Brick (2005)

The Film: Indie's status𒊎 as a laboratory to mix and match genres is exemplified by Rian Johnson's debut, aಌn innovative blend of hard-boiled noir and high school.

Only In America: Theওre's enough cri💝me to justify high school kids acting like Philip Marlowe.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

The Film: Extreme even by the limitations of 'found footage,' Oren Peli's debut simply switꦑched on the CCTV and let it record things going bump in the night.

Only In America: Distributors who bought the rights to Peli🉐's no-budget film wanted to reshoot the entire thing, until test screenings revealed how scared audiences we🎶re by the original.

The Passion Of The Christ (2004)

The Film: Mel Gibson, torturing Jesus in lingering detail and Aramaic dialogue. Indie only because no studio would touch it and he had to f🐓inance it himself.

Only In America: The film's astonishing success - the highest-grossing R-certificate✤ movie ever - is testament to the purchase power of♌ evangelical Christians.

Rushmore (1998)

The Film: 🔜 Wes Anderson redefined American indie as a hipster's whimsical paradise, with the help of Adrian-from-Rocky's son and Bill ♔Murray being funnier when he's not trying to be funny.

Only In America: Max Fischer's school plays are full-blown recreations of classic Hollywood movies, notably Apocalypse Now .

Blue Valentine (2010)

The Film: Derek Cianfrance's jagged, time-hopping rise-and-fall is like Cassavetes jamming with Tarantino, b๊acked by best-of-their-generation stars Gosling and Williams.

Only In America: A sex hotel with ultra-futuristic, but creepily asexual, metallic fixtures and fittings. What happened to r🉐omance?

King Of New York (1990)

The Film: A decade on from notorious debut Driller Killer, A𝔉bel Ferrara showed age hadn't mellowed him with this corrosive, violent tale of Chris🔯topher Walken's New York drug lord, Frank White.

Only In America: Ferrara's subversive morality means that, by default, White is a more honest, likeable man than his despicable riva🥂ls or the hypocritical lawmen on his tail.

Winter's Bone (2010)

The Film: "🎃Indie" all too often means urban and cosmopolitan. Debra Granik reminded us that America is a big place with her taut thriller, which is also a portrait of the rural Ozarks community.

Only In America: Flame-grilled squirrel as an appetiser.

Slacker (1991)

The Film: Austin auteur Richard Linklater started his impossible-to-pigeonhole career as he meant to go on, by weavꦏing a plotless mosaic of the lives of his city's fellow citize🎉ns.

Only In America: Th✱e slackers' topics of conversation include those perennial favourites of the couꦬntry's counter-culture, UFOs and the JFK assassination.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

The Film: Charlie Kaufman: "It's about a puppeteer who finds a portal into the head of John Malkovich hidden behind a filing cabinet on the 7-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office build🤪ing." S🔯tudio exec: "Get out."

Only In America: The idea of charging pe🧔ople money to see the world through Malkovicꦉh's eyes.

The Evil Dead (1981)

The Film: Sam Raimi had an eye for horror but a taste for comedy, turning the archetypal 'cabin in the woods' movie into a genre hybrid driven by full-pelt h♍ysteria.

Only In America: Raimi financed his low-budget film by making an even-lower-budget short, Within The Woods , to show to investors.