So you want to see more indie movies in 2026
What to do if you’re kinda scared to get into this pretentious, arrogant, weird-ass bro community (i’m not a bro i promise)
So you’ve written your little personal curriculum for 2026 and it includes consumption of more indie movies. You don’t want to see no Marvel no more, you want to see the newest Cannes Palme d’Or and have an opinion on it. You want to explore the world of French cinema, you want to see those movies by those wonderful directors you keep hearing about but can’t spell (i can’t either).
But there’s a problem. You see a movie gets good critics, maybe you read a little post about it from your favorite writer, and they say it’s an absolute gem and totally worth it. So then you open IMDb to see the title and see if you know the actors in it, or where it’s playing near you.
And then you click off because before fucking real who the fuck is gonna see a movie about a woman who dies of respiratory disease because of pollution and reincarnate into a freaking vacuum cleaner and haunts her husband so that he uses her ghost to clean that same factory that killed her. I know, I know we said we were gonna go see indie movies, but maybe not that one. Maybe that one director smoked a bit too much and who the fuck gave him the money for that anyways??!
Well, I saw it and it was a very nice movie, but also I wouldn’t have gone if I had read the blurb. So here are my recommendations on little stuff to do to make indie movies more easily accessible to yourself.1
One: Don’t read the blurb
Yeah, I’ve just said that above. It’s hard to avoid, but really: don’t.
I know you want to know what it’s about, but again: don’t, or else you’ll never go.
I don’t know who really reads those things and then wants to go see them but honestly, I don’t think they exist. And whoever writes the blurbs should either be fired or be paid more (i don’t think i’d do better, even for $1M).
Two: Get yourself an unlimited subscription to the cinema
Not sure if that exists in every single country of the world but at least in France and some places in the USA where you all are there are, there are some plans for that. You pay 20 bucks a month and you can go see whichever movie you want whenever you want (restrictions apply). But those restrictions don’t tend to apply to the indie fucking movies, because the cinemas aren’t making money out of them 🥸
So why take an unlimited subscription instead of paying at will? If your goal is one movie a month, it would be cheaper to pay by the ticker! Well, I’ve just told you, it’s because you’re not gonna read the blurb. And i don’t think you’re the kind of person to pay those extortionate prices to go see a movie BLIND (or you’d be doing that already).
Generally you can still go see the Marvel or the Disney movies with your sub, just maybe not at the peak time slots. Even if you don’t keep up with your new shiny indie goal, all won’t be lost and you will have so much more freedom of mind.
You see a cool movie trailer review that you just skimmed so as to not be rebuked by the weird premise? You just book a ticket and go! Is it shit? Well, go away! It’s that easy, you can just get up and leave. No money lost, no sunken cost fallacy. NO REGRATS!
Three: Get yourself a subscription to someone whom you trust
Now this one is going to take a little bit of time because you need to find someone who has the right taste, but once you find them, bob’s your uncle.
Reviewers (not reviews!) solves the blind blurb problem. We’ve already established you’re not reading the blurb. You might not even want to read the review! Honestly, just look at the grade this trusted gatekeeper gave the movie and go based on that.
I personally subscribed to Télérama. It’s kind of a French New Yorker, and throughout the years, I’ve learned which reviewers have the same taste that I do. So every Wednesday2, I look at the posters carousel of the movies that came out that week. I look at the grades that have been given, I clicked on the picture really super fast with my ninja fingers to just see the name of the reviewer.
Once again, this is the tricky part! Don’t read the tagline, don’t read the title, don’t read the subtitle, THEY WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO RUN THE FUCK AWAY. And you want to see movies, so squint your eyes and find the grade.
Again that bit takes time, maybe a bit of money too. You don’t have to choose an outlet that costs money, maybe your favorite substacker will do. Maybe that’s me?3 I’m free :)
Figure it out! I can’t help because you probably like very different things than i do. Make sure it’s an outlet from your country because movies come out at different times – that’s especially true for independent movies.
Four: Don’t trust the press
Maybe a bit paradoxical with what I’ve just said, but also every single movie boasts a 4.5/5 rating, “best movie ever”, because they only invited the ones who’d like it. Or they excluded the ones who didn’t give good reviews. Or idk, but they can’t all be so nice!
Anyways, half of that grade is given by radio presenters who like shit, the other half is given by pretentious arseholes who also like shit, but blue. Don’t look at rotten tomatoes either, it’s the average of average people – and your tastes aren’t average!
Do back to number 3 and find yourself that reviewer, they’re the only ones you trust to see things that aren’t inspiring on their own. Of course you can also go see other stuff you want! But for weird shit, stick to their judgment.
