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5 Indie Movies This Week: Ask E. Jean, I Love Boosters, She's Gotta Have It, & More · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of May 22nd, 2026.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: This week in theaters, we've got a documentary portrait of a writer who refuses to be reduced to a headline.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a surreal Bay Area heist comedy where fashion, theft, and revenge all share the same runway.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got a sound-driven crime thriller about a piano tuner whose ear for detail turns into something a lot more dangerous.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you can see one of these in a theater this weekend, please do.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Indie movies don't get a long runway, and a room with actual people in it is still the best marketing they'll ever have.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: On demand, I've got a smart, funny revenge mission led by a 93-year-old who is done being polite.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And for our classic, we're celebrating a 40th anniversary Brooklyn love story where commitment is optional and opinions are not.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Want the written version of these picks each week?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I also publish the indie film weekly newsletter.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same five films and a quick read.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up at newsletter.com.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our first indie film in theaters this week is Ask Egene.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Ivy Mirapole.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: This documentary profiles Eegene Carroll as more than a headline.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with the life she built in media long before any courtroom, including her decades as a journalist, author, and advice columnist.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The film treats her voice as the engine, playful, stylish, and stubbornly clear-eyed.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then it moves into the years when she decides to go public about being assaulted, and what happens when she refuses to be shamed into silence.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: You see the practical grind of a legal fight, the strategy sessions, the pressure, the waiting, and the toll of having your name turned into a battlefield.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Carol is on camera and she does not perform victimhood.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: She's analytical, sometimes absurdly funny, and often furious in a controlled way that lands harder than yelling.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: The film also spends time on how she was raised to brush things off, and how that social training collides with the need to tell the truth out loud.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a portrait of a person who knows exactly who she is, even when the world tries to rewrite her as a story somebody else can control.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our second indie film in theaters this week is I Love Boosters.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Boots Riley, it's a crime comedy set in a surreal version of the Bay Area, where a crew of shoplifters treats boosting like both survival and performance art.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Corvette is the ringleader, a fashion designer with big taste and no patience for a system that keeps telling her to wait her turn.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: When a powerful fashion figure takes their designs and turns them into profit, the crew decides to hit back in the only language the industry seems to respect: stealing the clothes and reselling them cheaper as a kind of street level redistribution.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Kiki Palmer plays Corvette with a fearless talk fast intensity that makes even the most ridiculous plan sound like strategy.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: The movie leans into heist mechanics, scouting, improvising, escaping, but it's also really about style as power and who gets to own an idea.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Riley keeps slipping between funny and pointed with characters who can argue politics while running for their lives.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of movie that makes the audience laugh, then immediately wonder what they're laughing at.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our last indie film in theaters this week is Tuner, directed by Daniel Rower.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: This crime thriller starts with a gifted young musician named Nikki White, whose life has gone sideways and whose hearing is almost too sharp for normal living.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: He becomes an apprentice to an old school piano tuner, Harry Horowitz, learning the craft of precision listening and meticulous touch.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then Nikki discovers a second, stranger skill.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: The same sensitivity that lets him hear a piano's imperfections also helps him understand locks, tumblers, and the tiny sounds a safe makes when it's about to open.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: That talent pulls him into a criminal orbit that feels thrilling at first and then quickly turns dangerous.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Leo Woodall plays Nicki as a guy who wants a clean purpose, who keeps choosing the fast lane when the stakes rise.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Dustin Hoffman brings warmth and grit as Harry, a mentor figure whose own problems push Nikki towards risk.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Rohr uses sound design as storytelling, so you feel how Nikki experiences the world, every click, scrape, and near miss.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a smart, propulsive ride built around an odd, unbelievable superpower.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So in theaters this week, that's Ask Eugene, I Love Boosters, and Tuner.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our spotlight indie film on demand this week is Thelma, directed by Josh Margolin.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It stars June Squibb as Thelma Post, a 93-year-old in Los Angeles who gets fooled by a phony scammer pretending to be her grandson.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: She sends 10 grand, realizes what happened, and quickly learns the system is not built to help her get it back.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So she decides to do it herself.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: The movie plays like an elderly mission impossible, but the stunts are age-appropriate, and the comedy comes from determination, not mockery.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas sneaks out from her worried family, tracks down the leads the old-fashioned way, and recruits an old friend.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Their main vehicle is a mobility scooter, which turns every curb and sidewalk into an action beat.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's inspired by a real story from the director's own grandmother, and it never treats her as fragile.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: She's furious, focused, and weirdly inspiring.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: The real win is that the film makes dignity feel like the prize, not the punchline.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch Thelma on Hulu or rent it on Amazon Prime.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our indie film classic this week is She's Gotta Have It, celebrating its 40th anniversary.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Directed by Spike Lee, it's set in Brooklyn and built around Nola Darling, a young artist who refuses to be treated like somebody's lesson.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: She's dating three men at the same time, Jamie, Greer, and Mars.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And each one thinks the solution is to win, control, or fix her.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nola is not interested.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The film is structured like a conversation with the audience, with characters talking straight to camera, confessing, posturing, and telling on themselves.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Tracy Camilla Johns is terrific as Nola.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: She's magnetic, funny, and absolutely unwilling to apologize for having options.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Spike Lee plays Mars Blackman, the loudest of the boyfriends, and he's basically a walking argument that refuses to leave the room.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: The movie is playful, but it's also sharp about the different rules men and women get handed, especially around desire and independence.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you've never seen it, it's a great reminder of how much you can do with style, voice, and a point of view.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch it on Netflix or stream it free with ads on Tubi.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that wraps it for the May 22nd, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly.
• 7:34
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• 7:37
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• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Share the episode with one movie friend who trusts your taste.
• 7:43
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• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then leave a quick review because that's how new listeners find us.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, keep it adventurous, keep it human, and keep it indie.