Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jason Eisener
Starring: Brian Downey | Gregory Smith | Nick Bateman | Pasha Ebrahimi | Robb Wells | Rutger Hauer
Jason says: “HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN arrives with one of the most straightforward, descriptive titles for an action movie since SNAKES ON A PLANE. That simplicity serves it fairly well; it’s exactly the sort of 1980s exploitation pastiche the name
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Vera Farmiga
Starring: Dagmara Dominczyk | Donna Murphy | John Hawkes | Joshua Leonard | Vera Farmiga
Michael says: “One of my favorite films at this year’s Provincetown International Film Festival was HIGHER GROUND, starring and directed by the charming and talented Vera Farmiga (UP IN THE AIR; DOWN TO THE BONE). HIGHER GROUND tackles the complex
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yoshihiro Nishimura
Starring: Eihi Shiina | Kazuki Namioka | Minoru Torihada | Yumiko Hara | Yûrei Yanagi
Jason says: “Yoshihiro Nishimura’s HELLDRIVER is a Yoshihiro Nishimura film, and he doesn’t do things halfway. So how a person reacts to the opening scene (and, I presume, any preview they make for the movie) will likely serve as a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mona Achache
Starring: Anne Brochet | Garance Le Guillermic | Josiane Balasko | Togo Igawa
Michael says: “Somehow I missed hearing about this film until it showed up last week at the Kendall Square Cinema, even though it played at the Boston French Film Festival. Not that I was surprised. THE HEDGEHOG is based on
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Anne Dorval | Monia Chokri | Niels Schneider | Xavier Dolan
Michael says: “Caught up with HEARTBEATS, Xavier Dolan’s follow-up to the Chlotrudis multiple-nominee, I KILLED MY MOTHER. Once again, Dolan writes, directs and stars, this time tackling the mysteries of love, particularly in the more modern age of fluid sexuality.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.6
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Starring: André Wilms | Blondin Miguel | Elina Salo | Jean-Pierre Darroussin | Kati Outinen
Bruce says: “The 2009 French film WELCOME, directed by Philippe Lioret, somehow escaped under the Chlotrudis radar in spite of having a limited release in May of 2010. WELCOME is a story about a man who becomes involved with the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson | David Wilmot | Don Cheadle | Liam Cunningham | Rory Keenan
Diane says: “Directed and written by John Michael McDonagh, writer of NED KELLY, but more importantly (don’t tell him I said that!), the brother of Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES, plays The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Pillowman). “THE GUARD’s best
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sophia Takal
Starring: Alex Ross Perry | Kate Lyn Sheil | Lawrence Michael Levine | Louis Cancelmi | Sophia Takal
Jason says: “Ignore the first scene of this movie; it sets a tone and a theme that winds up being a relatively minor part of what follows. The remaining hour or so turns into something much more interesting than the
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Starring: Kanata Hongo | Kazunari Ninomiya | Ken'ichi Matsuyama | Natsuna | Yuriko Yoshitaka
Jason says: “It’s a funny thing that the first live-action GANTZ film feels kind of old-school; considering that the director’s last project was a CGI feature, the original manga does not hide that it is produced with digital tools, and
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Joann Sfar
Starring: Anna Mouglalis | Doug Jones | Eric Elmosnino | Laetitia Casta | Lucy Gordon | Mylène Jampanoï
Bruce says: “Make no mistakes, GAINSGOURG: JTAIME .MOI NON PLUS is no straightforward biopic. Rather than attack his subject conventionally, Joann Sfar is capricious and daring in his portraiture of Serge Gainsbourg. Sfar pages back and forth to Gainsbourgs childhood to
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Miranda July
Starring: David Warshofsky | Hamish Linklater | Isabella Acres | Joe Putterlik | Miranda July
Jason says: “THE FUTURE is kind of amazing, in its annoying little way. It finds the shortest possible path from its characters doing something nice to them being ridiculous and insufferable, and then spends the next hour or so finding
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Caleb Emerson
Starring: Aramis Sartorio | Brett Hundley | David Reynolds | Gia Paloma | Thea Martin
Jason says: “It’s not uncommon for critics to rate films they see at a festival a little higher than those they see elsewhere, in part because the discussions with the filmmakers afterward help forge a personal connection and often cast
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: David Sigal
Bruce says: “Cities have a way of defining themselves, adding up pieces the wholes of which greatly surpass the sums of their parts. FLORENT: QUEEN OF THE MEAT MARKET presents a case in point. Florent was not just another restaurant;
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Kristin Canty
Thom says: “We can’t all be interested in everything, right? This documentary is the story of food clubs and farm co-operatives all over the United States that have been raided by local, state, and the federal government that reads more
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Chris Metzler | Lev Anderson
Thom says: “This film was a real find but it shouldn’t have been. Co-director Metzler had also co-directed one of my favorite documentaries PLAGUES AND PLEASURES ON THE SALTON SEA (2004) with Jeff Springer & I had shamefully forgotten that
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Hideaki Anno | Kazuya Tsurumaki | Masayuki
Starring: Fumihiko Tachiki | Kôichi Yamadera | Kotono Mitsuishi | Megumi Ogata | Yûko Miyamura
Jason says: “I didn’t think much of the first REBUILD OF EVANGELION movie when I saw it a couple years ago, but there might have been mitigating circumstances – the version I saw was dubbed, and it was the first
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Michael Webber
Diane says: “I guess I heard about this doc on NPR, in the aftermath of the exotic animal incident in Ohio a few weeks ago. Tim Harrison runs an organization called Outreach for Animals. ELEPHANT is primarily the story of
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring: Adrianne Palicki | Carla Gugino | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Timothy Olyphant
Jason says: “Although ELEKTRA LUXX is being released in markets where WOMEN IN TROUBLE didn’t play theatrically, and you can probably follow along well enough without having seen the other one. And despite it picking up on threads from that
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Albert Brooks | Bryan Cranston | Carey Mulligan | Oscar Isaac | Ryan Gosling
Diane says: “The good: Ryan Gosling, of course. I was with a dozen or so women friends recently, and Ryan Gosling was the one actor they could all agree on as someone they’d like to sleep with. Albert Brooks. What
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Hirotsugu Kawasaki
Starring: Kentarô Itô | Ryuji Aigase | Satomi Ishihara | Sôsuke Komori | Yasuyuki Kase
Jason says: “The craftsmanship of LEGEND OF THE MILLENNIUM DRAGON is remarkable; it’s the sort of animated feature where every cel is frame-worthy and the assembly into a moving picture is wonderfully fluid. Like many animated films of its type,
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