Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Jason says: “When Hayao Miyazaki discussed his work on the film that eventually became THE WIND RISES soon after the Fukushima disaster, he spoke of how his next film would be upsetting as a reaction to that. Now, that film
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Gaby Hoffman | Keene McRae | Laura Dern | Michiel Huisman | Reese Witherspoon | Thomas Sadoski
Thom says: “I’d noticed the Cheryl Strayed account of her 1,100 mile solo hike on the Pacific Coast Trail in 1995 atop or near the top of national Best Seller lists (It’s still #4 on the New York Times Paperback
Read the review...Wild Canaries (USA; 102 min.) directed by: Lawrence Michael Levinestarring: Sophia Takai; Lawrence Michael Levine; Alia Shawkat; Jason Ritter; Annie Parisse; Kevin Corrigan Jason says: “WILD CANARIES is not quite THE THIN MAN, but it’s better at that sort of
Read the review...Wicker Kittens (USA; 52 min.) directed by: Amy C. Elliottdocumentary Jason says: “On my coffee table, underneath the piles of other stuff that has been dropped there over the course of the last couple of years, is a half-completed jigsaw
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Sion Sono
Jason says: “So it’s come to this: The festival program describes Sion Sono’s latest as an ode to 35mm cinema, and while ‘ode’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘requiem’, it’s often not far off. Fortunately, even if this is a eulogy for
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Benny Chan
Jason says: “Sometimes, it’s not enough for someone to be shot in the chest. They have to fall off a cliff, and there have to be alligators in the river below. That is the attitude Benny Chan brings to THE
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Gregg Araki
Starring: Angela Bassett | Ava Acres | Christopher Meloni | Dale Dickey | Eva Green | Shailene Woodley | Sheryl Lee | Shiloh Fernandez | Thomas Jane
Jason says: “I saw WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD referred to as a coming of age movie, and I don’t necessarily think that designation fits. Not every drama where the characters haven’t graduated from high school yet needs that label;
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Damien Chazelle
Jason says: “So far, three of the four films that Damien Chazelle has written and/or directed have been about musicians, and for all I know, his script for THE LAST EXORCISM II had one in a prominent supporting role. In
Read the review...The Search for Weng Weng (Australia; 92 min.) directed by: Andrew Leavoldstarring: Tikoy Aguiluz; Roy Arabejo; Tilman Baumgaertel; Don Gordon Bell; Celso Ad. Castillo; Beth Chai Jason says: “Going in, I half-thought that I had seen THE SEARCH FOR WENG
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Shira Piven
Chris says: “Welcome to The Kristen Wiig Show—what other famous comedic actress could you possibly cast as Alice Klieg, a woman diagnosed with borderline personality disorder who wins the lottery and spends all her earnings funding her very own Oprah-esque
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Roger Michell
Jason says: “Vicarious travel is one of the more underrated joys of going to the movies even if it can’t carry a film itself, and LE WEEK-END uses it well: It could have just been another nicely-acted argument that runs
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hubert Sauper
Kyle says: “WE COME AS FRIENDS is Austrian director Hubert Sauper’s horrifying documentary about contemporary colonization of South Sudan. Perhaps depressing and infuriating are better adjectives. This constitutes numerous episodes about the exploitation of the resources and manipulation of the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Johan Liljemark | Liv LeMoyne | Mattias Wiberg | Mira Barkhammar | Mira Grosin
Jason says: “The opening scene of WE ARE THE BEST briefly reminded me of another recent Scandinavian film, SONS OF NORWAY, which followed a punk-loving teenager whose need to rebel was frustrated by his exceptionally open-minded and accommodating father. This
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.8 cats
Director: Pieter Van Hees
Starring: Babetida Sadjo | Jérémie Renier | Natali Broods | Peter Van den Begin | Peter van den Eede
Jason says: “One of the best sorts of mysteries plunges its detective into a world not his own, such that figuring out how this other culture works is an important part of finding the killer. Some sort of personal growth
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Barmak Akram
Jason says: “Depending on where in the world it plays, WAJMA may be titled AN AFGHAN LOVE STORY or use that as a subtitle. It’s a somewhat ironic one, as those hoping for a romance that brings either cheer or
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mohit Suri
Starring: Remo Fernandes | Riteish Deshmukh | Shaad Randhawa | Shraddha Kapoor | Sidharth Malhotra
Jason says: “Given that uncredited Indian remakes of movies from other countries aren’t exactly uncommon, it’s not totally unfair that I went into EK VILLAIN with I SAW THE DEVIL in the back of my head; you don’t have to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Diana Whitten
Chris says: “Founded by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, Women on Waves is an organization that assists women with having abortions who live in countries where the procedure is illegal. VESSEL spends over a decade following Gomperts and her crew as
Read the review...Veronica Mars (USA; 107 min.) directed by: Rob Thomasstarring: Kristen Bell; Jason Dohring; Enrico Colantoni; Chris Lowell; Percy Daggs III; Tina Majorino Kyle says: “I was blindsided by the Warner Bros. credit and the endless crawl of topnotch technical credits
Read the review...Venus in Fur (France/Poland; 96 min.) directed by: Roman Polanskistarring: Mathieu Amalric; Emmanuelle Seigner Thom says: “Since Polanski has directed 8 top-rated films for me in KNIFE IN THE WATER, REPULSION, CUL-DE-SAC, ROSEMARY’S BABY, TESS, MACBETH, THE TENANT, & CHINATOWN
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jessica Oreck
Kyle says: “THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA sounds more interesting than it is. Baba Yaga is a horrible witch famous throughout Slavic folklore and in the works of Russian composers such as Mussorgsky and Liadov, bearing similarities to
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