Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Ethan Hawke | George Steane | Manu Ríos | Pedro Casablanc | Pedro Pascal
Diane says: “STRANGE WAY OF LIFE opens on a typical Old West set, as the title song is sung, in Spanish, by what sounds like a female voice but turns out to be a man singing falsetto—intimations of unconventional elements
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Amy Nicholson
Chris says: “Amy Nicholson’s documentary tries to be the low-rent trailer park equivalent of Errol Morris’ GATES OF HEAVEN, offering a deadpan look at the last summer of one said establishment off the Virginia coast before it closes for redevelopment.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Megan Park
Starring: Aubrey Plaza | Kerrice Brooks | Maddie Ziegler | Maisy Stella | Percy Hynes-White
Chris says: “18-year-old Elliot (Maisy Stella) celebrates her birthday with her two best friends by taking magic mushrooms on a camping trip in the woods; while all three experience hallucinations, only Elliot’s manifests in the form of her future 39-year-old
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Bill Ross IV | Turner Ross
Starring: Makai Garza | Micah Bunch | Nathaly Garcia | Nichole Dukes | Tony Aburto
Aaron says: “Film fest fans, we’ve all been there. You’re lining up your schedule and want variety (range is good) and safe logistics (can you make the commute work between tight screenings?). Two titles catch your eye: GASOLINE RAINBOW from hot
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Clotilde Courau | Léa Drucker | Olivier Rabourdin | Samuel Kircher | Serena Hu
Brett says: “Many know director Catherine Breillat for being provocative in both subject matter and delivery, and LAST SUMMER is her latest in a library of films that generates discussion well after the end credits roll. Anne is a lawyer
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Matteo Garrone
Starring: Doodou Sagna | Hichem Yacoubi | Issaka Sawadogo | Moustapha Fall | Seydou Sarr
Diane says: “A brutal, harrowing story of two boys who leave Senegal intent on reaching Europe, not to escape poverty or persecution, but to follow their dream of becoming pop stars. I was tricked by the movie poster into thinking it
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Julio Torres
Starring: Catalina Saavedra | Isabella Rossellini | Julio Torres | RZA | Tilda Swinton
Michael says: “I was fairly underwhelmed. Tilda Swinton was her usual self, entertaining to watch, but the film struck an odd tone between zany/funny and melancholy/dour, which didn’t really work for me. Unfortunately, I saw it at the 2023 PIFF,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Minhal Baig
Starring: Avery Holliday | Blake Cameron James | David Folsom | Giovani Chambers | Lil Rel Howery
Chris says: “Set in a re-creation of the now-demolished high rise towers of the notorious Chicago housing project Cabrini-Green in 1992, Minhal Baig’s film focuses on two 12-year-old boys living there: Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez).
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kasia Smutniak
Diane says: “Katia Smutniak, an award-winning Polish-Italian actor, said at the TIFF Q&A that her documentary was ‘not made out of a desire to make a movie.’ Compelled by the situation of migrants trying to enter Poland through the country’s
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Billy Luther
Starring: Charley Hogan | Keir Tallman | Martin Sensmeier | Sarah H. Natani
Chris says: “Billy Luther, a Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna Pueblo filmmaker best known for documentaries (MISS NAVAJO) makes his fiction feature debut with this gentle coming-of-age tale. 11-year-old city kid Benny (Keir Tallman) is sent to spend the summer with
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