Staring out of the window while trying to revise for exams, some delightfully quirky Indie films came into our minds.  A good old Indie flick may be just the procrastination-instigator needed to clear away the rainy, revision blues.  Go on, take a break, watch one of these…

Rushmore
The 1998 film is about first love (and loss) as seen through the bitter sweet eye-quirk of Wes Anderson.  Max Fischer, played by Jason Schwartzman, is the teenage protagonist who befriends Billy Murray’s Herman Blume; they both love elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross.  Comedy ensues and a satisfying ending is promised.

The Good Girl
A potentially bleak tale shot with humour (phew!).  Set in Texas, Jennifer Aniston’s character, Justine leads a dull life.  Luckily for the normally good (and married) girl, Jake Gyllenhaal, in the form of Holden Worther, comes into town and they embark on an affair.  The plot takes a twist and some of the more twisted characters reveal themselves but, eventually, Justine comes to terms with being ‘good’. 

Juno
A feel-good film with romance, profundity and lots of laughs, it sees the feisty teenager, Juno, played by Ellen Page, come to terms with her unplanned pregnancy.  Her family and friends rally round to support her during her pregnancy and she decides to have her unborn baby adopted.  As the months pass and Juno’s pregnancy develops, all the characters seem to grow and the film ends hopefully with a song…

Little Miss Sunshine
A ray of sunlight shone on a truly dysfunctional family and their Volkswagen T2 Microbus as they journey to California so that the seven-year-old, Olive can take part in the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ beauty pageant.  A problematic but humorous road-trip takes place with all sorts of obstacles (and catastrophes).  On reaching California, the pageant is just as eventful as the journey to get there and they leave in a similar manner in which they arrived. 

Donnie Darko
A cryptic and dark film with a science fiction slant that follows the bright but disturbed teenager, Donnie Darko, as he has a series of cryptic dreams and hallucinations.  He hears the voice of Frank (a man in a creepy rabbit suit) tell him that the world will end soon and then tells him to take certain actions which lead Donnie into further trouble.  The film ends rather chillingly but almost as enigmatically as it begins…