--- title: 11 Best Indie Summer Movies of 2017 You Still Need to See description: If you haven’t seen these indie movies that came out this summer, add them to your must-watch list. canonical: https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-14T15:20:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:17:49.858Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The 11 Best Indie Movies You Might Have Missed This Summer og:description: And where to watch them now og:url: https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5263156cfb1cb9/6988dd7ce76ad2c3ed62f1f8/movies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: movies og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 11 Best Indie Movies You Might Have Missed This Summer twitter:description: And where to watch them now twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5263156cfb1cb9/6988dd7ce76ad2c3ed62f1f8/movies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 11 Best Indie Movies You Might Have Missed This Summer ## Video: BEACH RATS Theatrical Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): BEACH RATS Theatrical Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/teV5mhWH.m3u8) (1:58)  _Published 2017-09-06. BEACH RATS Theatrical Trailer_  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 14, 2017 3:20 PM UTC  Netflix; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Sony Pictures Classics  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 14, 2017 3:20 PM UTC For every [_Wonder Woman_](http://time.com/4799963/wonder-woman-review/), [_Spider-Man: Homecoming_](http://time.com/4840664/spiderman-homecoming-review/) and [_Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2_ ](http://time.com/4752663/guardians-of-the-galaxy-2-review/)that raked in hundreds of [millions at the box office](http://time.com/4872073/best-summer-blockbusters-2017/) this summer, there were half a dozen indies that dazzled audiences in smaller theaters (and, in some cases, in their living rooms). From _A Ghost Story_’s lyrical exploration of grief to newcomer Danielle Macdonald’s virtuoso rap performances in _Patti Cake$_, the best indie movies of the summer of 2017 were, as always, an antidote to superhero fatigue and a trove of wonders to which we’ll no doubt be returning. Here are some of our favorites and where you can watch them now. ## **Best Indie Movies This Summer** ### **_Band Aid_** Released June 2 _Life in Pieces_ star Zoe Lister-Jones shows great promise as a filmmaker with her directorial debut (which she also wrote, produced and starred in) about a bickering couple who decide to channel all their gripes into song. Adam Pally plays the sweet but emotionally inaccessible husband and Fred Armisen nails the creepy neighbor (not to mention [his drum solos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8wJoId7Ue4)). Watch it now on [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753KQL97) or [iTunes.](https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/band-aid/id1235382587) **MORE:** [Zoe Lister-Jones on What Happens When You Only Hire Women Behind the Camera](http://time.com/4797928/zoe-lister-jones-band-aid-interview/) ### **_A Ghost Story_** Released July 7 David Lowery’s work of visual poetry takes a fanciful concept—what if we really do haunt our loved ones as ghosts after we die?—and turns it into a profound meditation on loss. Casey Affleck spends most of the movie’s running time under a white sheet with two eye holes, and Rooney Mara plays his grieving wife. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ **Read TIME’s review:** [A Ghost Story Chills—and Makes You Wonder](http://time.com/4856221/a-ghost-story-review/) ### **_The Incredible Jessica James_** Released July 14 Comedian, former _Daily Show_ correspondent and [_2 Dope Queens_](http://time.com/4709592/best-podcasts-2017/) podcast co-host [Jessica Williams](http://time.com/4388386/jessica-williams-leaves-daily-show-comedy-central/) adds leading woman to her resume in this fresh Netflix rom-com. Williams plays an oft-rejected aspiring playwright struggling to get over her ex (_Atlanta_’s [Lakeith Stanfield](http://time.com/4904273/lakeith-stanfield-contemporary-chameleon/)) while falling unexpectedly for a sweet but bruised divorcée (Chris O’Dowd). _Watch it now on_ [_Netflix_](https://www.netflix.com/title/80171022)_._ ### **_Landline_** Released July 21 The trio that spawned 2014’s charming so-called “abortion comedy” [_Obvious Child_](http://time.com/2827820/obvious-child-movie-review/)—director and writer Gillian Robespierre, writer-producer Elisabeth Holm and actor [Jenny Slate](http://time.com/4708310/jenny-slate-on-chris-evans-breakup/)—returns with a nuanced family dramedy set in 1990s New York City. Signifiers of the era (scrunchies, eyebrow rings) may induce nostalgia, but its exploration of sibling bonds and parent-child relationships (John Turturro and Edie Falco play mom and dad) are timeless. