Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ariel Vroman
Starring: Chris Evans | David Schwimmer | James Franco | Michael Shannon | Ray Liotta | Stephen Dorff | Winona Ryder
Thom says: “This is a nasty little film that certainly knows how to entertain once you get past the content. I’ve never seen any of Vroman’s previous output but I can say he’s done a very professional job here. Shannon
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Elizabeth Banks | Jennifer Lawrence | Liam Hemsworth | Stanley Tucci | Wes Bentley | Willow Shields
Thom says: “No real reason to review this but I had nothing to do one afternoon in Seattle. I’m not a fan of the TWILIGHT series and this is even worse. 12 boys and 12 girls are chosen from the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Paul Hough
Starring: Brianna Lauren Jackson | Eddie McGee | Fred Cour | Paul McCarthy-Boyington | T. Arthur Cottam | Trista Robinson
Jason says: “It’s an obvious thing to say in a review, and probably everyone who writes a review of this movie will say some variation, but what the heck: THE HUMAN RACE kicks a fair amount of ass even though
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: David France
Bruce says: “HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE serves as a textbook for the pros and cons of various mechanisms surrounding a social movement responding to a crisis. ACT UP was founded in 1987 by a group of people who felt
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Hanan Kattan | Shamim Sarif
Bruce says: “Walls, barricades, checkpoints, barbed wire fences. These are prominent features in the West bank landscape and the areas that Palestinians must traverse to get from a refugee camp to a Palestinian village twenty five kilometers away. This fifteen
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kôji Fukada
Starring: Bryerly Long | Eriko Ono | Haruka Saito | Hiroko Matsuda | Kanji Furutachi | Kumi Hyôdô | Tatsuya Kawamura
Thom says: “This unsentimental winner is yet one more great representative of the Film Movement visionary picks. This might well have come from the family-orientation oeuvre of an Ozu until we realize that this film will veer off into wacky
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Leos Carax
Starring: Denis Levant | Edith Scob | Eva Mendes | Kylie Minogue | Leos Carax | Michel Piccoli
Chris says: “Honestly one of the strangest films I’ve ever seen, and perhaps one of the most wonderful. In his first feature in over a decade, filmmaker Leos Carax(THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE), along with his regular collaborator, the wiry
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Graham McTavish | Ian McKellen | James Nesbitt | Ken Stott | Martin Freeman | Richard Armitage
Thom says: “No special reason to review this blockbuster, other than to say I was thrilled while watching it other than the too long beginning when trying to persuade Bilbo Baggins to join the quest of 13 dwarves along with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Starring: Anthony Hopkins | Danny Huston | Helen Mirren | James D'Arcy | Jessica Biel | Michael Stuhlbarg | Michael Wincott | Scarlett Johansson | Toni Collette
Julie says: “What bad things can you say about a movie with Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins ? Well worth seeing for their acting alone. Scarlet Johansson did a nice job as did the guy who played Anthony Perkins (James
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: P. David Ebersole
Thom says: “I’m hoping for better luck soon at the flickers. This is about the rise and descent of Hole drummer and her final rise from the ashes of a terrible drug addiction. She seem memorable enough with some definite
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Valeriy Todorovskiy
Starring: Anton Shagin | Evgeniya Khirivskaya | Igor Voynarovskiy | Maksim Matveev | Oksana Akinshina
Jason says: “It seems like every time I’ve seen western culture sneaking behind the iron curtain, it’s been about The Beatles. Of course, youth chafing at authority existed well before the Fab Four, and represents more than mere fandom. So
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asoka Handagama
Starring: Dharshan Dharmraj | Gregory Philip Ferminus | Raja Ganeshan | Subashini Balasubramaniyam
Thom says: “A young, big, burly man returns after a long stint in the army to his village and is either ignored or reproached by his old neighbors and acquaintances. His betrothed has married another man who died on the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Patricio Valladares
Starring: Carolina Escobar | Daniel Antivilio | Jose Hernandez | Serge Francois | Siboney Lo
Jason says: “The original Chilean version of HIDDEN IN THE WOODS (an English-language remake featuring Michael Biehn from the same director is already in pre-production) certainly lives up to its introduction as a nasty, violent piece of work, and filmmaker
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Braden Croft
Starring: Cara Uchida | Kanna Hashimoto; Rento Isobe | Koki Maeda | Ohshirô Maeda | Ryôga Hayashi
Jason says: “We’re probably healthier as a society for not throwing terms like ‘insane’ or ‘crazy’ around quite so much as we used to. It’s not always the case in the movies, where simple homicidal maniacs are often the norm,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Todd Louiso
Starring: Blythe Danner | Christopher Abbott | Dan Futterman | John Rubinstein | Julie White | Melanie Lynskey
Michael says: “Fans of TAKE THIS WALTZ should check out Todd Louiso’s HELLO, I MUST BE GOING, about a young woman, recently divorced, who moves back in with her wealthy parents in suburban Connecticut and finds herself unable to move
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Starring: Apisit Opasaimlikit | Chanakporn Sayoungkul | Kiat Punpiputt | Nopachai Chaiyanam | Sirin Horwang
Bruce says: “***SPOILERS*** “Pen-ek Ratanaurang‘s HEADSHOT, a film about a cop turned hit man, is a huge disappointment. It is well-made and well-acted and the premise is better-than-average; but the script adds little to what is an hour and one
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Aksel Hennie | Elvind Sandler | Julie R. Ølgaard | Nikolaj Coster-Waldau | Synnøve Macody Lund
Jason says: “What makes for a good thriller? There are many recipes, but it’s the results that matter; the audience should spend as much time as possible excited by what’s about to happen, in addition to what’s going on in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Su-yeon Gu
Starring: Atsoro Watabe | Kento Nagayama | Sei Ashina | Shido Nakamura | Sota Matsuda | Tokio Emoto
Jason says: “Su-yeon Gu’s HARD ROMANTICKER is one of those movies that feels like it was cobbled together from a bunch of anecdotes that don’t necessarily add up to a story, but is able to more or less able to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Ebizo Ichikawa | Eita | Hikari Mitsushima | Koji Yakusho | Munetaka Aoki
Jason says: “HARA-KIRI seems like an odd choice for a 3D remake – it features far more sitting around and dueling with subtle turns of phrase than it does swordplay – but with Takashi Miike in the director’s chair, one
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Kat Cliro
Starring: Andrea Savage | Fallon Goodson | Geoff Stults | Jason Biggs | Justin Kirk | Kate Bosworth | Krysten Ritter | Rachel Bilson | Seymour Cassel
Jason says: “Krysten Ritter tends to make everything she’s in better, and as a result she’s been a go-to girl for best friends and sidekicks in romantic comedies and the like. It’s steady work, but if an actress doesn’t take
Read the review...