Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Will Gluck
Starring: Amanda Bynes | Dan Byrd | Emma Stone | Patricia Clarkson | Penn Badgley | Thomas Haden Church
Thom says: “I’m a fan of the teen genre but, let’s face it, can anything be done to make it fresh and new? Heaven knows this isn’t that movie. It most resembles MEAN GIRLS, but it’s nowhere as good. There
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Carter Gunn | Ross McDonnell
Michael says: “I was very excited to see COLONY, which was reportedly about honeybees. In fact, while honeybees drive the story, COLONY is actually about beekeepers, the economics of bees, and colony collapse disorder (CCD), a syndrome that is causing
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Eric Zimmerman
Starring: Denny Kirkwood | James Duval | John Cho | Nathan Bexton | Peter Green | Roger Guenveur Smith
Jason says: “The filmmakers did a Q&A after CALLER ID, and it turned out to be sort of informative in learning where all the seemingly random elements came from. It was interesting, but probably not something that the average audience
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Daphné Baiwir | Dominique Thomas | Lola Créton | Lola Giovannetti | Marilou Lopes-Benites
Jason says: “I don’t think there have been any musical animated adaptations of Bluebeard, and the reason why is pretty obvious: Once you remove the sex and violence to make it family-friendly, there isn’t much left at all. Surprisingly, given
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Clara Bindi | Isabelle Huppert | Jean-Hughes Anglade | Maya Sansa | Xavier Beauvois
Bruce says: “Isabelle Huppert is an actress I would pay money to hear read the phone book; any city – Paris, New York, Tokyo – will do. Huppert elevates every film in which she appears and that fortunately is the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: James Gray
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow | Joaquin Phoenix | Vinessa Shaw
Peg says: “This odd, often bleak little film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow stumbles as it starts but eventually settles into an absorbing character driven drama. Not quite a love story, this is more a narrative of surviving a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Dave Gargani
Jason says: “1950s science fiction is known for being paranoid and downbeat, tinged with fear of atomic doom and the potential for infiltrators to be anywhere. Filmmaker Dave Gargani argues that this should not, necessarily, be the case, or at
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Mike Sandejas
Starring: Adriana Agcaoili | Jayjay Sunico | Lorenzo Mara | Romalito Mallari | Zoe Sandejas
Michael says: “While certainly doing something different than what the festival circuit is used to regarding Philippine cinema, i.e. avoiding the slums and focusing on a more middle-class family, IF I KNEW WHAT YOU SAID ends up coming across like
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Alexandre Steiger | Fabrice Luchini | Gilles Cohen | Jeanne Balibar | Roschdy Zem | Stéphane Audran
Jeff says: “**Slight spoilers** “A high-powered, middle-aged Parisian lawyer (Fabrice Luchini) comes to Monaco to defend an older woman against charges that she murdered her much younger Russian lover. He’s thrown into full-on mid-life crisis mode when a free-spirited (or
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: John Krasinski
Starring: Ben Shenkman | Chris Messina | Corey Stoll | Julianne Nicholson | Michael Cerveris | Timothy Hutton
Jason says: “How can you spot a first film written and directed by an actor in a crowd? I’ve probably mentioned this before, but look for the one where the story is told entirely through talking and facial expressions. That
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