The A.V. Club's 50 most important American independent movies
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What makes an independent film? The question has never had a straightforward answer, and the cultural criteria that define an indie has changed over the decades. But by and large, it has always been something that couldn’t have been made within the Hollywood system. In our attempt to assemble a list of the most important American indies, we have included works by mavericks, film school grads, and true outsiders; productions with multimillion-dollar budgets and labors of love financed through part-time jobs; movies that played the arthouse, the grindhouse, or barely anywhere at all.
Some were massive box office hits, while others languished in obscurity for decades. Not all of our selections would rank among the best American independent movies ever made. Instead, the films on this list are the ones that broke new ground, created genres, or first introduced important artistic voices and subjects into American film.
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12 new
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
1971, in 12 top lists Check -
21 new
El Norte
1983, in 5 top lists Check -
23 new
Blood Simple
1984, in 10 top lists Check -
39 new
Memento
2000, in 27 top lists Check -
44 new
Primer
2004, in 6 top lists Check
Last updated on Sep 17, 2020 by Teproc; source