These movies may not have been on your radar this year, but we think they’re totally worth checking out. We rated them by Rotten Tomatoes scores, lowest to highest. Keep reading to find out which indie movie scored 99 percent fresh!
13. Camp X-Ray
Kristen Stewart channels her inner soldier as Private Amy Cole, a prison guard at Guantanamo Bay. The movie is surprising, relevant and emotionally stirring as two cultures collide.
www.youtube.com/embed/_1MDrwqjeGo
Camp X-Ray has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 72 percent.
More:Kristen Stewart’s Camp X-Ray is complicated, read this before watching
12. Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
This is a witty, often funny documentary about Shep Gordon, the iconic music manager who worked with such legends as Alice Cooper, Blondie, Janice Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. His life story makes for a surprising tale of happy accidents and shrewd business dealings.
www.youtube.com/embed/Zd0VOkPOrV0
Supermensch has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 76 percent.
11. Tracks
While we can’t say enough great things about Reese Witherspoon’s long trek in her film, Wild, Tracks is the true story of Robyn Davidson (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman who takes her dog and four moody camels on a trek through almost 2,000 miles of the brutal Australian desert.
www.youtube.com/embed/6-DiOyxCQQI
Tracks has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 81 percent.
More:15 Strongest, most jaw-dropping and fearless female performances of 2014
10. Belle
What happens when a child of mixed race is raised alongside a white British girl in an aristocratic family in the lat 1700s? This surprising true story shares the life of Dido Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a young lady who experienced both privilege and pain in a time of deep racial divide.
www.youtube.com/embed/XbbeTwFJtOM?list=PLWthn6pZiBNUn0RV9XSm8XWboksjQ4uFU
Belle has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 83 percent.
9. Chef
When chef Carl (Jon Favreau), loses his restaurant, he starts up a food truck while struggling to reunite his family. Sofía Vergara, Robert Downey, Jr. and Scarlett Johansson also star.
www.youtube.com/embed/UeF16MCDJtM
Chef has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88 percent.
8. Calvary
In Calvary, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is the head of a dwindling Catholic parish in a tiny seaside town in Ireland. During a confession, an anonymous man who’s suffered years of sexual abuse by another priest declares that he is going to murder Father James in one week’s time. This film will twist your insides from the opening first line to the brutal and bitter last image.
www.youtube.com/embed/3iBJbcHq-oU
Calvary has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 89 percent.
7. Birdman
Michael Keaton stars in Birdman, a theatrical tale about a washed-up actor trying to redeem himself by staging a play that may kill him. Sound strange? It’s a wild tale that goes beyond reality and soars into magical realism. Ed Norton, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts also star.
www.youtube.com/embed/uJfLoE6hanc
Birdman has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93 percent.
6. Whiplash
Andrew (Miles Teller) gets schooled as a jazz drummer by the intense and often brutal Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). This movie won the grand jury and audience awards at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
www.youtube.com/embed/MfXemr222ek
Whiplash has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 percent.
5. Blue Ruin
Blue Ruin is a modern-day revenge tragedy of Greek proportions. Dwight (the incredibly talented Macon Blair) plays a man who’s sleeping in his car and fishing food out of dumpsters. The film soon tempts Dwight into taking revenge on the man who caused his misery. As the film’s title suggests, this devastated man spirals downwards into a ruinous debacle that involves murder.
www.youtube.com/embed/qt1m_MG9Vwo
Blue Ruin has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 percent.
4. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
This sparse yet intoxicating vampire Western feels fresh on so many levels, it’s like a new flavor of chocolate and a delicious addition to the vampire genre. The gorgeous Sheila Vand stars at The Girl and there’s no doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the years ahead.
www.youtube.com/embed/_YGmTdo3vuY
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 percent.
3. A Most Violent Year
This crime drama takes place in the year 1981 in New York City, where an immigrant family uses violence and corruption to pursue their version of the American dream. The movie stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.
www.youtube.com/embed/lZU7U3k3gHY
A Most Violent Year has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96 percent.
2. We Are the Best!
If you love all things 1980s, this movie will lift your heart and take you back to a simpler time — before Facebook, hackings and sexting. The story centers on three young misfits growing up in early ’80s Sweden who form a punk band despite not being able to play their instruments.
www.youtube.com/embed/fWWNd-eybN0
We Are the Best! has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97 percent.
1. Boyhood
Shot over 12 years, this movie literally shows Mason (Ellar Coltrane) growing up on the screen. Also starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as his parents, the film is a subtle, stirring tale of one boy’s life growing up in America.
www.youtube.com/embed/Y0oX0xiwOv8
Boyhood has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 99 percent.
More:Patricia Arquette “explodes” Hollywood stereotype, resists pressure to stay young
Leave a Comment