CINEMA: The Little Movies That Could

The Hollywood line is that this has been a summer of adult movies. But Forrest Gump, Wolf and Clear and Present Danger are not primarily for adults -- that is, for grownups in search of films a bit more demanding than those in the standard coming-of-age, horror and thriller genres. Somebody has to wonder: Can there be other kinds of pictures? And if they exist, can they connect with a sufficient number of appreciative viewers?

The answers, right now, are yes and yes. American independent films -- pictures made on low budgets and released by smaller distributors -- are shouldering their...