Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jan Ole Gerster
Starring: Andreas Schröders | Justus von Dohnányi | Katharina Hauck | Katharina Schüttler | Tom Schilling
Bruce says: “Some films resonate so profoundly with me that I can feel myself embodied in one of the characters. For me, Niko Fischer (Tom Schilling) is one of those characters. Niko transports me back to my twenties. Each move,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Vivian Qu
Jason says: “A trap street is a non-existent road placed on a map so that cartographers will be able to tell when competitors have copied their work rather than surveying the area independently. It’s not a common term in film
Read the review...CinemAbility (USA; 98 min.) directed by: Jenni Goldstarring: Geena Davis; Ben Afleck; Michael Apted; Jamie Foxx; Peter Bogdanovich; Beau Bridges; Peter Farrelly Bruce says: “Like other films about outsiders in the world of cinema – such as HOLLYWOOD CHINESE and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Calin Peter Netzer
Starring: Bogdan Dumitrache | Florin Zamfirescu | Ilinca Goia | Luminita Gheorghiu | Natasa Raab | Vlad Ivanov
Bruce says: “Luminita Gheorghiu (4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS; 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST; THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU; BEYOND THE HILLS has to be one of the first ladies of the Romanian silver screen, yet none of her prior
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Bobby Cannavale | Dustin Hoffman | Emjay Anthony | John Leguizamo | Jon Favreau | Oliver Platt | Scarlett Johansson | Sofia Vergara
Jason says: “Jon Favreau’s CHEF has a line in the credits about being based on actual events, and I kind of suspect that those events may involve ‘fans’ putting a lot of personal invective into their assessments of IRON MAN
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Bill Plympton
Starring: Alex Markowitx | Jacob Steele | Jeremy Baumann | Mike Dragovic | Sita Steele | Sophia Takal
Jason says: “CHEATIN’ is the new Bill Plympton movie, his first feature since 2008’s IDIOTS AND ANGELS, and it’s a fine demonstration that over thirty years as an independent animator, he hasn’t dulled his edge much while carving out his
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Emmanuel Shirinian
Starring: Aaron Abrams | Alon Nashman | Anna Hopkins | Emma Fleury | Michael D. Cohen | Phyllis Ellis
Michael says: “Here’s an independent film that deserves a wider audience, and I wouldn’t have known about it at all except that a Chlotrudis member is actually the star of the film. Michael D. Cohen stars as Abner in IT
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Diega Luna
Starring: America Ferrara | Jacob Vargas | John Malkovich | John Ortiz; Wes Bentley | Michael Peña | Rosario Dawson
Bruce says: “Films like CESAR CHAVEZ deserve an audience because they retell important moments in American history. Most Americans probably don’t know much about Chavez because they are too young or have forgotten most of the details of what happened
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ben Cotner | Ryan White
Kyle says: “We seem to be living in a golden age of documentaries, perhaps because reality continually proves to be more surprising than fiction, and also perhaps because much of the public finds reality television shows irresistible, including politicians. Recently
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastian del Amo
Starring: Barbara Mori | Julian Sedgwick | llse Salas | Luis Gerardo Méndez | Michael Imperi | Óscar Jaenada
Jason says: “It might be interesting to watch CANTINFLAS while making tick marks to see just how much is in Spanish with English subtitles and how much is in English with Spanish subtitles. It’s probably not 50/50, or even that
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ivan Kavanagh
Starring: Antonia Campbell-Hughes | Calum Heath | Hannah Hoekstra | Kelly Byrne | Rupert Evans | Steve Oram
Jason says: “THE CANAL opens with a bit that’s almost too clever for its own good, with film archivist David Williams (Rupert Evans) standing on stage and asking an audience full of unruly children if any want to see some
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Josephine Decker
Starring: Charlie Hewson | Isolde Chae-Lawrence | Sarah Small | Stephan Goldbach | Yury Yakor
Jason says: “BUTTER ON THE LATCH was listed in the program as playing before director Josephine Decker’s prior film, THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY, as if it was a short film rather than a 63-minute feature. The programmers and projectionists
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Snow Zou
Starring: Gao Yuanyuan | Lam Suet | Nicholas Tse
Jason says: ““Is it cynical of me to start counting shots between a ‘New York 2001′ caption and the first glimpse of the World Trade Center, or of writer/director Snow Zou for putting the audience in that position? That’s not
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Flip van der Kuil | Steffen Haars
Starring: Birgit Schuurman | Daniel Arends | Henry van Loon | Raymond Thiry | Sylvia Hoeks | Tim Haars
Jason says: “I wasn’t really looking forward to this one, having kind of hated the first New Kids movie enough to skip the second, but it was the only English-friendly thing playing and I wanted to see what came after,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Brent Hodge
Michael says: “I’ve been watching a bunch of 2014 films on DVD or streaming this past week or so in preparation for nominations. I’m planning on doing a quick round-up of these films soon, but this latest film is the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ning Hao
Starring: Huang Bo | Xu Zheng | Yuan Quan | Zhang Li | Zhou Dongyu
Jason says: “Director Ning Hao has received some attention over the last few months because the Chinese censor board finally allowed the release of NO MAN’S LAND a movie from 2009 that he is reluctant to discuss, whether for political
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Daniel Wu Yan-zu | Gao Yuanyuan | Louis Koo Tin-lok | Miram Yeung | Vic Chou Yu-min
Jason says: “DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2 repeats quite a bit from part one, from rescuing a weird pet to flirting through facing windows; one character even wryly asks another if she thinks her life is a ‘to be
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane | Ethan Hawke | Lorelei Linklater | Nick Krause | Patricia Arquette
Chris says: “When asked what BOYHOOD was about, I stumbled in finding the words for a two-sentence description; having had a few days to mull it over, my response now would be simply, ‘Everything.’ It’s the best way to sum
Read the review...Boundless (Hong Kong; 94 min.) directed by: Ferris Lindocumentary Jason says: “Like many documentaries about films and filmmakers, BOUNDLESS will likely eventually end up as the extra disc in a box set (in this case of Johnnie To films), which
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Alex van Warmerdam
Starring: Alex van Warmerdam | Hadewych Minis | Jan Bijvoet | Jeroen Perceval | Tom Dewispelaere
Thom says: “I saw van Warmerdam’s brilliant 2009 film THE LAST DAYS OF EMMA BLANK (5 CATS) at TIFF and ever since I’ve been haphazardly tracking him down but it was sheer coincidence that I went to see BORGMAN recently.
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