Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Cate Blanchett | Frankie Jonas | Kurt Knutsson | Matt Damon | Noah Lindsey Cyrus | Tina Fey
Thom says: “First off I’m not at all a fan of animation but I’ve long thought Miyazaki was by far the best of the lot. His SPIRITED AWAY, PRINCESS MONONOKE, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, & CASTLE IN THE SKY were all
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Bruce McDonald
Starring: Georgina Reilly | Hrant Alianak | Lisa Houle | Rick Roberts | Stephen McHattie
Jason says: “PONTYPOOL is adapted from a small part of the novel Pontypool Changes Everything – according to the producers taking part in the Q&A, a tiny part. Paragraphs, supposedly. That’s actually a really nifty idea – zoom in a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Starring: Dragos Bucur | Ion Stoicar | Irina Saulescur | Radu Costinr | Vlad Ivanov
Bruce says: “POLICE, ADJECTIVE is Corneliu Porumboiu’s follow-up film to his 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST, winner of the Chlotrudis Buried Treasure Award in 2008. Most of us know that police work is not as glamorous or exciting as many films
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Director: Joshua Safdie
Starring: Andy Spade | Ariel Schulman | Elonore Hendricks | Joshua Safdie
Toni says: “I am advising you strongly against seeing this film. This makes mumblecore films look bad if they were not bad enough. I nominate as this year’s FROWNLAND. “A kleptomaniac wanders around and attempts to cross boundaries and is
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nelson Yu Lik-wai
Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang | Jeff Chen | Jô Odagiri | Millhem Cortaz | Phellipe Haagensen
Jason says: “PLASTIC CITY was presented as part of the ‘Hong Kong Film – New Action!’ series… So one might be a bit surprised to find that one of its main characters is Japanese and it is set in Brazil,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Daniel Barnz
Starring: Bill Pullman | Campbell Scott | Elle Fanning | Felicity Huffman | Patricia Clarkson
Jason says: “I really hope the Fanning kids are getting better advice and guidance than other people whose names come to mind at the mention of the phrase ‘child star.’ Not just because they’re kids, and what sort of monster
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ella Lemhagen
Starring: Gustaf Skarsgård | Thomas Ljungman | Torkel Petersson
Bruce says: “Considering that gay marriage is one of the burning issues in this country it is good to see that it is not an issue in Sweden. Adoption, on the other hand seems on equal footing in both countries.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Matt Bissonnette
Starring: Adam Scott | Gale Harold | Greg Dulli | Joel Bissonnette | Rachael Santhon | Robin Tunney
Thom says: “Another mediocre Canadian entry that had no right to be included at TIFF. Two mismatched brothers drive endlessly around a detached Los Angeles searching for the lost love of one of the boys. One is a recovering drug-addict,
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Enrique Rivero
Starring: Nancy Orozco | Nolberto Coria | Tesalia Huerta
Bruce says: “PARQUE VÍA is a beautiful character study about a servant whose services, due to events circumstantial, are no longer required. We first glimpse Beto as he walks through the empty rooms of the large, modern house that he
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Christophe Barrtier
Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu | Clovis Cornillac | Gérard Jugnot | Kad Merad | Nora Amezeder | Pierre Richard
Michael says: “Clearly I have a much lower tolerance for schmaltz when it’s from another country. I couldn’t help think of such films as IL POSTINO, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, and yes, even CINEMA PARADISO while wading through the saccharine, unoriginal,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.6
Director: Oren Peli
Starring: Amber Armstrong | atie Featherstone | Mark Fredrichs | Micah Sloat
Scot says: “This is one of those *borderline* Chlotrudis films. It did release slowly enough to qualify, but in its fifth week, it went to 1,945 screens. So… do we penalize a film because it was distributed to win big?
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nicholas Jasenovec
Starring: Charlene Yi | Jake M. Johnson | Michael Cera
Diane says: “(That’s funny: they wore paper hearts in last night’s movie, JULIE AND JULIA) Charlyne Yi and friend-of-Chlotrudis Michael Cera are the guinea pigs in this faux-doc about the search for real love. Like ‘J&J,’ it’s completely enjoyable. But
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Aleksei German MI
Starring: Anastasyia Sheveleva | Chulpan Khamatova | Merab Ninidze
Bruce says: “This strange film is haunting me in spite of my not particularly enjoying the viewing experience. I do not doubt the filmmaker’s talent; he appears one to watch. The problem is the story which is off-putting mostly because
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Starring: Anna Tsuchiya | Ayaka Wilson | Koji Yakusho | Sadao Abe | Satoshi Tsumabuki
Jason says: “You could probably cut quite the deceptive trailer for PACO AND THE MAGICAL BOOK, if you chose, by concentrating on the fast-paced, animation-heavy last act. It wouldn’t be a complete misrepresentation, but it sure wouldn’t give a true
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Kirby Dick
Bruce says: “Being a huge fan of Kirby Dick’s Chlotrudis award winning documentary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, I was rather excited about Dick’s latest film OUTRAGE whose subject is the hypocrisy of gay politicians who routinely vote against
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Panna Rittikrai | Tony Jaa
Starring: Dan Chupong | Nirut Sirichanya | Sariunyu Wongkrachang | Sorapong Chatree | Tony Jaa
Jason says: “I haven’t actually run the numbers, but I suspect that martial arts action has an unusually high number of movies titled as though they were sequels but only vague connections to each other, and that’s even before considering
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Bent Hamer
Starring: Bård Owe | Espen Skjønberg | Henny Moan
Bruce says: “At the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival filmmaker Bent Hamer introduced this film by quipping ‘My producers say my films are comedies. They are not.’ To placate Mr. Hamer I shall refer to his films as ‘droll dramas’
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Terence Davies
Beth says: “This was Terence Davies’ commission for the Liverpool Cultural Group, and it’s a wonderful homage to his hometown city – in a sense it’s his MY WINNIPEG, the story of a city via the life of one of
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Gary Hustwit
Jason says: “I forgot my toothbrush when packing for my trip to Texas, and since Austin doesn’t have the massive CVS density of the greater Boston area (where you can see the next from the doorway of the one you
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Starring: Chamanun Wanwinwatsara | Jayanama Nopachai | Porntip Papanai | Wanida Termthanaporn
Michael says: “Ratanaruang is most widely known for the dreamy surreality of LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, but this film is more of a sylvan counterpart to his last film, never released in the states, PLOY. In NYMPH, the Thai
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