (135 mins.)
Director: Richard Curtis
37.
Me and You and Everyone We Know
(2005)
A lonely shoe salesman and an eccentric performance artist struggle to connect in this unique take on contemporary life. (91 mins.)
Director: Miranda July
38.
Bernie
(2011)
In small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp. (99 mins.)
Director: Richard Linklater
39.
Submarine
(2010)
15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: To lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life. (97 mins.)
Director: Richard Ayoade
40.
The Unbelievable Truth
(1989)
After serving time for murder, Josh Hutton returns to his home town where me meets Audry Hugo. No one can remember exactly what Josh did... (90 mins.)
Director: Hal Hartley
41.
Be Kind Rewind
(2008)
Two bumbling store clerks inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars. (102 mins.)
Director: Michel Gondry
42.
Hot Tub Time Machine
(2010)
A malfunctioning time machine at a ski resort takes a man back to 1986 with his two friends and nephew, where they must relive a fateful night and not change anything to make sure the nephew is born. (101 mins.)
Director: Steve Pink
43.
Bottle Rocket
(1996)
Three friends plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on the run. (91 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
44.
Rubin and Ed
(1991)
Reclusive Rubin Farr teams up with vocal but unsuccessful multi-level salesman Ed Tuttle on a quest... (82 mins.)
Director: Trent Harris
45.
Slacker
(1991)
A day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs. (97 mins.)
Director: Richard Linklater
46.
Eagle vs Shark
(2007)
Eagle vs Shark is the tale of two socially awkward misfits and the strange ways they try to find love; through revenge on high-school bullies, burgers, and video games. (88 mins.)
Director: Taika Waititi
47.
Bored to Death
(2009 TV Series)
A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a sort of double life by pretending to be a private detective using the methods he read about in old detective novels. (28 mins.)
48.
Secretary
(2002)
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one. (104 mins.)
Director: Steven Shainberg
49.
Harold and Maude
(1971)
Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral. (91 mins.)
Director: Hal Ashby
50.
Being There
(1979)
A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics. (130 mins.)
Director: Hal Ashby
51.
Tiny Furniture
(2010)
About a recent college grad who returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life. (98 mins.)
Director: Lena Dunham
52.
Moonrise Kingdom
(2012)
A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out to find them. (94 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
53.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
(2010 Documentary)
The story of how an eccentric French shop-keeper and amateur film-maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy... (87 mins.)
Director: Banksy