Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Christophe Barratier
Starring: François Berléand | Gérard Jugnot; Jean-Baptiste Maunier | Kad Merad | Marie Bunel
Michael says: “After Eric Jausseran’s ‘performance’ at the 11th Annual Chlotrudis Awards last March, I had to give Christophe Barristier’s THE CHORUS a try. Unfortunately, the little I expected from this treacly, sentimental French drama came to pass. A successful
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Don McKellar
Starring: Don McKellar | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Mark Rendall | Peter Paige
Michael says: “In what was surprisingly a disappointing film at the Festival (not because it was bad, but because of what McKellar has already produced), CHILDSTAR is the second film written and directed by Canadian talent Don McKellar after the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: André Téchiné | Catherine Deneuve | Gérard Depardieu | Gilbert Melki
Diane says: “Caught this newAndré Téchiné film at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts French Film Festival. Gerard Depardieu is a well-to-do French businessman overseeing construction in Tangiers, where, coincidentally, the love of his youth and of his life (Catherine
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Paolo Virzi
Starring: AliceTeghil | Margherita Buy | Sergio Castellitto
Michael says: “CATERINA IN THE BIG CITY is a sweet little Italian coming-of-age film about a young girl, Caterina, who moves with her parents from a small village in Italy to Rome. In school, she finds herself torn between two
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Bennett Miller
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Catherine Keener | Chris Cooper | Clifton Collins Jr. | Philip Seymour Hoffman
Michael says: “If I were casting the role of Truman Capote, author of that seminal work of non-fiction, In Cold Blood, Philip Seymour Hoffman is not the first name that would have popped into my head. Fortunately, three high school
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Starring: Masato Hagiwara | Tadanobu Asano | Yo Hitoto
Bruce says: “CAFÉ LUMIÈRE is Hou Hsaio-hsien’s tribute to Yasujiro Ozu, the Japanese master whose films are noted for their breathtaking beauty and their gentle narrative of everyday life. Ozu’s great attentions to the details of the environment his characters
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Connie Nielsen | Nikolaj Lie Kaas | Sarah Juel Werner | Ulrich Thomsen
Michael says: “Susanne Bier made a splash among Chlotrudis members with 2002’s OPEN HEARTS. In BROTHERS she creates a situation involving Michael (Ulrich Thomsen), a major in the Danish army who is being sent to Afghanistan as part of a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Rodney Evans
Starring: Anthony Mackie | Larry Gilliard Jr. | Roger Robinson
Ron says: “BROTHER TO BROTHER is a compelling look at the Harlem Renaissance as seen through the eyes of Bruce Nugent, a writer and painter of the era, now living in a homeless shelter in New York. Bruce befriends Perry
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Bill Murray | Chloe Sevigny | Frances Conroy | Jeffrey Wright | Jessica Lange | Julie Delpy | Sharon Stone | Tilda Swinton
Chris says: “In Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes-winning film, Bill Murray plays Don Johnston, a weathered, aging lothario and terminal bachelor forever explaining to bemused people that his last name is Johnston with a ‘T.’ Shortly after his latest flame, Sherry (Julie
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Ana Faris | Anne Hathaway | Heath Ledger | Jake Gyllenhaal | Kate Mara | Linda Cardellini | Michelle Williams | Randy Quaid
Shannon says: “I don’t really have time to give this review the attention it deserves, but I saw BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN at the closing night of the Denver International Film Festival on Saturday. I woke up Sunday morning with the film
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Jô Odagirin Tadanobu Asanon | Sayuri Oyamada | Takashi Sasanoi | Tatsuya Fuji
Diane says: “Can’t say I really liked BRIGHT FUTURE (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, director), a coolly presented surrealist story of two disaffected youth whose family ties are broken–to say nothing of the jellyfish. The gang of purposeful-seeming yet directionless kids in the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Starring: Aishwarya Rai | Anupam Kher | Daniel Gillies | Martin Henderson | Nadira Babbar | Naveen Andrews
Michael says: “Two days later, and BRIDE AND PREJUDICE is pretty disappointing. While I wasn’t expecting much more than some sweet, fluffy, Bollywood-inspired fun, there was very little that has lasted these couple of days (except maybe the image of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Neil Jordan
Starring: Brendan Gleeson | Cillian Murphy | Liam Neeson | Ruth Negga | Stephen Rea
Hilary says: “Neil Jordan’s latest film BREAKFAST ON PLUTO is anchored by an excellent performance by Cillian Murphy as Patrick ‘Kitten’ Braden. Kitten’s mission in life is to leave life in his sleepy Irish village behind and go in search
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Ross Kauffman | Zana Briski
Diane says: “Too soon, too soon! Janet and I were not quite ready to relive the overwhelming traffic and highly-developed bureaucracy of India so soon after our visit in December. “Zana Briski is a British photographer who has been living
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ahmet Ulucay
Starring: Gülayse Erkoc | Ismail Hakki Taslak | Kadir Kaymaz
Bruce says: “At the Tribeca Film Festival the audience was told by one of the festival directors that BOATS OUT OF WATERMELON RINDS was chosen because it speaks in an original voice. I would certainly not introduce the film in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Starring: Adriana Asti | Alessio Boni | Luigi Lo Cascio
Chris says: “Originally produced for (but never shown on) Italian television, director Marco Tullio Giordana’s six hour miniseries has a cinematic sweep and scope makes it translate successfully as a theatrical release. “Split into three-hour halves, the first part opens
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Barlen Pyamootoo
Starring: Davidsen Kamanah | Jérôme Boulle | Kristeven Mootien
Bruce says: “BENARES is the first film from novelist Barlen Pyamootoo who has lived and studied in France. It is also the first film ever from the country of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.4
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Aure Atika | Emanuelle Devos | Gilles Cohen | Jonathan Zaccaï | Niels Arestrup | Romain Duris
Chris says: “American remakes of French films are usually trite, dumbed-down abominations, so does it follow that a French remake of an American film should have the opposite effect? I can’t fully say—I haven’t seen the original, James Toback’s FINGERS
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Miguel Albaladejo
Starring: David Castillo | Empar Ferrer | José Luis García Pérez
Michael says: “Many of you know how much I tend to dislike American films that tackle gay subject matter. I find that other countries tend to make better films dealing with the same subject matter (although I tend to think
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Heidi Ewing | Rachel Grady
Bruce says: “Twenty African-American boys, age 12, are selected each year to attend a two year program in Kenya. The Baraka School was built buy money from The Abel Foundation in Baltimore as an experiment to save some of Baltimore’s
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