Latest / Indie Film Weekly / 5 Indie Movies This Week: The Invite, Romería, Take Shelter & More

Transcript

5 Indie Movies This Week: The Invite, Romería, Take Shelter & More · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of June 26, 2026.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This week in theaters, we've got a very adult comedy about a rocky marriage, upstairs neighbors, and the kind of invitation that can ruin a perfectly normal evening.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a Spanish family drama about an orphaned young woman heading to the Atlantic coast with her mother's diary and a lot of unanswered questions.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got a witchy camp story about trauma, friendship, and cycles that refuse to stay buried.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Quick ask before we move on.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't see one of these films in a theater this weekend, indie films need early audiences, not just theoretical support.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: A ticket is the clearest way to say keep movies like this on screens.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: On demand, I'm revisiting a strange sharp identity thriller I covered about a year ago because it's very much worth catching.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And for our classic, we're celebrating a 50th anniversary, America Indie, about bad dreams, storm shelters, and the terrifying possibility that paranoia might be preparation.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Want the written version of these picks each week?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I also publish the Indie Film Weekly newsletter.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same five films in a quick read.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up at newsletter.com.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Our first indie film in theaters this week is The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is a relationship comedy built around one of those dinner party setups where you can feel the social floor cracking before anyone sits down.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Joe and Angela are married, unhappy, and clearly stuck in the phase where every conversation has a second conversation hiding underneath it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then their upstairs neighbors invite them over and reveal the special activity that has been keeping their own marriage interesting.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: A weekly orgy.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not the whole joke.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: The real engine is what the invitation does to Joe and Angela, because suddenly all the stuff they have not been saying has a new spotlight on it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Seth Rogan plays Joe, and he's very good at men who think they are being reasonable while panic leaks out of every pore.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Penelope Cruz plays Pina, one of the neighbors, and she brings the kind of confidence that would make any anxious guest start rethinking their outfit, their marriage, and their life choices.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Wilde keeps the premise playful, but the comedy works because the feelings are recognizable.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Desire, resentment, curiosity, jealousy, and fear all walk into the same apartment.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody has the right shoes for it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Our second film in theaters this week is Romeria, written and directed by Carlos Simone.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: This follows Marina, an 18-year-old orphan who travels to Vigo on Spain's Atlantic coast to get a signature from the paternal grandparents she has never met.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: At first, the trip has a practical purpose.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: She needs paperwork for a scholarship.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds simple until family enters the room.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Marina arrives with her mother's diary and starts moving through a network of aunts, uncles, cousins, and old stories that do not all match.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone seems to remember her parents differently, and everyone has their own version of what should be said, what should be softened, and what should stay locked away.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: The film is fictionalized from Simone's own family history, and you can feel that personal courage and how it handles memory.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Marina is not solving a mystery like a detective.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: She's assembling an emotional map out of fragments, contradictions, and the awkward hospitality of relatives who are both strangers and family.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Lucia Garcia plays Marina with a watchful openness, like someone trying to absorb everything without getting swallowed by it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The title means pilgrimage, and that is exactly what this feels like.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not a vacation, not a clean homecoming.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: A trip toward the people who might help you understand where you came from, whether they want to or not.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our last indie film in theaters this week is Camp.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Avalon Fast, this is a witchy horror drama about Emily, a camp counselor carrying trauma into a place where nature, friendship, and ritual all start to blur.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Summer Camp is already a perfect horror setting because everything is too cheerful on the surface.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Cabins, lakes, team activities, forced bonding, ad grief and witchcraft, and suddenly the craft table starts to feel less wholesome.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: The story deals with impossible redemption and duels that repeat themselves like cursed cycles, which is a great phrase for anyone who has ever said, I'm not doing this again, and then immediately did it again.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Fast appears interested in the emotional side of horror, the way pain can become a pattern, and how friendships between women can feel protective one minute and dangerous the next.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: The film does not need a giant mythology dump to work.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: It has the campfire ingredients, isolation, young people trying to reinvent themselves, old wounds, and rituals that may stay symbolic.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: What makes this a strong indie slot is the tone.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like it wants atmosphere and feeling as much as it scares.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you like low-budget genre that treats witchcraft as both power and trouble, this one is worth watching with a crowd.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: So in theaters this week, that's The Invite, Rumeria, and Camp.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Our spotlight indie film on demand this week is A Different Man, directed by Aaron Schimberg, and yes, I covered this in 2025, but it is exactly the kind of weird, prickly movie that benefits from a second push.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sebastian Stan plays Edward, an aspiring actor with facial differences, who undergoes a radical medical procedure that changes his appearance.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: At first it looks like a door to a new life.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then the old problems simply put on a nicer coat.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Edward becomes obsessed with a role based on his former life, especially when another man, Oswald, played by Adam Pearson, seems to step into the space Edward thought should belong to him.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: The movie is funny in a wince-inducing way because it keeps exposing the gap between transformation and self-acceptance.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's also sharp about acting, envy, and the fantasy that if one thing about you changed, everything else would finally make sense.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Schimberg does not let anyone off easy, which is part of the fun.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, or Findango at home.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Our indie film classic this week is Take Shelter, celebrating its 15th anniversary.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Jeff Nichols, it follows Curtis, an Ohio husband and father, who starts having terrifying dreams about an apocalyptic storm.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Dreams are vivid, violent, and impossible to shake.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: He sees dark clouds, strange rain, people turning against him, and danger coming for his family.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Michael Shannon plays Curtis with such quiet pressure that you can practically hear the bolts tightening in his head.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Jessica Chastain plays his wife Samantha, who loves him, depends on him, and has to decide whether she is watching illness take hold or watching her husband see something no one else can.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Curtis starts building a storm shelter in the backyard, which makes practical sense if a storm is coming, and financial madness if it is not.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's the genius of the film.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Every choice can be read two ways responsible or obsessive, protective or destructive.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nichols keeps the supernatural question alive without turning the movie into a puzzle box.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: The real tension is domestic.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: What happens to a family when the person who is supposed to provide stability becomes the source of fear?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It still feels timely because anxiety has only gotten more expensive since 2011.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can rinse it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, or Findango at home.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that wraps it for the June 26, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to support the show, do the simple stuff.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe so you don't miss next week.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Share it with one friend who likes being early.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rate it because it helps the apps take the show seriously.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then leave a quick review even once and this helps.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, keep it storm ready, keep it strange, and keep it indie.