Best Indie Films Of 2008

The best indie films of 2008 were a muddled lot. Sure, they, like indie films of other years, serve to give audiences a big alternative from more blockbuster and mainstream movies, but they seem to be a little bit uneven then. Still, if you cannot stand mainstream, big-budget movies that only seem to cater to brain dead audiences who get off on the latest, "coolest"-looking explosions, then these are the indie films for you.

1. "There Will Be Blood." "There Will Be Blood" was a 2008 indie film that starred both Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. It tells the story of a former silver miner who turns into an oil man almost overnight, and this film was no original work, since it was based in some part on the 1927 novel "Oil!" from the author Upton Sinclair. Set in the era of the oil boom that gripped Southern California for a time in the late 19th- and early 20th-century, "There Will Be Blood" has some scenes of mind-blowing violence, yet it was also a dear favorite of many critics.
2. "The Orphanage." "The Orphanage" is an indie film of 2008 that was directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. This film was a long work-in-progress, as its script was already completed back in the mid-1990s! Story-wise, it tells the tale of a woman called Laura who visits her childhood home, which unfortunately happens to be an orphanage. Now married and with an adopted son herself, Laura runs into trouble when she wants to turn her childhood home into a place for disabled children when her adopted son goes missing.
3. "Caramel." The film "Caramel" should not be confused with the yummy treat that many people love to eat; it is a 2008 indie film from a Lebanese actress and director who goes by the name of Nadine Labaki. The plot of this indie film is quite universal, which is why it has found such a decent following in quite a few countries. It deals with five Lebanese gal-pals who are in a pact to approach the issues of forbidden love, limiting traditions, repressed sexual libido, the effects of aging and the inner struggle between desire versus duty head-on.