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5 Indie Movies This Week: Is God Is, Driver’s Ed, My Dinner with Andre, & More · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of May 15, 2026.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This week in theaters, we've got a revenge road story about twin sisters carrying burn scars and a mission their mother gives them.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a teen road trip comedy where a group of students steals the driver's ed car for a last-ditch reunion.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got a horror film that starts with a shy guy making a wish for love, then realizing he just built his own nightmare.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: On demand, I'm spotlining a twisty two-hander thriller that keeps changing shape the more you watch it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And for a classic, we're celebrating a movie that's literally just two men talking over dinner, and it still feels like a high-stakes event.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you want indie films to keep getting real screens, show up on opening weekend.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: That first run is when these movies either get oxygen or get squeezed out.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of Indie Film Weekly is brought to you by Circus Road Films, helping independent filmmakers find their audience since 2006.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Learn more at CircusRodefilms.com.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our first indie film in theaters this week is Is God Is.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Alicia Harris, this thriller follows two sisters, Racine and Anaya, who lived with disfiguring burn scars from childhood.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Their mother is bedridden, and she gives them a direct order.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Find their abusive father, the man who caused the fire, and kill him.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is the setup.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the film is the sisters trying to decide what that order actually means once it becomes real.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Racine is the rough one, the sister who can turn pain into motion.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anaya is the quiet one, the sister who hears every consequence before it arrives.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: The movie pushes them out into the world with a purpose that sounds clean on paper, but gets messy fast because revenge is not a single act.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a series of choices, and each one changes who you are.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Cara Young and Mallory Johnson play the sisters, and the story gives them the room to be angry without being reduced to anger.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sterling K.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Brown plays the father, credited as the monster, which tells you the film is not interested in softening the past.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Vivica A.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Fox plays the Mother Ruby, and the family dynamic feels like a curse that keeps getting handed down.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you like stories where justice and mercy are in a fight to the death, this one is built for you.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Our second indie film in theaters this week is Driver's Ed.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Bobby Farrelly, it's a teen road trip comedy with a premise that is both dumb and in high school terms completely logical.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: A senior is desperate to reunite with his college freshman girlfriend, so he and a group of friends take their school's driver's education car and hit the road.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a terrible plan, which is exactly why it works as a movie.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: The stakes are not saving the world.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: The stakes are teenage urgency, the fear of being left behind, and the belief that one big gesture can fix what distance is breaking.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sam Navola plays the lead, and he has the right energy for a kid who is convinced he's making a romantic move while everyone else can see the chaos coming.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: You also get Kamal Nanjani and Molly Shannon in the mix, which gives the film some adult comic weight without turning it into an adult movie.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: The fun here is the driver's ed car itself, a rolling symbol of being almost grown, but not quite.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: The trip becomes a pressure cooker for friendships, crushes, jealousy, and the kind of bad decision making that feels heroic at 17.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Expect misadventures, shifting alliances, and the slow realization that reunion is not the same thing as happily ever after, even if you arrive.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our last any film in theaters this week is Obsession.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Curry Barker, it starts with Bear, a shy music store employee who has been in love with his best friend Nikki for years and cannot bring himself to risk the friendship by saying it out loud.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, he does the worst possible thing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: He uses a mysterious wish object, often described as a one-wish willow, to make Nikki love him more than anyone else in the world.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: For a moment, it feels like he got what he wanted.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then the wish shows its teeth.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nicki's love becomes unrelenting, suffocating, and terrifying.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: The movie turns that romantic fantasy into a horror trap because Bear is no longer dealing with rejection.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's dealing with someone who will not let him breathe, leave, or have a thought that isn't about her.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Johnston plays Bear with a nervous decency that makes his choice feel human, even when you're yelling at the screen for him to stop.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Navaret plays Nikki, and the film gives her a transformation that is scary because it's personal.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a demon in the attic, it's your closest relationship becoming your predator.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Barker comes out of the internet horror world, and you can feel that sharp sense of pacing and escalation.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The setup is simple.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: The fallout is relentless.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you like horror that weaponizes desire itself, this is your weekend.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So in theaters this week, that's Is God Is, Driver's Ed, and Obsession.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our spotlight indie film on demand this week is Strange Darling.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by JT Molner, it's a thriller that drops you into what looks like a messy one-night stand and then starts pulling the floor out from under you.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: The story follows a woman and a man who meet, connect, and quickly find themselves in a situation that turns violent.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: The movie is structured to keep you off balance.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You think you know who's chasing who, then a new piece of information reframes the scene you just watched.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It plays with point of view, timing, and assumption, so the tension is not only what happens next, but what did I miss?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Willa Fitzgerald is the center of gravity because she has to carry fear, strategy, and aggression without the film announcing which mode you should trust.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Kyle Garner plays the man opposite her, and the pairing works because both actors can read as vulnerable and dangerous depending on the moment.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's also a real craft pleasure here.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: The film is tense, but it's also clean in how it sets up space and movement.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you always understand the geography even when you don't understand the truth yet.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you like thrillers that reward paying attention, this one is a strong rental.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can rent it on Apple TV and Prime Video.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Our indie film classic this week is My Dinner with Andre celebrating its 45th anniversary.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Louis Mall, it's one of the boldest nothing happens movies ever made because what happens is a conversation that keeps getting deeper until it feels like the world outside the restaurant disappears.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wallaceon plays a version of himself, a theater guy who just wants dinner in a normal evening.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: He meets his old friend Andre Gregory, also playing a version of himself, and Andre arrives like a man who's been living in a different dimension.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Over the course of the meal, Andre tells stories about the experiences that changed him: experimental theater, spiritual searching, extreme situations that sound half inspiring and half insane.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sean listens, pushes back, and gradually reveals his own worldview, practical, skeptical, and quietly afraid of wasting his life.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The movie's tension comes from ideas colliding and from how friendship lets you say things you would never say to anyone else.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny, uncomfortable, and oddly suspenseful because you keep waiting for the moment one of them snaps or admits the thing underneath the story.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: The genius is that it never turns into a debate club.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: It stays human.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Two people trying to decide what a meaningful life even is, and whether either of them is actually living one.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch on HTBO Max or the Criterion Channel or rent it on Apple TV or Amazon Video.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that wraps it for the May 15, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly.
• 8:36
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• 8:39
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• 8:42
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• 8:46
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• 8:49
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• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, keep it bold, keep it sharp, and keep it indie.