Hana-Dama (The Origins) (Japan; 108 min.) directed by: Hisayasu Satostarring: Rina Sakuragi; Taro Suwa; Kei Fuikiwara; Maika Shimamura; Syun Asada Jason says: “Have you ever felt yourself gradually turn on a movie? It’s something that can often be sense in
Read the review...Han Gong-Ju (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Su-Jin Lee
Jason says: “It is almost never difficult to figure out where HAN GONG-JU is heading, and that’s okay. It may, in fact, be part of the point. Surprise is not the only way a movie can punch the audience in
Read the review...Hal (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ryotaro Makihara
Starring: Shinpachi Tsuji | Tamio Oki | Yoko Hikasa | Yoshimasa Hosoya
Jason says: “I know some folks who will dismiss HAL because it’s animated (and from Japan – the characters even have big eyes!) but might otherwise seek out the humanistic flavor of science fiction it represents. It’s a nifty little
Read the review...Haemoo (2014)
Haemoo (South Korea; 111 min.) directed by: Sung-bo Shimstarring: Yun-seok Kim; Yoo-chun Park; Ye-ri Han Jason says: “This one has received a lot of notice in part because of Bong Joon-ho’s involvement as a producer and co-writer for long-time collaborator
Read the review...The Guest (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Adam Wingard
Starring: Brendan Meyer | Dan Stevens | Lance Reddick | Leland Orser | Maika Monroe | Sheila Kelly
Jason says: “Initially, THE GUEST almost seemed like a step back for the team of writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard. It introduced pleasant enough cast and set up a kind of familiar ‘stranger in the house is more
Read the review...Guardian (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Helfi C. H. Kardit
Starring: Belinda Camesi | Dominique Agisca Diyose | Sarah Sanguin Carter | Tio Pakusodewo
Jason says: “Keep your eyes on Dominique Agisca Diyose, action fans of the world. She’s a looker from Indonesia, a good enough actress for the sort of material she’s given here, and she certainly looks like she can throw down
Read the review...Miss Granny (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Dong-hyuk Hwang
Starring: Dong-il Song | Eun-kyung Shim | In-hwan Park | Jin-wook Lee | Mun-hee Na
Jason says: “Sitting down for MISS GRANNY, I had a horrible fear – what if this was 200 POUNDS BEAUTY again? The template, right down to the newly-cute protagonist becoming a singer, was sort of the same, and it certainly
Read the review...The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Adrien Brody | Bill Murray | Jeff Goldblum | Owen Wilson | Ralph Fiennes | Saoirse Ronan | Tilda Swinton | Tony Revolori | Willem Dafoe
Jason says: “When trailers for THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL first started appearing a few months ago, I felt some apprehension. Not so much because I often think I like director Wes Anderson less than I do, but because a large
Read the review...Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Nicholas D. Wrathall
Bruce says: “Gore Vidal was one of the great characters of our time and one of the greatest minds of the past century. He invariably saw through the smoke and mirrors and was able to succinctly summarize what was going
Read the review...Goodbye to Language (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Christian Gregori | Héloïse Godet | Jessica Erickson | Kamel Abdeli | Richard Chevallier | Zoé Bruneau
Jason says: “My second impulse where Jean-Luc Godard’s GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE is concerned is to write nothing at all about it. That’s in large part because my first is to cry that the emperor has no clothes, but I think
Read the review...The Golden Era (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Ann Hui
Starring: Ding Jiali | Feng Shaofeng | Hao Lei | Huang Xuan | Tang Wei | Wang Zhiwen | Zhu Yawen
Jason says: “Most of the descriptions of Xiao Hong biography THE GOLDEN ERA spend some time talking about what made her remarkable as a writer, and the film does give those of us not terribly familiar with 1930s Chinese literature
Read the review...God’s Pocket (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Slattery
Starring: Caleb Landry Jones | Christina Hendricks | Eddie Marsan | John Turturro | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Richard Jenkins
Jason says: “There are moments, especially toward the end of GOD’S POCKET, when I wonder if John Slattery has made a Trojan Horse of a movie, giving an audience expecting an honest-but-affectionate story about earthy folks in a tough neighborhood
Read the review...God Help the Girl (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Stuart Murdoch
Starring: Emily Browning | Hannah Murray | Olly Alexander | Pierre Boulanger
Jason says: “GOD HELP THE GIRL is hardly the first time someone has taken a set of songs with an existing strong narrative and made a movie out of them, and as such not the first to demonstrate that slavish
Read the review...A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Starring: Arash Marandi | Dominic Rains | Marshall Manesh | Mozhan Marnò | Rome Shadanloo | Sheila Vand
Kyle says: “Every year in late March, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art co-produce a festival called New Directors/New Films. Screenings take place at the FSLC’s Walter Reade Theater, and at MoMA’s Ray and
Read the review...Girl on a Bicycle (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jeremy Leven
Starring: Louise Monot | Nora Tschirner | Paddy Considine | Stephane Debac | Vincenzo Amato
Kyle says: “I would love to recommend GIRL ON A BICYCLE to fans of quirky European-flavored romantic comedies, but my heart would not be in it. This kind of cute is killing to my soul. “Paolo (Vincenzo Amato) is a
Read the review...Giovanni’s Island (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mizuho Nishikubo
Starring: Junya Taniai | Kota Yokoyama | Masachika Ichimura | Saburo Kitajima | Yukie Nakama
Jason says: “There’s a whiff of nostalgia to the start of GIOVANNI’S ISLAND, although it’s more for childhood in general than the yearning for simpler, presumably better times that can often infect Japanese cinema, but that passes. Indeed, it’s hard
Read the review...Gimme Shelter (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Ron Krauss
Starring: Ann Down | Brendan Fraser | James Earl Jones | Rosario Dawson | Stephanie Szoatak | Vanessa Hudgens
Jason says: “There was applause in the theater at the end of GIMME SHELTER and even if I don’t think it’s a particularly impressive movie, I don’t begrudge anybody that reaction. Who doesn’t want to applaud a shelter that helps
Read the review...Get On Up (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tate Taylor
Starring: Chadwick Boseman | Craig Robinson | Dan Aykroyd | Jill Scott | Lennie James | Nelsan Ellis | Viola Davis
Thom says: “Strangely, I can maybe blame my age for taking so long to see this gem of a bio-pic. While I have oodles of quibbles about the film the overall effect it left on me was empowering and greatly
Read the review...Generation War (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Phillip Kadelbach
Starring: Katharina Schüttler | Ludwig Trepte | Miriam Stein | Tom Schilling | Volker Bruch
Kyle says: “GENERATION WAR is a three-part German television series which is being shown as two movies in the U.S. before complete showings on cable television. Its origin as an attempt to continue the national discussion about German complicity and
Read the review...G.B.F. (2014)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Darren Stein
Starring: Andrea Bowen | Michael J. Willett | Molly Tarlov | Paul Iacono | Sasha Pieterse | Xosha Roquemore
Kyle says: “G.B.F. for fossils like me stands for Gay Best Friend. If nothing else, this programmer establishes clearly that independent cinema can be every bit as stupid and regressive as big budget corporate Hollywood endeavors. Unless you regard as
Read the review...