Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kung-Lok Lee
Jason says: “I wonder how many of the critics who regularly make sure to include something along the lines of ‘don’t pay the extra for 3D, there’s nothing that merits it’ for seemingly every movie released in the format will
Read the review...Big Muddy (Canada; 104 min.) directed by: Jefferson Moneostarring: Nadia Litz; Justin Kelly; Stephen McHattie; James Le Gros; David La Haye Chris says: “Saskatchewan neo-noir? Well, if Joel and Ethan Coen can turn Minnesota into a convincing genre locale, why
Read the review...Mr. Go (South Korea/China; 123 min.) directed by: Kim Yong-hwa starring: Jiao Xu; Kim Hee-won; Sung Dong-il; Joe Odagiri Jason says: “I’m not going to sugar coat this – MR. GO is not the best possible movie that could be
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.6
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Dorothy Atkinson | Karl Johnson | Marion Bailey | Paul Jesson | Timothy Spall
Jason says: “This is Mike Leigh’s third historical biography, which is somewhat surprising considering what a loosely outlined style he is famous for using – improvisation and recreation do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. And yet, somehow, this winds up an
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Talya Lavie
Jason says: “Having a crappy job or two is often a rite of passage for folks in their late teens and early twenties, and if you live in a country like Israel with mandatory military service, having that turn out
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Anton Corbijn
Jason says: “I must admit to bring a little surprised that John le Carré is still with us and writing contemporary works; I had sort of aimed he faded away with the end of the Cold War. This, it turns
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Aissa Maiga | Audrey Tautou | Charlotte Le Bon | Gad Elmaleh | Omar Sy | Romain Duris
Chris says: “Michel Gondry’s most ambitious film to date, MOOD INDIGO alternately plays like one of the director’s early, playfully innovative music videos stretched to feature-length, or ETERNAL SUNSHINE without brakes, or AMELIE on crack. An adaptation of a beloved
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Motoki Ochiai | Satomi Ishihara | Takayuki Yamada | Tatsuya Fujiwara
Jason says: “2011’s HAUNTERS was an excellent Korean movie that established a simple premise – two people with opposite superpowers (mind control and rapid healing) on a collision course – and delivered with entertaining action pieces, a likable cast of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Alexandre Goyette | Anne Dorval | Antoine-Olivier Pilon | Patrick Huard | Suzanne Clément
Chris says: “Those familiar with Quebecois wunderkind Xavier Dolan’s small, extraordinary oeuvre may notice the title and remember that his first feature was called I KILLED MY MOTHER. This, his fifth, is not a sequel, but it occasionally scans as
Read the review...The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (Japan; 130 min.) directed by: Takashi Miikestarring: Toma Ikuta; Mitsuru Fukikoshi; Kenichi Endo; Shinichi Tsutsumi; Riisa Naka Jason says: “A few weeks ago, someone recommended a comedy to me by saying ‘it’s great –
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Rithy Panh
Jason says: “I passed on seeing THE MISSING PICTURE one night this week, overstating in my head how tight a squeeze it would be to get to the theater on time because I wasn’t in the mood for it that
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Liv Ullman
Starring: Colin Farrell | Jessica Chastain | Nora McMenamy | Samantha Morton
Jason says: “One often talks of ‘opening up’ plays when adapting them to film, doing things to obscure the fact that they were originally created to take place in a limited number of limited spaces, all viewed from a single
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sarah Adina Smith
Jason says: “Sarah Adina Smith’s THE MIDNIGHT SWIM is one sort of movie in the sometimes ill-fitting skin of another, and I wonder if shedding that skin would allow it to be seen more clearly as a sharp tale of
Read the review...Mea Culpa (France; 90 min.) directed by: Fred Cavayéstarring: Vincent Lindon; Gilles Lellouche; Nadine Labaki; Max Baissette de Malglaive Jason says: “A couple years ago, French director Fred Cavayé garnered some attention from international action-movie fans with POINT BLANK (/review/index)
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Andre Gregory | Emily Cass McDonnell | Jeff Biehl | Julie Hagerty | Larry Pine | Lisa Joyce | Wallace Shawn
Jason says: “Like a lot of people, I tend to have this vague knowledge that Wallace Shawn is more than the guy with the funny voice and the odd face, that he’s a playwright and an actor who has been
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Omung Kumar
Starring: Darshan Kumaar | Mridul Satam | Priyanka Chopra | Robin Das | Shakti Sinha | Sunil Thapa
Jason says: “MARY KOM opens with the title character going into labor in the middle of an armed rebellion in 2007, and that’s the sort of thing that one might think would have been a bit of a bigger factor
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pacho Velez | Stephanie Spray
Diane says: “Chlotrudis crunch time is not the time to indulge in this amazing and amazingly simple doc. When nothing had happened after 20 minutes, I had to look up a review to see what I was looking at. (I
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chuck Workman
TC says: “Having become a major Welles fan after seeing CITIZEN KANE for the first time (I’m embarrassed to admit that was only seven years ago), this look at the man, the myth, and the legend that is, was, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ritesh Batra
Starring: Bharati Achrekar | Irfan Khan | Lillete Dubey | Nawazuddin Siddiqui | Nimrat Kaur
Chris says: “This quasi-romance seemingly contains all the right ingredients for an English language remake: appealing leads, the mysterious allure of a missed connection, comic relief from an unseen (but certainly not unheard) neighbor. Fortunately, the one thing preventing such
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ira Sachs
Starring: Alfred Molina | Charlie Tahan | Cheyenne Jackson | John Lithgow | Marisa Tomei | Olya Zueva
Diane says: “Alfred Molina and John Lithgow make a sweet pair–married after 39 years together and then thrown into a financial and household crisis. Can you believe those two big men can fit in a bunk bed together? “Lithgow did
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