Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Gabriel Rojas Vera
Starring: Angela Carrizosa | Angelica Sanchez | Diego Galindo | Diego Pelaez | Juan Manuel Diaz Oroztegui
Thom says: “Another recent winner from the enterprising Film Movement group this one emerges from Columbia, a rare treat. Karen, who’s married to a slimy businessman of no uncertain power decides to leave after ten years of an icy, reproachful,
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Alejandro Brugués
Starring: Alexis Díaz de Villegas | Andrea Duro | Andros Perugorría | Jazz Vilá | Jorge Molina
Bruce says: “I’m probably not the right person to review a zombie film and I certainly would not do so had I disliked JUAN OF THE DEAD. But like LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which I loved, a film that
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Matthew Mishory
Starring: Clare Grant | Dalilah Rain | Dan Glenn | Edward Singletary | Erin Daniels | James Preston | Rafael Morais
Thom says: “While the audience at the LGBT Film Festival went wild after the showing of this colorful representation of the early adult life of the legendary James Dean I felt like sneaking away in embarrassment. I’ve seen so many
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Karen Thorsen | Tracie Holder
Bruce says: “Credibility is hard to come by with a title JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS, knowing that a major portion of Joe Papp’s life, an act unto itself, was edited out of the film. Or worse, perhaps the filmmakers
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: David Gelb
Jason says: “I can’t say I’m a particular fan of sushi; in fact, I’m quite the culinary coward. But you don’t have to like a particular food to admire fine craftsmanship and dedication, and those are things that Jiro Ono
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jay Duplass | Mark Duplass
Starring: Ed Helms | Evan Ross | Jason Segel | Judy Greer | Rae Dawn Chong | Steve Zissis | Susan Sarandon
Thom says: “The Duplass brothers continue to improve as filmmakers; from THE PUFFY CHAIR to BAGHEAD to CYRUS they’ve improved. This is a mostly successful independent comedy that has a good attitude and a lot of laughs. Jeff (Segel, also
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Magnus Martens
Starring: Andreas Cappelen | Arthur Berning | Henrik Mestad | Kyrre Hellum | Mads Ousdal | Marie Blokhus
Jason says: “So, it looks like I’m going to have to start putting Jo Nesbø stuff in my Amazon basket, as any guy who comes up with the raw material for both this and HEADHUNTERS is my kind of darkly
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Cara Uchida | Kanna Hashimoto | Koki Maeda | Ohshirô Maeda | Rento Isobe | Ryôga Hayashi
Thom says: “Director Koreeda is a huge festival favorite having been lauded for such films as AFTER LIFE, NOBODY KNOWS, & STILL WALKING (already a part of the Criterion Collection). The story is reasonably simple here, but very sweet and
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Travis Mathews
Starring: Ben Jasper | Brontez Purnell | Jesse Metzger | Jorge Rodolfo | Keith McDonald | Peter DeGroot | Wayne Bumb
Thom says: “This is your below average gay hard-core mumble core movie. Jess has lived in San Francisco for nearly a decade and his finances have got the better of him and he’s moving back to Ohio. It’s going to
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Anka Sasnal | Wilhelm Sasnai
Starring: Agnieszka Podsiadli | Dawid Wolski | Elzbieta Okupska | Jerzy Lapinski | Marcin Czarnik | Piotr Nowak
Bruce says: “****SPOILERS**** “This seems to be the season for wonderful, beautifully made films that cannot be recommended for everyone. Sparse in dialogue IT LOOKS PRETTY FROM A DISTANCE brings to mind disparate fare such as HUKKLE; GOODBYE, DRAGON INN;
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gakuryu Ishii
Starring: Asato Iida | Eri Aoki | Hakka Shiraishi | Keisuke Hasebe | Mai Takahashi | Rin Takanashi | Yumika Tajima
Jason says: “It is, I suppose, unfair to judge this picture for not being conventional enough; it’s meant to be unusual and relatively plot-free. The question is, if you strip the basic building block of story away, what’s left? ISN’T
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kirby Dick
Michael says: “Kirby Dick won the Chlotrudis Award for Best Documentary with his film THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED. Now he tackles sexual violence in the military with the same intensity and passion. This film is tough to watch,
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Carice van Houten | Clive Owen | Daniel Brühl | Ella Izán Corchero | Kerry Fox | Pilar López de Ayala
Jason says: “It’s hard too believe that INTRUDERS is just Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s third feature film; the past decade-plus has been pretty good for Spanish genre filmmakers whether working in their native tongue or English, and Fresnadillo’s 2001 film INTACTO
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Eric Toledano | Olivier Nakache
Starring: Anne Le Ny | Audrey Fleurot | Christian Ameri | Clotide Mollet | Dorothée Brière | François Cluzet | Omar Sy
Bruce says: “THE INTOUCHABLES has been a box office sensation in France. It also has received high enough ratings to currently rank #78 on IMDb’s top 250 films. Fortunately I knew very little about the film beforehand so I arrived
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Bastien Ughetto | Emmanuelle Seigner | Ernst Umhauer | Fabrice Luchini | Kristin Scott Thomas
Bruce says: “I’ve said it before – François Ozon is one of those filmmakers whose skills are immense but has yet to produce the masterpiece showcasing his talent. IN THE HOUSE is an expository film, one that centers on the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mia Donovan
Jason says: “Hey, festivals, I know all I really want to know about the porn industry. Really, you can stop screening docs about it and films that are set there; folks give me funny looks after I tell them what
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ti West
Starring: Alison Bartlett | Jake Ryan | Kelly McGillis | Lena Dunham | Pat Healy | Sara Paxton
Jason says: “Ti West knows how to make his audience jump, which isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds. Harder, though, is leading up to those jumps with light comedy and deep shivers, and West pulls that off, too. The
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Starring: Agnieszka Grochowska | Benno Fürmann | Herbert Knaup | Maria Schrader | Robert Wieckiewicz
Bruce says: “Agnieszka Holland’s most acclaimed film – EUROPA, EUROPA – featured a young Jewish man who posed as a Hitler Youth to avoid his inevitable annihilation. With IN DARKNESS she returns to the holocaust once again. Nominated for a
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Bart Layton
Jason says: “The very title of THE IMPOSTER seems like it might be giving the game away, but it’s not hard to argue that this is entirely appropriate. Director Bart Layton opts to make the film a mystery only after
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Robert Pulcini | Shari Springer Berman
Starring: Annette Bening | Darren Criss | June Diane Raphael | Kristen Wiig | Matt Dillon | Natasha Lyonne
Thom says: “Directors Berman & Pulcini have a good track record with AMERICAN SPLENDOR, THE NANNIE DIARIES, & THE EXTRA MAN all worth checking out and while this film registers more of a sit-com script it still offers a bellyful
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