The 25 Most Anticipated Indie Movies of Summer 2013

To comprehend the duality that'll exist in movie theaters this summer, look no further than this upcoming Friday. The movie that you, your mother, and your mother's friends are anxious to see? The Great Gatsby, of course, in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann bring the late novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic Roaring Twenties story of memory, excess, and tragic love to stylized life. With a starry cast and music overseen by Jay-Z, it's about as foolproof as box office successes can get.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, is Sightseers, the latest genre subversion from on-the-rise English filmmaker Ben Wheatley, whose bleak horror film Kill List ranked high among our favorite movies of 2012. The major differences between The Great Gatsby and Sightseers—other than content and star power—are budget and visibility. Whereas DiCaprio's new one is scheduled to open on more than 3,350 screens nationwide, Wheatley's dark comedy will be found in a significantly smaller number of theaters—as in, less around the country than Gatsby will play in, say, New York and New Jersey alone.

Which, if you're an open-minded cinephile, actually makes Sightseers the more interesting of the two films. And if that's the case, you've got more invested in the following list of the summer's 25 most anticipated indie movies than you do with the 25 big-deal Hollywood blockbusters and wider releases included in last week's countdown. The cinema gods would be pleased.

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Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone) and Tara Aquino (@t_akino)

Director: David Gordon Green
Stars: Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch
Release Date: August 16

Who are we to knock David Gordon Green for indulging in his Hollywood-minded interests? Mostly abandoning everything that he'd previously established via his string of terrific independent dramas (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Snow Angels), Green took a sabbatical in Tinsel Town and made the big-budget, sporadically humorous, but ultimately rudimentary comedies Pineapple Express, Your Highness, and The Sitter.

It was only a matter of time, though, before he returned to his roots, and with the first-class two-hander Prince Avalanche, Green has married both sides of his artistic mentality: his knack for raw character drama and his love for laughs. That it's a remake of a recent Icelandic film only slightly diminishes DGG's return.

The film's narrative set-up is simplicity exemplified: Two road workers (Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch) draw yellow paint lines on a Texas highway surrounded by fire-ravaged woods and trees and shoot the proverbial shit with each other. Hirsch is the young slacker who, at first, is only interested in talking about his shallow pursuits of the opposite sex; Rudd, on the other hand, is the uptight, doofy boss who also happens to be dating Hirsch's older sister.

Prince Avalanche is an endless showcase for the perfectly paired Rudd and Hirsch, two subtle performers who sell the sneaky one-liners. They're both in pristine form, each giving his best on-screen performance to date in a quietly emotional and always just-goofy-enough melting pot of modestly screwball comedy that's definitely funnier than any of Green's earlier laugh projects.

Director: Joss Whedon
Stars: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg, Fran Kranz, Emma Bates, Spencer Treat Clark, Nathan Fillion, Reed Diamond, Riki Lindhome, Sean Maher
Release Date: June 7

Making Hollywood blockbusters is hard work—it'd be understandable if the guy who directed last year's gargantuan smash The Avengers opted to take some time off before shooting his next project. That's not how Joss Whedon works, though.

Rather than sit back and either field offers for more studio fare or go off the grid, Whedon took the less obvious step: He invited a bunch of his best actor-friends over to his Los Angeles house for 12 days and shot a black-and-white, loose, and breezy adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. And unlike past examples of famous people getting together for some paid playtime (see: Couples Retreat, Grown Ups), Whedon's lo-fi experiment is as much fun to watch as it must've been to produce.

Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing is the ultimate take-it-or-leave-it property: It doesn't need to exist, frankly, and he and his cohorts don't modernize the material so much that Shakespeare's seminal tale feels fresh. But there's nothing wrong with a harmless and spirited homage to a storyteller of Sir Will's caliber, especially when it's delivered with the pleasantries and charm seen here. Not all movies need to be The Avengers.

Director: Kieran Darcy-Smith
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price, Teresa Palmer, Antony Starr
Release Date: June 7

This summer, there will be two vastly different examinations of post-hangover nightmares—one, of course, is a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper, and the other is Australian actor turned filmmaker Kieran Darcy-Smith's psychological suspense drama Wish You Were Here. Obviously you're going to see the former, but do yourselves a favor and seek out the latter—it's something special.

Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) and Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies) headline Darcy-Smith's study of internalized, mounting guilt, following the disappearance of a traveling group's member after a night of campfire drinks, dancing, and marital infidelity. The performances are sharp, the tension is nicely sustained throughout, and revelations, though not exactly twists, are unexpectedly devastating.

Director: Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Eduard Sanchez, Gareth Huw Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Jason Eisener
Stars: Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L. C. Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes
Release Date: June 6, VOD; July 12, theatrical

Attention horror fans: There's a new franchise upon us that does not include the words Paranormal or Activity in the title. And it's proving to be the real deal.

Last year, the shaggy, lo-fi anthology V/H/S premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to significant buzz. It consisted of five short segments (as well as a frame story), each directed by a genre up-and-comer, including Ti West (The House of the Devil), David Bruckner (The Signal), and mumblecore vet Joe Swanberg (LOL). V/H/S has its passionate supporters (count us amongst them), but there are also plenty of detractors who've attacked the film for being too long, too threadbare, and misogynistic.

Last weekend, the inevitable sequel, V/H/S/2, debuted at Sundance, and early feedback indicates that the returning producers-co-writer Simon Barrett, co-director Adam Wingard, and producers Brad Miska and Roxanne Benjamin-have addressed those complaints. A full half-hour shorter (95 minutes this time around), V/H/S/2 has been described as leaner, meaner, and far more ambitious.

Here, a new crop of bolder, bigger filmmakers-Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project, Lovely Molly), Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption), and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre)-go for broke with shorts about a cyborg eyeball that records everything it sees, a fresh zombie getting used to its new "life," a sadistic cult, and a Goonies-esque group of friends experiencing a close encounter of the nightmarish kind.

Director: Mark Christopher Covino, Jeff Howlett
Release Date: May 24, VOD; June 28, theatrical

Every year at the SXSW Film Festival, the 24 Beats Per Second section features strong lineups made up of music-based documentaries, real-life movies about forgotten rockers, cherished icons, and sonic trends. The film that generated the heaviest buzz during the SXSW's 2013 edition was director Jeff Howlett's A Band Called Death, and not just because it had the coolest title of them all.

When people think about punk, a few usual suspects come to mind: the Ramones, Bad Brains, and the Sex Pistols, for example. But, as Howlett's film points out, the Detroit-based group simply known as Death were just as, if not even more so, trailblazing as those aforementioned, iconic acts. The only problem was, Death's Motown roots left record label heads and fans confused when it came time to listen to their 1974 demo: Why weren't these three black brothers from the D crooning harmonies? Why all of the aggressive, nihilistic rock?

Similar to last year's Oscar-nominated Searching for Sugar Man, A Band Called Death is all about redemption. Thirty years after the siblings recorded their failed demo, they found a fan base, providing a compelling narrative backbone for what should be the summer's most inspiring documentary.

Director: BJ McDonnell
Stars: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Zach Galligan, Derek Mears, Caroline Williams, Cody Blue Snider, Rileah Vanderbilt, Sean Whalen, Jason Trost
Release Date: June 14

Horror's badass slashers and larger-than-life killing machines aren't just taking a summer vacation—they've been on sabbatical for years now. With Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers all being mishandled by remakes, the genre's greatest antagonists have lost their cool, and, sadly, very few young filmmakers have conceived any worthy successors.

The exception: Adam Green, the indie horror pundit who, in 2010's Hatchet, introduced the world to Victor Crowley, an undead, seemingly steroid-injected backwoods ghoul with the prerequisite traumatic backstory and a justified bloodlust for vengeance (played by horror great Kane Hodder). In both Hatchet and Hatchet II, Green distinguished Crowley from the rest of modern horror's aspiring killers by having the disfigured brute slaughter victims in ridiculously over-the-top and gory ways—it's the Hatchet franchise's bread and butter.

For Hatchet 3, Green stepped back, acted solely as producer, and gave the directorial duties to journeyman camera operator BJ McDonnell, whose camera op credits will appear in this summer's Star Trek Into Darkness and This is the End. And based on the film's insane first trailer, McDonnell has somehow upped the ante.

Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Stars: Min-soo Jo, Eunkin Kang, Jae-rok Kim, Jeong-jin Lee
Release Date: May 17

Alongside the Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival—held every year from late August through early September—is one of cinema's most prestigious showcases of highbrow movies from all over the world. Thus, if a film wins Venice's coveted Golden Lion award, you should start paying attention to it. Though, to be fair, Korean director Kim Ki-Duk's Pieta doesn't need that accompanying honor to make us care about it—it sounds like a knockout all on its own.

A story of crime, punishment, and revenge, Pieta follows a ruthless loan shark who gets money back from shaky borrowers with extreme, fist-to-flesh force, and whose unpleasant life gets upended when an older woman shows up and claims to be his long-lost mother. Considering Korean cinema's penchant for unflinching darkness, don't expect the reunion to be all hugs and kisses.

Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Adam Brody, Wes Bentley, Eric Roberts, James Franco, Chris Noth
Release Date: August 9

Tired of stuffy, conventional biopics? Lovelace looks like the necessary remedy. After all, it's based on the life of Linda Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace, the porn icon who starred in the 1972 skin flick Deep Throat. Any worries about its potential prudishness were destroyed in December when star Amanda Seyfried, during an interview on Conan, discussed how she simulated oral sex by sucking on ice pops. Three cheers for independent cinema, where the MPAA wields considerably less power.

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous
Release Date: July 19

If someone you'd just met and had a wonderful chat with admitted that he had once killed dozens of people, would you be able to continue speaking with him? Or, for that matter, allow yourself to be entertained by his playful side as he charmed you with everything he's done since the murders?

Those are just two of the many questions that power the profoundly disturbing documentary The Act of Killing, a film in which the horrific somehow becomes banal, the real difficult to believe. Co-director Joshua Oppenheimer traveled to Indonesia, located a former right wing paramilitary baddie, named Anwar Congo, and presented him with a gutsy challenge: recreate some of the homicides Congo and his colleagues committed against Chinese people deemed "communists" back in the 1960s for both a feature film and Oppenheimer's making-of doc about their production. These days, Congo is a friendly, loving grandfather who's harboring sadness over his past actions, which prompts him to take part in Oppenheimer's work as a means to finally expose the brutal truth.

Through The Act of Killing and its matter-of-fact depiction of mankind's worst members, the notion that, for some, taking another person's life can be as effortless as chewing gum is as startling as realizing that, for others, seeking redemption is utterly hopeless.

Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen, Patrick Heusinger
Release Date: May 17

For a certain sect of independent film lovers, a new Noah Baumbach project is an immediate cause for excitement. As a director, his credits include 2010's underrated, Ben Stiller-led dramedy Greenberg and the even better 2006 gem The Squid and the Whale; as a screenwriter, Baumbach teamed with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). That's not exactly a flimsy resume.

That means his latest directorial effort, Frances Ha, must be really exceptional, since it's receiving the best reviews of Baumbach's career so far. Starring his real-life girlfriend, and indie film stalwart, Greta Gerwig, the black-and-white Frances Ha revolves around the titular character, a dreamer who's striving for bigger things while trying not to simply "exist" in New York City.

Film critic Cole Smithey claims that, with this picture, Baumbach "officially takes over Woody Allen's mantle as New York's representative auteur of quirky romantic comedy." A lofty statement, sure, but not as hyperbolic as one might think.

Director: Sebastián Silva
Stars: Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffman, Agustin Silva, Jose Miguel Silva
Release Date: July 12

Where the hell has Michael Cera been since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World underperformed at the box office in summer 2010? We're not sure, but he's about to make the kind of comeback that should leave such questions ultimately obsolete. First, later this month, there's this Netflix return of a little show called Arrested Development that you may have heard about by now; come mid-June, though, Cera's ability to lead a movie should be proven possible or non-existent once and for all.

