Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: India Donaldson
Starring: Danny McCarthy | James Le Gros | Lily Collias | Peter McNally | Sumaya Bouhbal
Michael says: “We first meet Sam, hanging with her best friend, Jessie the night before she will head off on a weekend camping trip with her dad, her dad’s longtime buddy and his teenaged son. When her counterpart teen traveler
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Rating: 4.2 cats | 4.25 cats
Director: Cord Jefferson
Starring: Erika Alexander | Jeffrey Wright | John Ortiz | Leslie Uggams | Tracee Ellis Ross
Michael says: “Jeffrey Wright plays Thelonius ‘Monk’ Ellison, a distinguished academic and writer of literary fiction who decries the popular trend of best-selling books about the black experience – usually involving single moms, gangs, and police shootings – in Cord
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Colin West
Starring: Amy Hargreaves | Gabriel Rush | Jim Gaffigan | Katelyn Nacon | Michael Ian Black | Rhea Seehorn | Tony Shaloub
Diane says: “LINOLEUM is a film with some tricks, like certain other films greatly loved by Chlotrudis. I won’t tell you which ones so as not to give any hints or spoilers. Cameron, aspirational astronaut and actual astronomer, faces a
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Questlove
Michael says: “Questlove’s documentary about a summer long music festival in Harlem, during 1969 — happening concurrently with Woodstock, but that very few people are aware of today, benefitted by my recent viewing of the film PASSING. and my reading
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Tyler Taormina
Starring: Adam Torres | Audrey Boos | Gabriella Herrera | Haley Bodell
Diane says: “If you’ve ever gone from childhood to adulthood, I think you will like this film. It’s Tyler Taormina’s first, and looks at rituals of growing up in a really weird, delightful way. It’s beautifully shot—I particularly liked how
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Andrew Patterson
Starring: Bruce Davis | Gail Cronauer | Jake Horowitz | Sierra McCormick
Brett says: “THE VAST OF NIGHT, under the direction of debut feature film wizard Andrew Patterson, is a film that takes genre film-making to a whole new level. Premiering at Sundance back in 2019, the film is now set for release
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Rating: 4.2 cats | 4.25 cats
Director: Joe Talbot
Starring: Jimmie Fails | Jonathan Majors | Rob Morgan | Tichina Arnold
Chris says: “Based on the life of its lead actor (Jimmie Fails), Joe Talbot’s film is both a loving ode to and a fervent indictment of his and Fails’ hometown. With themes of gentrification, community, ownership, race and familial legends,
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Marielle Heller
Starring: Anna Deveare Smith | Ben Falcone | Dolly Wells | Erik LaRay Harvey | Jane Curtin | Melissa McCarthy | Pun Bandhu | Richard E. Grant
Chris says: “It’s not so much that Melissa McCarthy is a revelation here as that she finally has a role that allows her to be more than just silly or weird (although she’s occasionally those things too.) The real-life story
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Brian d'Arcy James | JohnSlattery | Liev Schreiber | Mark Ruffalo | Michael Keaton | Rachel McAdams
Jason says: “SPOTLIGHT is not the sort of movie that is generally described as relentless, but what makes it great is that its makers are, in fact, unceasing and focused on their goal of depicting how a group of Boston
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Justin Simien
Starring: Brittany Curran | Dennis Haysbert | Kyle Gallner | Tessa Thompson | Tyler James Williams
Kyle says: “’Dear White People: The amount of black friends required not to seem racist has just been raised to two. Sorry, your weed man Tyrone doesn’t count!’ Thus Samantha White (Tessa Thompson) begins her Winchester University campus radio show
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