Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Michael Colford
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Starring: Chang-Bin Jen | Chao-jung Chen | Kang-sheng Lee | Tien Miao | Yi-ching Lu | Yu-Wen Wang
Michael says: “When Chris mentioned recently that he caught Tsai Ming-liang’s debut feature, REBELS OF THE NEON GOD, I realized that I too had never gone back to watch this film from one of my favorite directors. What I perhaps
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Dolores Moran | Hoagy Carmichael | Humphrey Bogart | Lauren Bacall | Sheldon Leonard | Walter Brennan | Walter Szurovy
Michael says: “After a slight slip with KEY LARGO, we’re back in business. Set in Martinque during WWII, Harry Morgan is an Amiercan ex-pat who reluctantly transports a leader in the French Resistance and his wife to the island, all
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Huston
Starring: Claire Trevor | Edward G. Robinson | Harry Lewis | Humphrey Bogart | John Rodney | Lauren Bacall | Lionel Barrymore | Marc Lawrence | Thomas Gomez
Michael says: “After seeing THE BIG SLEEP, I had to watch the rest of Bogie and Bacall’s oeuvre. Count me as one of the many who are smitten by their chemistry. I’m particularly taken by Lauren Bacall’s assured and powerful
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Akim Tamiroff | Anna Karina | Eddie Constantine
Michael says: “It was about 30 minutes into ALPHAVILLE when I realized I don’t think I like Godard’s films. Now I’ve only seen two, this one and BREATHLESS, so I am still open to more (BAND OF OUTSIDERS and VIVRE
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Bobby Daniel Rodriguez | Christopher Lambert | Ethan Simpson | Joe Hernandez | Julianne Moore | Ken Watanabe | Noe Hernandez | Olek Krupa | Ryo Kase | Sebastian Koch | Tenoch Huerta
Thom says: “Adapted from the Ann Patchett international best-seller this film is a powerful drama with tragic implications. A world famous opera diva (always great Moore) is hired to perform for a wealthy South American industrialist when in the midst
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Charlotte Rampling | Domhnall Gleeson | Liv Hill | Oliver Zetterström | Richard Campbell | Ruth Wilson | Tipper Seifert-Cleveland | Will Poulter
Thom says: “OK UK haunted house film needs more of Rampling. 3 cats“
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Yann Demange
Starring: Bel Powley | Brian Tyree Henry | Bruce Dern | Eddie Marsan | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Matthew McConaughey | Piper Laurie | Richie Merritt | Rory Cochrane | Taylour Paige
Thom says: “I’m more than a little tired of this genre trying hard to make basic nogoodniks into sympathetic, likable sorts, They’ve tried to make these films workable since the beginning of genre filmmaking, but this one, despite musts-see McConaughey,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Chrius Weitz
Starring: Ben Kingsley | Greg Hill | Greta Scacchi | Mélanie Laurent | Michael Aronov | Michael Benjamin Hernandez | Oscar Isaac | Pêpê Rapazote
Thom says: “Musts-see Isaac & Ben Kingsley drove me to watch this but the Israeli capture of the notorious Adolf Eichmann in Argentina years after the end of WWII is tedious. Kingsley hams it up pretty good.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Annette Bening | Antonio Banderas | Jean Smart | Mandy Patinkin | Olivia Wilde | Oscar Isaac | Samuel L. Jackson | Sergio Peris-Mencheta
Thom says: “Once I realized that the director is largely responsible for the mediocre television hit THIS IS US, I should have avoided it. A NYC couple’s tragic story reverberates over continents and lifetimes, no, really. I always enjoy Oscar
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Andrew Baird
Starring: Colin Salmon | Guy Pearce | Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson | Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz | Travis Fimmel
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Jay Silverman
Starring: Johanna Braddy | Mary Pat Gleason | Mimi Kennedy | Shashawnee Hall | William Moseley
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Michele Civetta
Starring: Bruce Dern | Frank Grillo | Olivia Munn | Shea Whigham | Zach Avery
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Sara Colangelo
Starring: Amy Ryan | Laura Benanti | Michael Keaton | Shunori Ramanathan | Stanley Tucci | Talia Balsam | Tate Donovan
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Stephen Herek
Starring: Adam Garcia | Gloria Garcia | Midori Francis | Robyn Scott | Timothy Renouf | Victoria Justice
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Bruce McDonald
Starring: Allan Hawco | Cathy Jones | Dylan Authors | Julia Sarah Stone | Molly Parker | Rhys Bevan-John | Vi Tang
Michael says: “What a delightful surprise when Chris told me about this charming Canadian film from 2016, written by Chlotrudis pal Daniel MacIvor, directed by the prolific Bruce McDonald, and featuring the magnificent Molly Parker in a supporting role. Set
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Chalres D. Brown | Charles Waldron | Dorothy Malone | John Ridgely | Lauren Bacall | Martha Vickers | Peggy Knudsen | Regis Toomey | umphrey Bogart
Michael says: “Not the first, but perhaps the most famous (despite the 1980’s pop song) of the Bogie and Bacall films, I have a vague recollection that I may have seen all or part of THE BIG SLEEP over twenty
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Brea Grant
Starring: Alex Berg | Alex Farnie | Jon Michael Davis | Stacey Storey | Tom Davies | Vera Miao
Jason says: “Brea Grant has thus far had the sort of career that leads to a movie like BEST FRIENDS FOREVER- after a few instances of being the pretty good thing in disappointing productions and not having it lead to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Daisuke Katô | Isuzu Yamada | Seizaburô Kawazu | Takashi Shimura | Tatsuya Nakadai | Toshirô Mifune | Yôko Tsukasa
Michael says: “I guess it doesn’t matter if their Japanese and directed by a master, I’m just to that much of a fan, with the exception of a handful of revisionist/feminist takes, of the western. Although in fact, YOJIMBO, which means
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Elaine May
Starring: Aharon Ipalé | Carol Kane | Charles Grodin | Dustin Hoffman | Isabelle Adjani | Jack Weston | Tess Harper | Warren Beatty
Michael says: “Notorious as one of moviedom’s biggest flops, Elaine May’s comedy of errors that puts two befuddled wanna-be songwriters wandering the desert outside of Morocco entangled in a complicated political plot involving the C.I.A., the Emir of Ishtar, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Martin Ritt
Starring: Brandon De Wilde | Crahan Denton | John Ashley | Melvyn Douglas | Patricia Neal | Paul Newman | Whit Bissell
Michael says: “This pseudo-Western from the early 60’s is very reminiscent of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, from 8 years later. Both are based in Texas, and both focus on the end of an era. While PICTURE SHOW shows the decline
Read the review...