Arriving on the cusp of the Great Recession, Wendy and Lucy struck a nerve with its stylistically subdued but emotionally powerful look at how American society lets some of its citizens fall by the wayside. And in the title role, indie queen Michelle Williams earned every rave she got.

Between this and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, Will Oldham was for a moment the face of male bonding in independent American cinema. In Rick Alverson’s empathetic film about the emotional aftereffects of serving in the war on terror, his amiably, comically persistent character hammers home tenderness.