Sales assistant Wiley (Colin Hanks) is fed up with his life, he works in a quirky Sherlock Holmes inspired bookstore in L.A. Forced to be jaunty and in character all day the last thing that Wiley needs when he returns home is a mystery, but that is what he finds. While doing the dishes he glances down to notice on the floor a finger, who does it belong to? Where did it come from?

The best part of the movie is spent with a series of imaginary events being played out to explain the reason behinds the finger being found in the kitchen, this varies from the seedy gay drug dealers next door hacking off a non payers finger as a punishment, to two young thugs engaged in a finger tossing contest in an aim to get a finger through the window of Wiley's apartment (no explanation of how they got the fingers in the first place of course), the different scenarios get worse and worse, and funnier and funnier, although the solution to the mystery actually is available to Wiley pretty much near the start of the movie, though Wiley is far to embarrassed to laugh.

The usually clean shaven Hanks is quite hard to spot in the movie as the rough and ready (though incredibly dull Wiley), so much so that having watched the entire movie I was rather surprised when I discovered that Wiley was played by Hanks. This is a really unusual casting for the actor, but a casting that really suits him well, having watched him its quite hard to see him playing any other role without having to refer back to this movie.

The arrival of Cheryl puts a strange spin on the movie; if your familiar with the British sitcom Peep Show then Cheryl will look incredibly familiar, played by Rachel Blanchard, the actress is best known as the neurotic Nancy from the television series. In the show she causes havoc wherever she goes, and here she too has a similar style about her, causing rows and bizarre scenarios wherever she goes. When a man asks her a question in a bar she smashes a bottle on her head, and this is the most normal that you see the character behave.

Fans of TV show Monk, will find Tony Shalhoub far from his usual compulsive obsessive behaviour, living in a filthy flat, completely obnoxious, and totally unsupportive of his son Wiley. When Wiley goes to him with his problems, Mr. Roth instead chooses to laugh at him. When the finger situation is raised Roth senior takes them all on a trip to a peanut obsessed witch doctor who decides that in order to find out the truth behind the finger must first see if it floats. Roth senior is beyond the level of oddball behaviour of the movies other characters.

I won't deny there are a few times that the movie gets a little frustrating, chiefly because Wiley stumbles around the subject of the story of the finger when he encounters who is obviously the owner. There are no answers however until the very end of the movie, and yes while occasionally frustrating you can fully understand why the mystery must remain.

Rather like any rather good sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm is the one that springs most to mind, the movie gives you fragments of a story, that by the movies conclusion all slowly string together. Unlike a lot of comedy movies that do the rounds, this one is at times genuinely funny. Had the movie not been so "independant" to the extent that to be fair few will ever see it, some of the movies moments could very well go down in history as some of the funniest moments in movie history, a bizarre incident in a back alley between two friends, that slowly involves ones girlfriend and a semi dressed next door neighbour; this verbal fight turns into a food fight with great distances between participants, it's almost a homage to the classic Laurel & Hardy movies, of 80 years ago.

Being a low budget independent picture, seeing Careless might not be a straightforward task, but with a little time and attention, you'll find tracking down this movie is a reward, and if you're a fan of movies like After Hours, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums then you'll find this movie a rare gem in a sea of very bland, often very similar movies.

With the huge technological boom, not only have film budgets for indy features plummeted, but the distribution possibilities have sky rocketed. With DV and HD format cameras costing under five thousand dollars, no film developing fees and the internet, making a film can be as cheap as fifteen thousand dollars.

Once you've spent thousands of hours planning, shooting and editing your baby, you don't want it to sit on a shelf. Here are my five picks for distribution.

1. The Internet is a vast resource. O.K. so what, you know that, right? Wrong. Make a trailer, make a website for your film or production company. Put your trailer up in high definition on your website and on YouTube.com. Make a myspace and a facebook for your film. Make friends. Use StumbledUpon (if you aren't familiar with this google it) and get others to stumble your trailer. This is free advertising and the best kind because it it international and sets great name recognition when you start doing the festival circuit. Which leads me to number 2.
2. Film Festivals are inexpensive to enter. If you want your film distributed, it will be through a film festival. If you can get thousands of friends on the internet who enjoyed your trailer or even streaming your feature length film, maybe one hundred will come to the premier at a local film festival. A distributor sees a packed theater of roaring fans, you have a much better chance at distribution. Distributors don't look for their favorite movie, they look for what will sell.
3. Most festivals cost but fifty dollars to enter. Take a stab. Try The Big Damn Film Festival. Midwest Independent Film Festival and Muddy Water Film Festival. These are smaller but nowhere near as hard to get a film into as Sundance or Cannes. If nothing else, you meet people and make future connections.
4. Software Developers might seem like a crazy facet to explore. BUT many times companies like Apple, Adobe, and Macromedia are looking for people who have made films using their software. If you film has visual heavy parts, great editing or compositing, try looking out for film contest that these developers put on. I once entered a short film into a Macromedia Flash contest and was runner up. Your whole film might not get picked up, but you can score some cash and pull in some royalty checks from their use of the video.
5. Online Forums are a great resource. You can put clips up, trailers and production stills. This is a great way to generate buzz and make connections. You'll learn from other indy film makers what they are doing with their films. Build up your friends on there, they will help you. A great one I recommend is dvxuser.com
6. Netflix/Amazon/BitTorrent/iTunes are all easy ways to get your film out there. You can submit it to Apple, find a nice agent and get them to help with Amazon and Netflix. Put your film up for download on BitTorrent. If all else fails stream your film 100% free on your website. What do you have to loose? If the film is good people will want to see your next. I'd take one hundred thousand people seeing my movie for free instead of five thousand people buying a dvd. Because when the dvd does get released, you tell the people who've seen it and hopefully they tell their friends. That's great publicity.

Hopefully these tips will help you have the next big indy film, useful pointers on all aspects of pre production to post production to come. Stay Tuned

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Zia (Patrick Fugit) made the choice to end his life by cutting his wrist, but, surprisingly enough, the afterlife he goes to is pretty much the same, only worse. It's an afterlife for people who commit suicide, that's right, everyone in this dismal land ended up here after taking their own life. Safe to say, this is a world without a smile.

Zia, after finding out his ex-girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) had killed herself, and also ended up in this world decides to hit the road and look for her. Along side him, his friend Eugene (Shea Whigham) and a hitchhiker they pick up along the way (Shannyn Sossamon), they set out to find her. Zia, along the way, discovering, his ex-girlfriend, might not be what he was looking for all along.

Directed by Goran Dukic, this film really isn't a happy go lucky flick, but, it was very interesting to say the least. This Dark Comedy, based off the short story "Kneller's Happy Camper's" keeps you tied to the screen the entire film. All in all, it was very original, and very enjoyable. "An Offbeat Comedy, A Love Story, A Road Movie - But Everybody's Dead", the tag line to the movie says it all I think.