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5 Indie Movies This Week: Chum, Underland, Trainspotting, & More · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of June 5th, 2026.
• 0:05
  I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:07
  This week in theaters, we've got a destination wedding that turns into a survival situation with the ocean on one side and a human nightmare on the other.
• 0:17
  We've got a documentary that heads underground into caves, tunnels, and deep science labs to show how much of the world we never see.
• 0:24
  And we've got a romantic crime story where a young woman links up with a charming con man while searching for her estranged mother.
• 0:32
  Quick ask before we move on.
• 0:35
  If you can see one of these in a theater this weekend, please do.
• 0:39
  Indie films don't get a long runway, and opening weekend tickets are what keeps show times from evaporating.
• 0:46
  On demand, I've got a two-hander that's basically one long cab ride, and it still manages to surprise you.
• 0:53
  And for our classic, we're celebrating a 30th anniversary re-release that plays like a time capsule with a live wire inside it.
• 1:00
  Want the written version of these picks each week?
• 1:03
  I also publish the Indie Film Weekly Newsletter.
• 1:06
  It's the same five films in a quick read.
• 1:10
  Sign up at newsletter.com.
• 1:15
  Let's dive in.
• 1:17
  Our first indie film in theaters this week is Chum, directed by Jonathan Zuck.
• 1:23
  It starts with a destination wedding in Malta that's supposed to be sun, vows, and a hangover you can laugh about on Monday.
• 1:31
  The newlyweds and their friends head out on a yacht excursion, and the first problem is a shark in the water.
• 1:37
  That would be enough for most people to call it a day, but the bigger problem is on the boat.
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  A fisherman with his own agenda turns the celebration into a trap, and suddenly the group is stuck between open water and a human predator who can follow them anywhere.
• 1:52
  The film plays with that awful vacation feeling.
• 1:56
  The moment you realize you're far from home, nobody is coming, and your cute itinerary has turned into a survival math problem.
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  The couple's relationship gets stress tested in real time as secrets surface, loyalties shift, and the group starts making the kind of decisions you only make when adrenaline is driving.
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  Alice Eve is the recognizable face here, and she brings the right mix of composure and panic as things escalate.
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  And yes, the title becomes a dark joke very fast.
• 2:29
  If you like your thriller setups clean and your danger immediate, this one doesn't waste time.
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  It's sharks, then it's people, and it keeps tightening until somebody runs out of options.
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  Our second film in theaters this week is Underland.
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  Directed by Rob Pettit.
• 2:47
  This documentary is inspired by Robert McFarland's book and built around one irresistible premise.
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  The world under our feet is a whole other planet.
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  The film moves through caves, tunnels, labs, cenotees, and storm drains, following people who go below ground for very different reasons.
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  You meet a Mexican archaeologist descending into a sacred Maya cenote.
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  You meet a physicist working deep underground on dark matter research in the Canadian lab.
• 3:17
  You meet an urban explorer mapping hidden spaces in Las Vegas, including the storm-drain world, where unhoused people live out of sight.
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  The film links these places through the idea of deep time, the sense that the underground holds memory differently than the surface does.
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  It's part science, part travelogue, part mood piece, with narration that leans poetic instead of journalistic.
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  The strongest moments come when the film contrasts natural worlds, ancient, quiet, and different, with human-made ones, coldware bunkers, utility tunnels, and spaces built to hide what we don't want to face.
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  Visually, it's the kind of film that makes you sit up and lean in because the textures are unreal.
• 4:03
  It's not horror, but it does make the surface world feel suddenly flimsy.
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  If you like docks that feel like an essay you can walk through, this one will scratch that itch.
• 4:14
  Our last indie film in theaters this week is Carolina Caroline, directed by Adam Carter Raymeyer.
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  It follows a young woman who links up with a charming con man on the run and winds up in a moving target of life.
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  Part romance, part crime spree, part search mission.
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  Caroline isn't just looking for excitement.
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  She's looking for her estranged mother, and the trip through the Southeast becomes a messy, impulsive attempt to find the person who disappeared from her life.
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  The con man sells the dream of freedom, easy money, no rules, and a clean break from the past.
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  The film keeps asking whether that dream is real or just a different kind of trap.
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  What makes the setup fun is that the hustle is constant.
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  They're always improvising, always talking their way into something, always trying to stay one step ahead of the consequences.
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  There's also a romantic charge that's equal parts chemistry and bad judgment, which is the correct combination for this sort of story.
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  Raymeyer has a good eye for the way a couple can feel like a private world even while they're leaving wreckage behind them.
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  It doesn't moralize, it watches the choices and lets them land.
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  If you like movies where the charm is real, but the danger is real too, this is a good Friday night pick.
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  So in theaters this week, that's Chum, Underland, and Carolina Caroline.
• 5:37
  Our spotlight indie film on demand this week is Daddy O.
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  Written and directed by Christy Hall.
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  It's basically one long cab ride from JFK into Manhattan, and the entire movie lives in the front seats.
• 5:51
  A woman credited as Gurley climbs into a yellow taxi after a trip and winds up in an unexpectedly intimate conversation with her driver, Clark.
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  They talk about relationships, sex, loneliness, and the stories people tell to make their own choices feel less messy.
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  Dakota Johnson plays Gurley with a guarded confidence that keeps cracking as the ride goes on.
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  Sean Penn plays Clark as a guy who's seen enough of the city to think he's immune to surprise until he isn't.
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  The hook is that nothing happens in the conventional sense, yet the power keeps shifting because questions become confessions and jokes become reveals.
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  It's also a New York movie in a very specific way.
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  The city is there as light, movement, traffic, and nighttime anonymity, but the real action is in faces, pauses, and the split decision to answer honestly.
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  If you like talkie films that actually earn the talk, this is a great on-demand pick.
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  You can rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, or Fandango at home.
• 6:55
  Our indie film classic this week is Trainspotting, celebrating its 30th anniversary.
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  Directed by Danny Boyle, it follows Mark Renton, a young guy in Edinburgh who keeps trying to choose life and keeps getting dragged back toward heroin and the orbit of friends who normalize self-destruction.
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  The film isn't a drug movie that stays in one mode.
• 7:17
  It's hilarious, disgusting, tender, and terrifying sometimes in the same minute.
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  Rinton's crew is a rotating disaster, sweet, reckless, violent, and somehow loyal until loyalty stops being convenient.
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  Ewan McGregor plays Rinton with the exact mix of charm and self-loathing that makes you understand why he can talk himself into anything.
• 7:44
  Robert Carlyle shows up as Begby, the kind of friend who turns every room into a hazard zone just by entering it.
• 7:51
  What still holds up is Boyle's energy and control.
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  He makes addiction feel seductive, then immediately makes it feel like a trap you can't climb out of without losing pieces of yourself.
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  The film also captures that early 20s panic, the fear that your life is already set and you didn't get a vote.
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  This is a movie that plays even better with an audience because the laughs catch in your throat and you can feel the room reacting together.
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  It's back in theaters in a new 4K restoration, and you can also rent it on YouTube.
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  And that wraps it for the June 5th, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly.
• 8:29
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• 8:32
  Subscribe so you don't miss next week.
• 8:34
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• 8:41
  Then leave a quick review, even one sentence helps.
• 8:44
  Until next week, keep it curious, keep it brave, and keep it indie.