Indie Picks: At The Movies This Weekend

Focus Features

Beginners (Alamo South Lamar, Regal Arbor)
This is only the second feature film from Mike Mills, whose 2005 debut was the delightfully oddball Thumbsucker. Chances are, this film took some time to come together because it was an intensely personal story. When Mills' late father was 75, he came out to his son. Mills has said that his dad had "five very intense, brand-new years of being gay and being very free."

That story was translated into this autobiographical tale, which follows Oliver (played by Ewan McGregor), an artist with a series of failed relationships. While he begins a new romance with a French actress named Anna (Mélanie Laurent), we go back in time and watch Oliver's relationship with his father Hal (Christopher Plummer), and experience moments in their lives after his father reveals his true self.

The film's structure expertly balances the lightest and darkest moments of Hal's last years as he begins to battle cancer. While he falls in love with a younger man, his reinvigorated passion for life is unfortunately no match for the war being waged inside his own body.

Beginners features some of the finest performances we've seen so far this year and it tells a story that we don't often get to see in any medium. Gay or straight, the love lives of senior citizens are not usually explored in popular culture. This loving tribute to a father from his son consistently hits all the right notes. While it deals with grief and loss, it is an irresistible story about making the most of your life and living each day to its fullest. It hits area theaters this weekend with our strongest recommendation.

Buck (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown)
Winner of the Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival (and an official selection at SXSW), first time director Cindy Meehl follows American cowboy Buck Brannaman in this documentary about the man who inspired the novel and film The Horse Whisperer. It's a film that The Hollywood Reporter called "a quietly captivating portrait of an unlikely character. Buck is as modest as its subject and wins viewers over just as easily."

Also this weekend:
This month's Cinema Club at the Alamo Ritz on Sunday night features Winnebago Man director Ben Steinbauer presenting a rare archival 35mm print of SALESMAN. This acclaimed 1968 documentary about traveling bible salesmen was co-directed by Albert and David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin. Steinbauer will introduce the film and lead a post-film discussion with the audience.