Welcome back to Indie Film Weekly for the week of October 2nd, 2026. I'm your host, Glenn Reynolds. This week in theaters, we've got an Iraq war drama about a Marine seeking forgiveness from the family he devastated. We've got a British mockumentary about an aristocrat so desperate for attention that she begins to disappear without it. And we've got a family drama involving motorcycles, mysterious nickels, and the possibility that death is not quite the end. And now my weekly plea, please go see an indie film in a theater. Opening weekend ticket sales really matter, especially for independent films. You do not have to save cinema single-handedly, but buying one ticket is a pretty good start, and movies are still better in a dark room with strangers who have agreed for two hours to stop checking their phones, at least theoretically. On T Vod, I'm spotlighting an action thriller about a former detective who goes outside the law after his daughter is kidnapped. And for our classic, we're celebrating David Lynch's dark trip through Hollywood dreams and nightmares on his twenty fifth anniversary. Want the written version of these picks each week? I also publish the indie film weekly newsletter. It's the same five films and a quick read. Sign up at newsletter.com. Let's dive in. Our first indie film in theaters this week is Atonement, written and directed by Reed Van Dyck. Atonement begins during the early days of the Iraq War. The Cachaturian family has already been displaced from its home by American military action, but another bombing forces them onto the streets of Baghdad. They become trapped in a firefight between American Marines and insurgents. One Marine makes a split-second decision that devastates the family. Years later, that Marine played by Boyd Holbrook cannot escape what happened. With help from a journalist played by Kenneth Branagh, he attempts to find the surviving family members and asks their matriarch, played by Haim Abbas, for forgiveness. The film is based on a 2012 New Yorker article by Dexter Filkens, but Van Dyck does not approach it as a simple story of redemption. An apology may be necessary, but it does not repair a family or return the dead. The real question is whether the person who caused the harm has any right to ask the survivors to help relieve his guilt. Atonement premiered in Director's Fortnite, it can. If you like dramas that ask difficult moral questions without supplying comfortable answers, this is a strong choice. Our second indie film in theaters this week is Lady, directed by Samuel Abrahams. Lady stars Sean Clifford, best known as Claire on Fleabag, as Lady Isabella, a lonely and spectacularly self-involved British aristocrat living on a grand country estate. Isabella considers herself an artist, activist, icon, and apparently several other things no one has asked her to be. She persuades Sam, a struggling young filmmaker played by Laurie Kinniston, to document her life and creative work. Sam sees an eccentric subject he can exploit. Isabella sees a camera, which is really all she needed to hear. The setup begins as a mockumentary about class, vanity, and the strange transaction between a filmmaker and someone desperate to be seen. Then Isabella starts to disappear. Not metaphorically. Parts of her actually begin vanishing whenever she is ignored. That surreal turn gives the comedy something more interesting underneath it. Isabella is ridiculous, but her terror of becoming invisible is real. Clifford gets to be grand, exhausting, funny, unexpectedly vulnerable, sometimes within the same scene. If you miss the particular discomfort of watching Fleabag, this may fill the elegantly decorated hole in your life. Our last indie film in theaters this week is Nichols. Directed by Spencer King, Nichols gives Rob Riggle a rare dramatic lead as Tom Monroe, a successful businessman and devoted family man who has never recovered from his older brother's death in a motorcycle accident when they were teenagers. Thirty years later, a young neighbor named Mitch, played by Aaron Holliday, is badly injured in another motorcycle crash. As Tom gets to know him, strange connections begin to emerge. Mysterious nickels appear. Mitch seems to know things he should not know. Tom begins to wonder whether his brother has somehow returned. That possibility draws Tom closer to Mitch, but it also begins to unsettle his wife, played by Bitsy Tullock, and his daughter, played by Odessa Azion. Tom wants proof that loss may be final. His family sees a man reopening a wound that has shaped his entire life. The supernatural question is the hook, but the film is really about grief, faith, and what happens when hope starts to look a little like obsession. It also gives Riggle the opportunity to step away from broad comedy and play a man holding on to an old tragedy because letting go might feel like losing his brother again. So in theaters this week, that's Atonement, Lady, and Nichols. Our spotlight indie film on TVOD this week is Men of Law. Directed by Carl Lentini Men of Law follows Jason, a former detective trying to build a quieter life after leaving law enforcement. That plan ends when his teenage daughter is kidnapped by a trafficking operation, and the official investigation fails to move quickly enough. Jason turns to his cousin, a man with his own complicated relationship to the law, and the two launch a rescue effort. What begins as a missing person search becomes a violent trip through a criminal network, forcing Jason to use the skills he thought he had left behind. The film works from a clean, direct premise. What does a former cop do when he no longer trusts the system he once served? Jason knows police procedure, but he also knows how slowly that procedure can move. Every hour he waits makes the chances of finding his daughter worse. Latinny keeps the story focused on that urgency and on the uneasy partnership between the two cousins. One knows the law from the inside. The other is much less concerned about staying inside it. Men of Law is available to rent or buy on Amazon and other major digital platforms beginning September 29th. Our indie film classic this week is Maholland Drive, celebrating its 25th anniversary. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film begins with a car crash on Maholland Drive. The only survivor is a woman played by Laura Herring who escapes the wreck but loses her memory. She makes her way into an empty Los Angeles apartment where she is discovered by Betty, an aspiring actress newly arrived from Canada and played by Naomi Watts. Betty is cheerful, talented, and ready for Hollywood to recognize both facts immediately. The injured woman calls herself Rita after seeing a poster of Rita Hayworth. Together, they begin searching for clues to Rita's identity, including a large amount of cash, a mysterious blue key, and the name Diane Selwyn. Elsewhere, a film director played by Justin Thoreau is being threatened by shadowy figures who insist that he cast a particular actress. A nervous man describes a terrifying dream in a diner. A hitman demonstrates that he may have chosen the wrong profession. And at Club Silencio, a singer collapses while her voice continues. Trying to explain every connection in Maholland Drive is probably the fastest way to drain the life out of it. The mystery matters, but the feeling matters more. Lynch turns Los Angeles into a place where fantasy and failure occupy the same room. Hollywood offers Betty the dream of becoming someone else, then asks what happens when the dream refuses to cooperate. The film began as a television pilot that ABC rejected. Lynch later received financing to shoot additional material and transform it into a feature. That history may help explain its unusual shape, but not its power. Naomi Watts gives one of the defining performances of her career, moving from bright optimism to something far more painful and fractured. Lynch won Best Director at Can, and the film earned him an Academy Award nomination. Twenty five years later, it remains one of the essential films about Hollywood, desire, and the stories people invent to survive their own lives. You can rent Maholland Drive on major digital platforms, and it's also available through the Criterion Collection. And that wraps it for the October 2nd, 2026 edition of Indie Film Weekly. If you've enjoyed the show, help it travel. Subscribe so you don't miss next week. Share it with a friend who loves being first to a good movie. Rate it because the apps actually count that. Then leave a quick review because that's how new listeners find us. Until next week, keep following the clues, keep an eye on the blue box, and keep it indie.
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