Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jim Henson
Starring: David Bowie | Frank Oz | Jennifer Connelly | Shari Weiser | Shelley Thompson | Toby Froud
Michael says: “I have a dirty little secret… I’m not a fan of the muppets. I know, it’s sacrilege, but I enjoyed Sesame St. as a child, but I never really got into the Muppet Show, nor did I enjoy
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: David Hemmings | Gillian Hills | Jane Birkin | John Castle | Peter Bowles | Sarah Miles | Vanessa Redgrave | Veruschka von Lehndorff
Michael says: “Continuing my odyssey to fill some of the gaps in my movie-viewing history, I caught up with Michelangelo Antonioni’s BLOW-UP. Released in 1966, BLOW-UP, while superficially a mystery of sorts, is really a curiously mysterious, visually stunning look at
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Bob Peterson | Pete Docter
Starring: Bob Peterson | Christopher Plummer | Delroy Lindo | Edward Asner | Jordan Nagai
Diane says: “Latest Pixar is bedeviled by a MacGuffin chase that makes it generic. It’s the first half hour of the film, the beautifully moving story of a couple passing from youth to old age and relinquished dreams, that makes this
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Starring: Adèle Exarchopoulos | Bruno Lochet | Coralie Russier | David Marsais | Grégoire Ludig | India Hair | Raphaël Quenard | Roméo Elvis
Michael says: “Most of French director Quentin Dupieux’s films begin with a simple, but completely bizarre and often ridiculous premise, that he is then able to spin into an entertaining yarn with some social commentary threaded in. With MANDIBLES, a
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Geeta Malik
Starring: Adil Hussain | Ashritha Kancharla | Manisha Koirala | Moses Das | Rish Shah | Sophia Ali | Thomas Kasp
Vicki says: “INDIA SWEETS AND SPICES is an Indian inter-generational coming of age film. It tries to take on too many themes and , as a result, it falls flat. It has some good moments and a fine performance by
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Douglas Tirola
Vicki says: “What is unique about Tirola’s extremely well-crafted documentary is that it is told through interviews, tv footage, letters, home movies and audio clips. It traces from his early life to his protesting the Vietnam War and doesn’t shy
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: D'Arcy Drollinger
Starring: Adam Roy | Alaska Thunderfuck | D'Arcy Drollinger | James Arthur M. | Leigh Crow | Manuel Caneri | Nancy French | Seton Brown
Beth C. says: “Directed by D’Arcy Drollinger, this narrative is a hilarious drag queen extravaganza! The cast is phenomenal, all funny. Over the top physical comedy and ridiculous plot twists, the film earns high marks from me this Ptown festival!
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Marion Hill
Starring: Hannah Pepper | Idella Johnson | Lucien Guignard | Sivan Noam Shimon
Beth C. says: “Directed by I don’t care who, is a terrible, terrible film. (Spoilers below) I suppose this film made it into the festival because it was shot in Paris on a lovely property and the characters cast were
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Anthony Ramos | Corey Hawkins | Daphne Rubin-Vega | Dascha Polanco | Gregory Diaz IV | Jimmy Smitts | Leslie Grace | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Melissa Barrera | Noah Catala | Olga Merediz | Stephanie Beatriz
Michael says: “I’m just sliding this in because I’m the only person I know who didn’t like this film, so don’t listen to me, because it really seems to be universally beloved. I, on the other hand, am apparently a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Starring: Gaby Hoffman | Jon Tenney | Laura Linney | Mark Ruffalo | Matthew Broderick | Rory Culkin
Michael says: “After watching SPOTLIGHT, and ruminating on Mark Ruffalo as an actor, and how people just seem to go gaga over him, but I find him… fine, I decided to go back to the first film I saw him
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Dan Chen
Vicki says: “ACCEPTED is a provocative and timely documentary. What makes it stand out is its bizarre number of unexpected turns. Chen follows four students as he begins his profile of the TM Landry Prep school where all students achieve
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: David Gelb
Vicki says: “David Gelb of JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI fame now turns his camera on Wolfgang Puck. Puck began cooking for celebrities and then became a celebrity chef. We learn quite a bit about Wolfgang in this well-done profile of
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Debbie Lum
Julie says: “Focuses on Lowell High School, a top public high school in San Francisco. The seniors there are stressed out as they apply for their dream colleges. They scrutinize how every element of their application from classes, extracurricular activities
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kristian Petri | Kristina Lindström
Julie says: “Documentary about Bjorn Andresen and the effects of fame thrust upon him when he was cast in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death In Venice Story at just 15. His past and present are more interesting than one might
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Hal Holbrook | Jane Fonda | Jason Robards | Maximilian Schell | Meryl Streep | Rosemary Murphy | Vanessa Redgrave
Philip says: “There exist a handful of films I watch so many times with such intensity I imagine the next scene a moment before it arrives on the screen. Such is my experience with JULIA, the 1977 adaptation of the
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Basil Dearden
Starring: Anthony Nicholls | Dennis Price | Dirk Bogarde | Norman Bird | Peter Copley | Peter McEnery | Sylvia Syms
Philip says: “In 1961, U.K. director Basil Dearden did something remarkable. He made a big budget film starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Sims about homosexuality. The title of the film was VICTIM. Ironically instead of portraying the lead character as
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: George Stevens
Starring: Anne Revere | Elizabeth Taylor | Fred Clark | Keefe Brasselle | Montgomery Clift | Raymond Burr | Shelley Winters
Philip says: “George Stevens’ adaptation of An American Tragedy became the 1951 Oscar winning film, A PLACE IN THE SUN. Starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters, Stevens’ film follows the modest rise and fall of a nephew to a
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: C. Aubrey Smith | George Sanders | Joan Fontaine | Judith Anderson | Laurence Olivier | Nigel Bruce | Reginald Denny
Philip says: “REBECCA is a classic on so many levels. It was Hitch’s first American film made in 1940 for David O. Selznick. Second, it was an eerie Gothic thriller based on the famous Daphne du Maurier novel. Third it stars
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Gregory La Cava
Starring: Adolphe Menjou | Andrea Leeds | Constance Collier | Gail Patrick | Ginger Rogers | Katharine Hepburn | Lucille Ball | Samuel S. Hinds
Philip says: “Edna Ferber’s adaptation of the stage play she wrote with George S. Kaufman won Best Picture from the NY Film Critics Circle and was nominated for four Oscars. STAGE DOOR is the kind of old film (1937 is
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Starring: Henry Wadsworth | Maureen O'Sullivan | Minna Gombell | Myrna Loy | Nat Pendleton | Porter Hall | William Powell
Philip says: “The 1930’s shone a little brighter thanks to the adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Thin Man serialized for the big screen by director W.S. ‘Woody’ Van Dyke. Stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as carefree sleuths Nick and
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