Indie Picks: At The Movies This Weekend

Optimum Releasing / Screen Gems

Attack The Block (Alamo South Lamar)
This British sci-fi flick is the directorial debut of Joe Cornish and already stirred up audiences at South By Southwest earlier this year. In recent weeks, it has also seen a series of free promotional screenings in town to gauge audience reaction beyond the initial internet fanboys. It seems as though things are going outrageously well in terms of word of mouth, but Sony's Screen Gems division is also testing the waters very slowly, opening the picture in a mere seven U.S. markets this weekend.

Our own Matt Frederick wrote a review of the film earlier this week, coming to the conclusion that Attack The Block is an absolute blast. Though it may do the film a great disservice to describe it simply as a raunchier, British Super 8, if that packs the seats, feel free to use that description to convince your friends to join you this weekend. The film, which also has a killer score from Basement Jaxx, is the perfect escape from a hot summer day. It opens this weekend exclusively at the Alamo South Lamar and comes with our highest recommendation.

Also opening:
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema)
Actor Michael Rapaport directed this acclaimed documentary about legendary hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. He gathers interviews with all the original members along with folks like the Beastie Boys, Common, Mos Def, and Kanye West. After the film debuted at Sundance earlier this year, it immediately began to stir up controversy, mostly from the group's members themselves. Q-Tip has been very vocal about his problems with the movie, while still encouraging fans to see it.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema)
We're big fans of Wayne Wang's work. Well, we're fans of Smoke and Blue In The Face, maybe a little less so of Maid In Manhattan. His latest film tells the story about the friendship between two girls in 19th century China, and the Hollywood Reporter has called it one of Wang's best films. Still, that is one of the very few positive things we've seen about this one so far. It currently has a rather abysmal rating of 44 on Metacritic, where most of the reviews fall into the mixed category. Perhaps the most interesting bit of trivia about the production, given the current News Corporation scandals: 'Snow Flower' was produced by Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi, who was able to secure U.S. distribution through Fox Searchlight for the film.