Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Armando Iannucci
Starring: Jeffrey Tambor | Michael Palin | Paddy Considine | Simon Russell Beale | Steve Buscemi
Chris says: “Excessively funny and appropriately dark, from the ‘musical emergency’ opening to the slapstick moving-of-the-body to a deliriously profane argument playing out in front of a small child. I may need a second viewing to determine whether this is
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Never a movie star but definitely a character, Scotty Bowers’ life was inadvertently custom-built for a documentary. He ran a brothel inside a Hollywood Blvd. gas station in the years following World WarII, one that infamously catered to
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Clancy Brown | Danny McCarthy | David Krumholtz | James Franco | Tim Blake Nelson | Willie Watson
Chris says: “Pretty consistent for what amounts to six separate stories only related by genre (in this case, the Western); also solid for a Coen Brothers film, given how scattershot the last one was. Not as fully realized as NO
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Starring: Cho Yunhee | Kim Min-hee | Kim Sae-byeok | Kwon Hae-hyo
Michael says: “THE DAY AFTER is a Koren film from prolific director Hong Sang-Soo. This film that starts with our lead, Bongwan (Kwon Hae-hyo),a respected literary critic who runs his own publishing house, being accused by his wife (Cho Yun-hee)
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Debra Granik
Starring: Ben Foster | Jeffery Rifflard | Thomasin McKenzie
Chris says: “Although far less prolific, I’d like to think of Debra Granik as the American Mike Leigh for her depiction (consideration, even) of the working-class without condescending to them. Not as seminal or all-out engrossing as WINTER’SBONE, but teenager
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Dana Adam Shapiro
Starring: documentary
Julie says: “This was pretty interesting. The woman running the show Suzanne Mitchell reminds me of my Mom’s best friend back in Texas re some of her mannerisms in her old age. She’s a character for sure. They go back
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Carlose Peralta | Daniela Demes | Diego Cortina Autrey | Marco Graf | Marina de Tavira | Yalitza Aparicio
Brett says: “Jaw-dropping cinematography perfectly fits a form-follows-function approach in which the audience eavesdrops and hovers around the tale, which is a sort of ominous love letter or thank-you note to the voiceless. Clearly a personal film for director Alfonso
Read the review...At Eternity’s Gate (Switzerland/UK/France/USA; 110min.) directed by:Julian Schnabelcast: WillemDafoe; Rupert Friend; Oscar Isaac; Mads Mikkelsen; Mathieu Amalric;Emmanuelle Seignier Chrissays: “In theory, Willem Dafoe seems a misguided choice to play VanGogh, given the age difference, lack of resemblance, etc. Happily, hemakes
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Amy Seimetz | Charlie Plummer | Chloe Sevigny | Steve Buscemi | Travis Fimmel
Chris says: “Expanding his palette beyond the more contained worlds of 45 YEARS and WEEKEND, English director Andrew Haigh adapts a Willy Vlautin novel for his first American feature. The protagonist, transient 16-year-old Charlie (Charlie Plummer) unexpectedly finds solace when he
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: David Zellener | Nathan Zellner
Starring: David Zellner | Mia Wasikowska | Nathan Zellner | Robert Pattinson
Chris says: “The Zellner Brothers’ previous film, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER, may end up on my top ten list for the decade, so this is a slight comedown. The less one knows going into it, the better, so I’ll just
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