Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tim Wardle
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “A stranger-than-fiction doc even *more* fun than but almost disturbing as CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS? No wonder it’s the feel-good-then-feel-bad indie hit of the summer. The first half hour or so is immensely entertaining; the increasingly wacko plot twists
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kate Novack
Starring: documentary
Chris says: “Fairly pedestrian for a profile documentary—more worthy of CNN than a theatrical release, really. But Andre Leon Talley’s personality is welcome in almost any setting. Just as he nearly stole the show from no less than Anna Wintour
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Cory Finley
Starring: Anton Yelchin | Anya Taylor-Joy | Olivia Cooke
Chris says: “Starts off a little boring and leaden, with two rich girls(Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy, both very good) in a passive-aggressive pas de deux. It achieves some focus once the what-to-do-about-the-creepy-stepfather problem is established—a narrative we’ve seen too
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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
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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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