Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Miguel Gomes
Jason says: “Volume 1 of Miguel Gomes’s ARABIAN NIGHTS trilogy impressed me, although not quite enough to justify the scale of the thing on its own. This second volume, released a month after the first in their native Portugal but
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Miguel Gomes
Starring: Adriano Luz | Carloto Cotta | Crista Alfaiate | Dinarte Branco | Miguel Gomes | Rogério Samora
Jason says: “The best way to review Miguel Gomes’s three-part ARABIAN NIGHTS anthology is probably all at once, rather than writing about the first film before watching the second. I am currently trying that anyway, not knowing if characters will
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Desiree Akhavan
Starring: Anh Dong | Arian Moayed | Desiree Akhavan | Halley Feiffer | Hooman Majd | Rebecca Henderson | Scott Adsit
Jason says: “Movies like APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR are good checks for figuring out just to what degree you are becoming a grumpy old person. Do you find the main character whiny and irritating from the start? Do you get over it?
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jennifer Prediger | Jess Weixler
Jason says: “Screen acting can be such a volatile way of making a living that what is probably the signature absurdity in APARTMENT TROUBLES – that a pair of roommates can both be so broke as to face eviction from
Read the review...Antarctic Edge: 70° South (USA; 72 min.) directed by: Dana Seideldocumentary Kyle says: “’May 2014. Scientists declare West Antarctic ice sheet melt unstoppable.’ As you attempt to digest the word ‘unstoppable’, the typeface changes from black to red. This outstanding
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Charlie Kaufman | Duke Johnson
Starring: David Thewlis | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Tom Noonan
Jason says: “When I spent more time around various types of animation fandom, the use of actors for whom voice work was just a sideline was a big issue (and that was before DreamWorks had arrived on the scene!). I
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sonny Mallhi
Starring: Amberley Gridley | Annika Marks | Cliff Chamberlain | Karina Logue | Ryan O’Nan | Ryan Simpkins
Jason says: “ANGUISH lives up to its title and spreads it around, doing an impressive job of mixing jump shocks and genuine human discomfort. Despite placing that sort of emotion front and center, though, it has a much broader range
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Lauren Shaw
Jason says: “It’s a weird thing to admit, but having seen a documentary or two about the Khmer Rouge a couple months back, and not regularly hearing much about Cambodia as it is now compared to those horror stories, it’s
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asif Kapadia
Diane says: “AMY will see a best doc nom from me. Stills and lousy video footage are used to relate the unremittingly bleak chronology of Amy Winehouse’s life in show biz. Director has interviews–or perhaps borrowed sound–from a good range
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Michael Johnson
Starring: Danny DeVito | Evan Ross | Isabelle Fuhrman | Kodi Smit-McPhee | Virginia Madsen
Kyle says: “ALL THE WILDERNESS is another in a very very long line of films about a troubled teenager resisting the forces of socialization, having withdrawn into a world of his own making following the suicide of his father. The
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Rating: 2.9 cats
Director: Giovanni Zelko
Starring: Ben Youcef | Candice Coke | Harry Lennix | Josh Pence | Said Faraj | Tara Holt | Zuhair Hadad
Jason says: “It’s easy to see the kind of thriller that THE ALGERIAN’s makers want it to be, so plain on its face that the two or three actors that audiences recognize from more polished material can seem far out
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Chris Messina
Starring: Chris Messina | Derek Luke | Don Johnson | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Katie Nehra | Mary Elisabeth Winstead | Matthew Del Negro | Skylar Gaertner
Kyle says: “ALEX OF VENICE is a modest miniature about the emotional disruptions of marital break-up and the unexpected new details of daily life, a comedy of manners in which a comfortable lifestyle is a house of cards whose collapse
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Starring: Andrew Garfield | Laura Dern | Michael Shannon | Noah Lomax | Tim Guinee
Chris says: “It’s no surprise that it took so long for someone to dramatize the housing mortgage crisis that brought on the 2008 recession. Although many were impacted, it’s not the most interesting subject matter for a film, unless perhaps
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yann Demange
Starring: Adam Nagaitis | Barry Keoghan | Jack Lowden | Jack O'Connell | Joshua Hill | Paul Popplewell
Kyle says: “Recipient of various international film festival awards as well as BAFTA nominations for Best British Film and Outstanding Debut, Yann Demange’s ’71 is a superlative U.K. political thriller about ‘the troubles’ in Belfast prior to Bloody Sunday in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Charlotte Rampling | David Sibley | Dolly Wells | Geraldine James | Sam Alexander | Tom Courtenay
Bruce says: “Haigh’s feature follow-up to the critically acclaimed WEEKEND (not counting the ill-fated TV series, LOOKING), demonstrates his artistic consistency. Charlotte Rampling is nothing short of sensational as a wife whose 45th wedding anniversary celebration is skewered by ghosts
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Benoît Poelvoorde | Catherine Deneuve | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Chiara Mastroianni
Kyle says: “Opening Night of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s series ‘20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema’ was Benoît Jacquot’s 3 HEARTS in its U.S. Premiere. Those who like their French films about doomed affairs of the heart intense and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.9 cats
Director: Leste Chen Cheng-tao
Jason says: “When I said I’d be interested in seeing a remake of Korean comedy MISS GRANNY when I saw it at the Fantasia Festival last August, I didn’t realize that one was already shooting in China. It’s no shock
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Matt Chow
Jason says: “I see a fair number of movies from Hong Kong – just about every one that plays local theaters or the festivals I attend – but I’ve still somehow managed to miss almost the entire career of Sandra
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Bent Hamer
Bruce says: “Bent Hamer specializes in stories about those who don’t fit into society in any conventional sense. He first came under my radar with KITCHEN STORIES; then followed O’HORTEN and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. 1001 GRAMS is a slight departure
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Carlos Marques-Marquet
Starring: David Verdaguer | Natalia Tena
Kyle says: “10,000 KM is a film I do not want to belittle with faint praise, especially since there are so few titles out there worth seeing at all. So I apologize in advance if I write that this is
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