Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Mark Lebenon
Starring: Malcolm Ferreira | Nicole Smart | Roland Gaspar | Shaun Myburg
Jason says: “SLAM-BANG is, as the director pointed out several times during the introduction and Q&A, a notable movie for being a bit of pulp action made independently in South Africa. It is apparently very difficult to get a film
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Anthony Fabian
Starring: Alice Krige | Ella Ramangwane | Sam Neill | Sophie Okonedo | Tony Kgoroge
Jason says: “The laws of nature and the laws of man are almost entirely different beasts. The former are relatively few, and constant, but allow for great complexity and variety; they say what can happen. The latter multiply continually, but
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Nina Paley
Starring: Debargo Sanval | Pooja Kumar | Reena Shah | Sanjiv Jhaveri
Jason says: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity. SITA SINGS THE BLUES is an extraordinary independent animated film, and while those are far from a dime a dozen, they have a tough time getting distribution and attention. Even with
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Tom Ford
Starring: Colin Firth | Jon Kortajarena | Julianne Moore | Matthew Goode | Nicholas Hoult
Michael says: “I’m glad I took the time to see this film a second time after seeing it in September in Toronto because I enjoyed it much more the second time allowing the minor issues that bothered me upon first
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.6
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Starring: Diana Garcia | Edgar Flores | Giovanni Florido | Kristian Ferrer | Paulina Gaitan
Michael says: “Cary Fukunaga’s SIN NOMBRE won the best direction and best cinematography awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The debut features a pair of excellent performances in the lead roles, Paulina Gaitain and Edgar Flores, a young Honduran
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Ismail Necmi
Starring: Herold; Petra Woschniak
Thom says: “What in the name of all that’s HOLY was this? A German artist who has lived in Turkey for years returns to Germany to take care of her dying sister. She’s endlessly interviewed with the most pretentious queries
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Tony Stone
Starring: Clare Amory | Fiore Tedesco | Tony Stone
Jason says: “Believe it or not, SEVERED WAYS was one of the movies I was initially fairly excited about when the IFFB announced their roster of films. How many Viking movies do you get at the typical independent film festival,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Aaron Wolf | Fred Melamed | Michael Stuhlbarg | Richard Kind | Sari Lenrick
Diane says: “I never realized how much the Coens had in common with David Lynch. Watching A SERIOUS MAN, I was strongly reminded of the look of BLUE VELVET (oh, because they both start with an ear? but also the
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Brillante Mendoza
Starring: Coco Martin | Dan Alvaro | Gina Pareño | Jacklyn Jose | Julio Diaz | Kristoffer King
Bruce says: “Brillante Mendoza is rapidly becoming one of my favorite living directors. Mendoza has cleverly branded his version of social realism. His Filipino kitchen sink style and hand-held camerawork are not for everyone but they are essential components in
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Martin Provost
Starring: Anne Bennent | Geneviève Mnich | Nico Rogner | Ulrich Tukur | Yolande Moreau
Bruce says: “Martin Provost’s SÉRAPHINE is an elegiac reflection on the life of a working class woman who was a gifted art naïf painter. Séraphine Louis is her full name although in the art world she is known as Séraphine
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: R. J. Cutler
Diane says: “Leafing through the September 2007 issue of Vogue is a big job. I’m on page 208 and my arms are already tired, with 632 pages to go. The table of contents appears after 145 pages of ads. Now
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Starring: Abdelhamid Aktouche | Alice Houri | Farida Benkhetache | Habib Boufares | Hafsia Herzi
Jason says: “THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN is filled with things that make for great movies and great drama – opening a new restaurant, conflict between new and old families after divorce, being an ethnic minority, adultery, and cooking delicious
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yousry Nasrallah
Starring: Hassan El Raddad | Mahmoud Hemida | Mona Zaki | Nahed El Sebaï
Bruce says: “SCHEHERAZADE: TELL ME A STORY weaves the tales of women who, in order to survive, have to tell a story. From the opening credits featuring bright red tomatoes on a black counter top, director Yousry Nasrallah forces to
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Annti-Jussi Annila
Starring: Kari Ketonen | Rain Tolk | Sonja Petäjäjärvi | Tommi Eronen | Viktor Klimenko | Ville Virtanen
Michael says: “This Finnish horror story touches on so many themes that it threatens to overwhelm, but somehow, writer Iiro Küttner manages to weave them all together and along with director Antti-Jussi Annila manages to create an elegant monster movie
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Matias Armand Jordal
Starring: Evy Kasseth Røsten | Fridtjov Såheim | Jonathan Espolin | Mona Grenne | Odin Waage
Thom says: “This dreary, little entry from Norway was incredibly frustrating. A ‘happy’ family is torn asunder when the mother is killed by a car. The father and son are both so dreadfully unlikable that I had no interest at
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Michelle Esrick
Jason says: “Can I be honest about something? I can’t warm up to hippies, or counterculture. In the abstract, I am all for a philosophy of living your life any way you want so long as you don’t hurt anyone
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Hun Jang
Starring: Chang-seok Ko | Ji-Hwan Kang | Ji-seob So | Ji-sub So | Su-hyeon Hong
Jason says: “I’ve got to be honest here… I kind of wanted a different ending on this. Part of what’s so much fun about Korean movies is that they don’t seem obligated to take even familiar genre films in the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Charlize Theron | Guy Pearce | Kodi Smit-McPhee | Molly Parker | Robert Duvall | Viggo Mortenson
Diane says: “Forgive me, I can only review this as movie vs. book. I read the book once, and listened to the audiobook three times. I am awed by Cormac McCarthy’s language in The Road. ‘The cold relentless circling of
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Brett Gaylor
Jason says: “I take no joy in disliking RiP: A REMIX MANIFESTO. I agree with many of its principles; I’ve done plenty of highly-derivative works for fun in my time and think U.S. copyright law is out of control. But,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.6
Director: Götz Spielmann
Starring: Andreas Lust | Irina Potapenko | Johannes Krisch | Johannes Thanheiser | Ursula Strauss
Jason says: “The Best Foreign Language Film Oscar often drives film nuts crazy. The countries’ film boards don’t submit the movie we consider their nation’s masterpiece for the year, and then at every cut (short list, nominees, winner) we get
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