Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jessica Oreck
Kyle says: “THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA sounds more interesting than it is. Baba Yaga is a horrible witch famous throughout Slavic folklore and in the works of Russian composers such as Mussorgsky and Liadov, bearing similarities to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ramon Zürcher
Starring: Gustav Körner | Lea Draeger | Leon Alan Beiersdorf | Matthias Dittmer | Mia Kasalo | Monika Hetterle
Kyle says: “THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT is the assured feature film debut of writer/director Ramon Zürcher. The title is somewhat misleading, because the German DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN also means ‘remarkable’ or ‘noteworthy’ little cat, not our word ‘strange’ that usually
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Anja Marquardt
Kyle says: “SHE’S LOST CONTROL, a feature film debut by director Anja Marquardt, tells a tale of sex surrogates within the psychotherapy community: the elusive goal is intimacy but the process involves sex with people who are essentially strangers, often
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Signe Baumane
Jason says: “I want to champion ROCKS IN MY POCKETS; it is a striking animated film made with adults in mind, and one that tackles a difficult but important subject head-on. The world needs movies like that. The thing is,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jonathan Tiplitzky
Starring: Colin Firth | Hiroyuki Sanada | Jeremy Irvine | Nicole Kidman | Stellan Skarsgaard | Tanroh Ishida
Jason says: “This is a movie seemingly designed for awards consideration that the Weinstein Company released in April, and while that may just be an example of them deciding another horse was a safer bet… Well, PHILOMENA was the safer
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gregory Levasseur
Starring: Amir K | Ashley Hinshaw | Christa Nicola | Denis O’Hare | James Buckley
Jason says: “I can (and to a certain extent, will) rattle off the ways that THE PYRAMID is disappointing, subpar, and lucky to find a particularly barren release date in order to avoid a direct-to-VOD fate. But even though I
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Michael Tully
Starring: Amy Sedaris | Emmi Shockley | John Hannah | Joseph McCaughtry | Lea Thompson | Marcelo Conte | Myles Massey | Robert Longtreet | Susan Sarandon
Jason says: “PING PONG SUMMER could probably stand to be cut down to half its length, which is a bit of a problem because it only runs 92 minutes as it is. Maybe the time it spends hanging out with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg | Christian Slater | Jamie Bell | Jean-Marc Barr | Mia Goth | Shia LaBeouf | Sophie Kennedy Clark | Stacy Martin | Stellan Skarsgård | Udo Kier | Uma Thurman | Willem Dafoe
Kyle says: “NYMPHOMANIAC Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 are recent works by the most provocative director on the current international cinema scene. Lars von Trier has been thrice recognized by Chlotrudis with nominations for Original Screenplay for DOGVILLE (2003), and for
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sarah Adina Smith
Jason says: “Sarah Adina Smith’s THE MIDNIGHT SWIM is one sort of movie in the sometimes ill-fitting skin of another, and I wonder if shedding that skin would allow it to be seen more clearly as a sharp tale of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Brian O'Malley
Jason says: “After seeing this, a festival buddy suggested that part of the reason this fell flat for her was that we’d just seen another over-the-top revenge piece in PUZZLE. I didn’t have quite the same reaction; where she was
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