Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Alison Klayman
Jason says: “Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is an odd duck, even by installation-artist standards. That it’s often an affable, upbeat eccentricity may help explain why a government not known for free expression let the outspoken Ai be for so long
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yousry Nasrallah
Starring: Bassem Samra | Menna Shalabi | Nahed El Sebaï | Salah Abdallah
Bruce says: “Having seen Yousry Nasrallah’s earlier films THE AQUARIUM and SCHEHERAZADE: TELL ME A STORY, I now know what to expect. His films tell multiple stories, usually involving clashes between classes, religious groups and the old and new Egypt.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Akiyoshi Naako | Hiroki Narimiya | Mirei Kiritani | Rei Dan | Ryo Ishibashi | Takumi Saito
Jason says: “I’ve never played the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney video game, but I gather it’s just as deeply silly as Takashi Miike’s adaptation, which I submit must be a good thing. I also suggest that it’s quite possible that
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Fernando Merirelles
Starring: Anthony Hopkins | Ben Foster | Jude Law | Lucia Siposova | Marianne Jean-Baptiste | Rachel Weisz
Thom says: “Director Meirelles has really been on a tear with such successes as CITY OF GOD, THE CONSTANT GARDNER, & BLINDNESS so with the first rate cast here I had high expectations, but maybe I’ve seen one too many
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Pablo Stoll
Starring: Anaclara Ferreyra Palfy | Humberto De Vargas | Sara Bessio
Thom says: “Director Stoll had impressed me with WHISKEY (2004) & I liked this dysfunctional family drama even more. Usually with such a sad sack trio (mother, moved-out dad, & obstreperous teen girl) I’d have lost interest shortly into the
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Julie Delpy
Starring: Albert Delpy | Alexandre Nahon | Alexia Landeau | Chris Rock | Dylan Baker | Julie Delpy | Kate Burton
Jason says: “Sequels to independent films that didn’t really break out are kind of odd things; the audience is as much those who heard the first movie was pretty good as the people who loved it, so even more than
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Vladan Nikolic
Starring: Al Nazemian | Ana Asensio | Didier Flamand | Jason Robards III | Peter Scanavino
Jason says: “ZENITH is a bad no-budget science fiction movie, but at least it’s considerate enough to place itself toward the end of the alphabet. After all, while it did somehow manage to get itself booked in a few theaters
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: John Carney | Kieran Carney
Starring: David Murray | David Pearse | Janice Byrne | Rory Keenan | Simon Delaney
Jason says: “If ZONAD ever started to make a lick of sense for even one second, it probably wouldn’t work. Fortunately, filmmakers John & Kieran Carney are well aware of that, and while they have managed to put something resembling
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Justin Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron | Collette Wolfe | Elizabeth Reaser | Patrick Wilson | Patton Oswalt
Diane says: “Major disappointment! Maybe I was too excited by my sister’s prediction that YA would be the female CHUCK AND BUCK. Maybe I’ve been too captivated by the cringeworthy, edgy dialogue of the Duplass brothers. YA’s story is flat
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Andy Mitton | Jesse Holland
Starring: Anessa Ramsey | Cassidy Freeman | Clark Freeman | Laura Heisler | Lee Wilkof
Jason says: “YELLOWBRICKROAD is a movie constructed out of every tangentially-related spooky idea that its makers could graft onto the setting, and that grab-bag approach can be a dangerous way to put a movie together, even one where the usual
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