Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Kang Yi-kwan
Starring: eo Young-ju | Gang Hyeok-il | Gang Rae-yeon | Jeon Ye-jin | Jeong Seok-yong | Lee Jeong-hyeon
Kyle says: “The North American Premiere of JUVENILE OFFENDER provided one of the surprisingly touching experiences of the New York Asian Film Festival. It is a deceptively simple but emotionally resonant story about a teenage boy without family tending toward
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chad Crawford Kinkle
Starring: Daniel Manche | Kaitlin Cullum | Larry Fessenden | Lauren Ashley Carte | Sean Bridgers | Sean Young
Jason says: “JUG FACE is the sort of horror movie that I often have trouble with, where any hint of supernatural activity actually seems somewhat deflating, as there’s plenty of real-world unpleasantness at work. It’s done well enough to overcome
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Denis Arqueros | Nicolás Klein | Sergio Allard
Starring: Camilia Stuardo | Eusebio Arenas | Florencia Astrorga | Sergio Allard
Jason says: “Alone in the world’ movies offer the independent science fiction filmmaker a fair amount of bang for their buck – you can get by with a very small cast, some unusually still establishing shots taken at the right
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Miguel Gonçalves Mende
Jason says: “The time period covered by JOSÉ AND PILAR aligns, roughly, with the time it took Nobel Prize-winning writer José Saramago to bring his book The Elephant’s Journey from concept to release, and that sounds like a fairly dull
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Don Coscarelli
Starring: Chase Williamson | Clancy Brown | Doug Jones | Glynn Turman | Paul Giamatti | Rob Mayes
Jason says: “According to the post-film Q&A (and others I’ve talked to), John Dies at the End is a cult novel that barely had time to gain a reputation as unfilmable before going before the cameras. Director and screenwriter Don
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris James Thompson
Chris says: “As a teenaged Milwaukee native/resident, the Jeffrey Dahmer case obviously hit close to home for me, as it would for anyone to have something so high profile and extremely grotesque occur in your backyard. This documentary is both
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Alec Baldwin | Andrew Dice Clay | Bobby Cannavale | Cate Blanchett | Peter Sarsgaard | Sally Hawkins | Tammy Blanchard
Thom says: “I feel so lucky to be still living during Woody Allen’s marvelous renaissance and this latest effort is truly one of his best that totally transforms his usually recognizable dialogue into an entirely new aura of intelligence. Most
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Satoshi Miki
Jason says: “There’s clear intent to make a clever movie in IT’S ME, IT’S ME from the opening shots of identical buildings, insistent posters about a rat infestation, and other bits that tie into the high concept of a young
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Daniele Cipri
Starring: Alfredo Castro | Aurora Quattrocchi | Giselda Volodi | Guiseppe Vitale | Toni Servillo
Bruce says: “The film opens with Busu, a disheveled man in an institutional waiting room, talking to anyone who will listen. It seems he has a story to tell and at first it is impossible to know how he fits
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Till Schauder
Thom says: “Here’s a fine offering from ever-reliable Film Movement, this one a documentary. I was thrilled to see the production collaboration between Iran & the US although the nature of the story most probably accounts for that. Kevin Sheppard
Read the review...In the House (France; 105 min.) directed by: François Ozon starring: Fabrice Luchini; Ernst Umhauer; Kristin Scott Thomas;; Emmanuelle Seigner; Denis Ménochet Chris says: “That old adage, ‘Write what you know’ receives an ironic, cautionary spin in Francois Ozon’s latest,
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Eugenio Derbez
Starring: Alessandra Rosaldo | Daniel Raymont | Eugenio Derbez | Jessica Lindsey | Loreto Peralta
Jason says: “INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED has proven surprisingly successful at the American box office over the past few weekends, and it’s not hard to see why: It’s got an appealing cast, it’s unpretentiously funny, and it makes a naked but
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Rating: 4.8 cats
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Adam Driver | Carey Mulligan | Garrett Hedlund | John Goodman | Justin Timberlake | Oscar Isaac
Lorraine says: “Coen Brothers’ newest. About a folk musician trying to make it in 1961. Fabulous cast and musicians. Traditional songs and ones written for the film. Music performed live on set. Strong performances. “Loved that we are allowed to
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Leon Yang Shupeng
Starring: Hiruma Yoshinori | Huang Xiaoming | Sun Lei | Wang Lie | Zhang Xinyi | Zhang Yi
Kyle says: “AN INACCURATE MEMOIR (dubbed EASTERN BANDITS upon streaming release) received its North American Premiere at the 12th New York Asian Film Festival. Comparisons to director Sam Peckinpah and the violence of his films such as THE WILD BUNCH
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Rating: 3.4
Director: Lake Bell
Starring: Alexandra Holden | Demetri Martin | Eva Longoria | Ken Marino | Lake Bell | Rob Corddry
Jason says: “Funny thing; even when trailers starting with ‘in a world…’ supposedly happened all the time, I don’t ever recall hearing it enough to snicker when it did show up. Still, the very fact that people act like it
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Stobe Harju
Starring: Anette Olzon | Francis-Xavier McCarthy | Joanna Noyes | Marianne Farley | Quinn Lord | Tuomas Holopainen
Jason says: “This fantasy movie is kind of a peculiar thing: Based on the band Nightwish’s concept album of the same name but not seeming to have that many songs from it – I think two are performed and another
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Antonio de la Torre | Carlos Areces | Cecilia Roth | Hugo Silva | Javier Cámara | Lola Dueñas | Paz Vega | Penélope Cruz | Raul Arevalo
Thom says: “Most ‘movie’ folks have been assiduous followers of the Spanish master Almodóvar since early in his career and I count myself among them although, honestly, I’ve rarely considered the possibility of him going to the TIP-TOP, mainly due
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Anne Louise Hassing | Annika Wedderkopp | Lasse Fogelstrøm | Mads Mikkelsen | Susse Wold | Thomas Bo Larsen
Bruce says: “Mads Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 for his portrayal of Lucas, a man falsely accused of child molestation. Mikkelsen’s performance is a textbook case in underplaying a role to achieve
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lee Won-seok
Starring: Kim Jeong-tae | Kim Joon-seong | Lee Si-yeong | Lee Won-jong | Oh Jeong-se | Park Yeong-gyoo
Kyle says: “The title, seen at the New York Asian FIlm Festival in its North American premiere, refers to a series of idiotic but highly successful self-help videotapes on how to meet, influence and win over guys. It is a
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Director: Hong Ji-young | Jung Bum-sik | Kim Gok | Kim Sun | Lim Dae-woong | Min Kyu-dong
Starring: Jin Tae-hyun | Jung Eun-chae | Kim Hyun-soo | Kim Ji-won | No Hyeon-hee | No Kang-min | Yoo Yeon-seok
Jason says: “You could get a lot of horror anthology action at Fantasia this year, between this Korean picture, Hong Kong’s TALES FROM THE DARK and (mostly) America’s V/H/S/2. One thing that I find interesting, looking at the three, is
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