Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Janet Grillo
Starring: AnnSophia Robb | Famke Jansen | Israel Broussard | Sophia Anne Caruso | Taylor Richardson
Jason says: “I don’t know much about raising kids or autism, let alone the combination of the two, but I probably know just enough to find JACK OF THE RED HEARTS a bit more alarming than it was perhaps meant
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Wilson Yip
Starring: Donnie Yen | John Zhang Jin | Lynn HungDoi-lam | Mike Tyson | Sarut Khanwilai | Shi Wang-Yan
Jason says: “The previews for the American release of IP MAN 3 have been playing it up as Donnie Yen versus Mike Tyson, and that’s probably good marketing even if the former heavyweight champ is credited with a ‘special appearance’
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Philippe Garrel
Starring: Antoinette Moya | Clotilde Courau | Jean Pommier | Lena Paugam | Stanislas Merhar | Vimala Pons
Bruce says: “Filmed in black and white reminiscent of the 1960s, Philippe Garrel’s IN THE SHADOW OF WOMEN follows the dissolution of a marriage. Both husband and wife are having extra-marital affairs although they are happily married and deeply in
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Starring: Ali Suliman | Ashraf Barhom | Eyad Hourani | Nadine Labaki | Tawfeek Barhom
Bruce says: “Hany Abu-hassad would seem an unlikely director of a biopic. His earlier films, RANA’S WEDDING, PARADISE NOW, and OMAR have documented the effects of Israeli enforced apartheid on the Palestinian community. While THE IDOL has many of those
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Director: Taika Waititi
Starring: Julian Dennison | Rachel House | Rima Te Wiata | Sam Neill | Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne
Jeff says: “Actually, I will be nominating Rima Te Wiata for Best Supporting Actress in the role of Bella, a big-hearted, back-to-the-land farmer and forager who brings a misunderstood child out of his shell. This is a fish-out-of water story
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jonathan Helpert
Starring: David Atrakchi | Esther Comar | Jochen Hägele | Julie Judd | LauraBoujenah | Maxime Dambrin
Jason says: “Ambiguity is a powerful tool for filmmakers and other storytellers if they can handle the challenges of using the same material to build two opposing narratives at once, and not just because pulling it off is an impressive
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Randall Wright
Bruce says: “David Hockney as a subject is fascinating, complicated and ever so broad. In the contemporary art world, he is nearly without peer, when one considers the breadth and consistent quality of his work. No documentary could truly do
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Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: Elisabeth Moss | James Purefoy | Jeremy Irons | Keeley Hawes | Luke Evans | Sienna Miller | Tom Hiddleston
Jason says: “HIGH-RISE carries so many illustrious pedigrees, such as the novel by science fiction author J.G. Ballard, and a committed performance by star Tom Hiddleston, and its press notes are filled with so many adjectives such as ‘ambitious’ and
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand | George Clooney | Josh Brolin | RalphFiennes | Scarlett Johansson | Tilda Swinton
Thom says: “The Coen Brothers have had a long, steady run of super-loved films that they have directed and they very rarely fail to hit my highest rating so that this palpably fun film didn’t achieve that fantastic distinction is
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Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Alia Shawkat | Anton Yelchin | Callum Turner | David W.Thompson | Joe Cole | Mark Webber
Jeff says: “The next movie from director Jeremy Saulnier, responsible for 2013’s BLUE RUIN, GREEN ROOM once again throws a bunch of regular guys into horrific circumstances (heroin-manufacturing Nazi skinheads, homicidal dogs), and lets them improvise a way out (as
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Jing Wong
Starring: Andy Lau | Jacky Cheung Hok-yau | Kimmy Tong Fei | Nick Cheung Ka-fai | Shawn Yue Man-lok
Jason says: “When I saw the first FROM VEGAS TO MACAU at a festival a couple years ago, I figured that I was just a victim of bad expectations, not prepared for something so silly, especially thinking of Chow Yun-fat
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Director: Jake Mahaffy
Starring: David Harewood | Edwina Findley Dickerson | Kathy Smith | Rajay Chandler
Chris says: “Not sure if this will get any kind of distribution, but this IFFBoston title blew me away with its intensity, neorealism, and nuanced approach to its subject matter. It concerns a storefront Pentecostal church in Memphis and a
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Starring: Benjamin Utzerath | Louis-Do de Lencquesaing | Vincent Nemeth
Bruce says “As he did with the Hermitage in RUSSIAN ARK, Sokurov takes on the Louvre mixing art, history and folklore. In spite of meandering – as a Sokurov film is wont to do – the focus ultimately settles on
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jonathan Hock
Jason says: “The professional sports industry churns out a tremendous amount of non-fiction films every year, and the number is probably only going up with the sheer number of cable sports channels with time to fill, especially during the off-season.
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jason Bateman
Starring: Christopher Walken | Jason Bateman | Kathryn Hahn | Nicole Kidman
Michael says: “Just watched a pretty accomplished film called THE FAMILY FANG, starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman, directed by Bateman. This offbeat tale looks at the Fang family, led by a pair of performance artists who put their two
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Aaron Paul | Aisha Takow | Alan Rickman | Armaan Haggio | Barkhad Abdi | Helen Mirren | Phoebe Fox
Jason says: “What one often reads about Unmanned Aerial Vehicle strikes may lead such a person to believe that the way concern about collateral damage drives EYE IN THE SKY marks it as a fantasy, as does the stark, immediate
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Claire Carré
Starring: Greta Fernandez | Iva Gocheva | Jason Ritter | Roberto Cots | Silvan Friedman | Tucker Smallwood
Jason says: “The shots of present-day ruins that open EMBERS are a reminder of sorts that worlds end all the time, on the scale of individual hopes and dreams, though those tiny apocalypses are often part of a greater calamity.
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Director: Peter Greenaway
Starring: Cristina Velasco Lozano | Elmer Bäck | Jakob Öhrman | José Montini | Luis Alberti | Rasmus Slätis
Jeff says: “If Peter Greenaway is your cup of tea, you’ll rank this right up there with his best. As usual his painterly eye makes for some gorgeous visuals, and Elmer Bäck creates a wonderfully louche Eisenstein.” Bruce says:
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Philip T. Johnson
Starring: Aaron Graham | Brad Norman | Kenneth Hughes | Kirby O’Connell
Jason says: “There’s an atom-thin line between movies that separate themselves from the pack by being prepared with irreverence, eccentric characters, and black comedy and the ones that fail horribly because injecting that sort of thing into something that wants
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Peter Flynn
Jason says: “A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the projectionist at my neighborhood theater by name when talking to a co-worker, and he took the fact that I knew him by name as a sign that maybe I spent
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