As the masses flock to the movie theater this summer, you can be sure they’ll all be drawn like magnets to the likes of “Star Trek,â€Â “Terminator Salvationâ€Â and other action-packed blockbusters full of robots and explosives. I like these flicks as much as the next person, but be sure to check out these two under-the-radar indies, that are coming soon to DVD.

Sunshine Cleaning Review

For every heavy-handed, effects-driven summer blockbuster, there is a breath of fresh air like “Sunshine Cleaning.â€Â

This quirky little indie gem follows a pair of sisters who embark on a highly unusual business venture together.

Rose (Amy Adams) is the responsible one, a single mom with a precocious young son (an adorable Jason Spevack), and has a married cop for a lover (Steve Zahn) and a job cleaning rich people̢۪s houses.

Norah (Emily Blunt), meanwhile, is the party girl, snoring her way through a series of dead-end waitress gigs while crashing with her pop Joe (Alan Arkin).

Both sisters find themselves at wit̢۪s end as Rose finally tires of her snooty clients and Norah is fired yet again. Their solution: start a crime-scene cleanup business.

Morbid humor marries touching family drama as Rose and Norah cruise the town in an old van, wiping up the bloody aftermath of other people̢۪s murders and suicides.

Adams and Blunt have great onscreen chemistry as the verbally sparring siblings, trading zingers that aim to both wound and win the other over.

Alan Arkin also shines as the girls̢۪ sweet doofus of a dad, who gets saddled with toting Rose̢۪s son Oscar around as he executes various get-rich-quick schemes that all inevitably fail (one includes a bathtub full of spoiled shrimp).

Tension builds, however, as Rose encounters her lover̢۪s pregnant wife in a gas station mini-mart and Norah strikes up a tentative friendship with the phlebotomist daughter (Mary Lynn Rajskub) of a dead woman whose trailer they clean out.

Director Christine Jeffs weaves individual plot threads together when Rose bails on a job to attend a former classmate̢۪s baby shower, leaving Norah to a cleanup job that literally goes up in smoke when she goes out of her way to rescue a stray kitten.

The sisters must finally hash it out and deal with their issues, including their mom̢۪s long-ago suicide, if they are to get any kind of closure and move forward.

“Sunshine Cleaningâ€Â is the perfect antidote to the perfectly enjoyable but perfectly predictable popcorn fare that has already begun infiltrating summer cinema.

Two Lovers Review

Have you ever wanted someone you couldn̢۪t have, one who always stays just beyond your reach?

“Two Lovers,â€Â Fresno Filmworks’ latest indie offering, tackles this issue head-on, and is a meditation on the angst of unrequited love—from a male perspective.

Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) is a bipolar drycleaner who has moved back in with his folks after a nasty breakup, and it̢۪s not long before he finds himself torn between duty and desire.

Sandra (Vinessa Shaw) is the nice, level-headed brunette, the daughter of his father̢۪s potential business partner, whom his parents would love to see him settle down with.

But it is Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), the sexy, screwed-up blonde living in the apartment upstairs, that he aches for.

Director James Gray thankfully steers clear of the sentiment in what could have been just another cliché-ridden love triangle, and wisely chooses to stand back and let Phoenix tackle Leonard’s dilemma at his own pace.

Phoenix gives an emotional, heartfelt performance as the love-struck Leonard, while Paltrow is reliable as ever as the beautiful train-wreck who unwittingly robs him of his reason.

“Two Lovers,â€Â however, finds itself going down an all-too-familiar path as Leonard comes to realize what (and who) is truly important, but can’t help being relatable in its dead-on portrayal of that age-old forbidden fruit theme.

In fact, it̢۪s rather refreshing to see a male anchoring a romantic drama, a role that is all too often reserved for young females caught between the requisite nice guy and bad boy.

Actors of any lesser caliber could very easily have turned “Two Loversâ€Â into an awkward disaster, but the acting heft of Phoenix, Paltrow and their supporting players make up for the plot’s (almost) lack of originality.