The source: Crystal Fairy, a lo-fi, oddball indie comedy that, fortunately for Cera, doesn't come with the same reported $85 million budget as Scott Pilgrim. Made for what Universal Pictures probably used to feed Scott Pilgrim's key grips, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva's deadpan laugher depicts the misadventures of a mean-spirited American (Cera) vacationing in Chile, befriending a free-spirited female (Gaby Hoffman), and indulging a hallucinogen called the "San Pedro cactus." Yeah, this already sounds better than Year One.

Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Sarsgaard, Louis C.K., Sally Hawkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Andrew Dice Clay
Release Date: July 26

Now that he's 77, Woody Allen has earned the right to take some time off. After all, he's directed over 40 movies since 1966's What's Up, Tiger Lily?—retirement has to sound magical at this point.

Like the great Sean "Diddy" Combs before him, though, Allen can't stop, won't stop. Since 2007, the New York native has directed at least one new movie per year, though, yes, his 2010 contribution, To Rome with Love, has already been forgotten by cinephiles the world over. Perhaps he can reclaim the buzz rightfully given to 2011's stellar Midnight in Paris with this summer's Blue Jasmine, a familiar Allen tale—the press release calls it "the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife"—that boasts one of his strangest ensemble casts ever.

Want some credibility? You've got Cate Blanchett, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alec Baldwin? How about some awesomely atypical casting? Louis C.K., for the win. Maybe some WTF-ness, too? See: Andrew Dice Clay. No, we're not kidding. The proof is in the picture above.

Director: Peter Strickland
Stars: Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro, Cosimo Fusco
Release Date: June 14

Old-school Italian giallo horror meets the deranged strangeness of David Lynch's movies? Hell yes. Especially if the combination in question stars the exceptional character actor Toby Jones and features a nutty plot that's steeped in movie-loving goodness.

Jones plays Gilderoy, an audio technician brought in to handle the sounds heard in a gruesome flick called The Equestrian Vortex. While having to watch the film over and over, with all of its blood-drenched scenes of murder and mayhem, Gilderoy slowly but surely begins to lose his mind, and, if the early, mostly positive reviews are to be trusted, Berberian Sound Studio wickedly flies off the rails during its third act, which is where the Lynchian vibes take over.

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Stars: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Alison Bie, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty
Release Date: May 24

One of the biggest hits at this year's Sundance Film Festival, The Kings of Summer comes equipped with a healthy amount of hype within the indie film world. And, we're happy to report, the positive words aren't a bunch of hyperbolic BS. First-time writer-director Jordan Vogt-Roberts' eccentric coming-of-age comedy is the real deal.

A trio of strong young actors (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias) play three teens who, having grown tired of their parents' (portrayed by the likes of Party Down's Megan Mullally and Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman) overbearing ways, build a ramshackle house in the woods. Heartbreaks, budding romances, failed hunting excursions, and snake attacks ensue, and it's all handled with simultaneous intelligence and weirdness by Vogt-Roberts, who's prone to surrealistic montages, moody slow-motion, and curious story twists. Superbad, it's not.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Release Date: May 24

It's the original Star Wars trilogy for art-house enthusiasts who prefer their on-screen romances complicated, not wishy-washy. Directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, The School of Rock), who also co-wrote both with stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004) chronicled the complex yet loving relationship between strangers-turned-suitors Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy).

Living in Paris, Jesse and Celine are the parents of twin daughters dealing with his ex-wife and her career transition. Slightly less optimistic than its predecessors, Before Midnight focuses on love's darker side, the time when what used to feel so natural (i.e., communication and chemistry) feels like a labor of pain (i.e., shouting matches and other domestic quarreling).

Director: Sofia Coppola
Stars: Katie Chang, Emma Watson, Israel Broussard, Taissa Farmiga, Claire Julien, Leslie Mann, Gavin Rossdale
Release Date: June 14

Imagine a teenage girl and her BFFs burglarizing Paris Hilton's house, stuffing the heiress' Louis Vuitton tote bag with her diamonds and bottle of Grey Goose, all while dressed in the socialite's Louboutins. It sounds like the plot of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, but it's real life.

From October 2008 to August 2009, a quintet of bored, Perez Hilton-obsessed Valley kids, who'd come to be known as "The Hollywood Hills Burglars," "The Burglar Bunch," and "The Bling Ring," not only knocked off the former Simple Life star, but also Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan, Audrina Patridge and Rachel Bilson. Their reason? Those celebs just, like, had cute stuff.

