Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Joachim Trier
Starring: AmyRyan | Devin Druid | Gabriel Byrne | Isabelle Huppert | Jesse Eisenberg | Ruby Jerins
Bruce says: “Joachim Trier ventures into English-speaking territory with a story of a family grieving for a wife/mother. Grieving, contrary to those who believe in absolutes, has ambivalent dimensions. The acting, directing and production values are way above par; however
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Emma Stone | J.K. Simmons | John Legend | Rosemarie DeWitt | Ryan Gosling | Tom Everett Scott
Thom says: “LA LA LAND is a pleasant film that will probably be ever remembered as the movie that won a Best Film Oscar only to be announced seconds later that it hadn’t received the prize statuette, but rather the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Shakun Batra
Starring: Alia Bhatt | Fawad Khan | Kapoor | Rajat Kapoor | RatnaPathak | Sidharth Malhotra
Jason says: “Like a lot of movies where the filmmakers want to both celebrate family and build a story about what kind of stresses it can place on people, KAPOOR AND SONS can swing from one to the other fast
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hany Abu-Assad
Starring: Ali Suliman | Ashraf Barhom | Eyad Hourani | Nadine Labaki | Tawfeek Barhom
Bruce says: “Hany Abu-hassad would seem an unlikely director of a biopic. His earlier films, RANA’S WEDDING, PARADISE NOW, and OMAR have documented the effects of Israeli enforced apartheid on the Palestinian community. While THE IDOL has many of those
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jason Bateman
Starring: Christopher Walken | Jason Bateman | Kathryn Hahn | Nicole Kidman
Michael says: “Just watched a pretty accomplished film called THE FAMILY FANG, starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman, directed by Bateman. This offbeat tale looks at the Fang family, led by a pair of performance artists who put their two
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Claire Carré
Starring: Greta Fernandez | Iva Gocheva | Jason Ritter | Roberto Cots | Silvan Friedman | Tucker Smallwood
Jason says: “The shots of present-day ruins that open EMBERS are a reminder of sorts that worlds end all the time, on the scale of individual hopes and dreams, though those tiny apocalypses are often part of a greater calamity.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Cheng Sicheng
Starring: “Michael” Chen He | Liu Haoran | QinFeng | Tong Liya | Wang Baoqiang | Xiao Shengyang | Xiao Yang
Jason says: “DETECTIVE CHINATOWN inevitably runs head-on into the biggest problem screwball mysteries face – it is extremely difficult to take both your slapstick comedy and murder investigation seriously in the same story – but manages to be impressively entertaining
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Benjamin Dickinson
Starring: Alexia Rasmussen | Benjamin Dickinson | Dan Gill | Nora Zehetner | Reggie Watts
Jason says: “There’s a plot to CREATIVE CONTROL to go with its speculative elements, but truth be told, it’s not at its strongest when either of those are front and center. Instead, it sings when the filmmakers find nifty little
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Aaron Nee | Adam Nee
Starring: Adam Knee | Beth Grant | Hannibal Buress | Johnny Pemberton | Kyle Gallner | Lee Garlington | Matthew Gary Gubler | Melissa Benoist | Stephen Lang
Jason says: “Truth be told, I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen more things like BAND OF ROBBERS since various Sherlock Holmes projects showed that audiences would go for beloved nineteenth-century characters reinvented for the modern age, if only because
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Emily Ting
Starring: Bryan Greenburg | Jamie Chung | Richard Ng
Jason says: “Sometimes, I feel like I’m an easy mark for movies like ALREADY TOMORROW IN HONG KONG – they are basically two people flirting for an hour or two while walking around a foreign city, allowing the viewer to
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