Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.9
Director: Albert Maysles
Julie says: “For any child of a mother who was a collector of art, and art from other countries, jewelry and clothing this is a must see! For anyone else who enjoys collecting, design, art, clothing and / or good
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Karyn Kusama
Starring: Emayatzy Corinealdi | Lindsay Burdge | Logan Marshall-Green | Michiel Huisman | Tammy Blanchard
Jason says: “That I was asking myself when the stabbing was going to start fairly early on in THE INVITATION implies bad things, either about my character or the filmmakers’ performance in terms of telling a story that, in fact,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Trevor Iuras
Jason says: “THE INTERIOR seemingly starts as an one thing and stays that way for roughly the first third, when the title comes up, the scene shifts, and the main character re-appears with a new look and direction, as if
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ursula Dabrowsky
Jason says: “Ursula Dabrowsky directs the heck out of INNER DEMON, not just because it keeps going despite having a small cast and what seems like some tight constraints where locations and other resources are concerned, but because she pulls
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Brett Haley
Jason says: “Thing to ponder: I can put a note in my phone or computer that says ‘revisit I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS twenty-five years from now’, and it could follow me from device to device over that time,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chad M. Walker | Dave LaMattina
Jason says: “There was another documentary about the man behind one of ‘Sesame Street’s’ most beloved Muppets a couple years back, and even before it certain allegations (most later rescinded) were made, it didn’t really feel like BEING ELMO gave the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Barry Levinson
Kyle says: “THE HUMBLING has impeccable credentials: It is based upon a 2009 novel by Philip Roth, it is co-scripted by Buck Henry, it is directed by Barry Levinson, and it stars Al Pacino as a once-upon-a-time famous actor who
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Nathan Ambrosioni
Jason says: “HOSTILE is probably the ultimate example of the dilemma one faces when reviewing the independent/amateur films that play festivals, where on the one hand the critic wants to tell potential viewers that they’ve probably got better options in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Xu Zheng
Jason says: “Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour made seven ROAD TO… movies between 1940 and 1962, though this series was not sequels so much as a chance to make selling the audience similar plots on a regular basis
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Justin Weinstei | Tyler Measom
Jason says: “James ‘The Amazing’ Randi has been best-known his efforts on debunking psychics, faith healers and other frauds for so long that many associate him with that alone. Even remembering that it was his qualifications as a magician that
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Anthony Burns
Kyle says: “HOME SWEET HELL is a mildly diverting dark comedy about marriage, murder and mayhem. Mona and Don Champagne (Katherine Heigl and Patrick Wilson) is seemingly the perfect modern married couple on paper. That turns out to be only
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: David Cross
Kyle says: “Two thirds of the running time of HITS has passed when Katelyn (Meredith Hagner) declares, ‘This is insanity!’ and leaves home with her father’s shotgun. HITS is a comedy about cultural chaos, its title having dozens of different
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ricky Kennedy
Jason says: “Mock documentaries are inherently gimmick movies; it is a rare one that does not crash hard up against the form’s limitations, and when that happens, it doesn’t matter whether the disappointment comes from the filmmaker having to cheat
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lee Suk-hoon
Jason says: “The biggest problem with HIMALAYA (titled THE HIMALAYAS for its North American release) is that it comes right on the heels of EVEREST. The latter is not a particularly great movie but had the resources of a major
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Ross Shuman | Tom Gianas
Jason says: “There’s a running gag in HELL AND BACK, arguably the funniest thing in the movie, where a demon voiced by John Farley subjects souls to various mildly annoying situations (stopped escalators, a Pizza Hut/Taco Bell that has no
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Kim Seong-hun
Jason says: “’Chekhov’s _____’ is an extremely easy joke to make when watching and reviewing thrillers and the like, and like most trope-related comments, folks often say that in terms of ‘don’t do this’ as opposed to ‘make sure you
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Aleksey German
Jason says: “HARD TO BE A GOD may deserve your ten bucks just for the sheer level of will and effort it took to get made, with decades of working on the script, six years of filming, and another seven
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Corin Hardy
Jason says: “By way of exposition, there’s a bit on the radio early on mentioning that an upcoming deal would make Ireland the only developed country without a national forest, and that just sounds like a bad idea: Anyone who
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Daniel Garcia | Rania Attieh
Jason says: “Movies like H., with its deliberately un-evocative title, unexplained strange events, and ostentatiously non-standard structure, can bring out my least favorite reaction to a movie – the urge to shout that the emperor has no clothes and the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Pierre Morel
Kyle says: “The most interesting feature of the indispensable Internet Movie Database has become ‘Plot Keywords’, a virtual ‘CliffsNotes’ of movie plots so spot on that in most cases, you can read the list and skip the movie. Which increasingly
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