Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: James Gray
Starring: Angela Sarafyan | Dagmara Dominczyk | Jeremy Renner | Joaquin Phoenix | Marion Cotillard
Jason says: “The first shot of THE IMMIGRANT- the Statue of Liberty seen from behind, through a brownish fog – is certainly the sort that let the audience know just what the next two hours have in store. Director James
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Cherien Dabis
Starring: Alia Shawkat | Hiam Abbass | Joseph Ziegler | Melkar Muallem | Nisreen Faour
Bruce says: “Muna (Nisreen Faour) is a single parent raising her son Fadi (Melkar Muallem) in Bethlehem. Each day they spend considerable time negotiating checkpoints, often humiliated by Israeli soldiers. Muna works at a bank and Fadi attends private school
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: John Carney
Starring: Danuse Ktrestova | Glen Hansard | Markéta Irglová
Bruce says: “Curious how such a film could become a critic’s darling. Using two non-professional actors John Carney tells a story about songwriters who meet on the streets of Dublin and connect in more ways than one. Or do they?
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Mina Mileva | Vesela Kazakova
Starring: Angel Genov | Chinwe Nwokolo | Gilda Waugh | Irina Atanasova | Jon-Jo Inkpen | Kadisha Gee Kamara | Orlin Asenov
Bob says: “A look at immigrant life in a gentrifying area of London, with Brexit hanging over everything. A Bulgarian woman, her brother (both well educated) and her son are eking out a life in a former council flat in Peckham.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Ben Sharrock
Starring: Amir El-Masry | Grace Chilton | Kwabena Ansah | Vikash Bhai
Chris says: “A group of Middle-Eastern and African men are stranded in a refugee camp off the coast of Scotland. Our protagonist, Omar, is a musician from Syria and carries his oud wherever he goes. The refugees spend their time
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: John Crowley
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson | Emory Cohen | Fiona Glascott | Jane Brennan | Julie Walters | Saoirse Ronan
Jason says: “Homesickness can be a tricky thing to put on screen. It’s easy enough to have someone say that’s how she feels, or make the other place look beautiful before quickly cutting back, but those techniques can be superficial,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lee Han
Starring: Jasmine Lee | Kang Byul | Kim Sang-ho | Kim Young-jae | Kim Yun-seok | Park Soo-young | Yoo Ah-In
Jason says: “From the name it’s been given in English, PUNCH, you might expect WON-DEUK-I to be an inspirational sports movie, and it’s got some of that in the later reels. In reality, it’s actually something closer to an inspirational
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.6
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Starring: Émilien Néron | Marie-Ève Beauregard | Mohamed Fellag | Sophie Nélisse | Vincent Millard
Jason says: “MONSIEUR LAZHAR, Canada/Quebec’s nominee for best foreign language feature at the recent Oscars, is a quite remarkable piece of work, and all the more so for how quietly and efficiently it goes about its business. It is amazingly
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Alex Rivera
Starring: Giovanna Zacarías | Jacob Vargas | Leonor Varela | Luis Fernando Peña
Jason says: “Science fiction on film is tricky. The money to do spectacle generally comes with strings attached, but without it, a filmmaker runs the risk of having their world look unconvincing or settling for using their big ideas to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Sasie Sealy
Starring: Hsiao-Yuan Ha | Michael Tow | Tsai Chin | Woody Fu | Yan Xi
Diane says: “Chinatown crime caper LUCKY GRANDMA features 85-year-old actress Tsai Chin playing a gruff, stubborn widow whose trip to the casino lands her in hot water. Chin (JOY LUCK CLUB) deserves an acting nom, playing all of five years
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jim McKay
Starring: Abel Perez | Alejandro Huitzil | Alfonso Velazquez | Fernando Cardona | Genoel Ramírez | Gilberto Arenas | Gilberto Jimenez
Chris says: “Jim McKay wrote and directed one of my favorite films, OUR SONG two decades ago; since then, he’s mostly worked on various prestige TV series. I hadn’t even heard of this 2017 feature, his first in 12 years,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Jeanne Leblanc
Starring: Emilie Bierre | Judith Baribeau | Marianne Farley | Paul Doucet
Michael says: “The English translation of the harrowing film from Quebec is OUR OWN, which darkly conveys the complicit nature of the tight community in s small town in Quebec. After a traumatic factory fire that is responsible for the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Alan Yang
Starring: Christine Ko | Fiona Fu | Hong-Chi Lee | Joan Chen | Tzi Ma
Michael says: “I encountered three instances in the past month, in movies, or books, where someone tells a child: “Never let them see you cry,” or some BS like that. It’s usually well-meaning, and sometimes even serves the character well
Read the review...The Hundred Foot Journey (India/United Arab Emirates/USA; 122 min.) directed by: Lasse Hallström starring: Helen Mirren; Om Puri; Manish Dayal; Charlotte Le Bon; Amit Shah; Farzana Dua Elahe; Dillon Mitra Thom says: “Director Hallström was responsible for ONCE AROUND (1991)
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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: 4 cats
Director: Abdel Kechiche
Starring: Abdelhamid Aktouche | Bouraouïa Marzouk | Farida Benkhetache | Habib Boufares | Hafsia Herzi
Bruce says: “THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN won top awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Writing) at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards. Writer/Director Abdel Kechiche was born in Tunisia but was raised in the south of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Djimon Honsou | Emma Bolger | Paddy Considine | Samantha Morton | Sarah Bolger
Kevin says: “From Jim Sheridan, the director of IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER and MY LEFT FOOT, comes IN AMERICA, certainly one of the best films of 2003. “The film concerns a family, consisting of Johnny (Patty Considine), his
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: François Dupeyron
Starring: Claude Rich | Elisabeth Oppong | Félicité Wouassi | Jacky Ido | Mamadou Dioumé | Mata Gabin | Ralph Amoussou
Bruce says: “Sonia (Félicité Wouassi) is having many difficulties – with her gambling husband George (Mamadou Dioumé), her pregnant daughter Suze (Elisabeth Oppong), her seemingly suicidal pre-adolescent son Leo (Charles-Étienne N’Diaye) and her son Victor (Ralph Amoussou) who is running
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Courtney Stephens | Pacho Velez
Bob says: “Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez traveled all over the US to document sections of the Berlin Wall that ended up here. They found them at corporations, restaurants, libraries, rich people’s homes, on the side of the highway, museums,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Samuel Kishi
Starring: Cici Lau | Johnson T. Lau | Kevin Medina | Leonardo Nájar Márquez | Martha Reyes Arias | Maximiliano Nájar Márquez
Michael says: “LOS LOBOS (THE WOLVES) is a semi-autobiographical story of Lucía, a young woman who emigrates to Albuquerque from Mexico with her two children, Max, age eight, and Leo, age five. After struggling to find a trashed studio to
Read the review...