Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Agnès Varda | JR
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Given that 2008’s THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS was supposed to be Agnès Varda’s swan song, we’re just lucky at all to get one more film from the now 89-year-old Godmother of the French New Wave. And while this
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mazen Khaled
Starring: Carol Abboud | Hadi Bou Ayash | Hamza Mekdad | Moustafa Fahs | Raneem Mourad | Rashad Nasreddine
Michael says: “There’s some major symbolism going on in the Lebanese film,MARTYR by Mazen Khaled, possibly about the state of Beirut, where the film takes place, but the gorgeous shots of water, and actor Hamza Mekdad’s nude body lean more
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tom Volf
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “As an opera singer, Maria Callas had an undeniably great voice, but in her time she was also unmatched as to how she embodied her roles onstage (and offstage as well.) Tom Volf’s documentary is a lovingly assembled
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Hirokazu Korreda
Starring: Koji Yakusho | MasaharuFukuyama | Shinnosuke Mitsushima
Chris says: “A legal thriller from a director best known for his Ozu-worthy family dramas? It slots more neatly into his oeuvre than you’d expect, primarily because the mystery per se is steeped in familial relationships, only this time with
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Carolyn Saint-Pé | Emma Stone | James Smith | Mark Gatiss | Nicholas Hoult | Olivia Colman | Rachel Weisz | William Dalby
Thom says: “In nine short years Greek director Lanthimos has vaulted to my TOP 10 Living Directors. I’ve been unable to find his first two features MY BEST FRIEND and KINETTA, but his five films that followed have all received
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Antonio Santini | Don Sickles
Starring: documentary
Diane says: “Caught this Sundance winner doc at a small theater today. The central figure is a friend of director Dan Sickles’ (co-director is Antonio Santini; their first was MALA MALA). We land in the middle of the lives of
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Josephine Decker
Starring: Helena Howard | Miranda July | Molly Parker
Chris says: “An admittedly frustrating but always fascinating puzzle box of a film. On the surface, it appears to be about teenager Madeline (Helena Howard), her antagonistic relationship with her single mother (Miranda July) and her after-school participation in an
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ian Bonhôte | Peter Ettedgui
Starring: documentary
Julie says: “This was a very well done doc. I recommend it. I think it painted a very clear, honest, intriguing and endearing portrait of Susanne Bartsch’s life and those around her as well as the important times in which
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Starring: Aleksey Rozin | Maryana Spivak | Matvey Novikov
Chris says: “Not as sharp a political allegory as LEVIATHAN, nor does it possess that film’s necessary gallows humor (which might’ve been out of place here, anyway.) However, Andrey Zvyagintsev (whose greatest film remains his first, THE RETURN remains a
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Kirin Kiki | Lily Franky | Mayu Matsuoka | Sakura Andô
Chris says: “Naming a favorite film by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is like doing the same for his closest progenitor, Yasujiro Ozu–nearly impossible, given their tendencies to revisit and refine themes of domesticity and humanism while maintaining a higher-than-average consistency.
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