Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Walter Salles
Starring: Alice Braga | Amy Adams | Elisabeth Moss | Garrett Hedlund | Kristen Stewart | Sam Riley | Tom Sturridge
Chris says: “The best one can say about this, the first filmed version of Jack Kerouac’s seminal 1957 novel is that it’s not embarrassing. If that sounds like faint praise, it aptly mirrors the film’s modest ambitions. Rather than transform
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Maya Kenig
Starring: Arad Yeni | Elya Inbar | Gur Bentvich | Salit Achimiriam | Tzahi Grad
Thom says: “This charming Film Movement entry from Israel has a lot to recommend it. A 15-year-old girl arrives in Israel during the 2006 war between Israel & Lebanon. Her mother has sent her to the Middle East from California
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Nobuteru Uchida
Starring: Kiki Sugino | Maho Yamada | Makiko Watanabe | Takeshi Yamamoto | Yû Koyanagi | Yûki Shinohara
Bruce says: “ODAYAKA is a psychological study regarding how people react to disaster. Inspiration for the film was drawn from real life events, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which caused over fifteen thousand deaths, many injuries and three level 7
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Norio Osada
Starring: Do-an Chau Mao | Kenji Isomura | Lan Tanh | Yusuke Kawazu
Jason says: “It’s almost certain that there have been movies made under more insane circumstances than NUMBER10 BLUES/GOODBYE SAIGON (both titles appear on-screen at once), or worthier ones made in a war zone, but that does nothing to take away
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Richard Griffin
Starring: Elyssa Baldassari | Michael Reed | Monica Saviolakis | Nathaniel Sylvia | Patrick Keeffe | Sarah Nicklin
Jason says: “This is not the first time independent director Richard Griffin has tried to give his audience the creeps without having his tongue planted in his cheek – given how prolific the Rhode Island filmmaker has been since he
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Janet Tobias
Jason says: “There’s enough staged footage with actors in NO PLACE ON EARTH that one almost wonders why director Janet Tobias didn’t just present this story of a Jewish family hiding from the Nazis in caves for the better part
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Starring: Adelaide Clemens | America Olivo | Beau Knapp | Brodus Clay | Derek Magyar | Laura Ramsey | Lee Tergeesen | Lindsey Shaw | Luke Evans
Thom says: “Kitamura, well-known for such horror fare as VERSUS and THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN does his best work here but be warned this serial killer film is way over-the-top when it comes to bloody, ultra-disgusting scenes. While the ending
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Pablo Larraín
Starring: Alfredo Castro | Antonia Zegers | Gael García Bernal | Luis Gnecco | Nestor Cantillana
Thom says: “This was a TIFF 2012 entry that I was dying to attend but they didn’t award me a slot. This film from Chile concerns itself with the plebiscite that finally overthrew the heinous Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Kim Bodnia | Molly Blixt Egelind | Paprika Steen | Pierce Brosnan | Sebastian Jessen | Trine Dyrholm
Thom says: “Bier will be familiar to serious film-goers after such memorable features as OPEN HEARTS, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE, AFTER THE WEDDING, BROTHERS, & IN A BETTER WORLD and this delightful romp adds to her resume. The
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Alexander Payne
Starring: Bob Odenkirk | Bruce Dern | June Squibb | Mary Louise Wilson | Stacy Keach | Will Forte
Chris says: “‘Older’ is a They Might Be Giants song whose primary lyric incessantly proclaims ‘You’re older than you’ve ever been / and now you’re getting older,’ baldly and astutely stating a fact that most of us would rather not
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Dennie Gordon
Starring: Ruby Lin Xin-ru | Wang Lee-Hom | Yao Chen | Zhang Ziyi
Jason says: “I’ve said before that making sequels to romantic comedies is a tempting but dangerous idea, but MY LUCKY STAR (FEICHANG XINGYUN in Mandarin) may just have hit upon the best way to follow up such a hit: It’s
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Jem Cohen
Starring: Bobby Sommer | Ela Piplits | Mary Margaret O’Hara
Chris says: “Art is a tricky subject for a movie. Most filmmakers take the artist biopic route (and many of them end up feeling stuffy and hermetic) while others utilize a more experimental approach (RUSSIAN ARK and its feature-length tracking
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Jacob Lofland | Matthew McConaughey | Michael Shannon | Reese Witherspoon | Sam Shepard | Sarah Paulson | Tye Sheridan
Chris says: “As a follow-up to TAKE SHELTER, a film with shifting ambiguities and an awesome performance from Michael Shannon, Jeff Nichol’s MUD can’t help but almost feel a bit of a letdown. The titular figure, an on-the-run hobo of
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Alexis Denisoff | Amy Acker | Clark Gregg | Fran Kanz | Jillian Morgese | Nathan Fillion | Tom Lenk
Thom says: “This adaptation of the Divine William Shakespeare comedy masterpiece fully deserved the accolades it received at TIFF as this modern reading in gorgeous black & white photography was spectacularly successful. Many rehearsals must have been scheduled for the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Don Thacker
Starring: Adrian DiGiovanni | Danielle Doetsch | Jeffrey Combs | Ken Brown | Pete Giovangnoli
Jason says: “MOTIVATIONAL GROWTH ran twice at the festival, with overlapping crowds but different results: Once as a spotlight presentation with the director doing Q&A that was reasonably well received, and once as the 4am leg of a noon-to-noon marathon
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Dosunmu
Starring: Anthony Okungbowa | Bukky Ajayi | Danai Gurira | Isaach De Bankolé | Klarissa Jackson | Yaya Alafia
Chris says: “At her wedding, Adenike (Danai Gurira), a Nigerian recently transplanted to Brooklyn is asked by her mother-in-law to bear a child named George. In her culture, this is not a request, but a command, her duty. After a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alan Polsky | Gabe Polsky
Starring: Dalota Fanning | Emile Hirsch | Kris Kristofferson | Stephen Dorff
Jason says: “THE MOTEL LIFE isn’t quite a lot of filler packed around one great moment – it is, really, a watchable indie drama, so when the scene the audience will remember comes, they aren’t likely to weigh that bit
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Markus Imhoof
Jason says: “Many potential audience members will see a preview for Markus Imhoof’s documentary MORE THAN HONEY and perhaps wonder if it has anything particularly new to tell them; we learn about bees and their symbiotic relationship with the local
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Whoopi Goldberg
Chris says: “A half-forgotten pop culture figure you probably never thought the world needed a documentary feature about, mid-century black comedienne Moms Mabley actually proves ideal for the format. Her career trajectory (playing to mostly black audiences until finding mainstream
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Anthony DiBlasi
Starring: Connor Christie | Dawn Olivieri | J LaRose | Jordan Woods-Robinson | Kip Pardue | Mitch Ryan | Randy Molnar
Jason says: “Put its Mormon trappings aside, and MISSIONARY is the sort of basic ‘woman with a stalker’ movie that hits all its marks well enough that the audience doesn’t necessarily care that it’s working from a standard list. It
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