Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Lorene Machado
Michael says: “This follow-up concert film to her terrific I’M THE ONE THAT I WANT, is more outrageous and funny… but a little less well put together. Obviously, if you like Cho, you’ll enjoy her films, if you don’t… stay
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Diane Kurys
Starring: Benoît Magimel | Juliette Binoche | Robin Renucci | Stefano Dionisi
Laura says: “In 1830’s Paris, an environment of rich in artistry and hedonism, George Sand (Juliette Binoche, CHOCOLAT) gives a public reading of her second novel, ‘Lelia,’ declaring that it is easier for a man to accuse a woman of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Finn Taylor
Starring: Brad Hunt | Lindsay Crouse | Liz Phair | Robin Tunney | Tim Blake Nelson
Hilary says: “Sad to say there have been few bright spots as I’ve been slogging through my end-of-year viewing. However, when I noticed that there weren’t any posted reviews on CHERISH I wanted to put my two cents in. “CHERISH
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gillian Armstrong
Starring: Billy Crudup | Cate Blanchett | James Fleet | Michael Gambon | Rupert Penry-Jones
Laura says: “While CHARLOTTE GRAY can be an infuriating film at times, with its heroine who not once, but twice, travels a great distance on behalf of a man who may not be committed to her or even alive, it
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.6
Director: Michael Moore
Greg says: “Em and I saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival and it got like a 10 minute standing ovation after it screened. It’s more in-depth and serious than his other films, as it tackles the perplexing and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Daniel Gold | Judith B. Helfand
Laura says: “When Judy Helfand’s parents had her childhood home sided with blue vinyl, she was determined to find a cost-effective, more environmentally friendly, alternative. Judy and her co-director Daniel Gold (who won the Sundance cinematography award for this) begin
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Allan Gildea | Gerard Crossan | James Nesbitt | Mary Mould
Laura says: “Writer/director Paul Greengrass (THE THEORY OF FLIGHT) consulted Don Mullan, author of Eyewitness Blood Sunday, who had read the hundreds of civilian accounts ignored by the first official inquiry into the massacre and decided to tell his story
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Arliss Howard
Starring: Arliss Howard | Debra Winger | Paul Le Mat | Rosanna Arquette
Robin says: “BIG BAD LOVE is definitely an interesting character study of a man on a downward spiral in his life. The self-destruction is, sometimes, painful to watch but the final note of redemption cushions Leon’s long fall, giving the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
Starring: Lin Cui | Shuan Li | Xun Zhou | Yuanyuan Gao
Michael says: “Here was a startling film that begins as a charming, warm-hearted tale of a country boy struggling to cope with life in the big city of Beijing, and ends as a cynical, pointed look at today’s society, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Henry Bean
Starring: Billy Zane | Ryan Gosling | Summer Phoenix | Theresa Russell
Laura says: “Ryan Gosling gives a breakout perf in this film about a conflicted Jew who’s become a Nazi skinhead. Henry Bean’s screenplay is of note as well.” 4 cats For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.com/thebeliever.htm” Robin says: “This is
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Aki Maeda | Masanobu Andô | Takeshi Kitano | Taro Yamamoto | Tatsuya Fujiwara
Ivy says: “I dont know how many of you know about this film, or have already watched it, but I just watched the tape of BATTLE ROYALE (copied from a Japanese DVD) that was given to us months ago by
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Majid Majidi
Starring: Hossein Abedini | Mohammad Amir Naji | Zahra Bahrami
Diane says: “Another gem from Majid Majidi, director of my fave THE COLOR OF PARADISE. “Lateef, a clownish young Iranian construction worker, changes his ways when he discovers who his nemesis–an Afghani boy who took his job–really is. Lateef jeopardizes
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Schrader
Starring: Greg Kinnear | Maria Bello | Rita Wilson | Ron Leibman | Willem Dafoe
Laura says: “Michael Gerbosi’s adaptation of the Robert Graysmith book The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith suggests that Carpie wanted more than companionship from Crane and fed the man and ever increasing stream of women to maintain the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Arsinée Khanjian | Christopher Plummer | David Alpay
Michael says: “I had no idea what to expect with Atom Egoyan’s new film ARARAT. It has received many negative reviews and scant few good ones. As a big Egoyan fan, I was worried. Would this be the first of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sara Sugarman
Starring: Ioan Gruffud | Jonathan Pryce | Matthew Rhys | Rachel Griffiths
Michael says: “The first film we caught at the High Falls Film Festival was a British entry, the recipient of The Sundance Film Maker’s Award for Best International Script for Sara Sugarman’s VERY ANNIE-MARY. Rachel Griffiths and Jonathan Pryce star
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Shunji Iwai
Starring: Ayumi Ito | Hayato Ichihara | Shûgo Oshinari | Takao Osawa
Peg says: “Based on his interactive on-line novel, filmmaker Shunji Iwais bleak glimpse into the solipsistic world of Japanese teenagers is a visually stunning étude full of pensive slow takes, heart-stopping tableaux, and frenetic high-def DVD color. What may challenge
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Cara Seymour | Chris Cooper | Meryl Streep | Nicholas Cage | Tilda Swinton
Mary W. says: “ADAPTATION had a lot of laughs but definitely all in the flip meandering mode so that after a time the one-note characters- ‘Charlie Kaufman’ (Nicholas Cage) and ‘Susan Orlean’ (Meryl Steep) begin to wear thin. I never
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Seth Kearsley
Starring: Adam Sandler | Austin Stout | Jackie Titone | Tyra Banks
Laura says: “Adam Sandler grows increasingly frustrating combining his odd mixture of true heart and sweetness with juvenile vulgarity that may even put off his target audience in this, his first animation. For every laugh or smile Sandler genuinely earns
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Chris Weitz | Paul Weitz
Starring: Hugh Grant | Natalia Tena | Nicholas Hoult | Rachel Weisz | Sharon Small | Toni Collette | Victoria Smurfit
Laura says: “ABOUT A BOY establishes Will and Marcus by intercutting between their lives until it brings them together. Young Nicholas Hoult immediately gains our sympathy. He’s terrified of being abandoned by his mother, which makes him brave enough to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hans Petter Moland
Starring: Charlotte Rampling | Ian Hart | Lena Heady | Stellan Skarsgaard
Bob says: “ABERDEEN is a film I’ve never heard of, by Hans Petter Moland, a Norwegian director I’ve never heard of, but the blurb looked interesting enough, and the cast included Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling, who’s my frontrunner for
Read the review...