Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Yôjirô Takita
Starring: Kazuko Yoshiyuki | Kimiko Yo | Masahiro Motoki | Ryoko Hirosue | Tsutomu Yamazaki
Jason says: “DEPARTURES feels like the sort of film that wins the Academy Award for best foreign language feature. It’s a good movie, just Japan-specific enough that the voters can feel like they’re awarding another culture, but accessible and mainstream
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Joe Berlinger
Thom says: “Berlinger (BROTHERS KEEPER, METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER) does a credible job here on the Ecuadorian land tragedy and the $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron (Texaco) brought by a group of indigenous people from the contaminated region of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Beth Grant | Colin Farrell | Jeff Bridges | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Robert Duvall
Jason says: “There are some fantastic scenes in CRAZY HEART. Pretty much any where you have Jeff Bridges and Robert Duvall together, for instance. Not much of great import happens during those, but you’ve got two great pros who seem
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Starring: Ammara Siripong | Hiroshi Abe | JeeJa Yanin | Pongpat Wachirabunjong | Taphon Phopwandee
Jeff says: “Entertaining little Thai martial arts movie with a spunky, autistic (!), teenage heroine who learns all her fighting moves just by watching them on TV and goes to bat for her mom against a bunch of usurous gangsters.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Alejandro Adams
Starring: Carla Pauli | Eli Kramer | Galen Howard | Jennifer Latch | Larissa Kasian
Jason says: “CANARY is not for everyone. I know this because despite sitting in the fourth row of the auditorium, I saw a dozen or so people in front of me up and leave; I assume there were others behind
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mary Stuart Masterson
Starring: Aaron Stanford | Bruce Dern | Elizabeth Ashley | Jayce Bartok | Kristen Stewart | Melissa Leo | Miriam Shor
Jeff says: “Mary Stuart Masterson, in her directorial debut, tells the story of a patriarch (the increasingly crusty Bruce Dern) and his two sons, coming to terms with the death of the family’s mother. Features a pre-Bella Kristen Stewart as
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Őzcan Alper
Starring: Megi Kobaladze | Nino Lejava | Onur Saylak | Raife Yenigül | Serkan Keskin
Bruce says: “Yusuf is one of the Hamshen Armenians of northeastern Turkey, many of whom converted to Islam to avoid being eradicated during the pogroms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that took the lives of hundreds of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Yoav Shamir
Jason says: “If there’s high art and low art, advertising must be considered the lowest of them, with perhaps only grudging admission that any part of it can be considered art at all. Advertising is creative work, though, and for
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Havana Marking
Michael says: “In a culture where dancing is forbidden, it seems strange that Afghan Idol, the middle eastern country’s cousin to the very popular western television reality show, American Idol, would be so incredibly popular… or perhaps not so strange.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Arsinée Khanjian | Devon Bostick | Kenneth Welsh | Scott Speedman
Michael says: “Atom Egoyan is my favorite filmmaker, so I am predisposed to enjoy his films. I like the themes he explores and the way he explores them. With his latest film, ADORATION, he once again explores the nature of
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