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The landscape for independent films has changed rapidly. On one hand, the opportunity to build a theatrical release has become increasingly difficult, but on the other hand, digital release has given indies a chance to play to a broad national audience at once. Each week, new indie releases will be profiled and because they might not be playing at a theater near you, one highly recommended film available now a click or two away via VOD (whether a new or not quite new release) will be presented for viewing without leaving your computer.

VOD Pick of the Week

Nancy, Please

Nancy, Please is a darkly comic thriller. While set in the world of academia, it will seem familiar to anyone who has been struck with a case of procrastination and avoidance in the face of a large project. Will Rogers plays Paul, a gifted Yale graduate student who has hit a roadblock on his thesis. His advisor is demanding to see progress or else threatens to drop him from the program. Paul has also just moved in with his girlfriend. It turns out that in the move, Paul has left his annotated copy of Little Dorrit, which contains the notes that he is convinced are the key to his dissertation, at his old apartment.

Getting the book back means dealing with Nancy, his former roommate, who is described as being unstable to say the least. At first Nancy is just a bit difficult to get a hold of, but it becomes more and more difficult to arrange a time to get the book, and Nancy becomes more and more hostile. Paul, meanwhile, becomes more and more desperate and obsessed with getting the book back. He ignores his friends’ advice to just forget about the book and neglects all other responsibilities, creating friction with his girlfriend and further jeopardizing his academic career.

The film is admittedly based on a pretty flimsy conceit. While not having the notes in the book would be an inconvenience, certainly Paul could recreate the material without them for his dissertation without the need to go to the absurd lengths he does to get it back. Nancy, Please is better viewed allegorically. Nancy represents that mysterious force that seems to sap your motivation and focus when you really need to be concentrating on getting something accomplished. She’s the one who makes you play Candy Crush Saga when you have that paper to write. The movie takes the Jaws approach by rarely showing Nancy and instead she is mainly referred to by other characters, which makes her more menacing. There is also a Tell Tale Heart inspired subplot involving squirrels living in the walls of the new place that adds to the dread.

As a comedy, Nancy, Please is not exactly a laugh riot, but there are definitely laughs to be had as the situation becomes more and more darkly absurd, and as a thriller you do have to suspend disbelief to go along with it. Where it truly excels is at capturing the feeling of dread that comes from an impending deadline.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu

New releases for June 28th

100 Bloody Acres: Australia and New Zealand have a long history of splatter comedies, including Peter Jackson’s early films. 100 Bloody Acres continues that tradition with the story of two brothers who own an organic fertilizer business. Their special formula involves the use of dead car crash victims they find along the side of the road. When a big order comes in from an important customer, they find themselves short of product until they find three young travelers stranded at the side of the road. They have, perhaps, the solution to their problem if they’re willing to change their recipe to use ingredients who aren’t already dead.
Available at Vudu

A Band Called Death: The early 1970s were the era of Motown, so when three black teenage brothers formed a band that played hardcore rock music, record companies weren’t exactly knocking down their door. It didn’t help that they also called themselves Death, and the band broke up before releasing an album. Thirty years later a 1974 demo tape found its way out of the attic and found an audience. A Band Called Death is a documentary about what turned out to be possibly the first punk band.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu

Byzantium: Director Neil Jordan returns to the subject of vampires (he directed Interview with the Vampire in 1994) with a new bloodsucking tale. Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan play a mother-daughter vampire duo who set up shop at the Byzantium Hotel in a run-down coastal resort. When the daughter develops a crush on a local waiter, she lets the secret slip, endangering the secret existence they have created.

I’m So Excited: Pedro Almodovar has been making more “serious” films lately, but with I’m So Excited he returns with a campy sexy farce. The film takes place mostly onboard a flight from Madrid to Mexico City, which is in jeopardy due to a problem with the landing gear that occurred during takeoff. The economy passengers are drugged, so the three gay flight attendants are left to deal with the business class customers. The crisis lowers inhibitions and exposes secrets in a film that examines Spain’s current social and economic fate beneath the light comedy.

Some Girl(s): Neil LaBute has become the official playwright of gender politics. His plays and films have dealt with the battles between men and women on the field of love and sex. In Some Girl(s), written by LaBute and based on his play, Adam Brody plays a writer on the verge of getting married who decides to travel the country meeting with his exes to make amends for his past transgressions.