Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Eric Chaikin | Julian Patrillo
Michael says: “Shades of SPELLBOUND! This doc focused on 4 contenders for the National Scrabble Championship. The film follows the four as the spend a year preparing for the tournament, both exploring their lives and their Scrabble successes and failures.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jean-François Pouliot
Starring: Dominik Michon-Dagenais | Guy-Daniel Tremblay | Nadia Drouin | Raymond Bouchard | Réal Bossé | Rita Lafontaine | Roc LaFortune
Michael says: “This charming, French Canadian film is in the vein of WAKING NED DEVINE and CHOCOLAT, in its sweet, inoffensive, feel-good storyline. These films always make me feel slightly uncomfortable when considered in the independent millieu. Why is it
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Bent Hamer
Starring: Bjørn Floberg | Joachim Calmeyer | Tomas Norström
Diane says: “KITCHEN STORIES will be on my nom list for cinematography: lovely palette (1940s hues of greens and browns), nice shots, esp. of low to high or vice versa showing the two characters’–observer and ‘host’–vantage points. The ending got
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Chulpan Khamatova | Daniel Brühl | Katrin Saß
Janet says: “In this worthwhile film, a young East German man hides the unification of Germany in order to protect his fragile Socialist mother from dying of shock. Like most films that work the premise of going to any length
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jang Li
Starring: Baoqiang Wang | Qiang Li | Shuangbao Wang
Michael says: “After winning several awards at recent film festivals, including Berlin and Tribeca, this powerful film explores the dark and the light of humanity as embodied by mine workers in China. Song and Tang work the mines, but they
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Fele Martínez | Gabriel García Bernal | Lluís Homar | Pedro Almodóvar
Bruce says: “Because Pedro Almodóvar is so proficient and so accomplished I tend to perhaps expect too much from him. In BAD EDUCATION we see Almodóvar fine-tuning his craft once again, this time turning to suspense and a bit of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Kaige Chen
Starring: Hong Chen | Kaige Chen | Peiqi Liu | Yen Tang | Zhiwen Wang
Laura says: “Young violin prodigy Liu Xiaochun’s (Yun Tang) simple country father Liu Cheng (Peiqi Liu, SHADOW MAGIC) takes him to Beijing to audition for a prestigious school. Cheng overhears Professor Jiang (Zhiwen Wang, THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN) declare
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Isabel Coixet
Starring: Deborah Harry | Mark Ruffalo | Sarah Polley | Scott Speedman
Michael says: “Last week, Mary and I caught a preview of the latest film to star personal favorite Sarah Polley called MY LIFE WITHOUT ME. This Pedro and Augustin Almodovar production combines the whimsy and drama of Almodovar’s films with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Dolly Wells | Kathleen McDermott | Paul Popplewell | Ruby Milton | Samantha Morton
Peg says: “I saw this Scottish film by Lynne Ramsay at the Women’s Film Festival and thoroughly enjoyed it! “Morvern is a young woman who wakes up, or perhaps arrives home, on Christmas morning to find her boyfriend has committed
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Satoshi Kon
Starring: Fumiko Orikasa | Mami Koyama | Miyoko Shôji
Bob says: “My experience with animé is mostly limited to movies like AKIRA and GHOST IN THE SHELL – urban science fiction with a healthy dose of philosophical questioning about the nature of the self. Well, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS is nothing
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