Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Arab Nasser | Tarzan Nasser
Starring: Hiam Abbass | Ibrahim Altoubat | Maisa Abd Elhadi | Namil Alraee
Chris says: “Ostensibly a romance between Issa (Salim Dau), a lifelong bachelor who announces, ‘I’ve decided to get married’ and Siham (Hiam Abbass), a seamstress with an adult daughter, this plays out with a slight surreal twinge, almost like a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Aisling Chin-Yee | Chase Joynt
Chris says: “Billy Tipton, a jazz musician born as a woman who presented himself to the world as a man, is obviously an intriguing subject for a documentary, but it’s actually only a part of this one. NO ORDINARY MAN
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Matthew Rankin
Starring: Brent Skagford | Catherine St-Laurent | Dan Beirne | Kee Chan | Louis Negin | Matthew Rankin | Mikhaïl Ahooja | Sarianne Cormier | Seán Cullen
Michael says: “You know you’re watching something perversely special when it features an ejaculating cactus. Paying liberal homage to the strangers films of Guy Maddin, Matthew Rankin’s first feature film is a wildly inventive, biopic (in the loosest sense of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats | 5 cats
Director: Darius Marder
Starring: Mathieu Amalric | Olivia Cooke | Paul Raci | Riz Ahmed
Michael says: “I have taken to watching films without really finding out too much about them first. Usually it’s one or two sentences from the synopsis, and I’ll make up my mind. SOUND OF METAL came as a big surprise,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jeff Orlowski
Michael says: “Workshopped at the Sundance Institute, this whistle-blowing documentary about the social media industry was picked up by Netflix. While not all that surprising for anyone who’s paying attention, it’s still pretty chilling as it paints a picture of
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Makoto Nagahisa
Starring: Keita Ninomiya | Kuranosuke Sasaki | Mondo Okumura | Rinko Kikuchi | Satoshi Mizuno | Sena Nakajima
Michael says: “The one-line synopsis on the Internet Movie Database for WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES states, ‘Four Japanese orphans form a rock band.’ While that statement is a fact, it barely scratches the surface of this fun, colorful, frankly, insane
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Hong Khaou
Starring: David Tran | Henry Golding | Molly Harris | Parker Sawyers
Michael says: “There’s a bit of a thread between COMING HOME AGAIN and MONSOON. Both deal with Asian families, and particularly sons dealing with the death of parents, and difficulty of accessing emotions. But where COMING HOME AGAIN was more
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Wayne Wang
Starring: Christina July Kim | Jackie Chung | John Lie | Justin Chon
Michael says: “This gentle film about losing a parent was based on an autobiographical ‘New Yorker’ essay written by Chang-Rae Lee, who then co-wrote the screenplay with director Wayne Wang, best known for his adaptation of Amy Tan’s THE JOY LUCK
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Alan Ball
Starring: Judy Greer | Margo Martindale | Paul Bettany | Peter Macdissi | Sophia Lillis | Steve Zahn
Diane says: “I’ll put UNCLE FRANK a notch above a Hallmark movie. An Amazon original by Alan Ball (screenplay, AMERICAN BEAUTY), this 1970s-set drama uses the perspective of adolescent Beth (well played by Sophia Lillis) who yearns for something more
Read the review...By Michael Colford
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Weir
Starring: David Gulpilil | Frederick Parslow | Nandjiwarra Amagula | Olivia Hamnett | Richard Chamberlain | Vivean Gray
Michael says: “There’s something about a Peter Weir film that appeals to me… even if I don’t like the film overall. Case in point: I’m not a fan of DEAD POET’S SOCIETY in the least, but I can’t deny the
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