Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Blaine Thurier
Starring: Ali Liebert | Ben Cotton | Benjamin Ayres | Craig Anderson | Paul Anthony | Sarah Edmondson | Sarah Lind
Thom says: “This was far and away the best Canadian film I saw at TIFF. A very black comedy featuring extraordinarily peculiar characters, I was hooked on this from the get-go. Thurier made quite the impression with his earlier film
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Hasegawa-Overacker | Tom Donahue
Bruce says: “Having the pleasure of seeing slick documentaries such as MAN ON WIRE, PROTAGONIST, and SHUT UP AND SING one tends to be somewhat spoiled by their detailed scripting and/or high production values. It is important to keep in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Stephen Soderbergh
Starring: Benicio Del Toro | Catalina Sandino Moreno | Demián Bichir | Franka Potente | Rodrigo Santoro
Jason says: “As Part One did, CHE: PART TWO opens with a geography lesson, this time showing us the landlocked nation of Bolivia. We’re also given a text scroll telling us that Che Guevera suddenly disappeared from Cuba in the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ryûichi Honda
Starring: Chiaki Kuriyama | Kenti Kashiwabara | Massao Kigawa | Muneo Okochi | Shun Masamiya
Jason says: “One of the signs of a particularly good comedy – or any sort of movie, really – is when there are funny or interesting things happening in the corners; stuff that the movie doesn’t need but which make
Read the review...Secret of the Grain (Czech Republic / France / Germany; 103 min.) directed by: Abdel Kechiche starring: Habib Boufares; Hafsia Herzi; Farida Benkhetache; Abdelhamide Aktouche; Bouraouïa Marzouk Beth Caldwell says: “Great film. Slow, quiet sequences of scenes, but this technique
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Paul Solet
Starring: Gabrielle Rose | Jordan Ladd | Malcolm Stewart | Samantha Ferris | Stephen Park
Jason says: “When a child is born in a fantastical serial, whether it be television, comics, or movie sequels, there is almost inevitably some plot twist that ages him/her rapidly, or jumps the audience forward in time, or otherwise presents
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ramen Bahrani
Starring: Diana Franco Galindo | Lane 'Roc' Williams | Mamadou Lam | Red West | Souleymane Sy Savane
Diane says: “I’m not as crazy about GOODBYE SOLO as the reviewers have been. Let’s call it THE VISITOR meets A TASTE OF CHERRY–a suicidal middle-aged white American man is thrown into the lively world of a Senegalese cab driver.
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jeff Stilson
Michael says: “The best documentaries entertain and educate. It’s always great fun to watch an entertaining movie, but it’s even better to have fun and learn something too! Chris Rock knows this and he does a terrific job spinning a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Matteo Garrone
Starring: Gianfelice Imparato | Italo Renda | Marco Macor | Salvatore Abruzzese | Salvatore Cantalupo | Salvatore Ruocco | Simone Sacchettino | Siro Petrone | Vincenzo Altamura | Vincenzo Fabricino
Bruce says: “With all the hype over GOMORRAH, I expected one extreme or another. To my surprise it was a decent, slice-of-life film that provides some insight into the Cammora, Naples’ equivalent of the Mafia. Naples has become a world
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ho Choi
Starring: Kwang-ho Hong | Min-a Shin | Min-cheol Choi | Seung-woo Cho | Seung-wu Cha
Jason says: “What does a classic rock & roll movie need? A new sound. Rebellion against authority. Strife within the band. A girl. Clubs. Maybe a writer. And, of course, music that rocks, even if a generation has passed since
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Pascal-Alex Vincent
Starring: Alexandre Carril | Anaïs Demoustier | Patrick Hauthier | Victor Carril
Bruce says: “Many famous films have twins as characters: HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, GONE WITH THE WIND, GIANT but they remain just a statement of fact or a plot adjunct, not an exploration of a phenomenon.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Alexandre Steiger | Fabrice Luchini | Gilles Cohen | Jeanne Balibar | Roschdy Zem | Stéphane Audran
Jeff says: “**Slight spoilers** “A high-powered, middle-aged Parisian lawyer (Fabrice Luchini) comes to Monaco to defend an older woman against charges that she murdered her much younger Russian lover. He’s thrown into full-on mid-life crisis mode when a free-spirited (or
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mai Iskander
Jason says: “Mai Iskander has made a fine documentary in GARBAGE DREAMS, the type that is about people first, and does a fine job of being issue-oriented without hammering away at buzzwords like ‘globalizatioN.’ For all that, I must admit
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: José Padilha
Bruce says: “Garapa is a mixture of sugar and water, heated so that the sugar dissolves thoroughly. Sadly, it is the main source of nourishment for many children in South America and Africa, children whose parents cannot find jobs to
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Gerald Peary
Michael says: “FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM – What a joy to attend the New England premiere of friend and long-time Chlotrudis supporters Gerry Peary and Amy Geller’s film, FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES:
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Vladimir Kott
Starring: Aleksei Kravchenko | Alexandr Golubkov | Alexandra Tyuftey | Olga Lapshina
Bruce says: “Fedor (Aleksei Kravchenko) is a happy man. He and his partner drive large trucks from town to town, drinking vodka and picking up women. Fedor connects with various women everywhere he goes but he also appreciates the occasional
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen | Stine Stengade | Thure Lindhardt
Beth Curran says: “Set in Denmark during its WWII occupation, the film tells the story of two famous Danish resistance fighters, Flame and Citron, and tells it with eyes open and no holds barred, which has made it quite a
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Leonid Prudovsky
Starring: Dana Glozman | Dror Keren | Efim Gelman | Helena Yaralova | Ohad Gil | Vladimir Friedman | Yoram Toledano
Michael says: “A well-acted, mature romantic comedy is hard to come by in this day and age, and this Israeli film by a Russian director fits the bill very well. Yigal drives a taxi, and remains good friends with his
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lucia Puenzo
Starring: Arnaldo André | Carlos Bardem | Inés Efron | Julián Doregger | Mariela Vitale | Pep Munné | Sandra Guida
Bruce says: “**Spoilers** “THE FISH CHILD is taboo director Lucia Puenzo’s follow-up to the remarkable XXY. Based on her own novel, the multilayered story unfolds with flashbacks through different periods of time, creating a jigsaw effect. The storyline is complex
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Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Yosuke Fujita
Starring: Yoshino Kimura | Yoshinori Okada | YosiYosi Arakawa
Jason says: “FINE, TOTALLY FINE has one of the highest quirk-to-story ratios ever recorded in a feature-length motion picture. It is, admittedly, though to measure, as both the plot and the digressions from it are so wispy that it’s almost
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