Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christopher Makoto Yogi
Starring: Chanel Akiko Hirai | Constance Wu | Hau'oli Carr | Kanoa Goo | Nelson Lee | Steve Iwamoto | Tim Chiou
Chris says: “As Masao (Steve Iwamoto) nears the end of his life on the coast of Hawai’i, he’s visited by the ghost of his wife, Grace (Constance Wu), who died at a young age. Flashbacks to their courtship and marriage
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nicole Riegel
Starring: Austin Amelio | Becky Ann Baker | Gus Halper | Jessica Barden | Pamela Adlon
Chris says: “In her promising debut feature, writer/director Nicole Reigel depicts life in a small industrial Ohio town in a way that isn’t quite documentary-like, but with enough attention-to-detail to feel pretty authentic. As Ruth, a teen from a broken
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: James Rutenbeck
Chris says: “This doesn’t come up with any particularly profound revelations on racial disparity in Boston, unless one is completely ignorant of how such things play out in most contemporary American cities. Filmmaker James Rutenback excels less when focused on
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Chris McKim
Michael says: “Queer 80’s artist David Wojnarowicz was a contemporary of Robert Mapplethorpe and Keith Haring, but with a decidedly different outlook and more in-your-face attitude. Documentaries about art are not really my thing, much to the disappointment for some
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Stacie Passon
Starring: Alexandra Daddario | Anna Nugent | Crispin Glover | Ian Toner | Joanne Crawford | Paula Malcomson | Peter Coonan | Sebastian Stan | Taissa Farmiga
Michael says: “I must meekly confess that I watched this curious modern gothic film adapted from a Shirley Jackson tale because I have developed a bit of a crush on Sebastian Stan (The Winter Solder from the Marvel Universe). However,
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Ana Katz
Starring: Carlos Portaluppi | Daniel Katz | Julieta Zylberberg | Mirella Pascual | Raquel Bank | Valeria Lois
Chris says: “This strange, beguiling tale directly references its title in the first scene as Sebastian (Daniel Katz) is politely confronted by an accumulation of neighbors about his disruptive pooch. From there, however, it continually leaps in time, often from scene to
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Director: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Catinca Untaru | Justine Waddell | Kim Uylenbroek | Lee Pace | Leo Bill | Ronald France
Brian says: “Watching THE FALL, one is reminded of Picasso’s quote about Matisse: ‘he is only an eye, but my god, what an eye!’ Breathtakingly, staggeringly beautiful, THE FALL is the epitome of a film that can only be truly
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Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Christopher Fitzgerald | Jonathan Roumie | Kate Winslet | Leonardo DiCaprio | Marin Ireland | Neal Bledsoe
Peg says: “For a relatively young actor, Michael Shannon has, at 35, a long and respectable resume. But amid his many small roles in television and film, his most recent turn as John Givings, the emotionally troubled neighbor of the
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Director: Steven Sebring
Beth C. says: “The documentary film, PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE, Steven Sebring’s directorial debut, is designed to provide viewers with a history of the artist’s early life experiences, especially the death her husband, brother, and friend Robert Mapplethorpe, and a
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Director: Nick Stagliano
Starring: Abbie Cornish | Anson Mount | Anthony Hopkins | David Morse | Eddie Marsan
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Clark Johnson
Starring: Adam Beach | Christina Ricci | Christopher Walken | Luke Kirby | Martin Donovan | Peter Stebbings | Roberta Maxwell | Zach Braff
Michael says: “I’m sure many of you saw the documentary THE CORPORATION when it was released in 2004. One segment of this harrowing tale featured a lawsuit brought to bear on a Canadian farmer after he unknowingly grew and harvested
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Casimir Nozkowski
Starring: Asia Kate Dillon | Brian Tyree Henry | Michael Cyril Creighton | Olivia Edward | Rebecca Naomi Jones | Sonequa Martin-Green | Sunita Mani
Michael says: “Charles is a Brooklyn video editor who creates memorial videos about people who have the potential to die soon, for TMC. He’s also stuck. He just found out his girlfriend, Isha, cheated on him with a woman, he’s
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Director: Richard J. Perry
Starring: Amanda Abbington | Hannaj Bang Bendz | Jordan Stephens | Michael Maloney
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Maureen Bharoocha
Starring: Betsy Sodaro | Dawn Luebbe | Dot-Marie Jones | Eugene Cordero | Mary Holland | Olivia Stambouliah
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Rodrigo García
Starring: Carla Gallo | Chad Lindberg | Glenn Close | Joshua Leonard | Michael Hyatt | Mila Kunis | Stephen Root | Violet Brinson
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Espen Sandberg
Starring: Christian Rubeck | Glenn Andrew Kaada | Ida Ursin-Holm | Katherine Waterston | Pål Sverre Hagen | Ruby Dagnall | Trond Espen Seim
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Vaughn Stein
Starring: Casey Affleck | Emily Alyn Lind | Hiro Kanagawa | India Eisley | Michelle Monaghan | Sam Claflin | Veronica Ferres | Vincent Gale
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Majid Majidi
Starring: Ali Nassirian | Javad Ezati | Roohollah Zamani | Shamila Shirzad
Michael says: “Belmont World Film Festival did a great job assembling their virtual film festival this year. They screened several high profile international films, and did so for a full week, running from March through April. Gave plenty of opportunities
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sarah Suco
Starring: Camille Cottin | Céleste Brunnquell | Daniel Martin | Éric Caravaca | Jean-Pierre Darroussin | Laurence Roy | Spencer Bogaert
Michael says: “Belmost World Film Festival had a really strong line-up of international films this year, screening each one virtually for a week through April and into May. I caught THE DAZZLED, French actress Sarah Suco directed this semi-autobiographical film about
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Hamid Farokhnezhad | Hediyeh Tehrani | Houman Seyyedi | Pantea Bahram | Sahar Dolatshahi | Taraneh Alidoosti
Michael says: “The first film by Farhadi that I saw was the riveting A SEPARATION, released in US in 2012, which I didn’t realize was his first film until quite a bit later. His follow-up film, the nearly as riveting
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