Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Amira Casar | Rocco Siffredi
Bruce says: “It is hard to say whether Catherine Breillat knows what she is doing or not. Her message is, I think, both blatant and encrypted. For a while I thought I was watching a feminist hate poem. Slowly my
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Louis Schwartzberg
Peg says: “Director Louis Schwartzberg was once employed by one of the world’s largest film-stock libraries. That may explain why many of the images in this film (more a collection of portraits than a documentary) are familiar: the Bandaloop dance
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Dominique Blanc | François Morel | Gilbert Melki | Ornella Muti | Valérie Mairesse
Barbara says: “I really liked this movie and after seeing it was able to look back at ON THE RUN and think better of it. After seeing ON THE RUN Mary, Tim and I all sort of went ‘Huh?’ Of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Duncan Roy
Starring: Diana Quick | George Asprey | Lindsey Coulson | Matthew Leitch
Bruce says: “This film is partially autobiographical, for the director, Duncan Roy, actually served a prison sentence for impersonating the son of an aristocrat. In AKA, the central character, an eighteen year old working class boy, goes by the name
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jonathan Demme
Michael says: “THE AGRONOMIST is a fascinating documentary by Jonathan Demme, examining the life of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. More of a portrait (as Ned so adeptly noted) than a documentary, Demme’s film traces Dominique’s
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Bernard Mazzinghi | Catherine Frot | Dominique Blanc | Gilbert Melki | Ornella Muti
Barbara says: “After much discussion Mary and I both agreed that this was the best made film of the trilogy but we enjoyed AN AMAZING COUPLE the most. After seeing AN AMAZING COUPLE I didn’t think I could ever like
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Gary Winick
Starring: Andy Serkis | Crista B. Allen | Jennifer Garner | Judy Greer | Mark Ruffalo | Sean Marquette
Peg says: “From director Gary Winick (TADPOLE) and writing team Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith (WHAT WOMEN WANT) comes a bubbly remake of BIG for women who buy Cosmo for the articles. Suburban New Jersey, 1987: Jenna Rink (Crista B.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Eytan Fox
Starring: Assi Cohen | Ohad Knoller | Yehuda Levi
Michael says: “YOSSI AND JAGGER is a film with a deceptively simple story that comments on several issues in just over an hour. Simply put, this film deals with the love story between two male soldiers in the Israeli Defense
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Austin Chick
Starring: Kathleen Robertson | Mark Ruffalo | Maya Stange | Patra Wright
Phred says: “Occasionally when you leave a movie theater, you get a feeling of tremendous satisfaction. That’s the case for me with XX/XY. “The film opens with a young man running into the same beautiful girl twice, the second time
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Alan Cumming | Anna Paquin | Brian Cox | Famke Janssen | Halle Berry | Hugh Jackman | Ian McKellen | James Marsters | Patrick Stewart | Rebecca Romijn
Howard says: “Here we are again at the beginning of another summer season of blockbusters and, to start it all off, Hollywood has delivered unto us X2 (or X-MEN 2 if you prefer). And a little blessing it is. Especially
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Enayatullah | Hiddayatullah | Imran Paracha | Jamal Udin Torabi
Bruce says: “Michael Winterbottom is one of the most versatile and prolific directors around. Although he had done much TV work and some feature films that had not found general release, he garnered a cult following with his BUTTERFLY KISS
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: James Cox
Starring: Carrie Fisher | Christina Applegate | Dylan McDermott | Eric Bogosian | Josh Lucas | Kate Bosworth | Lisa Kudrow | Val Kilmer
Hilary says: “This bio-pic of John ‘Johnny Wadd’ Holmes will seem familiar to fans of BOOGIE NIGHTS, as the character of Dirk Diggler was based on Holmes. However, WONDERLAND suffers by comparison. The soundtrack and cinematography are great, the cast
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Jacques Cluzaud | Michel Debats
Esmé says: “My second favorite movie of the year was a documentary. After I watched it, I drove to Western Mass in the morning. Every flock of flying birds made me want to be up in the sky with them,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Niki Caro
Starring: Cliff Curtis | Grant Roa | Keisha Castle-Hughes | Rawiri Paratene | Vicky Haughton
Michael says: “This film from New Zealand has been winning awards at film festivals the world over, and it’s much-anticipated release comes to Boston this weekend. I had been looking forward to it since it won the Audience Award in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Barry Barnes | Brenda Fricker | Cate Blanchett | Ciarán Hinds | Colin Farrell | Don Wycherley | Gerard McSorley
Bruce says: “It was a fluke that I saw VERONICA GUERIN immediately after seeing SHATTERED GLASS – two films about journalism based on true stories. Within a few hours I had a glimpse of two journalistic extremes. Veronica Guerin was
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Len Wiseman
Starring: Bill Nighy | Kate Beckinsale | Michael Sheen | Scott Speedman | Shane Brolly
Howard says: “Did you know there has been a war going on for hundreds of years? And it all started because the upper class and lower class dared to fall in love and have an abomination for a baby? Master
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Laurie Kahn-Leavitt
Diane says: “I expected this to be a campy kind of thing, but it surprised by taking on a personal story with a compelling dramatic arc. Director interviewed 300 Tupperware sales people, and made great choices with the five or
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.8 cats | 4.9
Director: Sylvain Chomet
Starring: Dirk Denoyelle | Jean-Claude Donda | Michel Robin | Monica Viegas
Esmé says: “My favorite movie of the year is a cartoon. I love Granny, Bruno, the Triplets and the music! After I left the theater, every industrial noise, clank or whistle sounded like music to me. (A little grandmother and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Miles Swain
Starring: Alexis Arquette | Jill St. John | Larry Sullivan | Sirena Irwin | Steve Braun
Laura says: “Springboarding from an urban legend about a gay couple turned away by an airline because one of them was ill, writer/director Miles Swain has crafted an extremely likable gay love story set against the tumultuous times of the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Bill Murray | Giovanni Ribisi | Scarlett Johansson
Bob G. says: “With LOST IN TRANSLATION, Sofia Coppola neatly captures the slightly Twilight Zone’ish feeling of being out of touch with everything and everyone around you. Yet she does so with such unassuming ease and good humor that you
Read the review...