Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Albert Brooks | Alessandro Nivola | David Oyelowo | Jessica Chastain | Oscar Isaac
Jason says: “A MOST VIOLENT YEAR was shot from an original screenplay by director J.C. Chandor, but it feels like a highly successful adaptation of a great novel: Painted on a broad canvas, giving a feeling for the characters and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.75
Director: Stephen S. Campanelli
Jason says: “The title of MOMENTUM is appropriate in a way the people behind the film probably don’t intend; momentum, after all, is a measure of the potential energy of an object that is moving but in a passive, unguided
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Wuershan
Jason says: “There has been a lot of talk, both this weekend and leading up to it, about what a massive global juggernaut STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS would be at the box office and how it was sucking up
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Keiichi Har
Jason says: “Stories about art and artists are fantastic opportunities for makers of animated films, and I suspect that if I knew more about Japanese art, I’d be even more impressed by how MISS HOKUSAI uses it to give its
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hélène Giraud | Thomas Szabo
Jason says: “One of the most enjoyable parts of this festival (and movie-going in general) over the past few years has been finding kid-friendly movies that brothers and sisters-in-law would deem okay for their girls despite never having heard of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | Jimmy Chin
Jason says: “The mountain that gives MERU its title is described within the film as ‘the anti-Everest’, although as you might expect, that does not mean that it is a pleasant ascent even for those who get winded by the
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Bill Pohlad
Starring: Bill Camp | Elizabeth Banks | Jake Abel | John Cusack | Paul Dano | Paul Giamatti
Jason says: “Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys made some of their best songs (and one of pop music’s greatest albums) by meticulously – indeed, maniacally – piecing small fractions together that aren’t naturally found near each other, inventing what
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Robert Kenner
Jason says: “The most impressive thing about MERCHANTS OF DOUBT may be the apparent lack of resignation on the part of its makers. It is, after all, a documentary that is well-researched, clear in its message, and attractively presented, but
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Park Heung-sik
Jason says: “A sequel to CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON was supposed to open on Imax screens this weekend, but that seems to have fallen into some bizarre limbo. Still, as South Korea’s MEMORIES OF THE SWORD begins, one might naturally
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Starring: Connie Britton | Jon Bernthal | Nick Offerman | Olivia Cooke | Ronald Cyler II | Thomas Mann
Jason says: “There are plenty of reasons to be wary of ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL from the start, it’s got a seeming tendency to be glib and self-aware in a way that doesn’t always do it many
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Fanny Sadiney | Stephen Belber
Michael says: “I just enjoyed an odd little movie called MATCH written and directed by Stephen Belber (who wrote Richard Linklater’s TAPE). It stars Patrick Stewart, as a famed ballet dancer and choreographer, who now lives a solitary existence teaching
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Alain Darborg
Jason says: “More of this, please. “I’ve got no idea whether this reboot of Sweden’s JÖNSSONLIGAN franchise was popular enough to spawn sequels, but I want it to be. It’s a neat, tight little caper movie that introduces its characters
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ridley Scott
Thom says: “This entertaining sci-fi thriller reminded me a bit of 2013 multi-Oscar box office boffo returns GRAVITY, which was an original screen play. THE MARTIAN was adapted from Andy Weir’s bestselling novel. While this newish, Oscar-nominated film made less
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Alberto Rodriguez
Jason says: “While, to a certain extent, murder is murder, a story that could be easily set in any era becomes much more fascinating when placed in a specific time, and not just because cell phones, GPS, and security cameras
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Larry Clark
Kyle says: “Maverick writer/director Larry Clark received an award from the Rome Film Festival in 2012 for MARFA GIRL, which has since made sporadic appearances at various international film festivals, before finally making its DVD and Netflix debuts in the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: David Cronenberg
Jason says: “Hollywood stories can be self-indulgent or snide, depending on what sort of axes the people making them have to grind, rarely managing to hit the sweet spot in the middle. What they seldom are, though, is extraneous, but
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: David Gordon Green
Jason says: “David Gordon Green seems to make movies in spurts-first some noteworthy independent dramas, then some crude studio comedies. Now, a year after doing JOE and reminding audiences that, yeah, Nicholas Cage can act a little when he decides
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Dave Boyle
Jason says: “There’s a moment at the end of a lot of the really good ‘Coen-like’ movies (a description unfair to everyone involved, but one people use) where someone sits down, has a long sigh, and considers just what all
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pedro Pablo Ibarra
Jason says: “There are a lot of romantic comedies that start from from premises as ludicrous as that of A LA MALA, but few of them do as well in selling that starting point. It’s a goofy little thing, but
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Henry Hobson
Jason says: “Show me MAGGIE at a genre film festival with a cast of unknowns, and I likely react with unreserved excitement. That is, after all, the natural life-cycle and scale of movies such which play with genre conventions the
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