Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Greg Pak
Starring: Glenn Kubota | Greg Pak | James Saito | Karen Tsen Lee | Tamlyn Tomita; Wai Ching Ho; Sab Shimono | Vin Knight
Barbara says: “I think this is worth seeing. The four stories all have a connection to robots or robotics and are each focused on a strong emotion. ‘My Robot Baby’ recalls a turbulent childhood. ‘Robot Fixer’ deals with a mother
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Rémi Lange
Starring: Abdellah Taia | Karim Tarek | Sihem Benamoune
Bruce says: “In sociology, one must be interested in society. That is what Karim (Karim Tarek), a straight man living with his girlfriend Sihem (Sihem Benamoune), thinks as he chooses North African gay men as a topic for his video
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Curtiss Clayton
Starring: Aaron Standford | Agnes Bruckner | Bill Pullman | Sandra Oh
Chris says: “In this modern-day take on Verdi’s 16th century opera ‘Rigoletto.’ Rick O’Lette (Bill Pullman) is a rotten jerk of a corporate middle manager. He has an even more obnoxious boss half his age (Aaron Stanford) who unknowingly pursues
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Starring: Ivan Dobronravov | Konstantin Lavronenko | Natalya Vdovina | Vladimir Garin
Bruce says: “When a child asks the question, ‘Where did you come from,’ it usually refers to a new arrival in the family that the stork has recently delivered. In THE RETURN when Vanya, the younger of two brothers, asks
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Cédric Kahn
Starring: Carole Bouquet | Jean-Pierre Darroussin | Vincent Deniard
Bruce says: “Some movies just rub you the wrong way. RED LIGHTS did that to me. Let me outline the plot. Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), a French milquetoast of a man who works in insurance, is married to Hélène (Carole Bouquet)
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christoffer Boe
Starring: Krister Henriksson | Maria Bonnevie | Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Michael says: “Superficially, RECONSTRUCTION is a tale of two couples, and the adultery that occurs between two of them. Alex is in a pleasant relationship with Simone, and while she loves him dearly, he never seems to want to say
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Taylor Hackford
Starring: Jamie Foxx | Kerry Washington | Regina King
Janet says: “‘This film, the story of Ray Charles with Chlotrudis fave Kerry Washington as Ray’s long-suffering wife Bea, has a lot to recommend it although it’s constrained by the usual limitations of the biopic. “There is that seemingly unavoidable
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Director: Bruce LaBruce
Starring: Andreas Stich | Daniel Bätscher | Dean Monroe | Gerrit | Joeffrey | Susanne Sachße
Ron says: “The revolution is my boyfriend: Gay cinema’s rude boy Bruce LaBruce was surprised when his film THE RASPBERRY REICH was accepted for Sundance. I thought it would be a hoot to see a LaBruce film that was a
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tony McNamara
Starring: Ben Lee | Christopher Stollery | Garry McDonald | Miranda Richardson | Rose Byrne
Barbara says: “At first I thought this was going to be ‘Napoleon Dynamite Grows Up’ but it was much more. The underlying themes about the parental relationship with each other and with Placid as well as the over the top
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Dylan Kidd
Starring: Gabriel Byrne | Laura Linney | Lois Smith | Marcia Gay Harden | Paul Rudd | Topher Grace
Carolyn says: “I knew very little about this movie except that it was similar to BIRTH another movie out in theaters that I only heard a bit about. Louise, an admission director for Columbia’s School of Fine Arts, receives an
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Jack Lewis | John Greyson
Starring: Kerry Norton | Kristen Thomson | Neil Sandilands | Rouxnet Brown | Shaun Smyth | Tessa Jubber
Bruce says: “‘Tis a pity that John Greyson is not a stage director for his sensibilities are much better suited for live drama than for the screen. I would love to see him stage a major production for the ailing
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Shane Carruth
Starring: Casey Goodan | David Sullivan | Shane Carruth
Hilary says: “I think this is what my hell looks like: nerdy guys with flat voices talking in techie-speak and performing scientific experiments. “I made the choice to leave after 20 minutes rather than stay and fall asleep. Perhaps sci-fi
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Devlin
Bruce says: “At the beginning of POWER TRIP I thought I would be seeing another tale of a greedy American corporation taking advantage of citizens in the economically depressed and politically chaotic state of Georgia. That was a false assumption
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Daniel MacIvor
Starring: Daniel MacIvor | Rebecca Jenkins
Bruce says: “PAST PERFECT could easily be a two character, two act play: Then and Now. That would not be an oddity since the writer/director is also a playwright. It is fun to think about the possibility of stories presented
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Mel Gibson
Starring: Christo Jivkov | Claudia Gerini | Francesco De Vito | Hristo Shopov | James Caviezel | Luca Lionello | Maia Morgenstern | Monica Bellucci
Bob says: “Long story short: I didn’t like or appreciate anything about this movie. “Long story relatively long: I’m leaving out the anti-Semitism question (I don’t take that stuff personally, and besides, it’s all true. My uncle Moshe did it)
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Mark Brian Smith | Tony Montana
Ron says: “You’ll never work in this town again: OVERNIGHT is a documentary that follows the meteoric rise of Troy Duffy, who was given an unprecedented deal by Miramax in 1997 to direct his screenplay for THE BOONDOCK SAINTS. His
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Robert Greenwald
Barbara says: “I thought this documentary was very good. It truly makes you think about news as a business and how easy it is to manipulate what people say. A perfect example is Bill O’Reilly who has a tremendously popular
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Starring: Gul Rehman Ghorbandi | Marina Golbahari | Mohammad Arif Herati | Mohammad Nadir Khwaja | Zubaida Sahar
Michael says: “Chris and I were fortunate enough to squeeze into a sold-out preview for this film the other night, and were treated to a powerful, well-made film, the first feature-length film released from Afghanistan, and winner of this year’s
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris Kentis
Starring: Blanchard Ryan | Daniel Travis | Saul Stein
Beth says: “OPEN WATER is based on a true story, or on what the filmmakers assumed may have happened to this couple on vacation in the Bahamas who get left behind by their boat when they went out on a
Read the review...On the Run (France/Belgium; 117 min.) directed by: Lucas Belvauxstarring: Lucas Belvaux; Catherine Frot; Dominique Blanc Johanna says: “I liked ON THE RUN. I wondered about Bruno’s rage, even after all those years in prison. Could he really just
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