Inspired by the Vanity Fair story "The Suspect Wore Louboutins" by Nancy Jo Sales, Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation) is bringing the news story to the big screen. Led by a virtually unknown cast, save for a grown-up Emma Watson, The Bling Ring, a bizarro mixture of Spring Breakers-meets-MTV's The Hills, promises to be the guilty pleasure of the summer. —TA

Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Stars: Antonio Banderas, Antonio de la Torre, Hugo Silva
Release Date: June 28

Writing and directing a film as perverted, dark, and psychologically exhaustive as 2011's The Skin I Live In has to be emotionally and physically draining—why not shift to a lighthearted romp for your next feature? Acclaimed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her, Volver) seemingly felt the same way following The Skin I Live In, as is made clear in his next effort's title alone: I'm So Excited.

Set on an airplane that's stuck in the clouds due to technical difficulties, it's a hedonistic and hilarious ensemble piece that includes, in no order of importance, a mystic who's trying to lose her virginity, a businessman's suicidal side lover (Paz Vega), drunken stewardesses, and, just for the hell of it, a song-and-dance number set to the Pointer Sisters' 1982 dancefloor classic "I'm So Excited." Sounds first-class to us.

Director: Joe Swanberg
Stars: Jake Johnson, Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston
Release Date: July 25, VOD; August 23, theatrical

For those of you craving a bearable rom-com, Drinking Buddies is ready to quench your thirst, so to speak. A pleasant fan favorite at this year's SXSW and Sundance Film Festivals, the film follows a pair of best friends (Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson), who work at a Chicago brewery, trudging through the muck of their own dysfunctional romantic relationships (with Ron Livingston and Anna Kendrick, respectively), which their forced to confront after a weekend getaway.

Marked by heavy improvisation from its leads, the slice-of-life flick is a genuinely affecting film so charming and inviting, you'll feel like you're hanging with your own drinking buddies. —TA

Director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Stars: Liam James, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, AnnSophia Robb, Allison Janney, Amanda Peet, Rob Corddry, Maya Rudolph, Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Zoe Levin
Release Date: July 5

Never underestimate the power of great storytelling. Case in point: The Way, Way Back, a coming-of-age comedy that, on paper, covers the entirety of that subgenre's generic tropes. There's a summer beach house, the awkward, introverted teenage boy (Liam James), the beautiful neighbor (AnnaSophia Robb), and the place where said teenage boy suddenly feels comfortable and finds himself (a water park called Water Wizz). What does that all add up to? We've seen it, and the answer is obvious: the best coming-of-age comedy in years.

The film has two key weapons against the mundane. One, the cast is altogether excellent, led by James' effectively sympathetic performance and scene-stealing work from Sam Rockwell. Secondly, its writers and directors, Nat Faxon and Community star Jim Rash, are no narrative slouches, having recently won an Oscar for co-writing the script for George Clooney's The Descendants.

Director: Zal Batmanglij
Stars: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard, Ellen Page, Patricia Clarkson, Julia Ormond, Shiloh Fernandez, Toby Kebbell, Jason Ritter
Release Date: May 24

In hindsight, our 25 Best Movies of 2012 list is missing a few worthy films. But that's the way year-end lists go. Had there been extra slots to work with, Sound of My Voice definitely would've made the cut. The rare psychological thriller that gets better with multiple viewings, Sound of My Voice is a hypnotic, bewildering look at two journalists who become intimate with a cult leader who claims she's from the year 2054. Brit Marling, who played the cult leader, co-wrote the screenplay with first-time director Zal Batmanglij.

It's that special kind of picture that warrants must-see loyalty to the pair's next project, which is why The East is a top priority in 2013. Marling, once again, stars in this Batmanglij-directed film, about an ex-FBI agent (Marling) who goes undercover to infiltrate a terrorist group that's forcing corporate big-wigs to partake in the dangerous products they've been manufacturing.

