Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Gino M. Santos
Starring: Albie Casino | Dawn Balagot | Issa Liton | John Wayne Sace | Micah Cabral | Patric Sugui | Vangie Martelle
Kyle says: “The International Premiere of THE ANIMALS was an offering in the series titled ‘Manila Chronicles: The New Filipino Cinema.’ In one regard, it can lay claim to being the single most disturbing film of the 12th New York
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ken Loach
Starring: Gary Maitland | John Henshaw | Paul Brannigan | Scott Kyle | Siobhan Reilly | William Ruane
Jeff says: “Ken Loach takes a page from the Bill Forsyth playbook in this small story of redemption. “We first meet Robbie (Paul Brannigan) in a Glasgow courtroom listening to a solicitor argue before the judge that despite his thuggish
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Alexandre Tharaud | Emmanuelle Riva | Isabelle Huppert | Jean-Louis Trintignant | William Shimell
Thom says: “AMOUR has already won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has gotten raves from critics as well as Chlotrudis stalwarts so I feel a bit of a shnerd not giving this a better ranking.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jen Soska | Sylvia Soska
Starring: Antonio Cupo | David Lovgren | Katharine Isabelle | Paula Lindberg | Tristan Risk
Jason says: “I’m not sure what its Canadian filmmakers figure is so specifically American about AMERICAN MARY but, hey, whatever. Jen & Sylvia Soska have made an impressive little movie that may not exactly be horror but can certainly make
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Robert Redford
Jason says: “At times, ALL IS LOST presents itself as pure problem-solving porn: No speaking, no backstory, not necessarily even much of a sense that filmmaker J.C. Chandor has anything else on his mind besides just showing what’s happening to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.4
Director: Nicolás López
Starring: Andrea Osvart | Ariel Levy | Eli Roth | Lorenza Izzo | Natasha Yarovenko | Nicolás Martinez
Thom says: “The film was superbly made with extraordinary effects that made for a real thrill ride. It’s the first time I’ve seen what I would call a disaster/horror film with instead of a pack of zombies after such cataclysmic
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.9
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Kyle says: “THE ACT OF KILLING is the improbable must-see hit of the 2013 New Directors/New Films roster. This is a powerful documentary on the aftermath of the 1965-66 military overthrow of the Indonesian government and consequent mass killings by
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lorenzo Bianchini
Starring: Lidia Zabrieszach | Marco Marchese | Renzo Gariup
Jason says: “I had the feeling when I saw ACROSS THE RIVER (OLTRE IL GAUDO in Italian) that when the time came to expand the capsule I wrote for my blog to a full entry, I would not have a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Raoul Ruiz
Starring: Chamila Rodriguez | Christian Vadim | Pedro Villagra | Santiago Figueroa | Sergio Hernández | Sergio Schmied | Valentina Vargas
Bruce says: “Some films should come with their own primer. Certain people might find that concept quite insulting. For me, having background information before viewing NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET would have been very helpful. Raul Ruiz, who died last year
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Christian Linahan
Starring: Iwa Moto | Mercedes Cabral | Nicholas Varela | Will Devaughn
Kyle says: “The international premiere of ABERYA (meaning ‘malfunction’ in Tagalog) was one of five offerings of the New York Asian Film Festival in a series labeled ‘Manila Chronicles: The New Filipino Cinema.’ It is more interesting for its aims
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Adam Wingard | Adrian Garcia Bogliano | Andrew Traucki | Angela Bettis | Banjong Pisanthanakun | Ben Wheatley | Bruno Forzani | Ernesto Díaz Espinoza | Hélène Cattet | Jake West | Jason Eisener | Jon Schnepp | Jorge Michel Grau | Kaare Andrews | Lee Hardcastle | Marcel Sarmiento | Mikael Wulff | Nacho Vigalondo | Noboru Iguchi | Simon Rumley | Srdjan Spasojevic | Thomas Cappelen Malling | Ti West | Timo Tjahjanto | Xavier Gens | Yoshihiro Nishimura | Yudai Yamaguchi
Starring: Darenzia | Greg De Cuir | Je$$ica | Kyra Zagorsky | Match | Peter Pedrero
Thom says: “The idea for this film is certainly clever enough and if tight enough reins had been applied it might well have been a classic but to choose 27 directors to make 26 short films, each choosing a letter
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Thomas Gomez Durham
Starring: Alesandra Durham | Chris Laird | Ian Paul Freeth | Joel Bishop | Terence Goodman
Jason says: “Considering the colon in its title and the way that certain bits of the movie’s fantastical elements are not given a whole lot of explanation, I had 95ERS: ECHOES pegged as part of a larger franchise, maybe a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Michael Apted
Thom says: “Naturally, I’ve been expecting this treasure for awhile now. When in New York this past October I’d heard of its imminent release but since it has yet to open here in backwater San Francisco I thought it would
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Morgan Neville
Jason says: “I kind of wish 20 FEET FROM STARDOM hadn’t just come out and said that the story of backup singers is the evolution of popular music over the last fifty years, from gospel-trained black voices pushing stiff WASPs
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Starring: Ashley Hinshaw | Logan Miller | Natalie Hall | Rhys Wakefield
Kyle says: “One of the first things one might notice about +1 if one is inclined to read the credits, is that among the list of finance and production entities are two visual effects companies, suggesting that the tail may
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Harold Perrineau | James Gandolfini | Jason Clarke | Jennifer Ehle | Jeremy Strong | Jessica Chastain | Kyle Chandler | Mark Duplass
Diane says: “ZERO DARK THIRTY–the wonderful Kathryn Bigelow’s version of The Hunt for Osama bin Laden–is grueling and thrillerish. (Be forewarned about the trailers you might get on this one–some of them are really sick, e.g., THE CALL) It is
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Kareem Gray
Starring: Heather Okun | Jay Pricard | Jeff Hoferer | Joe Thackery | Jordan Spradley | Monica Peña | Tom Young
Jason says: “Nerds are, like most of the rest of humanity, kind of hypocrites. This movie’s main character probably tells anybody who ask him for computer advice not to open attachments from an unknown source, but you know what happens
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Lynn Shelton
Starring: Emily Blunt | Mark Duplass | Mike Birbiglia | Rosemarie DeWitt
Thom says: “On the anniversary of his brother’s death Jack (Duplass, ½ of the Duplass brothers, who had a film at TIFF as well) is present at a remembrance party, also attended by the fiancé (Iris, played by Blunt) of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Oh Young-doo
Starring: Bae Yong-geun | Choi Song-hyeon | Ha Eun-jeong | Hong Young-geun
Jason says: “I must admit that I wasn’t a fan of Oh Young-doo’s first feature, INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI, but it showed enough promise to make me curious about what he came up with next; it also won a bit
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Amy Wren | James Howson | Kaya Scodelario | Nicola Burley | Oliver Milburn | Paul Hilton | Steve Evets
Thom says: “Here’s a wild & woolly, down & dirty reading of the classic Emily Bronte novel. www.us.imdb.com lists some 16 versions of the tragic romance so there was no real compelling reason for this new adaptation; nonetheless Arnold has
Read the review...