Five: When you’re at the cinema, don’t go in the room just yet
If you enter the room, you’ll have to see the ads which is very annoying, but also you’ll have to see the trailers! And this is your second worst nightmare after the blurb, because the trailers are always made of shit. They either show you the only two nice line of the entire movie, or they give it a weird fucking vibe. There’s never been a single indie movie i’ve wanted to go see based on the trailer.
Skip the ads, skip the trailers. Any modern system lets you pick a seat in advance. If it doesn’t, go in during the ads to put your coat down, and tell people you’re going to the toilet. Peek into the room once in a while so you don’t miss the beginning.
In France, i know to come back in once the Disney or the Marvel trailers start, because they always put the biggest promotional budgets at the last minute so that people who like you who try to skip the ads still see them. And you don’t give a shit about the Marvel on Disney trailers because you either know you’re gonna go, you won’t, and it’s not gonna change based on 30 seconds of footage.
Six: Read the review after
You’ve seen the movie? Great! Did you understand it? Maybe not well. In this case go on YouTube, find a little gal that explains the end, and the symbols, and all that shit. Tremendously useful when you don’t know shit – how are you supposed to know what’s new or visionary otherwise? It’s like English literature, you might not agree: maybe the curtains are just blue or maybe it’s just fucking that deep?
Go back to your potential trusted reviewer and compare notes. If you agree, kudos to them, and invite me to the wedding! Start building trust in your heart, so that when they advise you to see the vacuum cleaner movie you’ll go with an open mind.
Seven: Go see those movies AT THE CINEMA
You could see them at home, but honestly, I don’t recommend. You will click off, and close your browser. Don’t pretend you won’t (or you wouldn’t be here asking for advice!)
Use the sunk costs fallacies: you did all that effort to get to the cinema, you got a ticket, you found your room in their maze, you fought the queue for popcorn… you might as well stick it til the end!
Plus, when you’re in the middle of a row, with people left and right, there’s a little more friction to quitting. And this friction is necessary because all indie movies take a little bit to get going. It will be weird, slow, you won’t care about anything or anyone, they won’t be holding your hand to make you like it.
Being in the theater makes you a tiny bit more likely to stick past that slump and see the full thing!
Also, if it’s a foreign movie, you’ll have the good subtitles because when you buy the movie on the Internet or worse if your pirate it (the point of going to see indie movies is to support the industry so wtf would you do that?? at least pirate the shitty marvel movies if you’re broke), even when you buy it legally the subtitles are always fucked. They’ll be too late too early, but in the theater they’ll be on time.
And of course it also looks a lot better on the big screen with a nice sound system, so give yourself every chance you can to enjoy the movie!
Eight: don’t be hangry
Speaking of friction, get some food. No, don’t be the fucking annoying person who’s crunching that popcorn at full volume. But also get yourself a big thing of popcorn because then you have to eat it. You cannot eat popcorn on the street because you would look like a fucking moron and you are a sheep at heart (see previous point), so what are you gonna do, waste the popcorn?
No, you’re gonna eat all of it and maybe that we will take you through the beginning, and then you will be involved in the characters and you’ll stick it through!
Plus it’s much easier to enjoy a movie if you’re fed and watered (but not too much or you’ll have to go pee and miss half the action).
Nine: Do quit
With all I’ve said about all the tricks to make you stay in that cinema, also don’t hesitate to quit if you really don’t like it.
It’s not a contest, you don’t get bonus points for sticking to the end of the movie when you’re bored and annoyed. We can just quit and we should! Don’t torture yourself with bad movies, or you won’t ever go see one again, and you’ll have completely failed at your new year resolution =/
Ten
I really wanted a number 10, but I can’t come up with anything new so I’ll leave you with one parting word from a small teensy-tiny woman: if like me, you’re 4.7 feet4, take a seat booster!
I’ve been presently surprised recently to see that the seat boosters of old, made of hard plastic that hurt your bottom, have been replaced by plush cushions that are really nice on my behind <3
Have fun, save your butt, and let your eyes see the movie!
With love,
By the way, here are a few movie reviews analysis I’ve done recently:
(not that the Predator is an indie movie in any way lol)
for the purpose of this, i define “indie movie” as anything and everything my grandma wouldn’t see. So like not a marvel, not a disney, and not those super big movies everyone in your family wants to see. Although the advice also applies if you’re scared of going to see those!
French movies come out on Wednesday, because it used to be a no school day, so children were more likely to go
i don’t review movies though, only occasionally when i have something to say like here or here <- there’s a god in that one, and a rainbow boy in the one before wink wink ADD LINKED
or however it is that you write that in freedom units, it’s 1m47
This is actually great (and hilarious) advice. Also, I’ve recently started using a seat booster for my car and maybe should start taking into more places where I cannot see