Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Chris Rock
Jason says: “It took roughly a minute of TOP FIVE for me to realize that I really hadn’t been anticipating this film enough – it is, after all, built around Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson hanging around and verbally jousting
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tarek Saleh
Jason says: “TOMMY starts out looking like it might be a certain type of movie – you know, the one where the underestimated woman at the center is eventually revealed to always be three steps ahead of everyone around her
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Shion Sono
Brett says: “It has gangs. It has over-the-top violence. It has lots of dead bodies. Oh, and it’s a musical. If one is to become gang lord of one of the largest cities on earth, it’s going to take some
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Teller
Chris says: “This documentary from venerable magicians/entertainers/smartasses Penn and Teller initially asks whether it’s possible to recreate a Vermeer painting; by the film’s end, that question turns into why anyone would want to do so. I don’t mean that to
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Bradley King
Jason says: “TIME LAPSE is a standout even for one of the best sci-fi years I can remember Fantasia having, and while those are rankings that may not mean much to non-attendees, it is meant as high praise. There’s always
Read the review...Tiger Tail in Blue (USA; 80 min.) directed by: Frank V. Rossstarring: Rebecca Spence; Frank V. Ross; Megan Mercier; Allison Latta; Anthony J. Baker Jason says: “Give the latest wave of young independent filmmakers this: They seem to recognize that
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Josephine Decker
Jason says: “Before Josephine Decker’s THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY starts to be a weird, creepy sort of movie in a way that has real certainty and direction, it’s got two scenes that kind of warn the audience what it’s
Read the review...Thermae Romae II (Japan; 112 min.) directed by: Hideki Takeuchi starring: Hiroshi Abe; Aya Ueto; Masachika Ichimura; Kazuki Kitamura; Ivan Kostadinov Jason says: “2012’s THERMAE ROMAE adapted a manga with a delightfully high-concept premise – an architect of Roman bath
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Charlie Cox | David Thewlis | Eddie Redmayne | Felicity Jones | Maxine Peake
Jason says: “Stephen Hawking’s life story is extraordinary, but not necessarily cinematic – its milestones are often losing the ability to do things, and his accomplishments can be difficult for laymen to understand. So what do you do? In this
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Rating: 4.8 cats
Director: Dante Lam
Starring: Christie Chen Si-xuan | Daniel Wu Yin-cho | Dominc Lam Ka-wah | Fung So-po | Nick Cheung Ka-fai
Jason says: “You can tell from the opening moments of THAT DEMON WITHIN that it’s not going to be your standard cops ‘n robbers movie, and it’s sure not going to stand out for how grounded and realistic it is.
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Michael J. Epstein | Sophia Cacciola
Jason says: “By the time TEN is over, it has maybe managed to beat its story into making some kind of sense, or at least into the kind of nonsense that the audience can sort of work with. That’s probably
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Isao Takahata
Starring: Aki Asakura | Hikaru Ijûin | Nobuko Miyamoto | Takei Chii | Yukiji Asaoka
Jason says: “Though Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement from directing animated features with THE WIND RISES deserved all the attention it got last year, there is somewhat less noise being made about Isao Takahata’s swan song, THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA, though
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
Jason says: “For a while, I found George Takei’s twenty-first century career little more than tacky, an old man who was one a minor part of a pop culture phenomenon becoming a parody of himself in an effort to hang
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Christopher Menaul
Starring: Dan Stevens | Daphne Neville | Dominic Cooper | Jane Cussons
Jason says: “SUMMER IN FEBRUARY takes place in 1913 Cornwall, which had become an artists’ colony, and in some ways that community is more interesting than any of the people in it. There’s nothing wrong with the story the filmmakers
Read the review...Suck it Up Buttercup (USA; 87 min.) directed by: Malindi Ficklestarring: Robyn Ross; Gregory Konow; Lacy Marie Meyer; Alex Raymond; Brian Stuart Boyd; Steven Durgarn Lorraine says: “SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP premiered at the Bare Bones International Film and Music
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Richard Bates Jr
Jason says: “According to the post-movie Q&A, writer/director Richard Bates Jr. initially couldn’t get any projects off the ground after EXCISION, in part because that movie, despite garnering many positive reviews and festival awards, was just absurdly dark. So for
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Stuart Acher
Starring: Abraham Benrubi | Joel David Moore | Madeline Zima
Jason says: “Given that its name is a hashtag, one might expect #STUCK to have social media play some sort of central part of the story, and maybe cringe at the inevitable mishandling. Fortunately, filmmaker Stuart Acher doesn’t choose to
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Starring: Christophe Paou | Jean-Christophe Deladonchamps | Jérôme Chappatte | Patrick d'Assumçao
Kyle says: “New York Film Festival Selection Committee member Dennis Lim tells the audience: ‘I’ve been waiting to see this on a big screen ever since the Cannes Film Festival!’ His words promise size as well as artiness. The program
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Bruno Forzani | Hélène Cattet
Starring: Anna D'Annunzio | Birgit Yew | Hans de Munter | Joe Koener | Klaus Tange | Ursula Bedena
Kyle says: “A terrible title that will be shunned by all except artsy foreign film junkies, THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS is a deconstruction of the giallo genre. The word refers to the color yellow, which apparently was
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ramon Zürcher
Starring: Gustav Körner | Lea Draeger | Leon Alan Beiersdorf | Matthias Dittmer | Mia Kasalo | Monika Hetterle
Kyle says: “THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT is the assured feature film debut of writer/director Ramon Zürcher. The title is somewhat misleading, because the German DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN also means ‘remarkable’ or ‘noteworthy’ little cat, not our word ‘strange’ that usually
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