The Indie Fresh List: Two Coming-of-Age Tales and a False Preacher

Join us weekly as Rotten Tomatoes reports on what’s indie features are streaming. From promising releases by new voices to experimental efforts from storied filmmakers – or perhaps the next indie darling to go the distance for end-of-year accolades – we will break it all down for you here each week.

For the foreseeable future, the specialty box office and all theatrical releases will be on hold as we all make efforts to socially distance ourselves and reduce the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. With that in mind, we have reshaped our Indie Fresh List. This week for our fresh picks we have coming-of-age tale set in 1990s South Korea, a teen drama about a navigating an unfamiliar culture, and a dramatic story about faith and redemption. In our Spotlight section, we have an illuminating documentary about trans performers in entertainment led by Orange Is the New Black’s Laverne Cox.

Streaming This Weekend

Corpus Christi (2019) 98%

Corpus Christi was a near-universally lauded staple of the fall festival circuit last year. Screening at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, the film was showered with praise and awards, and it was the Polish selection for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards. The story centers on a young man sentenced to a youth detention center who has a spiritual awakening and impersonates a vicar at a small Parrish after his release. Bartosz Bielenia’s captivating performance is further illuminated by Jan Komasa’s skill behind the camera, creating “a quite interesting and irresistible movie, a cross between Paul Schrader’s recent film of spiritual crisis, First Reformed, and Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can,” according to G. Allen Johnson of the San Fransico Chronicle.

Available to rent or buy now on FandangoNow, Vudu, Amazon, and iTunes.

The Last Tree (2019) 98%

The Last Tree follows Femi, a Nigerian boy raised by his adoptive white mother in Lincolnshire who is suddenly moved to London as an adolescent after his biological mother regains custody. Akin to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood as seen through the eyes of a first-generation African immigrant, the film is an intimate and beautifully shot coming-of-age story. “Culture shock, abandonment issues, and inner-city turmoil produce a PTSD that is rarely acknowledged in film in this way. For that, The Last Tree is a triumph,” writes Dwight Brown for National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Available to screen now via Virtual Cinemas.

House of Hummingbird (2018) 98%

House of Hummingbird is a quiet period piece that recreates the booming expansion of Seoul, South Korea in the early ’90s. Writer-director Kim Bora uses the imagery of a hummingbird on a search for nectar to translate the main character’s journey through her neighborhood. Currently Fresh at 100% on the Tomatometer, “House of Hummingbird digs deep beneath the shine and luster of the rapidly industrializing Seoul of the ’90s and instead focuses on the cracks that were beginning to form under the surface,” writes Hoai-Tran Bui for SlashFilm.

Available to screen now via Virtual Cinemas.

Available to Stream – Spotlight Pick

Disclosure (2020) 98%

Likely the most in-depth examination of Transgender depictions in entertainment, Disclosure is a powerful documentary that highlights how activism can be effected on screen. Documenting over 100 years of history from A Florida Enchantment (1914) to Pose (2018), the film studies every instance, not just the uplifting ones. Entertainers Laverne Cox, MJ Rodriguez, and Jamie Clayton alongside filmmakers Yance Ford and Lilly Wachowski all lend their commentary to the documentary, which Ben Travis for Empire Magazine wrote is “a captivating and comprehensive overview of trans representations in the media that everyone should add to their Netflix watchlist.”

Streaming now on Netflix.

Along with…

• Yourself and Yours (2016) , a South Korean drama about a young couple who decide to take a break, only for the woman to disappear and another woman who looks just like her to appear in her place.
• Swallow (2019) , about an affluent housewife who develops a deadly case of pica — the urge to swallow inanimate objects.
• Selah and the Spades (2019) , a teen-angst drama set at an all-girls school with elite cliques.
• The Assistant (2019) , about a young Hollywood assistant to a predatory producer who struggles when presented with daily evidence of his abuse of women.
• Circus of Books (2019) , a documentary about an iconic gay pornographic bookstore and the quiet heterosexual couple who ran it.
• Parasite (2019) , a darkly comedic satire about the terrifying antics that ensue when an underprivileged family latches on to a more affluent one and things go sideways.
• True History of the Kelly Gang (2019) , a stylistic re-telling of the Ned Kelly legend.
• End of Sentence (2019) , about a father who goes a road trip with his son to honor the last wishes of his deceased wife.
• Becky (2020) , a thriller about a girl left alone who must battle escaped convicts when they invade her vacation home.
• Blue Story (2019) , a drama about two childhood friends who are torn apart by gang violence.
• () , about a man on a mission to murder his girlfriend’s father.
• EMMA. (2020) , a new adaptation of the Jane Austen novel about a naive, privileged heiress who plays matchmaker, to the detriment of her own romantic prospects.
• You Don't Nomi (2019) , a detailed examination of Paul Veerhovon’s Showgirls and its cult-like status.
• The Vast of Night (2019) , a sci-fi thriller about a young ham radio operator and a local DJ who hear a strange radio transmission.
• The Trip to Greece (2020) , the fourth and final installment of The Trip travel series.
• Premature (2019) , about a young poet who has a summer romance with a music producer who has just moved to the city.
• Working Man (2019) , about a duo of laid-off factory workers who inspire their fellow employees to keep working after their plant is closed.
• The Wretched (2019) , about a child who discovers a dark wiccan force is kidnapping children in the forest near his house.
• Shirley (2020) , a loose biography about the recluse novelist behind The Haunting of Hill House.
• The Painter and the Thief (2020) , a documentary about an artist who develops an unexpected friendship with one of the men who stole some of her paintings.
• Porno (2019) , a horror-comedy about a group of theater employees who unleash a succubus when they watch a horror film they find in storage.
• Miss Juneteenth (2020) , a drama about a former beauty queen who looks to recapture her glory through her rebellious daughter’s own pageant run.
• The Short History of the Long Road (2019) , about a girl and her father who live nomadic lives out of their van.
• Babyteeth (2019) , a dark rom-com about a sickly girl who falls for the town screw-up.

Thumbnail images by ArtMattan Films, Well Go USA Entertainment, Film Movement