News & Updates - Page 328 of 451 - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Generation Iron (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Vlad Yudin

Thom says: “This Chlotrudis offering far out-met my expectations which is always a thrill for this inveterate viewer. Of course I’d seen PUMPING IRON (1977) back in the day, & was surprised probably as anyone at the continued career &

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The Gatekeepers (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Dror Moreh

Chris says: “This Academy Award-nominated documentary consists of interviews with six former heads of the Shin Bet (essentially the Israeli equivalent of the Secret Service), spanning the Six Day War (late 1960s) to the present. The openness and candor with

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The Garden of Words (2013)

Jason says: “A new animated film from Makoto Shinkai at this point necessitates my going back and re-reading what I have written about the rest of his productions, as it can look somewhat lazy to praise him the same way

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Funeral Kings (2013)

Jason says: “You don’t really need that much of a hook for a coming-of-age film – they’re more or less going to cover the same territory, albeit in different ways – but it doesn’t hurt to have one. That way,

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Fruitvale Station (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Ahna O'Reilly | Kevin Durand | Melonie Diaz | Michael B. Jordan | Octavia Spencer

Chris says: “So powerful and upsetting are the last twenty-odd minutes of Ryan Coogler’s debut feature that it’s not hard to see why it won the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. In recreating the moments that led up

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Frances Ha (2013)

Thom says: “After KICKING & SCREAMING, MR. JEALOUSY, THE SQUID & THE WHALE, GREENBERG, & MARGOT AT THE WEDDING all cineastes are aware of Baumbach and except for the misstep GREENBERG he’s always interested me but this is far-and-away his

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Found in Time (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Arthur Vincie
Starring: Derek Morgan | Eric Martin Brown | Kelly Sullivan | MacLeod Andrews | Mina Vesper Gokal

Jason says: “A tricky thing for a science fiction story to do is to build its world and story without spending any time explaining it to the characters that, living in it, don’t need the explanation. Add a changing timeline

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Forever Love (2013)

Kyle says: “A slapstick farce from Taiwan in Mandarin that is both an affectionate satire of a long vanished Taiwanese film business in 1969 (there are numerous references to the July 1969 Moon Landing) and a sweet romantic comedy about

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I’ll Follow You Down (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Richie Mehta
Starring: Gillian Anderson | Haley Joel Osment | Rufus Sewell | Susanna Fournier | Victor Garber

Jason says: “Science fiction writers have come up with dozens of ways for time travel to be a terrible idea, from rifts that can collapse the entire structure of the Universe to far-future AIs who will eradicate anything that might

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Floating Skyscrapers (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Starring: Bartosz Gelner | Katarzyna Herman | Marda Nieradkiewicz | Mateusz Banasiuk

Bruce says: “Growing up in Warsaw film director Tomasz Wasilewski was exposed to the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski at an early age. While he does not see films such as THE DECALOGUE as a direct influence, he does feel that

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Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013)

Kyle says: “The North American premiere of IP MAN: THE FINAL FIGHT, the second Hong Kong film about Ip Man directed by Herman Yau to be screened at the New York Asian Film Festival, contrasts both narratively and stylistically with

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Fairhaven (2013)

Jason says: “If you’re going to go through a time of self-doubt or regret, you could find worse surroundings than Fairhaven, Mass. It’s got the kind of snow dirt and smoke don’t seem to stick to, there are good friends

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Europa Report (2013)

Jason says: “I have likely mentioned this a few dozen times, but my favorite subset of science fiction is that which takes place during the ‘interplanetary era’, as humanity expands from Earth but is still confined to the solar system

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Escape from Tomorrow (2013)

Jason says: “Someday, perhaps soon, folks may accuse Randy Moore of selling out. After all, while most of the crowd for the opening-night showing of ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW seemed to be there to cheer on poking a finger in the

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Enough Said (2013)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Ben Falcone | Catherine Keener | James Gandolfini | Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Toni Collette

Chris says: “As dependable as Rohmer or Ozu, Nicole Holofcener could be their modern American equivalent as an auteur director. In terms of style and sensibility, she arguably makes the same film over and over again, but touches on a

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Emperor Visits the Hell (2013)

Kyle says: “The awkwardly but amusingly Anglicized title EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL is based upon three chapters from the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West” — not to be confused with Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow’s recent film

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Emperor (2013)

Jason says: “Under normal circumstances, I might grumble about EMPEROR being a case of keeping an interesting story and larger-than-life characters at arm’s length in favor of someone that the audience can perhaps more easily relate to. In this case,

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Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal (2013)

Jason says: “We’ve all heard (or used) some variation on ‘my art comes from a dark place’ before; there’s also its close relative ‘suffering for one’s art’. Not exactly the inspiration you’d expect for a movie named ‘EDDIE: THE SLEEPWALKING

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The East (2013)

Chris says: “Serviceable—that’s the word I kept thinking of throughout this thriller in which an intelligence agency operative (Brit Marling) infiltrates herself within an eco-terrorist group that targets the agency’s corporate clients. I’m not saying this film, co-written by Marling

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Earthbound (2013)

Jason says: “You wouldn’t think a genre as hyphenated as the indie-sci-fi-romantic-comedy would have enough entries to have staples, but ‘boy thinks he’s alien/time traveler/robot, making the girl who thinks he’s otherwise sweet uncomfortable’ pops up a fair amount. It

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