Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Julien Faraut
Starring: documentary
Beth Ca says: “I saw this film at the Provincetown Film Festival this summer and loved it. It’s a spectacular film, especially with the editing and visual design (it is winning awards for editing, and other categories). The film uses
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Marielle Heller
Starring: Anna Deveare Smith | Ben Falcone | Dolly Wells | Erik LaRay Harvey | Jane Curtin | Melissa McCarthy | Pun Bandhu | Richard E. Grant
Chris says: “It’s not so much that Melissa McCarthy is a revelation here as that she finally has a role that allows her to be more than just silly or weird (although she’s occasionally those things too.) The real-life story
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christopher Landon
Starring: Blaine Kern III | Charles Aitken | Israel Broussard | JessicaRothe | Laura Clifton | Phi Vu | Ruby Modine
Thom says: “My friends all know I love horror films even though a high percentage of them are atrocious. This was supposed to be a one-off on my recent trip to New York but despite the GROUNDHOG DAY rip-off HAPPY
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Brady Corbet
Starring: Jude Law | Natalie Portman | Raffey Cassidy | Willem Dafoe
Brett says: “VOX LUX is a demolition derby of themes that keep colliding after the initial premise is introduced. Just when the viewer thinks that he/she has a finger on what this movie is, another head-on impact from writer/director Brady
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Aujanue Ellis | Colman Domingo | Ebony Obsidian | KikiLayne | Michael Beach | Regina King | Stephan James | Teyonah Parris
Chris says: “Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to MOONLIGHT is nearly that film’s sequel in that it further showcases his considerably humane approach to character and story even as he adapts someone else’s text (in this case, a James Baldwin novel.) The
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jonah Hill
Starring: Catherine Waterston | Lucas Hedges | Sunny Suljic
Diane says: “The reason I went to see MID 90S, Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, was so I could admire Sunny Suljic’s hair again. (Sunny was the sweet little boy in KILLING OF A SACRED DEER.) Here Sunny plays Stevie, a
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sophie Fiennes
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Cutting back and forth between concert and cinema verité footage is initially somewhat jarring, particularly for those who know little about Jones’ life offstage (i.e., most viewers). Fortunately, the latter’s contrast with the former grows more compelling as
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tim Wardle
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “A stranger-than-fiction doc even *more* fun than but almost disturbing as CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS? No wonder it’s the feel-good-then-feel-bad indie hit of the summer. The first half hour or so is immensely entertaining; the increasingly wacko plot twists
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ian Bonhôte | Peter Ettedgui
Starring: documentary
Beth CA says: “This film is interesting, and it’s worth watching because of the subject – and the video and photographic footage was excellent. However, when a film aims to document an artist’s life and work, the film ought to
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Agnès Varda | JR
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Given that 2008’s THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS was supposed to be Agnès Varda’s swan song, we’re just lucky at all to get one more film from the now 89-year-old Godmother of the French New Wave. And while this
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Cory Finley
Starring: Anton Yelchin | Anya Taylor-Joy | Olivia Cooke
Chris says: “Starts off a little boring and leaden, with two rich girls(Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy, both very good) in a passive-aggressive pas de deux. It achieves some focus once the what-to-do-about-the-creepy-stepfather problem is established—a narrative we’ve seen too
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kate Novack
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Fairly pedestrian for a profile documentary—more worthy of CNN than a theatrical release, really. But Andre Leon Talley’s personality is welcome in almost any setting. Just as he nearly stole the show from no less than Anna Wintour
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mazen Khaled
Starring: Carol Abboud | Hadi Bou Ayash | Hamza Mekdad | Moustafa Fahs | Raneem Mourad | Rashad Nasreddine
Michael says: “There’s some major symbolism going on in the Lebanese film,MARTYR by Mazen Khaled, possibly about the state of Beirut, where the film takes place, but the gorgeous shots of water, and actor Hamza Mekdad’s nude body lean more
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Hirokazu Korreda
Starring: Koji Yakusho | MasaharuFukuyama | Shinnosuke Mitsushima
Chris says: “A legal thriller from a director best known for his Ozu-worthy family dramas? It slots more neatly into his oeuvre than you’d expect, primarily because the mystery per se is steeped in familial relationships, only this time with
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tom Volf
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “As an opera singer, Maria Callas had an undeniably great voice, but in her time she was also unmatched as to how she embodied her roles onstage (and offstage as well.) Tom Volf’s documentary is a lovingly assembled
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Antonio Santini | Don Sickles
Starring: documentary
Diane says: “Caught this Sundance winner doc at a small theater today. The central figure is a friend of director Dan Sickles’ (co-director is Antonio Santini; their first was MALA MALA). We land in the middle of the lives of
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Carolyn Saint-Pé | Emma Stone | James Smith | Mark Gatiss | Nicholas Hoult | Olivia Colman | Rachel Weisz | William Dalby
Thom says: “In nine short years Greek director Lanthimos has vaulted to my TOP 10 Living Directors. I’ve been unable to find his first two features MY BEST FRIEND and KINETTA, but his five films that followed have all received
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ian Bonhôte | Peter Ettedgui
Starring: documentary
Julie says: “This was a very well done doc. I recommend it. I think it painted a very clear, honest, intriguing and endearing portrait of Susanne Bartsch’s life and those around her as well as the important times in which
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Josephine Decker
Starring: Helena Howard | Miranda July | Molly Parker
Chris says: “An admittedly frustrating but always fascinating puzzle box of a film. On the surface, it appears to be about teenager Madeline (Helena Howard), her antagonistic relationship with her single mother (Miranda July) and her after-school participation in an
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Kirin Kiki | Lily Franky | Mayu Matsuoka | Sakura Andô
Chris says: “Naming a favorite film by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is like doing the same for his closest progenitor, Yasujiro Ozu–nearly impossible, given their tendencies to revisit and refine themes of domesticity and humanism while maintaining a higher-than-average consistency.
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