Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peng Da-mo | Yan Fei
Jason says: “As near as I can tell, no character is played by multiple actors in GOODBYE MR. LOSER despite the bulk of the movie showing these middle-aged characters back in high school, and the fact that the filmmakers figure
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Andrew Niccol
Jason says: “Writer/director Andrew Niccol has never been a guy who had a problem with letting the audience know exactly what he is getting at with his movies, and that’s certainly the case when he sets his movies in the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ifa Isfansyah
Jason says: “I talked to folks who passed on THE GOLDEN CANE WARRIOR because the martial arts looked unimpressive in the trailer, which I suspect may be kind of unfair; they were probably cut to ribbons, and even if I
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alex Gibney
Kyle says: “Many fans of the definitive turn of the century pop culture phenomenon SOUTH PARK point easily to one classic episode against which all else is measured: ‘Trapped in the Closet’ from November 2005. Stan is suspected of being
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Han Yan
Jason says: “The ‘cancer comedy’ is a minefield as genres go; cancer’s no laughing matter but it’s not a difficult path from tragedy to absurdity to jokes, at least for some. That’s the path Xiong Dun took when she was
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Céline Sciamma
Chris says: “Obviously not a distaff take on Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD — the French title is BANDE DE FILLES, which translates as ‘Group of Girls.’ Marieme (Karidja Touré), a timid sixteen-year-old living in mostly black, housing project-heavy Parisian suburb, drops
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ronit Elkabetz | Shlomi Elkabetz
Starring: Eli Gornstein | Menashe Noy | Ronit Elkabetz | Sasson Gabai | Simon Abkarian
Michael says: “If the colloquial definition of insanity is ‘doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,’ then surely Vivane Amsalem is feeling pretty insane by the end of GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANE AMSALEM. She’s probably
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yu Ha
Jason says: “GANGNAM 1970 (or GANGNAM BLUES, the name under which it’s traveling the festival circuit) is the sort of movie where I tend to spend the first ten or fifteen minutes frantically trying to remember the seemingly dozens of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Kyle says: “FUTURO BEACH is in danger of being swallowed into the niche sinkhole of gay cinema, and being dismissed for a strict, even boring tri-partite formal structure, bookended by men on motorcycles. That would be a lamentable fate for
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Paul Goodwin
Jason says: “2000 AD is not the only comic that could believably have its history scored with punk rock, but most of the rest burned out fast, or never made any sort of popular impact. 2000 AD has been a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Derek Kwok Chi-kin | Henri Wong Chi-hang
Jason says: “There are plenty of silly things in FULL STRIKE- it is, in fact, ridiculous more or less non-stop – but the filmmakers never really portray badminton as a sport that is, itself, laughable. They could have, and that
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Lorenzo Vigas
Bruce says: “My first note for FROM AFAR reads ‘out of focus.’ Little did I know when I wrote it how important focus would be in describing the psychological nature of the protagonist, Armando, played by Alfredo Costa (NO, TONY
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Robbie Pickering
Jason says: “FREAKS OF NATURE was originally called ‘The Kitchen Sink’ – some websites are listing its show times under that title – and neither name is great. ‘Freaks’ is generic and not really what the movie is about; ‘Sink’
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: He Jiong
Jason says: “The plot of FOREVER YOUNG could come straight out of a silly sitcom meant for young adults, although I suspect that this hypothetical Chinese ‘Saved by the Bell: The College Years’ would probably go to far less drastic
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Evan Johnson | Guy Maddin
Jason says: “Given that THE FORBIDDEN ROOM wasn’t even really supposed to be a movie, you have to say it turned out pretty well. Conceived as a two-part multimedia project – the first half live ‘seances’ where Guy Maddin and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Jason says: “You can tell from the title that this movie is going to be playing on horror movie tropes – the ‘final girl’ being the last survivor of a massacre who takes down the killer – but that’s often
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 0.5 cats
Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Thom says: “For years I’d been reading about the huge best-selling trilogy that topped the sales charts for months on end. Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed were rooted in my consciousness but since I have
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Mari Asato
Jason says: “The festival program indicates that this film and the game FATAL FRAME were based upon the same book, although the credits indicate that the book was based upon the game before being adapted into this film, but those
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Christian Braad Thomsen
Thom says: “I received 2 free tickets to features at the current LGBT Film Festival so I was thrilled to attend. This film was decidedly difficult to rate because of my obvious subjectivity. Fassbinder is my favorite director for my
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Tony Chan
Jason says: “Do you ever feel frustrated watching a movie and think, come on, this shouldn’t be so hard – you’ve got a couple attractive young stars, a decent hook, and ninety minutes to play it out; how hard can
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