Teaching audiences to view films actively
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Arnaud Larrieu | Jean-Marie Larrieu
Bruce says: “LOVE IS THE PERFECT CRIME succeeds largely for two reasons: an excellent cast headed by the able Mathieu Amalric and a moody wintery backdrop of the French Alps exquisitely photographed by Guillaume Deffontaines. Amalric (THE DIVING BELL AND
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Richard Gray
Starring: Jerry O’Connell | John Corbett | John Savage | Justin Long | Luis Guzman | Scottie Thompson | Steven Bauer
Jason says: “To say that THE LOOKALIKE starts out kind of charming overlooks what happens in the first few minutes to set things in motion, but it still does well enough in introducing its cast of characters that it looks
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Steven Knight
Starring: Andrew Scott | Ben Daniels | Olivia Colman | Ruth Wilson | Tom Hardy | Tom Holland
Jason says: “Steven Knight’s LOCKE does not take place entirely within the confines of the title character’s car as he makes the ninety-minute drive north to London, as there may in fact be an entire minute or two given to
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Starring: Keita Ninomiya | Machiko Ono | Masaharu Fukuyama | Riri Furanki Kirin Kiki | Shogen Hwang | Yoko Maki
Jason says: “Those who have been following Hirokazu Kore-eda’s career for roughly the last decade may find it a little surprising that the two six-year-old boys at the center of LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (SOSHITE CHICI NI NARU in the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Steve James
Chris says: “From a contemporary viewpoint, it’s unexpected to discover that Roger Ebert had no academic background or concentrated expertise in film when he secured his post as The Chicago Sun-Times’ film critic in 1967. Of course, there were few
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Brian O'Malley
Jason says: “After seeing this, a festival buddy suggested that part of the reason this fell flat for her was that we’d just seen another over-the-top revenge piece in PUZZLE. I didn’t have quite the same reaction; where she was
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano
Starring: Ethan Embry | Lance Guest | Nick Damici | Rutanya Alda | Tina Louise | Tom Noonan
Jason says: “As soon as he or she sees Nick Damici in this movie, blind but still a gruff former soldier, about to be placed in a retirement community, even the jaded moviegoer may smile a bit. It’s not the
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Director: Àlex Pastor | David Pastor
Starring: Jose Coronado | Leticia Dolera | Marta Etura | Quim Gutiérrez
Jason says: “Earlier in this festival, I saw a post-apocalyptic movie where the nature of the end of civilization seemed particularly incidental, and where even though the stakes were high, the whole thing seemed quite inconsequential. THE LAST DAYS (LOS
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Aaron Katz | Martha Stephens
Starring: Earl Lynn Nelson | Paul Eenhoorn
Jason says: “There is something to be said for filmmakers (or anyone) getting out of their comfort zone. Both directors Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens are known for certain types of movies – Katz for some of the better youth-oriented
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Yoon Jong-bin
Starring: Cho Jin-woong | Gang Dong-won | Ha Jung-woo | Kim Jong-goo | Lee Sung-min | Yoon Ji-hye
Jason says: “Sometimes, a movie spends so long introducing itself that it barely has time to do anything, which feels like the case for KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT. I think it’s because this movie wants so badly to be
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Soundarya Rajnikanth Ashwin
Starring: Deepika Padukone | Nasser | Rajnikanth; Aadhi | Sarath Kumar
Jason says: “Aside from a cameo in the next year’s RA ONE, Rajnikanth’s last film was 2010’s bonkers but memorable ENDHIRAN, and it appears that the delay in his next starring role can be attributed to both health and script
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