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The landscape for independent films has changed rapidly. On one hand, the opportunity to build a theatrical release has become increasingly difficult, but on the other hand, digital release has given indies a chance to play to a broad national audience at once. Each week, new indie releases will be profiled and because they might not be playing at a theater near you, one highly recommended film available now a click or two away via VOD (whether a new or not quite new release) will be presented for viewing without leaving your computer.

New releases for April 26th

Arthur Newman: Arthur Newman is the story of a divorced absentee father played by Colin Firth. Completely dissatisfied with his life, he decides to start fresh. He fakes his death, creates a false identity, and sets off to lead his new life, which he assumes will be better. Along the way he picks up a troubled young woman (Emily Blunt) as he heads to Indiana to become a golf pro. Along the way he discovers that you may be able to run away from your life but you can’t escape the aspects of yourself that led you to that position in the first place.

At Any Price: Director Ramin Bahrani has had success on the film festival circuit with his films Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and Goodbye Solo. He has landed a higher profile cast in his new feature, At Any Price, which stars Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron as father and son in this family drama. Quaid plays a lifelong farmer who is looking to pass on the family business to his son, but his racecar driving son has other aspirations with dreams of one day racing in NASCAR.

Kon-Tiki People drifting across the Pacific on flimsy boats seemed to be a popular theme at the most recent Oscars. Life of Pi won Ang Lee a Best Director Oscar, and Kon-Tiki nabbed a Best Foreign Film nomination for Norway. The film is a dramatization of Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition in which he set out to demonstrate that Polynesia could have been settled by South Americans who traveled there by sea. He embarks from Peru on a balsawood raft with a crew of five men to re-enact the journey as it would have been done by indigenous people 1500 years ago.

Midnight’s Children Based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Salmon Rushdie, and directed by Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta, Midnight’s Children tells the story of two men who were switched at birth on the eve of India’s independence in 1947. Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate son of a poor woman and Shiva, the son of a wealthy couple, live each other’s destiny until their lives become intertwined throughout India’s triumphs and struggles as a new independent nation.

Mud: After making a stream of forgettable romantic comedies, Matthew McConaughey has been on a hot streak with a string of memorable performances in indie films such as Bernie, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, and Magic Mike. In Mud, McConaughey plays the titular character, who is a fugitive on the run hiding out on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. He befriends two teenage boys who aid him in eluding the law and bounty hunters while planning on reuniting and running off with an old love.

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