Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Amanda McBaine | Jesse Moss
Chris says: “I’m often drawn to documentaries that focus on a subculture or an event that I personally would never, ever want to participate in, like this conference of a thousand teenage boys from Texas who come together in state
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Director: Robin Pront
Starring: Annabelle Wallis | Charlotte Lindsay Marron | Hero Fiennes Tiffin | Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Sanyuan Peng
Starring: Andy Lau | Boran Jing | Sandra Kwan Yue Ng | Tony Ka Fai Leung
Thom says: “It’s rather disconcerting to me that this excellent film from China took such a circuitous route to my viewing pleasure. First-time director Peng might have been a minor problem, but must-see Andy Lau is an in international superstar.
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Radu Jude
Starring: Dana Marineci | Ivana Mladenovic | Lucian Teodor Rus | Serban Pavu
Thom says: “I’m roaring around my brain trying to discover who recommended this superlative film fare to me. While Jude is an established director in Romania I’ve only seen one of his 7 other full-length fiction films AFERIM!, which didn’t
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Julia Reichert | Steven Bognar
Starring: Junming 'Jimmy' Wang | Robert Allen | Sherrod Brown
Diane says: “I guess I was mistaken that AMERICAN FACTORY was eligible, but anyway… This documentary played me like a pinball. It brought out my prejudices, made me question my values, and gave me a lot of angst. Directors Bognar
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christian Sonderegger
Starring: Coby | Ellen Richard-Hunt | Jacob Hunt | Sara Mound
Thom says: “I had seen Coby previously in an episode of QUOTIDIEN and was won over by his boyish charm. This telling documentary expands on the theme of the transformation of Coby from a 21-year-old female to a 21-year-old male,
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Luis Bunuel
Starring: Alfonso Mejía | Estela Inda | Miguel Inclan | Roberto Cobo
Thom says: “Expect these further lapses as age rears its ugly head, but I was perusing new offerings on Prime Video and ran across THE YOUNG & THE DAMNED. From the 1950 date I recognized it to be from Bunuel’s
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Starring: Alejandro Castillo | Celine Reymond | Luis Alarcón | Marko Zaror
Jason says: “It is, perhaps, possible to tell just how well-done a parody is by how long it’s able to convince you that it’s the real thing. MANDRILL presents an exceptionally straight face, to the extent that it can come
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hun Jang
Jason says: “SECRET REUNION starts out like a spy movie, the sort they don’t set in the present day anymore because the Cold War has ended everywhere but Korea and Cuba (although from the recent news about a busted Russian
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun | Parkpoom Wongpoom | Paween Purikitpanya | Songyos Sugmakanan | Visute Poolvoralaks
Jason says: “The first PHOBIA (called 4BIA in festival programs) was a sort of sampler, offering up four short horror stories from four different directors, also tending toward different types of horror. The follow-up anthology brings the number of stories
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tae-gyun Kim
Starring: Asami Mizukawa | Dai Watanabe | Motoki Fukami | Tomohisa Yuge
Jason says: “It’s tough not to get just a little excited during the opening sequence of HIGANJIMA, because it makes a thoroughly enjoyable statement: That putting a stake through a vampire’s heart is for people who aren’t truly committed to
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Danny Mulheron | Donna Ackersten | Mark Hadlow | Peter Vere-Jones | Ross Jolly | Stuart Devenie
Thom says: “This film was so over-the-top in so many delicious ways and it was totally unexpected. It’s currently unavailable on NetFlix but I came across it at my DVD store and since I’ve had such great luck in the
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Björn Almroth | Goran Marjanovic | Sanna Bråding | Thorsten Flinck
Thom says: “I once spent a week in Malmö, where Moodysson lives with his family, which I know is neither here nor there. I’m sorry to report that this once very promising Swedish director has lost his way. His TOGETHER
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Harmony Korine
Starring: Dave Cloud | Harmony Korine | Page Spain | Paul Booker
Thom says: “If this wasn’t the worst film entered at TIFF 2009 I certainly wouldn’t want to see what was. This seriously is one of the worst disappointments of my entire life. Korine’s previous film MISTER LONELY was my #1
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Mogens H. Christiansen
Starring: Clara Maria Bahamondes | Jakob Cedergren | Jonas Wandschneider | Kim Bodnia | Stine Stengade
Thom says: “This kids film was way too unsophisticated for my tastes and other than a sweet feel to the story was nearly an anachronism. Two children discover a time-traveler and try to help him out of his centuries old
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Yonfan
Starring: Guangxuan Zhu | Joseph Chang | Kenneth Tsang | Terri Kwan | Wing Fan
Thom says: “It happens in 1950s Taiwan, during the period known as White Terror, when an anti-Communist crusade swept the island and hysteria reigned. On one fall afternoon, two young sisters come back from class to find their home ransacked
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alex van Warmerdam
Starring: Alex van Warmerdam | Annet Malherbe | Eva van de Wijdeven | Gene Bervoets | Gijs Naber | Marlies Hueur | Marwan Kenzari
Thom says: “This Dutch gem is so droll that I find myself still thinking about months after seeing it at T.I.F.F. A woman who supposedly is dying lives in a large country house where she has assigned servant roles (including
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Don Roos
Starring: Anthony Rapp | Debra Monk | Lauren Ambrose | Lisa Kudrow | Natalie Portman | Scott Cohen
Thom says: “This film was adapted from the novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman. This didn’t really win me over but perhaps it was a matter of relating to it. Emilia Greenleaf (Portman) a young lawyer sets
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Isabelle Carré | Louis-Ronan Choisy | Melvil Poupaud | Pierre Louis-Calixte
Thom says: “French director Ozon was well on his way to becoming one of my favorite TOP 10 LIVING DIRECTORS with his 4 really strong showings WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS, UNDER THE SAND, 8 WOMEN, & SWIMMING POOL (my
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Rating: 0 cats
Director: Claudio Fragasso
Starring: Connie Young | George Hardy | Margo Prey | Michael Paul Stephenson
Scot says: “While I can’t say that TROLL 2 is the worst film I’ve ever seen (see PLANET 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, LET ME DIE A WOMAN, and INDEPENDENCE DAY), I could be convinced that it is the worst film
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