Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jennifer Kent
Starring: Barbara West | Daniel Henshall | Essie Davis | Hayley McElhinney | Noah Wiseman
Kyle says: “THE BABADOOK is a slick well-made horror genre item that sets up the events to follow with a car speeding to local hospital with mother in labor crashing and killing the father. It follows logically that the relationship
Read the review...Ayiti Toma (Canada; 82 min.) directed by: Joseph Hillel documentary Jason says: “Full disclosure: I missed the first few minutes of AYITI TOMA, so I admittedly cannot give a full accounting of the film. That happens when you try to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Gabe Ibáñez
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Birgitte Hjart Sørensen | Dylan McDermott | Melanie Griffith | Robert Forster
Jason says: “For the purposes of AUTOMATA, filmmaker Gabe Ibáñez reduces Asimov’s traditional three laws of robotics to two: Do not harm a living thing, and do not engage in self-modification. Most movies about rogue machines would concern themselves with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Yang Woo-seok
Starring: Jung Won-joong | Kim Young-ae | Kwak Do-won | Siwan | Song Kang-ho
Jason says: “THE ATTORNEY made its way to the United States rather quickly after its box-office success in South Korea, taking just a month and a half to cross the Pacific. It isn’t hard to see why it did so
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jennifer Grausman | Sam Cullman
Jason says: “One of the neat things about ART AND CRAFT is that it hints at a number of different angles to an already-interesting story, acknowledging that it is all but impossible to fit the entirety of a tale of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Jonathan Sobol
Kyle says: “Kurt Russell plays a character named Crunch Calhoun, a failed daredevil con-man art thief who repeatedly mutters, ‘Oh boy!’ when he’s in a jam. The only worse Kurt Russell performance I can think of is his indelible Steve
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Joanna Hogg
Starring: Amy Lloyd | Christopher Baker | Kate Fahy | Lydia Leonard | Tom Hiddleston
Bruce says: “ARCHIPELAGO begins with a plein air painter working on a canvas. The painting is abstract and is more about mood and feeling than it is about recording facts. Christopher (Christopher Baker), the painter, is only a peripheral character
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Isabel Coixet
Starring: Charlotte Vega | Claire Forlani | Gregg Shelton | Jonathan Rhys Meyers | Rhys Ifans | Sophie Turner
Jason says: “ANOTHER ME didn’t look like much – a young-adult thriller that likely would have gone straight to video-on-demand but for a slow release week and the fact that the other line on star Sophie Turner’s filmography is ‘Game
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Freida Lee Mock
Bruce says: “As a former co-worker of Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill was sent a questionnaire regarding her experience working with Clarence Thomas. She answered the questions truthfully, documenting what we now call sexual harassment. Unexpectedly, Hill was summoned to Washington
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Hamish Linklater | James Earl Jones | Melissa Leo | Mila Kunis | Peter Dinklage | Robin Williams
Thom says: “After having some knowledge of Phil Alden Robinson’s work after seeing FIELD OF DREAMS, SNEAKERS, & THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, I still wasn’t certain what to expect. Certainly Robin Williams’s participation edged it into rental territory, so
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Aram Garrig
Jason says: “As one of the many interviewees in this documentary notes, developed countries worldwide have generally seen a rise in the standard of living reflected by a decrease in strong religious faith, with the United States of America as
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Chris Sivertson | Lucky McKee
Starring: Brooke Butler | Caitlin Stasey | Felisha Cooper | Reanin Johannik | Sianoa Smit-McPhee | Tom Williamson
Jason says: “ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE is a notably sub-par exploitation movie, but I will probably end up discussing it more than many of the better films that played the festival because the way it goes about being disappointing is just
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Declan Lowney
Starring: Colm Meaney | Karl Theobold | Monica Dolan | Nigel Lindsay | Steve Coogan | Tim Key
Jason says: “Based on the original British name for this movie (‘ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA’), I expected it to be doing more – for instance, for there to be some sort of subplot about Partridge and his kids. Fortunately, that’s
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Andreas Johnsen
Jason says: “Though the two are unrelated outside of their subject and subject matter – they are made by different directors for different producers with visual styles that are fairly divergent as documentaries shot in the same places go –
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nancy Buirski
Bruce says: “Some legends are more obscure than others: obscure to the public eye, that is. Tanaquil Le Clercq is a case in point. Hardly a household name among those who do not follow dance all that closely, Le Clercq
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: John Huddles
Starring: Bonnie Wright | Daryl Sabara | Freddie Stroma | James D'Arcy | Rhys Wakefield | Sophia Lowe
Kyle says: “A class of philosophy students in a privileged high school in Djakarta on the final day of class is challenged by the teacher to consider issues confronting them on different doomsday scenarios, in which only ten of the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Jonathan Newman
Starring: Aneurin Barnard | Ioan Gruffudd | Keeley Hawes | Lena Headey | Michael Sheen | Sam Neill
Kyle says: “The most interesting mystery in this unfortunate waste of time and money is its title. It went straight to video as THE ADVENTURER: THE CURSE OF THE MIDAS BOX, but if you last until the end titles, you
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kim Han-min
Starring: Cho Jin-woong | Choi Min-sik | Jin Goo | Kim Myung-gon | Lee Jung-hyun | Seung-ryong Ryu
Jason says: “Let’s be honest about THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS (‘Myeongryang – Huiori Bada’ in the original Korean, and apparently sometimes only either half of the English title is used): Roughly 95% of why people buy a ticket is for
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Christophe Sermet | Fred Lebelge | Isabelle Huppert | Kool Shen | Laurence Ursino | Ronald Leclerq
Michael says: “The latest from Catherine Breillat is once again a fascinating fictional version of Breillat’s actual life. As in SEX IS COMEDY, where Breillat recreated the filming of a particular scene from FAT GIRL, ABUSE OF WEAKNESS stars Isabelle
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mikkel Nørgaard
Jason says: “I swear I’ve heard of the Department Q books from somewhere, even though I haven’t really been keeping up on detective fiction as much as I’d like. If they’re going to keep cranking out movies this good in
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