There are a great many subcategories under the wide umbrella of "world and independent films" -- bootstrap productions with five figure budgets, Oscar-baiting grand-scale foreign language films, and low budget horror flick with no stars. Jordan Hoffman gives you his permission to skip Alexandre Courtes' Asylum Blackout, a movie about lunatics in an insane asylum wreaking bloody havoc with all the good will in the world.

Asylum Blackout is currently playing in theaters in limited release and is available on VOD. Read Jordan's review.

Mia Hansen-Love's Goodbye First Love is a melancholic movie about young lovers. Camille (Lola Creton) is only fifteen years old when she falls in love with Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky). His love, he claims passionately, is equally intense - and yet, he has wanderlust. His love for Camille is a burden, a hindrance, and though he can't be without her, he often goes makes just that choice.

Mia Hansen-Love's second film, after the remarkable Father of My Children, seems less ambitious, focusing on a much smaller story.  Scenes are beautifully rendered and the film is gorgeous to look at. Camillle, especially, is always interesting to behold. Goodbye First Love is currently playing in theaters. Read Marcy's review. 

Jordan Hoffman made a marvelous discovery at the Sarasota Film Festival: the unconventionally beautiful actress Kate Lyn Sheil. She appeared in four films at the independent film festival, including Kris Swanberg's Empire Builder. The striking indepdendent film, about a young mother that starts an affair in a house in the woods, brought to mind the works of none other than Abbas Kiarastomi.

Read Jordan's review.

Damsels in Distress, Whit Stillman's much awaited return to cinema, is a genuine charmer. Greta Gerwig shines as Violet, leader of a group of college coeds at a Seven Oaks College.

Damsels in Distress is currently playing in theaters in limited release. Read Jordan Hoffman's rave review.