Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yesim Ustaoglu
Starring: Derya Alabora | Onur Ünsal | Osman Sonant | Ovül Avkiran | Tsilla Chelton
Bruce says: “Nesrin’s husband thinks she is frigid. Nesrin’s son Murat is truant and so detached from reality he seems suicidal. He thinks his mother is controlling. Nesrin’s sister Güzin, a professional single woman, has a destructive relationship going. Their
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Bruce La Bruce
Starring: Guido Sommer | Jey Crisfar | Katharina Klewinghaus | Marcel Shlutt | Susanne Sachße
Scot says: “Yeah, that’s the title, semicolon and all. It’s writer/director (sometimes actor) Bruce LaBruce’s latest effort and it’s not entirely terrible. I quite liked some of it, in fact, but overall, I think it’s a ‘meh.’ “The premise is
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Aure Atika | Bérénice Bejo | Jean Dujardin | Philippe Lefebvre
Jason says: “Before CASINO ROYALE was made into a big, modern movie with Daniel Craig, there were persistent rumors about Quentin Tarantino wanting to take a crack at it, but having it take place in the Cold War period when
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring: Belén Rueda | Fernando Cayo | Mabel Rivera | Montserrat Carulla | Roger Príncep
Jason says: “This was going to be a negative review; I came out deflated, and if I’d written this right away, that probably would have been the theme. There is a great deal about this film that’s good, though, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Margaret Brown
Bruce says: “THE ORDER OF MYTHS was recommend to me by fellow Chlotrudis member Rob Jerome, an award-winning photographer whose specialty is photographing festivals and carnivals around the world. The dual Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras celebrations – one black (MAMGA),
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Nina Davenport
Michael says: “When Liev Schreiber saw an MTV profile shortly after the fall of Baghdad about Muthana, a young Iraqi who yearned to be a filmmaker, he was touched by the challenges the charismatic young man faced. Schreiber was about
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Director: Martin McGowan
Starring: Campbell Scott | Emm Gryner | Joshua Jackson | Liane Balaban
Marilyn says: “On Wednesday, we took whatever we could which turned out not to be so bad. We saw a small film that told a sweet and poignant story. ONE WEEK is a Canadian film and a love poem to
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Director: Thomas Mignone
Starring: Brittany Snow | Clayne Crawford | Josh Janowicz | Shanna Collins | Stephen Sowan
Michael says: “Chlotrudis member and filmmaker Thomas Mignone tackles some pretty tough subject matter in his debut feature, ON THE DOLL. His multi-storylined film features young people working in the sex trade in L.A. and Mignone manages to develop the
Read the review...The New Year Parade (USA; 85 min.) directed by: Tom Quinn starring:Paul Blackway; Andrew Conway; Irene Longshore; Greg Lyons; MaryAnn McDonald; Jennifer Welsh Bruce says: “Working from a beautifully crafted script, Tom Quinn has made a lovely film, the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mike E. Kaplan
Bruce says: “Although NEVER APOLOGIZE has a documentary label, it is a screen adaptation of Malcolm McDowell’s one-man show that originated on stage. Wearing a tuxedo jacket, an open white shirt and baggy jeans, McDowell, a raconteur par excellence, enthralls
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Chad R. Davis | David Strathairn | Jude Law | Natalie Portman | Norah Jones
Chadd says: “As I discussed my love of indie and foreign film to a woman I recently met (coincidentally, the same woman who accompanied me to see this film), I described that the process of viewing most foreign films is
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.6
Director: Reginald Harkema
Starring: Don McKellar | Nadia Litz | Tracy Wright
Beth says: “This film is among other things, an ode to Toronto by Torontonians – and it’s a small world in Canadian cinema circles! Don McKellar, Tracy Wright and Nadia Litz play revolutionaries past and present living on the edge
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Harmony Korine
Starring: Denis Lavant | Diego Luna | James Fox | Richard Strange | Samantha Morton | Werner Herzog
Jason says: “MISTER LONELY invites the audience to ponder many philosophical questions. What is the purpose of a miracle? Is it a blessing or a curse to find oneself among people who share your passions completely? Can you choose your
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Alison Pill | Denis O’Hare | Diego Luna | Emile Hirsch | James Franco | Josh Brolin | Sean Penn | Stephen Spinella | Victor Garber
Bruce says: “Many might call MILK Gus Van Sant’s return to content from his concentration on form in recent films such as GERRY, ELEPHANT, LAST DAYS and PARANOID PARK. The one thing that MILK does have in common with the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ji-hun Kim
Starring: Ahn Sung-kee | Kim Sang-kyung | Lee Jun-ki | Lee Yo-won
Jason says: “I don’t know if mentioning the date of May 18th even without including a year has the same immediate, nearly-universal effect on South Koreans that bringing up September 11th has on Americans, but it must strike a chord
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ira Sachs
Starring: Chris Cooper | Patricia Clarkson | Pierce Brosnan | Rachel McAdams
Michael says: “Ira Sachs (FORTY SHADES OF BLUE) leaves his tested theme of outsiders living in the modern-day South and enters 1950s, northwestern suburbia to look at the domestic difficulties of marriage in MARRIED LIFE. The talented acting pair of
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: James Marsh
Chris says: “In 1974, Philippe Petit, an impish, excitable young Frenchman did an impossible thing—he managed to string a tightrope across the roofs of the World Trade Center twin towers and walk on it (although ‘dancing’ seems a more fitting
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Director: Nicholas Fackler
Starring: Adam Scott | Elizabeth Banks | Ellen Burstyn | Martin Landau
Marilyn says: “On Wednesday we saw a sweet, poignant film called LOVELY, STILL, starring Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau. It is a love story about a couple dealing with the separation caused by Alzheimer’s. It is touching and beautiful. Landau
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Christophe Honoré
Starring: Chiara Mastrioanni | Clothilde Hesme | GrégoireLeprince-Ringuet | LouisGarrel | Ludivine Sagnier
Bruce says: “This film is the type that haunts one’s memory long after seeing it. Audacious and totally unconventional, LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR is an UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG without Michel Legrand. Almost half of the film is sung; at the most
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Amei Wallach | Marion Cajori
Bruce says: “Films about artists often fall short because the filmmaker does not know how to balance the personal life of the artist with the product he or she has created. The two universes seem not to even intersect in
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