'Please Give' us another reason to love indie films and loathe the new 'Karate Kid'

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In my ongoing, summerlong effort to stay out of this awful heat, I visited the well-air-conditioned Terrace Theatre on James Island last weekend to enjoy the new movie "Please Give," which explores the limits of charity, the emptiness of modern life, materialism, white guilt, aging, death, rebirth and probably a few more subjects that went right over my head.

It's a charming, funny movie that really makes you think. Yet as I left the theater that evening, I pondered something that had nothing to do with the movie per se, but the Terrace and similar theaters that specialize in independent films.

When one thinks of "indie" anything -- art, music, movies -- there is a certain "hip" factor attached, and things that are hip are typically associated with youth. I visit the Terrace at least two to three times per month, have done so for years, and it's safe to say that no matter the movie or the subject matter, I'm usually one of the youngest people in the theater -- and I'm 36. I can't speak for other cities, but it seems that the independent film scene in Charleston is patronized mostly by moviegoers closer to my parents' age, or at least somewhere between their age and my own. I don't know if this has to do with the maturity level of the audience and their appreciation of these types of films, or perhaps a disappointment in the quality of today's commercial movies, but it seems the independent movie market in this area is supported mostly by film lovers in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

Indie rock might still be something enjoyed mostly by young people at local venues such as the Tin Roof in West Ashley or the Village Tavern in Mount Pleasant, and I don't know enough about art, independent or otherwise, to comment. But after years of seeing the same pattern not only at the Terrace but even the old, independent Roxy Theater on East Bay St. (which closed in 2002), I thought it should finally be said that when it comes to local appreciation of indie films -- the hippest moviegoers in Charleston have never been kids, but their parents.

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Why would anyone remake "The Karate Kid"? Seriously?