Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Heather McCrory | Helen Mirren | James Cromwell | Michael Sheen
Chris says: “I’m convinced that Helen Mirren is capable of anything: She can quietly steal scenes in a Robert Altman ensemble piece (GOSFORD PARK), turn a recurring role into an icon (television’s ‘Prime Suspect’) and even survive an embarrassment like
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Chris says: “Surprisingly effective documentary about a 1930s woman’s swim team formed at Hakoah, a Jewish sports club in Vienna. Given the place and time, you can guess that the team did not survive into the 1940s. Fortuantely, its members
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Bruce says: “FATHER AND SON opens with a close-up of two men, one holding the other. There are no immediate clues but as the scene unfolds we learn that it is a father and his son, who is having a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Jean Rochefort | Jean-François Stévenin | Johnny Hallyday
Georgette says: “A man (Johnny Hallyday, French rock star and actor) gets off of the train in a quiet, cold, dark, French village. His headache sends him to the nearest pharmacy for aspirin. As he leaves the pharmacy, he realizes
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Alice Drummond | Alison Pill | Derek Luke | Isiah Whitlock Jr. | John Gallagher Jr. | Katie Holmes | Lillias White | Oliver Platt | Patricia Clarkson | Sean Hayes
Diane says: “Well, the Village Voice might have called it ‘a gluttonous buffet of Sundance clichés, with an acid-reflux aftertaste of condescension and unexamined racism,’ but I’m giving it 5 cats! “PIECES OF APRIL was another delight–the story of a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Robert Pulcini | Shari Springer Berman
Starring: Hope Davis | James Urbaniak | Judah Friedlander | Paul Giamatti
Bob says: “The film raises some very interesting questions without coming out and asking them. Pekar’s work is all about portraying real life, but of course it’s all filtered through multiple lenses: his own perspective of events, his choice of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Gary Burns
Starring: Don McKellar | Fab Filippo | Gordon Currie | Marya Delver
Ellen says: “I was one of the individuals fortunate enough to catch the U.S. premiere of WAYDOWNTOWN last night. After a wonderful dinner with Gary Burns and Don McKellar, the film kept the laughter going for me. I’ll state at
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Jill Sprecher
Starring: Alan Arkin | Amy Irving | Barbara Sukowa | Clea DuVall | John Turturro | Matthew McConaughhey | Rob McElhenney | Tia Texada
Hilary says: “I find myself in the minority concerning 13 CONVERSATIONS. Although I liked the organization of the story in its MEMENTO-like reverse structure) and it had several strong performers, I never got into the story. The entire time I
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler | Emily Watson | Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bob says: “I’ve seen this film twice now, and I’m still not sure what to think. It’s clearly an extension of the idea Anderson so overtly espoused in MAGNOLIA — that the unexpected can indeed happen. This time he managed
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Paul Pavlikovsky
Starring: Artyom Strelnikov | Dina Korzun | Paddy Considine
Michael says: “Low budget, indie films don’t get much better than LAST RESORT. When a Russian woman and her son must pretend to be political refugees after her fiancee doesn’t show up at the airport to pick her up, they
Read the review...