Mother Mary (2026), Busboys (2026), Ghost World (2001)

Indie Film Weekly
Episode 70: Mother Mary (2026), Busboys (2026), Ghost World (2001)

Glen Reynolds spotlights several new and engaging independent films playing in theaters, available for purchase or rental, or on a streaming platform. He also shares a classic movie from his favorites which you'll want to revisit or see for the first time.

Additional movies mentioned in this episode include:
Blue Heron (2026)
Good One (2026)

Recorded: 04-03-26
Studio: Just Curious Media
Companies: Circus Road Films & Indie Igniter

Listen:
Apple Podcasts
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Watch:
YouTube

Host:
Glen Reynolds

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Transcript

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Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of April 17, 2026. I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds. This week in theaters, we've got a pop star comeback story that turns into a high wire reunion with the friend who was used to build the image. We've got a comedy about two guys who think waiting tables will fix their lives, and then reality clocks in for its shift. And we've got a late 90s family story on Vancouver Island seen through a child's eyes as an older brother starts going off the rails. On T Vodum spotlighting a quiet backpacking trip that turns into a coming of age pressure test. And for our classic, we're heading back to an early 2000s cult favorite about post-high school drift, sharp tongues, and an unexpected friendship. If you want indie films to keep landing real screens, go now while the bookings are still generous. Theaters do not reward I'll catch it later. They reward bodies in seats. This episode of Indie Film Weekly is brought to you by Circus Road Films, helping independent filmmakers find their audience since 2006. Learn more at circusroadfilms.com. Let's dive in. Our first film in theaters this week is Mother Mary, directed by David Lowry. It centers on Mary, an iconic pop singer on the verge of a major comeback. The problem is she cannot do it alone, and she knows exactly who she needs. Sam Anselm, her estranged best friend and former costume designer, is the person who helped build the persona the world fell in love with. Years of distance and unresolved hurt sit between them, but the countdown to the tour forces contact. The setup is deliciously specific. Mary needs a new look. Sam has the taste and the skill to create it, and neither of them is willing to pretend the past was fine. Anne Hathaway plays Mary as someone who can fill an arena but still get wrecked by one private conversation. Michaela Cole plays Sam as the rare collaborator who is not impressed by fame because she helped manufacture it. The film leans into the push and pull of creation, image versus self, inspiration versus control. It also treats the work as real work, fittings, concepts, revisions, and the emotional toll of making something perfect while your life is not. The tension is not about whether the comeback will happen. It's about what Mary is willing to expose to make it honest, and what Sam is willing to risk by re-entering that orbit at all. Our second indie film in theaters this week is Bus Boys. Directed by Jonah Feingold, it stars David Spade and Theo Vaughn as two best friends who decide the answer to their problems is obvious, become waiters. This is the kind of plan that sounds smart only if you have never worked a slam dinner shift in your life. In their minds, restaurant work means fast cash, built-in social life, and instant cool just by carrying plates with confidence. Then they get hired, and reality clocks in right along with them. What gives the film an extra indie kick is that Spade and Vaughn did not just star in it, they also helped write, produce, and finance it, which feels very on brand for a movie about guys trying to will a new identity into existence. The supporting cast is packed with comics, so the movie knows exactly where its energy lives, and has fun with the details that make restaurants their own little war zones, managers demanding speed and perfection, section envy, tip math, side work, bruised egos, and that special misery of smiling at strangers while your own life is quietly on fire. The two leads want totally different things from the job. One wants approval, the other wants status. Their friendship starts getting tested by the smallest stuff, who gets cut early, who lands the big table, and who takes the blame when the night blows up. The movie keeps it breezy, but is sharp about what happens when you treat a job like a full personality reboot. It may change you, just probably not into the guy you pictured. Our last indie film in theaters this week is Blue Heron, directed by Sophie Romvari. It's set in the late 1990s and follows eight-year-old Sasha as her Hungarian immigrant family tries to start over on Vancouver Island. The story stays grounded in a child's vantage point, which makes the household feel both safe and strange at the same time. Sasha notices everything, the tone of a conversation, the way adults stop talking when she walks in, the small rituals that are supposed to make a new house feel like home. As the family settles in, the attention centers on Jeremy, the oldest child, whose behavior grows increasingly erratic and dangerous. The film does not turn him into a simple villain. He's unpredictable, sometimes charming, sometimes frightening, and always a gravity well that pulls the family's attention. You watch the parents trying different strategies denial, discipline, bargaining, and the exhausted hope that a fresh start will fix what a fresh start cannot fix. Meanwhile, Sasha is still a kid. She is navigating school, siblings, and the quiet feeling that she is observing a storm she cannot control. Romvari builds the world through domestic detail, kitchens, bedrooms, car rides, backyards, and that particular suburban isolation where problems can hide in plain sight. It's semi-autobiographical, and it plays like a memory that refuses to blur. So in theaters this week, that's Mother Mary, Bus Boys, and Blue Heron. Our spotlight indie film on T Vod this week is Good One. Directed by India Donaldson, it follows a 17-year-old Sam on a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad Chris and his oldest friend Matt. On paper, it's an easy idea. Three days outside, fresh air, no phones, everybody resets. In practice, it turns into a quiet contest between the two men, with old resentments and bruised pride leaking out in small, cutting ways. Sam ends up in the middle, not because she wants to mediate, but because she's the only one paying attention to what's really happening. The film is specific about the rhythms of a trip like this: packing, walking, stopping, eating, figuring out where to sleep. The outdoors does not magically heal anyone. It just removes distractions. Thus, when you hear what people actually think. Lily Colias plays Sam with a calm intelligence that makes the adults look even more childish without the film needing to announce it. James LeGros and Danny McCarthy play the men as familiar types, but not cartoons. They're capable of warmth and also capable of saying the wrong thing at the worst moment. The tension builds toward a line getting crossed, and the fallout lands in a way that feels painfully real. You can rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, or Fandango at home. Our indie film classic this week is Ghost World, celebrating its 25th anniversary. Directed by Terry Zwygoff, it drops you into that strange post-high school limbo where you're technically free, but you have no idea what to do with the freedom. Enid and Rebecca are best friends who share a sharp sense of humor and a talent for cutting down people from a distance. Enid in particular has the kind of wit that can be a shield and a weapon in the same sentence. After a prank spirals, Enid ends up in an unexpected friendship with Seymour, an older misfit and obsessive record collector who lives in his own lonely frequency. Steve Buscemi plays Seymour with a deep, awkward sincerity that makes the relationship feel both funny and uneasy because Enid is not always kind about what she's doing. Thora Birch plays Enid as someone who can see through everything except herself. The film stays specific about small town boredom and the social pressure to pick a lane, jobs, art classes, apartments, and the slow realization that your best friend might want a different life than you do. It's also one of those rare comedies that understands sadness without turning it into a lecture. If you've never seen it, it still feels modern in how it captures performative, cool, and quiet loneliness. You can watch it for free on Tubi or rent it on Apple TV or Amazon Video. And that wraps it for the April 17, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly. If this episode helped, do the simple things that keep the show alive. Subscribe so it shows up every week. Share it with one friend who always needs a recommendation. Rate it so the apps take it seriously. Then leave a quick review because that is the easiest way to help new listeners find it. Until next week, keep it curious, keep it fearless, and keep it indie.