Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jacques-Rémy Girerd
Starring: Charlie Girerd | Dany Boon | Garance Lagraa | John Di Maggio | MatthewModine
Jason says: “MIA AND THE MIGOO isn’t a new film; it played the festival circuit and various markets two and a half years ago, including the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Apparently Matthew Modine saw it at one of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.4
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård | Brady Corbet | Cameron Spurr | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Kirsten Dunst | Udo Kier
Jason says: “As hooks go, it’s tough to beat the one Lars von Trier uses to start MELANCHOLIA: The world ends in such slow motion that time almost seems to be standing still. It’s a fantastic scene of planetary destruction,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Michelle Wiliams | Paul Dano | Shirley Henderson | Will Patton | Zoe Kazan
Jason says: “Why don’t you want to see this movie at the end of a long day? Because it is frequently boring, and seeing it in that condition will exacerbate this. Reducing it to simply that one adjective is tremendously
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sean Durkin
Starring: Brady Corbet | Elizabeth Olsen | Hugh Dancy | John Hawkes | Sarah Paulson
Michael says: “To kick off this season’s CineCache co-presentation with the Brattle Theatre, we got a sneak preview of the Sundance hit, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. This is one impressive debut film… heck, it’s a pretty impressive film all around.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Demi Moore | Jeremy Irons | Kevin Spacey | Mary McDonnell | Paul Bettany | Penn Badgley | Simon Baker | Stanley Tucci | Susan Blackwell | Zachary Quinto
Julie says: “Writer/Director J.C. Chandor outdid himself in his first feature debut, MARGIN CALL. The movie (billed as a drama / thriller) while fictional tells a story very close to the truth. It follows the key people at an investment
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ash Christian
Starring: Charles Solomon Jr. | Heather Matarazzo | Jennifer Coolidge | Ryan Boggus
Chris says: “Ash Christian’s debut feature FAT GIRLS wasn’t a great film, but it wasn’t bad for being written, directed and produced by a 21-year-old (he starred in it, too). A tad slapdash but often hilarious, it positioned him as
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Carl Colby
Diane says: “CIA director William Colby’s son gets on the filial doc bandwagon. But there are drawbacks to a film intended to show the opacity of its subject. E.g., you feel like you’ve wasted your time. The only parts I
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Rating: 2.3
Director: Alex Gibney | Allison Ellwood
Chris says: “If nothing else, see MAGIC TRIP for its amazing archival footage of Ken Kesey and his ‘Merry Band of Pranksters’ on their infamous 1964 cross-country bus trip. They filmed hours and hours of footage along the way, but
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mark Hartley
Jason says: “I wonder where Mark Hartley’s next stop will be. Hong Kong? Thailand? Indonesia? After spotlighting the exploitation cinema of Australia in Not Quite Hollywood and the Philippine Islands in MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!, there must be other spots on
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Adam Mason
Starring: Andrew Howard | Ian Duncan | Matthew Rhys | Tess Panzer | Xander Berkeley
Jason says: “I’m not saying that it should be an ironclad rule that a movie by the name of LUSTER, with a sort of Jekyll-and Hyde theme, should go a little more heavy on the sex, but that would have
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Julian Gilbey
Starring: Alec Newman | Eamonn Walker | Ed Speleers | Garry Sweeney | Holly Boyd | Kate Magowan | Melissa George | Sean Harris
Jason says: “There is a certain joy to a move that takes the word ‘cliffhanger’ literally, as A LONELY PLACE TO DIE does in its very first scene. Director Julian Gilbey will go back to this well another time or
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Mike Ott
Starring: Atsuko Okatsuka | Cory Zacharia | Rintaro Sawamoto | Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez
Jason says: “I wonder and worry a bit about how LITTLEROCK will play outside the festival circuit. It’s a wonderful little film, but it would be easy for a well-meaning distributor to drastically change the experience. Of course, I’m also
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Drake Doremus
Starring: AlexKingston | Anton Yelchin | Charlie Bewley | Felicity Jones | Jennifer Lawrence | Oliver Muirhead
Jason says: “First love can burn very bright but not be that complicated, and since that’s what LIKE CRAZY is about, it makes a bit of sense for it to have a certain shallowness about it as well. The question
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Wai Keung Lau
Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang | Donnie Yen | Qi Shu | Shawn Yue | Yasuaki Kurata
Jason says: “LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN starts off in a familiar way, with text explaining a bit of Chinese history, this time involving how Chinese laborers served in Europe during World War I. Most aren’t
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Massy Tadjedin
Starring: Anson Mount | Eva Mendes | Griffin Dunne | Guillaume Canet | Keira Knightley | Sam Worthington
Chris says: “This is a first feature for director Tadjedin and it’s an assured debut although there’s not that much to it. The relationship drama centers on striking Joanna Reed (Knightley), a writer working on her 2nd novel, and her
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Marius Holst
Starring: Benjamin Helstad | Kristoffer Joner | Morten Løvstad | Stellan Skarsgård | Trond Nilssen
Jason says: “KING OF DEVIL’S ISLAND opens with a whaling story, which it regularly returns to, but it isn’t immediately certain who the whale represents and who the whalers represent, even if the story is being told in the first
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Miguel Ángel Vivas
Starring: Ana Wagener | Dritan Biba | Fernando Cayo | Guillermo Barrientos | Manuela Vellés
Jason says: “I’ll say this for Miguel Ángel Vivas: He is committed. He knows exactly what he wants to do with this movie – what sort of terror he wants to put the characters and audience through – and he
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Greg Araki
Starring: Chris Zylka | Haley Bennett | James Duval | Juno Temple | Roxane Mesquida | Thomas Dekker
Michael says: “Secret Societies. Gay sex. Psychic powers. Roxanne Mesquida. Straight sex. A surfer dude. Witchcraft. Sexual awakenings. Incest. Threesome. Thor. Masturbation. Voodoo dolls. Hallucinogenic drugs. Kelly Lynch. Possession. Prophetic dreams. Animal-masked men. A fabulous lesbian in a mint-green pantsuit.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Starring: Jamie Bell | Judi Dench | Mia Wasikowska | Michael Fassbender | Sally Hawkins | Tamzin Merchant
Thom says: “This had all the ingredients to be a perfect ‘classic’ film and it very nearly succeeded but for a nagging problem that wouldn’t go away for me. Director Fukunaga had brought us the impressive SIN NOMBRE and he
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Armie Hammer | Dermot Mulroney | Judi Dench | Leonardo DiCaprio | Naomi Watts
Bruce says: “J. EDGAR is a curious film. Had it appeared a decade ago, the story of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) would have no doubt been scandalous; today it seems as exciting as tepid
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