Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play a star-crossed couple in Mark Webb's '(500) Days of Summer.'

Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

For those seeking alternatives to this weekend's surefire blockbuster – the teenage romance New Moon – there are plenty of worthy options now playing at the Bay Area's indie theaters. Among them:

Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel find themselves perfectly mismatched in Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer.

Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

“This is the story of boy meets girl.” So begins the bittersweet odyssey of greeting-card writer Tom Hansen, the love-starved twenty-something in (500) Days of Summer who harbors dreams of becoming an architect and romancing puckish co-worker Summer Finn.

Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel find something like love in Marc Webb's new comedy (500) Days of Summer.

Courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

Whether you’re in the mood to learn more about one of the most feared prizefighters of the modern era, two of Walt Disney’s most celebrated songwriters, or the inventive animated shorts of A Thousand Pictures, the next two weeks of America’s longest-running film festival, which kicked off last night and ends May 7, will feature roughly 200 films and plenty of associated merriment. Here’s a list of what we want to watch.

The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story