Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Aaron Bear
Chris says: “Microsoft programmer and pioneer Ric Weiland is surely worthy of a documentary, but this isn’t it. Feeling padded at just sixty minutes, it has the requisite tribute interviews and archival images of Weiland, but also a lot of unnecessary
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ted Stenson
Starring: Andrew Phung | Catherine Gell | Declan O'Reilly | Jay Morberg | Kim Faires | Paul Cowling | Reamonn Joshee
Brett says: “This debut feature film from director Ted Stenson carries a strong Wes Anderson influence with both long and full, stationary camera shots and deadpan humor that weaves together a host of characters in converging storylines. As the title
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Robert Woods
Starring: Daniel Buckle | Evan Williams | Mary Soudi | Nadia Collins | Naomi Brockwell | St John Cowcher | Tristan McInnes
Brett says: “AN IDEAL HOST is a horror-comedy feature film debut from director Robert Woods that has cult classic written all over it. As part of many raucous midnight festival screening events, I must say that the audiences at those
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Peter Collins Campbell
Starring: Aubin Wise | Martha Brown | Morgan Campbell | Nate Wise | Odinaka Malachi Ezeokoli
Brett says: “‘This place isn’t like anything. It’s like the absence of things.’ “The debut feature film DIMLAND is Peter Collins Campbell’s exploration into lost youth and disappointment with idle maturity. Highly understated, the film guides audiences to its central
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Christopher Alender
Starring: AJ Bowen | Andrea Cortés | Brigitte Kali Canales | Julia Vera | Sal Lopez | Weston Meredith
Brett says: “This is a tale of possession lodged in brujeria lore in which protagonist Cristina is discovered by locals after visiting to report on local tribal customs in an isolated region of Veracruz. Immediately, she is taken into custody
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Wes Hurley
Starring: Dan Lauria | Hersh Powers | Jonathan Bennett | Lea DeLaria | Marya Sea Kaminski | Sera Barbieri | Tyler Bocock
Michael says: “This stylized autobiography of a precocious gay boy growing up in Russia, his mail-order bride mother, and their escape to American is sweet and clever, with a few awkward moments, but overall and entertaining jaunt. The first half
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Onur Tukel
Starring: Annie McCain Engman | Edward Carnevale | Kevin Corrigan | Max Casella | Natalie Carter | Richard Mark Jordan | Thomas Jay Ryan
Brett says: “From CATFIGHT director Onur Tukel comes a film generated out of the pandemic, and at the time of this writing, it sits at the top of the list among the many pandemic-inspired and topical films I’ve seen so far.
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Isaac Rathé
Starring: Aaron Hrastovec | Leo Yako | Lucas Tommy Youkhana
Brett says: “A do-it-yourself thriller-comedy that throws back to Spielberg’s made-for-television DUEL, this film is a microscopic budget first feature that tosses out the tractor-trailer vs. automobile and inserts a motorboat and kayak instead. The absurdity of that concept is
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Emily Branham
Chris says: “BeBe Zahara Benet won the first season of RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE, but that was back in 2009 when the show’s cultural footprint was comparatively microscopic to now. Although Benet has reemerged in the spotlight, thanks to a final four
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Sally Aitken
Michael says: “This fascinating Australian documentary illuminated for me that fascinating and inspiring life of Valerie Taylor. Today, Valerie is 85, and she is still fighting battles on behalf of the underwater world, a staunch marine conservationist with a most
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Natalie Morales
Starring: Desean Terry | Mark Duplass | Natalie Morales
Michael says: “A clever premise and a surprising twist turned LANGUAGE LESSONS, shot during the pandemic through videochat, an incredibly affecting and effective story. As a gift, Adam’s husband gives him weekly Spanish lessons online, taught immersively by Cariño, a native
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ludovic Boukherma | Zoran Boukherma
Starring: Alain Boitel | Anthony Bajon | Christine Gautier | Guillaume Mattera | Jean-Michel Ricart | Ludovic Torrent | Noémie Lvovsky
“TEDDY is a modern take on werewolf lore and is set for release next week in French theaters. The film’s title protagonist is a young man in his early 20s that is still very much lost in the world. He
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Keith Maitland
Chris says: “Michael Brody Jr. proved Warhol’s 15 Minutes of Fame theory to be spot-on, give or take a week. As a 21-year-old margarine company heir, he made a big splash in January 1970 by appearing on THE ED SULLIVAN
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Sian Heder
Starring: Ann Forsyth | Daniel Durant | Emilia Jones | John Fiore | Kevin Chapman | Lonnie Farmer | Troy Kotsur
Chris says: “Ruby (Emilia Jones) is a CODA, or a Child of Deaf Adults. Actually, she’s the only hearing member of her family. She often accompanies her father (Troy Kotsur) and older brother (Daniel Durant), both of them fishermen in
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Eytan Fox
Starring: John Benjamin Hickey | Lihi Kornowski | Miki Kam | Niv Nissim | Peter Spears
Cheryl says: “This film is simply melodramatic, filled to the brim with silent sequences where the protagonist, Michael, attempts to use a myriad of facial expressions to convey his feelings, and often spews dialogue that is frankly on-the nose and
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Todd Stephens
Starring: Ira Hawkins | Jennifer Coolidge | Linda Evans | Michael Urie | Roshon Thomas | Udo Kier
Chris says: “‘Veteran cult actor Udo Kier in a rare starring role as a flamboyant retired hairdresser in Sandusky, Ohio’ is all you need to know about this film. It doesn’t matter that he breaks out of his nursing home
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Pacho Velez
Chris says: “Internet dating in New York City during the COVID age is a compelling enough subject for a documentary, but it’s the way director Pacho Velez approaches it that renders it an essential one. For the most part, he
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Malia Scharf | Max Basch
Cheryl says: “This documentary is a love letter written and directed by Scharf’s daughter and as such, while thoroughly documenting the artist’s life and work, it rarely goes below the surface to show any of his flaws or critics who
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Jamila Wignot
Chris says: “Dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey pretty much gets the standard docu-portrait treatment here, as archival performance footage and interviews are blended in with modern day reminisces (often most satisfying when it contrasts performers from a half-century ago with how they
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: James Crump
Chris says: “Architectural students and Mid-Century Modern devotees will find much to like in this study of Marcel Breuer, a Hungarian emigre, Bauhaus student and champion of Brutalism. Although he’s best known for works like the Whitney Museum and UNESCO
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