No, it’s not a lot of shaky cameras and bad audio….

Quite the opposite, in fact….Dishmag has been following the independent movie scene from Sundance to the Nashville Film Festival (where we sponsor the Audience Choice Award) to the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s been an intriguing year. We’ve uncovered great films from to very risky places (where mainstream Hollywood most often dares not tread), often packing a surprise punch at the end.

We’ve compiled a list of our favorite don’t-you-dare-miss-this films that are arriving at a theater near you right now. Missed it? Can’t find it? Rent it…..you’ll be glad you did!

“Off the Map” tells the story of a eccentric family living in rural New Mexico. They are the imaginative daughter Bo, Arlene (Joan Allen) as a sexy, eccentric, earth mother, and Charley (Sam Elliot), a suddenly depressed father who cries all the time. The family is very self-sufficient, in a hippie kind-of way, subsisting on the food they grow and hunt, and the stuff they salvage from the local dump. Their remote desert home doesn’t allow them much contact with the outside world.

Suddenly, they receive a notice that the IRS is auditing them, even though their annual income is less than $10,000. However, their home is so out-of-the-way that the IRS agent can’t even find them, ultimately arriving by foot. Much to everyone’s surprise, the meeting is galvanizing for all, and soon the IRS agent falls in love with the family and just…..never leaves. Plus, he discovers he has a prodigious talent as an artist, an outlet for the frustration he has always felt.

“Off The Map” opened the media screenings at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and marks the sophomore directing effort of indie actor Campbell Scott. The story unfolds beautifully and effortlessly, has many surpringly human twist and turns, and will stay with you for a long time! -YA