Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 2.75 | 3.5 cats
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Robert Pattison | Valeriia Karaman | Willem Dafoe
Chris says: “Enjoyed this a little more than THE WITCH–it’s just as silly, but Eggers’ Lynch/Maddin pretensions are finely tuned and wrought, and a sense of encroaching madness forever drives things forward. DaFoe/Pattinson is also an inspired pairing, and where
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 2.8 cats
Director: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Amara Karan | Ben Schnetzer | Chris Zylka | Emily Hampshire | Jacob Tremblay | Jared Keeso | Kathy Bates | Kit Harington | Michael Gambon | Natalie Portman | Susan Sarandon | Thandie Newton
Michael says: “Ah, where do I start with the work of Xavier Dolan. His first film, I KILLED MY MOTHER, was a tour de force for me. A beautiful, emotional story, and an audacious and artistic feature directorial debut. Dolan
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Asier Etxeandia | César Vicente | Julieta Serrano | Leonardo Sbaraglia | Nora Navas
Chris says: “Doesn’t contain the giddy highs of Almodovar’s best and feels scattered like much of his post-VOLVER output; however, while definitely a mature work, it’s not boring like JULIETA, and the widespread praise for Antonio Banderas’ affecting, multifaceted performance
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alejandro Landes
Starring: Julian Geraldo | Julianne Nicholson | Karen Quintero | Laura Castrillón | Sofia Buenaventura
Chris says: “Crazier than FITZCARRALDO. The less one knows going in, the better. Last act meanders a bit, but this is highly recommended for fans of apocalyptic art cinema, Mica Levi scores and Julianne Nicholson. 4 cats“
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Jeremy Northam | Katherine Kelly | Keira Knightley | Matt Smith | Matthew Goode | Ralph Fiennes
Chris says: “A fascinating story (based on actual events) told adequately; it wants to be ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, but Keira Knightley lacks the presence of a Hoffman and the ease of a Redford. It’s even more noticeable in her
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats | 3 cats
Director: Scott A. Burns
Starring: Adam Driver | Annette Bening | Corey Stoll | Evander Duck Jr. | Jon Hamm | Michael C. Hall
Diane says: “Scott Burns’ THE REPORT, starring Adam Driver, is decidedly uncinematic, at least for the first 2/3 of the film. It’s the story of Dan Jones, a Senate Intelligence staffer who labors for years (mostly in a small secure room)
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Bárbara Lennie | Eduard Fernández | Inma Cuestra | Javier Bardem | Penélope Cruz | Ricardo Darín
Chris says: “Asghar Fahardi’s latest is his least essential feature to date, but only when you consider his exceptional track record. If you’ve already seen A SEPARATION, THE PAST and all the rest, you could do much worse than this
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Terry Gilliam
Thom says: “Dear, talented auteur director Terry Gilliam has always in his long career been quite interesting, and yet, that might be damning him with faint praise. I’ve seen all his repertoire: MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (3 CATS),
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Heather Lenz
Thom says: “This is they type of documentary that rings all my bells. It’s the life story of now hugely successful Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work now pops the million dollar ceiling, but for years she suffered through bouts
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: James Kent
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård | Fionn O'Shea | Flora Thiemann | Jack Laskey | Jason Clarke | Keira Knightley | Monika Foris Kvasnicková
Thom says: “It’s post-WWII Hamburg where a colonel is there with his family to help with Reconstruction and they move into a house still populated by the German owner and his shy daughter. Of course, the British colonel and his
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jeffrey Friedman | Rob Epstein
Chris says: “After a few stabs at making biopics (HOWL, LOVELACE), veteran nonfiction filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman return to form with a slick but affecting documentary about one of the greatest vocalists of her generation. While not held
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Starring: Dome Karukoski | Jörn Donner | Kati Outinen | Sakari Kuosmanen | Sherwan Haji | Tommi Corpela | Tommi Eronen | Ville Virtanen
Thom says: “Aki Kaurismäki has long been one of my TOP 10 Living Directors and this film richly adds to his glamorous acclaim. His top rated films include: CRIME & PUNISHMENT (1983), ARIEL (1988), THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL (1990), La Vie
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Starring: Daniel Giménez Cacho | Juan Minujín | Lola Dueñas | Mariana Nunes | Matheus Nachtergaele | Nahuel Cano
Chris says: “Apart from her debut feature LA CIENAGA, all of Lucrecia Martel’s films have left me cold and damn if I can pinpoint why. As a big fan of stuff like Tarkovsky’s STALKER, it’s not like I abhor slow
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Boots Riley
Starring: Armie Hammer | Danny Glover | Forest Whitaker | Jermaine Fowler | Kate Berlant | Lakeith Stanfield | Lily James | Michael X. Sommers | Omari Hardwick | Tessa Thompson
Thom says: “A good friend gave me a choice of 3 current features & I mistakenly chose this one. I think part of the problem was an age difference. Amongst the 70s group I’m afraid I’ve lost a lot of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Carlos López Estrada
Starring: Daveed Diggs | Ethan Embry | Janina Gavankar | Jasmine Cephas Jones | Rafael Casal
Chris says: “As regional/provincial cinema goes, this is valuable enough—it depicts Oakland lovingly without sentimentalizing it. Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal are also good together (and apart) and should each be in more films, please. However, the direction’s ham-fisted, the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Deborah S. Esquenazi
Thom says: “I might be rating this a trifle high but I’m a sucker for these wrongful convictions of innocent people movies ever since the 3rd in the PARADISE LOST series almost was made my FILM-OF-THE-YEAR in 2011 before finally
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Alexis Loret | Corentin Fila | Jean Fornerod | Kacey Mottet Klein | Mama Prassinos | Sandrine Kiberlain | Vanessa Duran
Thom says: “To know that this is Techine’s 29th film recognizes that this he’s indeed a major French film director as he’s used many of the best in the business for his productions that have won quite a few awards.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Desiree Akhavan
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz | Dalton Harrod | Kerry Butler | McCabe Slye | Quinn Shephard | Sasha Lane | Steven Hauck
Chris says: “APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR is one of the better directorial feature debuts of this decade; for her follow-up, Desiree Akhavan eschews the earlier film’s explicit biographical feel (she also starred in it) for an adaptation of Emily Danforth’s novel about
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Paul McGuigan
Starring: Annette Bening | Jamie Bell | Julie Walters | Kenneth Cranham | Vanessa Redgrave
Thom says: “It’s not often that a non big-budget film stars 4 actors who are must-see and the italicized 4 here are all terrific in their roles. Director McGuigan is surprisingly not well-known by me, and yet, amazingly, I’ve seen
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Greg Berlanti
Starring: Alexandra Shipp | Jennifer Garner | Josh Duhamel | Katherine Langford | Keiynan Lonsdale | Logan Miller | Nick Robinson
Thom says: “This got a big publicity push earlier this year and was a minor success. A coming-of-age story about a gay teen boy just coming out is as sweet as all-get-out. Simon is an adorable boy with terrific parents,
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