Everyone Else (USA; 108 min.) directed by: Maren Ade starring: Birgit Minichmayr; Lars Eidinger; Hans-Jochen Wagner; Nicole Marischka; Mira Partecke Scot says: “Just watched the German film EVERYONE ELSE, which I quite enjoyed. My concise summary of the film is
Read the review...Enjoy Poverty (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Renzo Martens
Diane says: “Looking for a new perspective on global poverty? You’ll enjoy Dutch artist Renzo Martens’ provocative forays into World Bank meetings, UNHCR camps (asking a camp director, ‘If someone wants a shelter, does it -have- to have a logo
Read the review...Robot (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: S. Shankar
Starring: Aishwarya Rai | Danny Denzongpa | Delhi Kumar | Karunas | Rajnikanth | Santhanam
Jason says: “ENDHIRAN is long, uneven, and like many films that attempt to be all things to all people, frequently comes off as a muddled, drawn-out mess. However, the thing about the Indian style of filmmaking – which seems to
Read the review...The Eclipse (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Conor McPherson
Starring: Aiden Quinn | Cirián Hinds | Iben Hjejle | Jim Norton
Bruce says: “Were it not for a career-defining performance by Cirián Hinds THE ECLIPSE might not find much of an audience. While it is a ghost story and it is scary at times, it is lacking in cult potential largely
Read the review...Echoes of the Rainbow (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alex Law
Starring: Aarif Lee | Buzz Chung | Evelyn Choi | Paul Chun | Sandra Ng Kwan Yue | Simon Yam
Jason says: “Many filmmakers produce a movie like ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW at some point in their careers. It’s an autobiographical story set in the place and time of the writer/director’s youth, and though I’m not sure whether it’s actually
Read the review...Easy A (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Will Gluck
Starring: Amanda Bynes | Dan Byrd | Emma Stone | Patricia Clarkson | Penn Badgley | Thomas Haden Church
Thom says: “I’m a fan of the teen genre but, let’s face it, can anything be done to make it fresh and new? Heaven knows this isn’t that movie. It most resembles MEAN GIRLS, but it’s nowhere as good. There
Read the review...Down Terrace (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ben Wheatley
Starring: David Schaal | Julia Deakin | Kerry Peacock | Robert Hill | Robin Hill | Tony Way
Jason says: “A lot of gangster movies want you to know that they aren’t just about crime, but about family. You can’t miss it, they’re so formal and insistent that it becomes overbearing. DOWN TERRACE, while it has other flaws,
Read the review...Dogtooth (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Aggeliki Papoulia | Christos Stergioglou | Hristos Passalis | Mary Tsoni | Michelle Valley
Bruce says: “Dark comedy either grabs you or keeps you at arm’s length. Fortunately DOGTOOTH is the type of film that is intriguing from the get go. In an early scene a mother (Michelle Valley) is giving her three children
Read the review...My Dog Tulip (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Fierlinger | Sandra Fierlinger
Starring: Brian Murray | Christopher Plummer | Isabella Rossellini | Lynn Redgrave | Peter Gerety
Beth Caldwell says: “For some reason, I was the only one of the movie group who really liked this film. Maybe it’s because I’m a dog lover. But, I really liked the narrative style. I loved the drawings (animation within animation)
Read the review...District 13 – Ultimatum (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Patrick Alessandrin
Starring: Cyril Raffaelli | Daniel Duval | David Belle | Elodie Yung | MC Jean Gab'1 | Philippe Torreton
Jason says: “I hate to be a scold about such things, but I saw DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM back-to-back with FROM PARIS WITH LOVE (well, back-to-back with time to walk from one theater to another). Both came from Luc Besson’s action-movie
Read the review...The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: J Blakeson
Starring: Eddie Marsan | Gemma Arterton | Martin Compston
Thom says: “This fun caper film features the kidnap of a woman who is the daughter of a very powerful man, by two fellows that appear to have a very well-thought-out plan that they execute to a certain perfection. But,
Read the review...The Death of Alice Blue (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Park Bench
Starring: Alex Appel | Barbara Radecki | Gordon Currie | Kris Holden-Ried | Megan Fahlenbock | Park Bench
Jason says: “A couple days after watching it and turning it over in my mind, I can’t decide whether THE DEATH OF ALICE BLUE is a sloppy example of vampire soap opera melodrama or a dead-on parody of such things.
Read the review...Daddy Longlegs (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ben Safdie | Joshua Safdie
Starring: Alex Greenblatt | Dakota O'Hara | Eleonore Hendricks | Frey Ranaldo | Ronald Bronstein | Sage Ranaldo | Sean Price Williams | Victor Puccio
Chris says: “With their first two features, filmmakers/brothers Josh and Benny Safdie already demonstrate a knack for designating reasonably unsympathetic characters as their protagonists: THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED followed an unrepentant kleptomaniac, while DADDY LONGLEGS offers up Lenny (Ronald
Read the review...Cummings Farm (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Drazek
Starring: Adam Busch | Aimee-Lynn Chadwick | Edrick Browne | Jordan Kessler | Laura Silverman
Jason says: “I admit it – when I opened up the IMDB page for CUMMINGS FARM for reference while writing this review, I was kind of shocked to go straight to the film page, rather than a list of this
Read the review...Creation (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Jon Amiel
Starring: Jennifer Connelly | Jeremy Northam | Martha West | Paul Bettany | Toby Jones | Zak Davies
Thom says: “How this film opened TIFF is beyond all understanding for it failed on so many levels. There really wasn’t even much pleasure in seeing Bettany play against his real life wife Connelly as Charles Darwin & his wife
Read the review...Cracks (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jordan Scott
Starring: Adele McCann | Ellie Nunn | Eva Green | Imogen Poots | Juno Temple | Maria Valverde
Chris says: “The arrival of an aristocratic Spaniard student upsets the delicate hierarchy of an elite, remote, all-female 1930s British boarding school. Eva Green stars as a flamboyant, idealistic, controlling teacher. A slightly overcooked directorial debut from Jordan Scott (daughter
Read the review...Colony (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Carter Gunn | Ross McDonnell
Michael says: “I was very excited to see COLONY, which was reportedly about honeybees. In fact, while honeybees drive the story, COLONY is actually about beekeepers, the economics of bees, and colony collapse disorder (CCD), a syndrome that is causing
Read the review...City Island (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Starring: Andy Garcia | Dominik García-Lorido | Emily Mortimer | Ezra Miller | Julianna Margulies | Steven Strait
TC says: “The title locale is a fishing village on an island in the middle of the Bronx, where corrections officer Vince Rizzo has lived almost all his life. Now Vince is the head of a family including a bored
Read the review...Chloe (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Amanda Seyfried | Julianne Moore | Liam Neeson | Max Thieriot | Nina Dobrey
Bruce says: “CHLOE is a reworking of Anne Fontaine’s 2003 French film NATHALIE which starred Fanny Ardant, Gérard Depardieu and Emanuelle Béart. And CHLOE is one of the rare films that is more inspired than its antecedent. The plot is
Read the review...Children of Invention (2010)
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tze Chun
Starring: Cindy Cheung | Crystal Chiu | Frank Pando | Kieran Campion | Michael Chen | Stephen Gevedon
Jason says: “I am certain that there is no shortage of bad independent films which focus on kids; after all, there are plenty in the mainstream. Having to contend with boutique cinema and festival programmers looking to please grown-up audiences
Read the review...