Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: André 3000 | Hong Chau | Lauren Lakis | Michelle Williams | Todd-o-Phonic Todd
Diane says: “Kelly Reichardt’s latest, starring Michelle Williams as a closed-up ceramic artist, satirizes the art school scene perfectly, from funky clothing and cheese-heavy gallery openings to parent-child competition and every kind of crafts class. (I saw it with my
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Nida Manzoor
Starring: Rekha John-Cheriyan | Renu Brindle | Ritu Arya | riya Kansara | Seraphina Beh
Diane says: “A colorful mashup of Jane Austen, martial arts, horror, and more, which for me failed. “High schooler Ria, an aspiring stuntwoman, is upset—very upset—when her older sister/bf Lena gives up on an art career and decides to marry
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Matt Johnson
Starring: Cary Elwes | Glenn Howerton | Jay Baruchel | Matt Johnson | Saul Rubinek
Amanda says: “BLACKBERRY is a biographical comedy-drama film that chronicles the captivating journey of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in Waterloo, Canada that starts in the late 1990’s. These two individuals played a pivotal role in shaping the extraordinary ascent
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Anthony Shim
Starring: Anthony Shim | Choi Seung-yoon | Dohyun Noel Hwang | Ethan Hwang | Hunter Dillon
Michael says: “Even though I wasn’t able to catch the IFFBoston’s much lauded closing night film, I ended my festival experience the night before with a very strong showing. This powerful tale of a Korean immigrant who comes to Canada
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: James Adolphus
Michael says: “It would be difficult for me not to like a documentary about Mary Tyler Moore, an actor and celebrity that I am obviously very well aware of, have enjoyed in many TV and movie appearances, but actually not
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Inna Sahakyan
Michael says: “A fascinating, beautifully recounted documentary about a teenaged girl who survived losing her family, enduring rape and slavery during the Armenian genocide, only to end up in the manipulative mechanisms of Hollywood. Aurora Mardiganian survived months of marching
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chie Hayakawa
Starring: Chieko Baisho | Hayato Isomura | Stefanie Arianne | Taka Takao | Yumi Kawai
Michael says: “The best speculative fiction can illuminate both flaws and beauty of the human condition,. Chie Hayakawa’s adaptation of a story by Jason Gray does this beautifully in a gentle but sobering examination of the worth of a human being
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Christian Petzold
Starring: Enno Trebs | Langston Uibel | Matthias Brandt | Paula Beer | Thomas Schubert
Chris says: “Two young Berliners, Leon (Thomas Schubert), a writer struggling to finish his novel and his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), a photographer, take a trip to a cabin in the woods near the Baltic Sea owned by Felix’s mother. Upon
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ted Geoghegan
Starring: Anne Ramsay | Ezra Buzzington | Jeremy Holm | Larry Fessenden | Ron E. Rains
Brett says: “A person kills herself/himself and then a stage play breaks out. So, it’s Chekhov or Ibsen in reverse, right? Throw in a seance to bring back said dead person from the grave and BROOKLYN 45 might just fit
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Estefanía Contreras | Miguel Drake-McLaughlin | Silvia Del Carmen Castaños
Chris says: “Best friends Silva and Estefania (nicknamed ‘Beba’) are two teenagers in Laredo, Texas. They engage in typical activities for their age: hanging out at the convenience store parking lot, sneaking past the gates of vacant or abandoned homes, sitting
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Rating: 2 cats | 3 cats
Director: Mike Hansen
Starring: Mike Hansen | Raphael Sikic | Ryon Thomas
Brett says: “The genre western-comedy does not exactly have a long list of acclaimed representatives to its credit. In fact, the all-around rugged, image-conscious, hidden-emotions heroic quality of westerns usually means that attaching the word comedy to it is an
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jeff Silva | Ramona Badescu
Chris says: “Watch repair requires a steady hand and infinitesimal patience; this documentary exudes the latter in spades and also requires it from the viewer. Alexandru, a 90-year-old Romanian clock maker, recalls his time as a political prisoner in forced
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Charlotte Vandermeersch | Felix Van Groeningen
Starring: Alessandro Borghi | Cristiano Sassella | Elisabetta Mazzullo | Luca Marinelli | Lupo Barbiero
Michael says: “While initially appearing as something of a leap for filmmaker Felix von Groeninger, known for his Buried Treasure winning film THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN from 2014, some similar free-spirited, living off-the-grid vibes translate over to his new film,
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Babak Jalali
Starring: Anaita Wali Zada | Avis See-tho | Gregg Turkington | Hilda Schmelling | Jeremy Allen White
Michael says: “With a mix of deadpan humor, rich black & white tones, an appealing lead actor, and an early Hal Hartley vibe, FREMONT is just my kind of film. In fact, at this moment, it’s my top film of
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Penny Lane
Tom M. says: “Had a great time at CONFESSIONS OF A GOOD SAMARITAN. Penny Lane is such a trip and the kidney donation narrative had a personal tie for me.” Diane says: “Documentary director Penny Lane (LISTENING TO KENNY G,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrea Pallaoro
Starring: Adriana Barrazza | Emily Browning | Joshua Close | Patricia Clarkson | Trace Lysette
Michael says: “MONICA is a finely constructed story about a fractured family reunited with the decline in health of the surviving matriarch. The title character particularly hasn’t had any contact with the family for years, and her return is brought
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Davis Guggenheim
Michael says: “When I think of successful documentaries, they fall into two categories. Docs where the subject matter is of great interest to me, or so wild that they can’t help but be entertaining, and docs that are creative and
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Rating: 2.3 cats
Director: Paul Schrader
Starring: Eduardo Losan | Esai Morales | Joel Edgerton | Quintessa Swindell | Sigourney Weaver
Chris says: “Paul Schrader has long established a reputation for going there, which is a major component of his sensibility and thus his peculiar appeal. Consequently, his movies work best when centered on a performance that understands how nutso the
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Director: Christine Yoo
Brett says: “The subject material speaks for itself on the surface: a group of incarcerated men at San Quentin train to complete a marathon inside prison walls. The parallels to life are immense and extend far beyond prison walls, a
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Carolina Markowicz
Starring: Aline Marta Maia | César Bordón | Jean de Almeida Costa | Maeve Jinkings | Rômulo Braga
Brett says: “A kitchen sink drama that cuddles up with SCARFACE? Count me in. CHARCOAL is an anomalous genre bender out of Brazil that is part Tennessee ‘Joanópolis’ Williams and part Mario ‘CV’ Puzo. “Irene and Jairo are wife and
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