Whereas Sound of My Voice dabbled in lo-fi science fiction, The East expands Marling and Batmanglij's sensibilities to encompass the globalized world of white-collar nastiness. A big-name cast (Ellen Page, Patricia Clarkson, True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård) raises the stakes, too.

Director: Franck Khalfoun
Stars: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivo, Liane Balaban, Megan Duffy, Genevieve Alexandra, Jan Broberg, Sammi Rotibi
Release Date: June 21

Talk about outside-the-box casting. For their remake of the impossibly sleazy 1980 horror flick Maniac, director Franck Khalfoun and producer/co-writer Alexandra Aja (High Tension, Piranha 3D) selected Elijah Wood to play a deranged guy who murders young women, scalps them, and places their bloody hair on mannequins that he then befriends. Yes, Silence of the Lambshas come to Middle-earth.

Think back to Wood's quietly insane performance in Sin City, though, and it becomes clear that he's perfect for Maniac. Viewers who still can't accept the sight of Wood overpowering his victims, take note: Khalfoun shot the film in large part from the first-person POV, putting audiences directly into the killer's twisted mind.

Keep tabs on the release date announcements for this one-having seen it, we can confirm that Maniac is an early frontrunner for 2013's best horror movie.

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton
Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr. Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Keith Stanfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Kevin Hernandez, Alex Calloway
Release Date: Sometime in August

Although told with a simple and naturalistic style that never goes too far off the melodramatic deep end, Short Term 12 is one of those movies that'll have you needing a moment to regroup. After all, it didn't win the Grand Jury Award for SXSW's narrative competition for being your typical indie. It's poignant and stark look into the life of a twentysomething foster care facility staffer (Brie Larson), confronting everything from troubled and unresponsive kids to her own emotional trauma. —TA

Director: David Lowery
Stars: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker
Release Date: August 16

Every year at the Sundance Film Festival, one film emerges as the clear critical darling and, more often than not, goes on to become a major contender in the forthcoming awards season. In 2012, it was Beasts of the Southern Wild; this year, a serious contender for such distinction is Ain't Them Bodies Saints, a Malick-esque meditation of love, betrayal, and regret from fresh-voiced filmmaker David Lowery.

The cast hums with greatness. Academy Award nominees Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James By That Coward Robert Ford) star as lovers who are forever running afoul of the law—until the authorities catch them and send Affleck's character, Bob, to prison. After four years in the clink, he escapes and sets out to reunite with Ruth and their infant daughter.

It sounds like Bonnie and Clyde without the (by now) played-out commentary on celebrity. If the game's top film critics are to be believed, it's an emotional powerhouse.

Director: James Ponsoldt
Stars: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley, Brie Larson, Kyle Chandler, Bob Odenkirk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Andre Royo, Kaitlyn Dever, Dayo Okeniyi
Release Date: August 2

At first glance, The Spectacular Now seems like your typical coming-of-age flick: a booze-guzzling and uninspired high school senior meets a sweet girl who makes him change his ways. But the film adaptation of the popular Tim Tharp young adult novel isn't as predictable as it seems. Anchored by affecting performances from Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, winners of Sundance's U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting, The Spectacular Now is a moving and thoughtful glimpse into the inherently complicated life of a kid struggling to resolve his inner demons, and the girl who helps him face them. Much like The Breakfast Club and Say Anything, count on the movie to be a staple in the movie collections of teens everywhere.—TA

Director: Ryan Coogler
Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray
Release Date: July 12

In addition to potentially turning Friday Night Lights graduate Michael B. Jordan into a full-on movie star, Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station could be one of the year's most harrowing and emotionally devastating indies. Its story certainly invites the adjectives.

Based on real events, Fruitvale Station focuses on Oscar Grant (Jordan), a 22-year-old guy living in the Bay Area and raising his young daughter, whom his mother knows nothing about. But on New Year's Day 2009, at the Fruitvale subway station, Grant is shot to death by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department) officers. The public captured the shooting on camera phones.

It's a little-known American tragedy that deserves the attention of a feature. The fact that the Weinstein Company scooped it up at Sundance, with plans for a big theatrical unveiling, guarantees that it'll be seen, too. Add a charismatic actor like Jordan as its anchor, and Fruitvale Station should leave no emotion un-drained.