Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Hao Wu | Weixi Chen
Chris says: “Verité doc clandestinely filmed inside an ICU unit in Wuhan, China during the 76-day lockdown earlier this year. Expectedly difficult to watch (especially the heightened panic of the early days) but also genuinely life-affirming. This is an invaluable
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Ben Sharrock
Starring: Amir El-Masry | Grace Chilton | Kwabena Ansah | Vikash Bhai
Chris says: “A group of Middle-Eastern and African men are stranded in a refugee camp off the coast of Scotland. Our protagonist, Omar, is a musician from Syria and carries his oud wherever he goes. The refugees spend their time
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Sasie Sealy
Starring: Hsiao-Yuan Ha | Michael Tow | Tsai Chin | Woody Fu | Yan Xi
Diane says: “Chinatown crime caper LUCKY GRANDMA features 85-year-old actress Tsai Chin playing a gruff, stubborn widow whose trip to the casino lands her in hot water. Chin (JOY LUCK CLUB) deserves an acting nom, playing all of five years
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Benjamin Ree
Chris says: “In Oslo, an artist contacts a man convicted of stealing her painting from a gallery; from there, an unlikely, slow-building friendship develops between these two very different souls. As it makes unexpected leaps backwards and forwards in time,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Patricia Rozema
Starring: Amy Nostbakken | Carlos Albornoz | Maev Beaty | Norah Sadava | Paula Boudreau | Taylor Belle Puterman
Chris says: “The rare film with a twist where its revelation doesn’t occur all at once, but gradually and not as a trigger for understanding what drives the narrative. This would seem annoying if not for the playfulness Rozema occasionally
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Viktor Kosakovskiy
Chris says: “An experimental documentary about water, in all its forms (from gushing waves to immense icebergs), in all its beauty and splendor, in all the horrible destruction it can cause. Alternately meditative and almost serene like ambient music and frenetic like
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Chao Deng | Jingchun Wang | Jun Hu | Li Sun | Qianyuan Wang | Ryan Zheng | Xiaotong Guan
Michael says: “Who knew Zhang Yimou had a new movie out this year? Certainly not me (thanks, Bob!) I’ve loved a lot of Zhang Yimou’s films, both his gorgeous, epics, and his tiny character films. SHADOW is one of the
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Chris says: “Not to diminish all the great moon-landing footage, what stuck with me most here was the first half-hour: a fascinating time capsule of what this country and its people looked like fifty years ago, restored to appear as
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Starring: Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir | Jóhann Sigurðarson | Jörundur Ragnarsson | Juan Camillo Roman Estrada
Brett says: “A surefire candidate for a Chlotrudis ‘Best Use of Music in a Film,’ WOMAN AT WAR dives deep into the story of an middle-aged eco-activist who dedicates herself to putting a cause she believes in above her own
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