Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Paul Schrader
Starring: Amanda Seyfried | Bill Hoag | Cedric the Entertainer | Ethan Hawke | Michael Gaston | Philip Ettinger | Victoria Hill
Chris says: “I believe any work of art has the potential to be both ridiculous and sublime, however rarely one achieves such a tricky balance is. To its credit, FIRST REFORMED is often firmly the latter—the austere opening credits sequence with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats | 4 cats
Director: Nadine Labaki
Starring: Boluwatife Treasure Bankole | Fadi Kamel Youssef | Kawthar Al Haddad | Yordanos Shiferaw | Zain Al Rafeea
Chris says: “If anything, Nadine Labaki has a talent for coaching great performances from child actors: Zain Al Rafeea, the 12-ish-year-old lead is exceptional for his age, but one-year-old Boluwatife Treasure Bankole nearly goddamn steals the show from him. Loses
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Chris says: “Not to diminish all the great moon-landing footage, what stuck with me most here was the first half-hour: a fascinating time capsule of what this country and its people looked like fifty years ago, restored to appear as
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Danny Clinch | T.G. Herrington
Chris says: “Ephemeral but heartfelt and engaging, particularly whenever it shows the dialogue occurring organically between the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Cuban musicians (it spends a little too much time telling us about it.)”
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Zhangke Jia
Starring: Fan Liao | Feng Xiaogang | Tao Zhao | Xu Zheng | Zhang Yibai
Chris says: “Jia Zhangke’s last film, MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART is my favorite of his assessments of how much China has evolved in his lifetime; although this repeats many of that film’s tropes (plus sneaks in a callback to STILL LIFE,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Matt Spicer
Starring: Aubrey Plaza | Billy Magnussen | Elizabeth Olsen | O'Shea Jackson Jr. | Wyatt Russell
Thom says: “One of my favorite things about seeing films is when I cash in on someones recommendation and the film blows me away. Such was the case from Chlotrudis reporters for their strong reviews of this sharp indie winner.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Christian Petzold
Starring: Barbara Auer | Franz Rogowski | Godehard Giese | Lilien Batman | Maryam Zaree | Paula Beer
Chris says: “It’s a canny move to set the 1942 source material in the present day, and shrewder still for director Christian Petzold (PHOENIX) to indulge in stylistic motifs that one would find in a film from that era (most
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Starring: Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir | Jóhann Sigurðarson | Jörundur Ragnarsson | Juan Camillo Roman Estrada
Brett says: “A surefire candidate for a Chlotrudis ‘Best Use of Music in a Film,’ WOMAN AT WAR dives deep into the story of an middle-aged eco-activist who dedicates herself to putting a cause she believes in above her own
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Agata Buzek | André Benjamin | Juliette Binoche | Lars Eidinger | Mia Goth | Robert Pattinson
Chris says: “Rest assured, Claire Denis’ first English-language feature is no sellout or concession to a more commercial cinema; on the contrary, it’s possibly her most enigmatic effort since THE INTRUDER. It centers on Monte (Robert Pattinson, further distancing himself
Read the review...By Chris Kriofske
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Penny Lane
Chris says: “I totally get Satanism as a rejection against ‘straight’ society, but how ’bout as activism to *protect* separation of church and state? My skepticism, however, gradually broke down–as she conveyed with her last doc NUTS!, director Penny Lane
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