Small Pleasures

Riding Giants: Erik Aeder

Small Pleasures

While moviegoers were stampeding to see the latest exploits of Spidey and Shrek this summer, some smaller movies opened quietly across the country -- many of them as thrilling as the big-budget blockbusters. Take, for instance, ''Riding Giants'' (above), a documentary about surfing that Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum called ''so mellow and cant-free that it may take willpower not to run directly from the theater down to the nearest shoreline.'' Luckily, it's not too late to catch this wave -- ''Giants'' and other acclaimed independent films are still riding out the summer at arthouses. Read on for reviews of the movies we recommend you see before the season's end.