Indie Roundup: ‘The Imposter’ and ‘Easy Money’

“The Imposter” and “Easy Money” — both getting limited releases this week — feature slippery Europeans in morally murky situations straight out of a novel by James M. Cain.

One night in 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay vanished without a trace from his working-class neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas. Three years later, the grieving family learns that he has been found — in Spain. Nicholas seemed greatly changed: the blond, blue-eyed child returned with a swarthy complexion, brown eyes, and a mysterious French accent. Though Nicholas spun stories of rape and torture at the hands of shadowy military figures to explain his metamorphosis, they proved less and less plausible. He was soon revealed to be a 23-year-old European grifter named Frederic Bourdin.