Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Charlotte Prior | Ethan Hawke | Jennifer Prior | Julie Delpy | Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Chris says: “*Minor spoilers ahead* “Though not a flawless film, Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE concluded almost perfectly: its open-endedness exuded a lovely power as it revisited all the spaces its two leads Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) inhabited
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Philippe Béziat
Kyle says: “BECOMING TRAVIATA, or in its much better French title TRAVIATA ET NOUS, is a documentary on preparations and rehearsals for a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s beloved 1853 opera ‘La Traviata’ at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, starring charismatic soprano Natalie
Read the review...The Great Beauty (Italy/France; 142 min.) directed by: Paolo Sorrentino starring: Toni Servillo; Sabrina Ferilli; Carlo Buccirosso; Georgio Pasotti; Massimo Popolizio Peter says: “This is a film loaded with Fellini style imagery, characters, and abrupt scene transitions that make its
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jeremy Gardner
Starring: Adam Cronheim | Alana O'Brien | Jamie Pantanella | Jeremy Gardner | Larry Fessenden | Niels Bolle
Jason says: “There’s a case to be made for THE BATTERY although it involves an premise that I’m not hugely fond of – that the filmmakers aren’t really making a zombie movie, but exploring the bond and antagonism that form
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jeff Howlett | Mark Christopher Covino
Jason says: “You can say what you want about Detroit – that its main industry needs propping up, that its population is collapsing, that arson seems to be the most popular local activity – but you have to admit, hope
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Starring: Kota Mori | Kunifumi Yoshida | Sion Sono | Takeshi Itô | Tokyo GAGAGA | Yoshihiro Nishimura
Jason says: “The question has probably been answered in some interview or festival Q&A with Sion Sono, but if he had been able to spend the time and money to edit this movie and get it released back in 1995,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Jacob Vaughn
Starring: Gillian Jacobs | Ken Marino | Kumail Nanjiani | Mary Kay Place | Patrick Warburton | Peter Stormare | Toby Huss
Jason says: “You see enough horror movies, and eventually ‘ridiculous puppet monster ‘ can seem like a genre. You can break it down further and make the distinction between whether it’s a movie based upon puppets being creepy or one
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lynn-Maree Milburn | Richard Lowenstein
Jason says: “I strongly suspect that I have complained about documentaries that seem to argue that someone wrecking his life and those of the people around him is more tragic because he could play the guitar enough for it to
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ziad Doueiri
Starring: Ali Suliman | Evgenia Dodena | Karim Saleh | Ramsi Makdessi | Reymond Amsalem | Uri Gavriel
Jason says: “There have been a fair number of movies, books, and the like about terrorism over the years, but many, in their perfectly reasonable attempt to illuminate the phenomenon, ignore a simple truth: Most people just can’t understand. This
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Alex Gibney
Jason says: “Five years ago, Alex Gibney set out to make THE ROAD BACK, a documentary that followed Lance Armstrong’s comeback, hopefully to culminate in an eighth Tour de France victory. That didn’t happen, but a whole lot of other
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Olivia Silver
Starring: John Hawkes | Kendall Toole | Mary Pat Gleason | Ryan Simpkins | Ty Simpkins
Thom says: “Rarely does Film Movement introduce a film with a major actor like John Hawkes but the film did win the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and certainly deserves a wider audience. This one is a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Cody Calahan
Starring: Adam Christie | Ana Alic | Cody Thompson | Michelle Mylett | Romaine Waite
Jason says: “ANTISOCIAL is an impressive little horror movie that distinguishes itself by showing how it’s not necessarily what a movie does that matters, but how it pulls it off. Sure, the initial plot is built on a foundation of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Marçal Forés
Starring: Augustus Prew | Dimitri Leonidas | Javier Beltrán | Maria Rodríguez | Oriol Pla | Roser Tapias
Jason says: “ANIMALS is a coming-of-age story that perches right on the border between an impressive level of ambition and complexity on the one side and trying to do too much on the other. There’s a whole movie just in
Read the review...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
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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
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