Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Amber Tamblyn | Coleman Stinger | James Franco | Kate Mara | Sean Bott | Treat Williams
Jason says: “There is not a whole heck of a lot to 127 HOURS, story-wise: Guy goes climbing on his own, gets pinned by a falling boulder, and has to figure out a way to get out of a thoroughly
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Reed Cowan | Steven Greenstreet
Thom says: “You might well have thought that due to my living in California & being gay & Proposition 8 being right in my state I would have been more appreciative of this piece of agitprop. It’s certainly not because
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Miguel Arteta
Starring: Erik Knudsen | Jean Smart | Michael Cera | Portia Doubleday | Steve Buscemi | Zach Galifanakis
Jason says: “The night I saw this, I tweeted that I wasn’t sure whether Youth in Revolt was more amusingly or annoyingly mannered, and I still haven’t decided. It is, frequently, very funny, with great combinations of slapstick, wordplay, situations
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Bruce says: “Films about artists often fall short because the filmmaker does not know how to balance the personal life of the artist with the product he or she has created. The two united several years ago I was in
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Emily Blunt | Jim Broadbent | Miranda Richardson | Paul Bettany | Rupert Friend | Thomas Krestschmann
Jason says: “A quality, old-fashioned costume drama, well-done enough that there’s really not a whole lot to say about it. Emily Blunt is fairly impressive in the title role, humanizing a figure often thought of as little but stern and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Roy Andersson
Starring: Björn Englund | Briggita Persson | Elisabeth Helander | Jessika Lundberg | Leif Larsson | Olle Olson
Michael says: “It’s nearly impossible to describe the absurdist films of Roy Andersson, whose SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR was a minor Chlotrudis hit several years ago. Andersson’s films examine the human condition, with sly, deadpan humor, and static shots
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Allen Hughes | Brett Ratner | Fatih Akin | Joshua Marston | Mira Niar | Natalie Portman | Randall Balsmeyer | Shekhar Kapur | Shunji Iwai | Wen Jiang | Yvan Attal
Starring: Blake Lively | Bradley Cooper | Christina Ricci | Ethan Hawke | Natalie Portman | Orlando Bloom | Shia LaBeouf
Thom says: “This companion piece to PARIS JE T’AIME isn’t quite as good as the Paris version. The former concentrated on all different districts of the ‘City of Light,’ each with its own yarn, and was quite a bit more
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrzej Fidyk
Bruce says: “YODUK STORIES is one of those films that makes perfect sense during the screening but disintegrates considerably the further one gets from the viewing. The concept is unusual. Andrzej Fidyk traveled to North Korea to make a short
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Rating: 1.6 cats
Director: Aviva Kempner
Diane says: “The radio show ‘The Goldbergs’ began in 1930 and morphed into a TV show in the ’50s. This docu is about the show’s creator and star, Gertrude Berg, who played a warm and somewhat ditsy matriarch with a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Sook-yin Lee
Starring: Ali Liebert | Cristin Milioti | Kevin McDonald | Mark Rendall | Patrick Gilmore | Sheila McCarthy | Will Sasso
Thom says: “JUNO meets SHORTBUS as one reviewer states. Well, not really & it’s never wise to compare an inferior film to another. My opinion is that this film didn’t belong at TIFF & got a shot due to its
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