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ **Read TIME’s review:** [_Landline_ Is a Message From the Lost World of the 1990s](http://time.com/4865969/landline-movie-review/) ### **_Brigsby Bear_** Released July 28 _Saturday Night Live_’s Kyle Mooney takes the stilted, awkward manchild he’s cultivated throughout his years of sketch comedy and fleshes him out into a three-dimensional character. As James, he has just been rescued from a life in captivity in which his entire world revolved around a fictional TV bear, and his efforts to reintegrate are as sweetly moving as they are funny. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ **Read TIME’s review:** [Dude Nostalgia Done Right](http://time.com/4876102/brigsby-bear-dave-mccary-review/) ### **_Step_** Released Aug. 4 On its surface, Amanda Lipitz’s documentary is a portrait of a step team at an all-girls Baltimore charter school, but it’s really about so much more. For one thing, it’s about growing up in a city where hope is often in short supply and the death of [Freddie Gray](http://time.com/4304225/baltimore-crime-police-freddie-gray/) still feels fresh. But it’s also a window into that supercharged moment when a young person is exploring who, and _how_, they want to be after the diploma is hung on a wall. **Read TIME’s review:** [In _Step_ _,_ Portraits of Determination and Dance](http://time.com/4888026/review-in-step-portraits-of-determination-and-dance/) _Watch it now in limited theaters._ ### **_Wind River_** Released Aug. 4 Oscar-nominated _Hell or High Water_ writer Taylor Sheridan writes and directs this bleak but powerful thriller about a murder on a Native American reservation in Wyoming. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen costar as the unlikely team that sets out to solve the case, he a taciturn hunter for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and she a young FBI agent. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ ### **_Columbus_** Released Aug. 4 John Cho and Hailey Lu Richardson costar in this drama set among the modern architectural wonders of Columbus, Ind. Both play characters who are stuck at an emotional impasse, hampered by their relationships with a parent, and their unexpected connection unfolds in a quietly moving way. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ ### **_Ingrid Goes West_** Released Aug. 11 Aubrey Plaza gets the meatiest role of her career in this dark satire for the Instagram age. Plaza plays an unstable woman who becomes obsessed with a social-media celebrity (Elizabeth Olsen) and attempts to befriend her — and perhaps become her — at any cost. _Watch it now in limited theaters._ **MORE:** [Aubrey Plaza’s Status Update](http://time.com/4895006/aubrey-plazas-status-update/) ### **_Patti Cake$_** Released Aug. 18 A smash at Sundance, _Patti Cake$_ tells the story of an early-20s aspiring rapper (talented Aussie newcomer Danielle Macdonald) trying to trade in dead-end jobs and mounting bills for a shot at glory. Its take on the American Dream manages to be both gritty (it takes place in Jersey strip malls, after all) and whimsical (we live out Patti’s smoke machine-enhanced onstage fantasies alongside her) all at once. **Read TIME’s review:**[ A Jersey Girl Dreams Big](http://time.com/4904299/patti-cake-danielle-macdonald-review/) _Watch it now in limited theaters._ ### **_Beach Rats_** Released Aug. 25 Writer-director Eliza Hittman captures the aching juxtaposition between the interior and exterior lives of Frankie (astonishing breakout talent Harris Dickinson), a teenager from working-class Brooklyn who’s quietly exploring his attraction to men while keeping up a front of traditional masculinity among his big-muscled posse. **Read TIME’s review:** [A Portrait of Male Beauty in Anguish](http://time.com/4913692/eliza-hittman-beach-rats-review/) _Watch it now in limited theaters._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/"},"headline":"The 11 Best Indie Movies You Might Have Missed This Summer","datePublished":"2017-09-14T15:20:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:17:49.858Z","description":"If you haven’t seen these indie movies that came out this summer, add them to your must-watch list.","url":"https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5263156cfb1cb9/6988dd7ce76ad2c3ed62f1f8/movies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5263156cfb1cb9/6988dd7ce76ad2c3ed62f1f8/movies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"movies","caption":"","creditText":"Netflix; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Sony Pictures Classics","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4928404/best-indie-summer-movies-2017/","name":"The 11 Best Indie Movies You Might Have Missed This Summer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Band Aid - 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