Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jeff Chiba Stearns
Jason says: “There’s an interesting idea at the center of ONE BIG HAPA FAMILY – investigating the astonishingly high rate of mixed marriages among ethnically Japanese Canadians – and director Jeff Chiba Stearns is enthusiastic about pursuing it and occasionally
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mark Hartley
Jason says: “I wonder where Mark Hartley’s next stop will be. Hong Kong? Thailand? Indonesia? After spotlighting the exploitation cinema of Australia in Not Quite Hollywood and the Philippine Islands in MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!, there must be other spots on
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Massy Tadjedin
Starring: Anson Mount | Eva Mendes | Griffin Dunne | Guillaume Canet | Keira Knightley | Sam Worthington
Chris says: “This is a first feature for director Tadjedin and it’s an assured debut although there’s not that much to it. The relationship drama centers on striking Joanna Reed (Knightley), a writer working on her 2nd novel, and her
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Armie Hammer | Dermot Mulroney | Judi Dench | Leonardo DiCaprio | Naomi Watts
Bruce says: “J. EDGAR is a curious film. Had it appeared a decade ago, the story of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) would have no doubt been scandalous; today it seems as exciting as tepid
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson | David Wilmot | Don Cheadle | Liam Cunningham | Rory Keenan
Diane says: “Directed and written by John Michael McDonagh, writer of NED KELLY, but more importantly (don’t tell him I said that!), the brother of Martin McDonagh (IN BRUGES, plays The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Pillowman). “THE GUARD’s best
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring: Adrianne Palicki | Carla Gugino | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Timothy Olyphant
Jason says: “Although ELEKTRA LUXX is being released in markets where WOMEN IN TROUBLE didn’t play theatrically, and you can probably follow along well enough without having seen the other one. And despite it picking up on threads from that
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Madden
Starring: Ciarán Hinds | Helen Mirren | Jessica Chastain | Marton Csokas | Sam Worthington | Tom Wilkinson
Jason says: “Attach enough talent to a movie, and more often than not, you’ll at least wind up with something worth watching, and THE DEBT has a fair number of good people working on it. Does it translate into a
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Richard Griffin
Starring: Alexander Lewis | Alexandra Cipolla | Brandon Luis Aponte | Colin Carlton | Daniel Lee White | David Lavallee Jr. | Michael Reed | Ruth Sullivan | Sarah Nicklin
Jason says: “It’s fair to look at a movie like ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION and sigh. Another one of these things? After all, to put it bluntly, the people with legitimate first-hand nostalgia for 1950s sci-fi flicks are dying off, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Anthony Hopkins | Antonio Banderas | Gemma Jones | Josh Brolin | Naomi Watts | Pauline Collins
Diane says: “Woody Allen’s latest, starring Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts among others in a fab-o cast. Fast and clever, but my companions were right when they said that Allen usually has respect, if not sympathy, for his characters, and
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Don Hahn
Jason says: “Watching this movie’s opening scenes, with a bunch of animators screwing around, working more or less unsupervised in Disney’s old Ink & Paint building, brought together for being college classmates and taking breaks to do skits and home
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