Soulmate (UK; 104 min.) directed by: Axelle Carolyn starring: Anna Walton; Tom Wisdom; Tanya Myers; Nick Brimble Jason says: “What is a ghost? Potentially anything a writer wants, but probably the strongest way to use this particular bit of supernatural
Read the review...Songs She Wrote About People She Knows (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Kris Elgstrand
Starring: Arabella Bushnell | Brad Dryborough | Ross Smith
Chris says: “BEGIN AGAIN, John Carney’s follow-up film to ONCE originally sported the far more on-the-nose title CAN A SONG SAVE YOUR LIFE? when it played the festival circuit. It’s a phrase Carol (Arabella Bushnell), the quietly acerbic lead of
Read the review...Song of the Sea (2015)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tomm Moore
Starring: Brendan Gleeson | David Rawle | Fionnula Flanagan | Jon Kenny | Lisa Hannigan | Lucy O'Connell
Jason says: “There have generally been one or two movies like SONG OF THE SEA among the nominees every year since the Oscars started giving out an award for best animated feature, and they’re the best argument for the award’s
Read the review...Snowpiercer (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Starring: Chris Evans | Jamie Bell | John Hurt | Ko Ah-sung | Octavia Spencer | Song Kang-ho | Tilda Swinton
Jason says: “A Korean director making an English-language movie from a French graphic novel may seem like a random combination, but it’s really not: Both Korean genre film and French bandes dessinées often blur genre lines and forms, while English
Read the review...The Skeleton Twins (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Craig Johnston
Starring: Bill Hader | Boyd Holbrook | Joanna Gleason | Kristen Wiig | Luke Wilson | Ty Burrell
Jason says: “THE SKELETON TWINS refers to something which appears within the movie almost entirely so that the title will mean something, much like these indie family dramas with established actors themselves often seem to be in the same sort
Read the review...Singham Returns (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Rohit Shetty
Starring: Ajay Devgn | Amole Gupta | Anumpam Kher | Kareena Kapoor | Sharat Saxena | Zakir Hussain
Jason says: “Not having seen Ajay Devgn’s first go-round as Bajirao Singham, I have no idea of this sequel – which stands alone well enough – is an improvement or disappointment relatively speaking. There are elements that suggest it could
Read the review...Big Significant Things (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bryan Reisberg
Starring: Harry Lloyd | James Ricker II | Krista Kosonen | Sylvia Grace Crim | Travis Koop
Jason says: “There are many ways to have a good road trip; you can do it by sticking close to a map and itinerary, let your whims guide you, or do something in between. There are many ways to mess
Read the review...The Signal (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: William Eubank
Starring: Beau Knap | Brenton Thwaites | Lawrence Fishburne | Olivia Cooke
Jason says: “Mystery is not enough. Don’t misunderstand, it’s terrific when a story gets one to lean closer, tantalized by what’s going on, and creating that feeling is a matter of much more than leaving some details out while hinting
Read the review...Shrew’s Nest (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Esteban Roel | Juanfer Andrés
Starring: Carolina Bang | Jesús Ángel Castrodeza | Macarena Gómez | Silvia Alonso
Brett says: “For SHREW’S NEST’s lead character Montse, the Biblical consideration ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ is more of an emphatic statement rather than a question. And in this case, she is not a brother’s keeper, rather her sister’s. In
Read the review...Short Peace (2021)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Hajime Katoki | Hiroaki Ando | Katsuhiro Ohtomo | Shûhei Morita
Starring: Kôichi Yamadera | Midori Yûki | Saori Hayami | Seiichi Morita | Takeshi Kusao | Yu Kobayahi
Jason says: “Studios and exhibitors should find a way to get short films on movie screens more often. Individually, they’re often great, compact little stories, and a ticket that gets you a handful of them for ten bucks can come
Read the review...She’s Lost Control (2015)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Anja Marquardt
Kyle says: “SHE’S LOST CONTROL, a feature film debut by director Anja Marquardt, tells a tale of sex surrogates within the psychotherapy community: the elusive goal is intimacy but the process involves sex with people who are essentially strangers, often
Read the review...Sheep (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Gilles Deroo | Marianne Pistone
Kyle says: “MOUTON is the nickname for the title character; the word means ‘Sheep.’ It could also be taken as a description of audience members (like me) who are willingly dragged to artistic slaughter. The members of the Selection Committee
Read the review...Seventh Code (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Jason says: “SEVENTH CODE is the sort of movie that can easily get lost in a career like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s: It’s a short thing produced alongside two large projects that sure looks like a promotional tool for its pop-star lead
Read the review...The Grand Seduction (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Don McKellar
Starring: Brendan Gleeson | Gordon Pinsent | Liane Balaban | Taylor Kitsch
Jason says: “The previous version of THE GRAND SEDUCTION, a French-Canadian film, SEDUCING DR. LEWIS, from about ten years ago, seems to have been fairly well regarded along with being popular enough to inspire a remake. That isn’t necessarily surprising;
Read the review...Oo-lee-byeol il-ho-wa eol-lug-so ()
The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow (South Korea; 81 min.) directed by: Chang Hyung-yun starring: Jung Yu-mi; Yoo Ah-in Jason says: “You can do absolutely anything with animation, so why not do a story about a satellite that falls to
Read the review...Sand Dollars (2015)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Israel Cárdenas | Laura Amelia Guzmán
Starring: Geraldine Chaplin | Ricardo Ariel Toribio | Yanet Mojica
Bruce says: “First there was HEADING SOUTH, Laurent Cantet’s 2005 film that featured middle-aged women fighting for the affections of Haitian beach boys. Then came PARADISE: LOVE, Ulrich Seidl’s searing 2012 portrait of Austrian women who go to Kenya to
Read the review...Salvo (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Antonio Piazza | Fabio Grassadonia
Starring: Giuditta Perriera | Jacopo Menicagli | Luigi Lo Cascio | Mario Pupella | Redouane Behache | Saleh Bakr | Sara Serraiocco
Kyle says: “SALVO is a rather remarkable feature film debut by writers and directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (although they have a substantial chronology together as writers and script consultants) — a Mafia thriller that is both mainstream and
Read the review...Salvation Army (2015)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Abdellah Taïa
Starring: Amine Ennaji | Frédéric Landenberg | Hamza Slaoui | Karim Ait M'Hand | Malika El Hamaoui | Said Mrini
Kyle says: “SALVATION ARMY is a re-working of the autobiographical novel also written by Abdellah Taïa, who is making his directorial debut with this film. The first mainstream gay Moroccan film, Taïa tells the story of growing up poor and
Read the review...The Sacrament (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ti West
Starring: AJ Bowen | Amy Seimetz | Gene Jones | Joe Swanberg | Kentucker Audley
Jason says: “The text at the beginning of THE SACRAMENT describes the journalistic style of its protagonists as ‘immersionism’, and I suspect that this is writer/director Ti West’s goal as well – getting the audience inside a situation that it
Read the review...Ruroni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Keishi Otomo
Jason says: “The first RURONI KENSHIN movie had the look of a franchise starter in the best sort of way, an introduction to an appealing setting and group of characters that leaves the door open for new adventures. The second
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