Teaching audiences to view films actively
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
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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
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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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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ken Ochiai
Starring: Chihiro Yamamoto | Hirotaro Honda | Hisako Manda | Kazuaki Tai | Kenichi Naganuma | Seizo Fukumoto
Jason says: “UZUMASA LIMELIGHT wears its inspiration on its sleeve, opening with a quote from Charles Chaplin’s original film before giving some background on where this contemporary Japanese version is coming from. That’s absolutely fine, though – after all, what
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Joanna Hogg
Bruce says: “Joanna Hogg in an early interview talks freely about her first film, UNRELATED, winner of the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize at the 2007 London Film Festival. Trained as a photographer, Hogg worked in British television
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Errol Morris
Kyle says: “’We need to understand how we got to where we are.’ This fatuous comment by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is memorable only because subsequent Iraq history has made both the man and this dispiriting documentary a waste
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Starring: Douglas McConnell | Jeremy McWilliams | Lynsey Taylor MacKay | Scarlett Johansson
Chris says: “Widely branded as an experimental (read: plot less and arty) adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel, this is admittedly far more out there than SPECIES or even THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, to name two other films that center
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Dante Lam
Jason says: “There’s not a whole lot in UNBEATABLE that’s new; this very combination of a raw young fighter, a coach who has seen better days, and a kid who doesn’t take any guff has probably shown up on screen
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Hossein Amini
Starring: Daisy Bevan | David Warshofsky | Kirsten Dunst | Oscar Isaac | Ozan Tas | Viggo Mortensen | Yigit Özsener
Thom says: “Unfortunately, this turned out to be Patricia Highsmith-light. There’s been quite a few high-quality films that have been made from her works including THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, THE CRY OF THE OWL (twice, even once by Chabrol), PURPLE
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Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Genesis Rodriguez | Haley Joel Osment | Johnny Depp | Justin Long | Michael Parks
Thom says: “Podcaster Wallace Bryton (a forever boyish Justin Long) and his head dude Teddy (a decidedly chubby Osment) are looking for odd, disgusting clips for their podcast and come across a really gross one where a young man accidentally
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Claire Keelan | Rob Brydon | Rosie Fellner | Steve Coogan
Chris says: “THE TRIP smartly capitalized on Steve Coogan’s and Rob Brydon’s superb chemistry with each other—one could imagine getting a kick out of watching them do nothing more than read the phone book, as long as they did it
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hans Herbots
Jason says: “Film festivals, or the other ways that film lovers cram more movies than their friends watch in a month into a much shorter span of time, can really warp one’s perception of a given picture via context. On
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Sang-woo Lee
Starring: Park Hyung-bin | Sang-woo Lee | Yang Myung-hun
Jason says: “‘Just jerk off when your brother tells you to’ isn’t quite the first line of I AM TRASH, but it’s close and gets the audience’s attention. It also turns out to be one of the less horrific moments
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Vivian Qu
Starring: He Wenchao | Hou Yong | Li Xinghong | Liu Tiejian | Lu Yulai | Xiang Qun | Zhao Xiaofei
Kyle says: “TRAP STREET marks the directorial debut of Vivian Qu, who has a substantial resumé as a producer of Chinese films. This a tale of the gray areas between surveying and surveillance, as young Li Quiming (Lu Yulai) happily
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