Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Craig Johnson
Starring: Bret Loehr | Carr Thompson | Mark Duplass | Melissa Leo
Jason says: “TRUE ADOLESCENTS is a small-budgeted independent film that’s just a swift kick or two from the mainstream. Yes, the execution is mostly what one would expect from the recent wave of chatty, self-examining indie filmmakers, but the basic
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: James Mottern
Starring: Benjamin Bratt | Jimmy Bennett | Joey Lauren Adams | Michelle Monaghan | Nathan Fillion
Jason says: “TRUCKER is a working-class drama, and that may be a factor in why it didn’t get released on more screens. Dig into it a little, and it’s similar to Up in the Air – a story about a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Peter Esmonde
Jason says: “As much as I enjoyed South by Southwest, I must admit that I wish I had seen more of Austin. I bought a guidebook but never cracked it open, and thus my experience with the city is more
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: So Yong Kim
Starring: Chae Gil Byung | Hee-yeon Kim | Jung Gil Ja | Kim Mi Jung | Mi-hyang Kim | Shin Hyun Je
Diane says: “TREELESS MOUNTAIN is a Korean film about two little girls whose mother dumps them with relatives. The seven- and five-year-old leads (no acting experience) are just extraordinary, as is American director So Yong Kim for bringing out these
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Stéphane Aubier | Vincent Patar
Starring: Bruce Ellison | Jeanne Balibar | Nicolas Buysse | Stéphane Aubier | Véronique Dumont
Jason says: “A TOWN CALLED PANIC hit me just right tonight; it might not have on another day. It is, you see, an extraordinarily silly animated film, and sometimes one just doesn’t feel like silliness. Of course, those times may
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Bill Plympton | Hiroyuki Nakao | Ignacio Ferreras | Kan Eguchi | Keiko Sootmoe | Masaya Kakei | Richard Fenwick | Riichiro Mashima | Takanobu Mizuno | Takashi Tanaguchi | Tetsurô Kodama | Tôru Hosokawa
Starring: Junichi Mogi | Osamu Shitara | Shôko Nakagawa | Yuki Himura
Jason says: “Anthology films like TOKYO ONLYPIC should probably not be graded on how good they are as a whole, but more on how good the best segments are, and how man segments should be in that group. On those
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Joon-ho Bong | Leos Carax | Michel Gondry
Starring: Ayako Fujitani | Ayumi Ito | Denis Lavant | Jean-François Balmer | Julie Dreyfus | Ryo Kase | Teruyuki Kagawa | Yû Aoi
Jason says: “Typically, anthology films like TOKYO! will focus on looking at a subject, whether that be an idea or (as in recent projects like PARIS, JE T’AIME) a city from multiple angles to see it as a whole, generally
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kôji Yakusho
Starring: Eita | Kaoru Yachigusa | Koji Yakusho | Satomi Kabayoshi | Tôru Masuoka
Thom says: “Everyone will be familiar with Yakusho from his handsome, athletic, lead performance in the great Japanese film SHALL WE DANCE. Here, in his first try as a director & script writer, he more than ably directs himself and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Bárbara Goenaga | Candela Fernández | Juan Inciarte | Karra Elejalde | Nacho Vigalondo
Diane says: “This Spanish pic (Nacho Vigalondo, director), still rumored to be up for a remake by David Cronenberg, is a low-budget horror/time-travel puzzle. Set-up got my interest, midpoint I was thinking, ‘This is a pretty silly movie,’ but last
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Matthew Newton
Starring: Alex Dimitriades | Brendan Cowell | Ewen Leslie | Matthew Newton | Tina Bursil | Toby Schmitz
Jason says: “One night is just enough time. It’s enough time to fall in love (or out of it), enough time to get into trouble, and enough time to come to a decision. A lot can change in one night,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Chan-wook Park
Starring: Dal-su Oh | Ha-kyun Shin | Hae-sook Kim | In-hwan Park | Kang-ho Song | Ok-vin Kim
Jason says: “I wish I could take credit for this line, but it was the lady in the next seat over who turned to me after the Fantasia screening of THIRST and said ‘isn’t it cool to see a vampire
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: John W. Walter
Michael says: “Who would have thought that a documentary on the life of Bertold Brecht, politics, and the rehearsals and staging of ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ in Central Park starring Meryl Streep would make such compelling theater? Well we
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich | Carmen Maura | Klaus Maria Brandauer | Maribel Verdú | Vincent Gallo
Diane says: “A hodgepodge from Coppola deals with creative genius and fraternal rivalry. The unevenness shows in the personnel: one character is wonderfully warm and realistic; a few are absurd; another is full of bombast, signifying nothing. Lead Vince Gallo
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Michael Cuesta
Starring: Beatrice Miller | Brian Cox | Dallas Roberts | Josh Lucas | Lena Heady | Pablo Schreiber | Ulrich Thomsen
Bruce says: “Director Michael Cuesta and screenwriter Dave Callaham go out of their way to tip their hats to Edgar Allan Poe. Cuesta has succeeded in creating a gothic atmosphere by filming TELL TALE in the old section of Providence,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Wing-cheong Law
Starring: Miggie Siu | Samuel Pang | Simon Yam | Suet Lam
Jason says: “The popular PTU series returned to Hong Kong cinemas this January after an installment or two went direct to video. Even for folks like myself who have not seen the original or the other sequels will likely find
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Thomas Hunt
Starring: Christian Baco | Frank J. Zupancic | John Tokatlidis | Laura McLean | Patricia Stasiak | Shera Bechard
Jason says: “SWEET KARMA is an ‘avenging angel’ movie with all the fat boiled off. The filmmakers know why people are seeing this movie – a hot girl killing bad men in a cool, righteous fury. And even though it’s
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: George Romero
Starring: Alan Van Sprang | Athena Karkanis | Devon Bostick | Julian Richings | Kathleen Munroe
Thom says: “Recent Canadian citizen Romero was, of course, there for the delightful Q&A. Admittedly Romero is the ‘king’ of the zombie genre, nearly inventing this horror staple. Unfortunately, nearly all his other work is lamentable, but this ‘THE REAL
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Alan Arkin | Amy Adams | Clifton Collins | Emily Blunt | Jason Spevack | Jr. | Mary Lynn Rajskub | Steve Zahn
Michael says: “SUNSHINE CLEANING is a nice movie. It features some terrific, heartfelt performances, and a script that is as unconventional at times as it is cliché at others. Rose and Norah are sisters who need jobs. Rose has a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Charles Berling | Edith Scob | Isabelle Sayodan | Jérémie Renier | Juliette Binoche
Bruce says: “This film began as a commission from the Musée d’Orsay and then evolved into a different animal from what had originally been envisioned. By the time the film was made the relationship with the d’Orsay evaporated. Hard-core Assayas
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Anna Boden | Ryan Fleck
Starring: Algenis Perez Solo | Andre Holland | Ann Whitney | Ellary Potterfield | Jaime Tirelli | Rayniel Rufino
Diane says: “Loved SUGAR. More kudos to that fab filmmaking duo, Boden-Fleck. SUGAR is beautifully filmed and edited. Every shot has an emotion underlying it. This baseball ignoramus was able to get the story completely. My only complaint: I thought
Read the review...