Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastian del Amo
Starring: Barbara Mori | Julian Sedgwick | llse Salas | Luis Gerardo Méndez | Michael Imperi | Óscar Jaenada
Jason says: “It might be interesting to watch CANTINFLAS while making tick marks to see just how much is in Spanish with English subtitles and how much is in English with Spanish subtitles. It’s probably not 50/50, or even that
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ivan Kavanagh
Starring: Antonia Campbell-Hughes | Calum Heath | Hannah Hoekstra | Kelly Byrne | Rupert Evans | Steve Oram
Jason says: “THE CANAL opens with a bit that’s almost too clever for its own good, with film archivist David Williams (Rupert Evans) standing on stage and asking an audience full of unruly children if any want to see some
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Josephine Decker
Starring: Charlie Hewson | Isolde Chae-Lawrence | Sarah Small | Stephan Goldbach | Yury Yakor
Jason says: “BUTTER ON THE LATCH was listed in the program as playing before director Josephine Decker’s prior film, THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY, as if it was a short film rather than a 63-minute feature. The programmers and projectionists
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Snow Zou
Starring: Gao Yuanyuan | Lam Suet | Nicholas Tse
Jason says: ““Is it cynical of me to start counting shots between a ‘New York 2001′ caption and the first glimpse of the World Trade Center, or of writer/director Snow Zou for putting the audience in that position? That’s not
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Flip van der Kuil | Steffen Haars
Starring: Birgit Schuurman | Daniel Arends | Henry van Loon | Raymond Thiry | Sylvia Hoeks | Tim Haars
Jason says: “I wasn’t really looking forward to this one, having kind of hated the first New Kids movie enough to skip the second, but it was the only English-friendly thing playing and I wanted to see what came after,
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Brent Hodge
Michael says: “I’ve been watching a bunch of 2014 films on DVD or streaming this past week or so in preparation for nominations. I’m planning on doing a quick round-up of these films soon, but this latest film is the
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ning Hao
Starring: Huang Bo | Xu Zheng | Yuan Quan | Zhang Li | Zhou Dongyu
Jason says: “Director Ning Hao has received some attention over the last few months because the Chinese censor board finally allowed the release of NO MAN’S LAND a movie from 2009 that he is reluctant to discuss, whether for political
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Daniel Wu Yan-zu | Gao Yuanyuan | Louis Koo Tin-lok | Miram Yeung | Vic Chou Yu-min
Jason says: “DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2 repeats quite a bit from part one, from rescuing a weird pet to flirting through facing windows; one character even wryly asks another if she thinks her life is a ‘to be
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane | Ethan Hawke | Lorelei Linklater | Nick Krause | Patricia Arquette
Chris says: “When asked what BOYHOOD was about, I stumbled in finding the words for a two-sentence description; having had a few days to mull it over, my response now would be simply, ‘Everything.’ It’s the best way to sum
Read the review...Boundless (Hong Kong; 94 min.) directed by: Ferris Lindocumentary Jason says: “Like many documentaries about films and filmmakers, BOUNDLESS will likely eventually end up as the extra disc in a box set (in this case of Johnnie To films), which
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Alex van Warmerdam
Starring: Alex van Warmerdam | Hadewych Minis | Jan Bijvoet | Jeroen Perceval | Tom Dewispelaere
Thom says: “I saw van Warmerdam’s brilliant 2009 film THE LAST DAYS OF EMMA BLANK (5 CATS) at TIFF and ever since I’ve been haphazardly tracking him down but it was sheer coincidence that I went to see BORGMAN recently.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Mathieu Amalric
Starring: Léa Drucker | Mathieu Amalric | Stéphanie Cléau
Jason says: “Georges Simenon wrote La Chambre Bleue (The Blue Room in English) about sixty years ago, and it appears to be the sort of elemental crime story where only small details need be changed to bring it into the
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Amy Hargreaves | Brent Werzner | Devin Ratray | Eve Plumb | Kevin Kolack | Macon Blair | Stacy Rock
Jason says: “Say this for BLUE RUIN: It starts from a different place that many movies of its type, and that starting point means that even when it doesn’t necessarily go in a unique direction, it still winds up in
Read the review...Blind Detective (Hong Kong/China; 138 min.) directed by: Johnnie Tostarring: Andy Lau Tak-wah; Guo Tao; Sammi Cheng Sau-man; Lam Suet; Gao Yuan-Yuan Jason says: “I know that I have made comments about how it’s a shame that we’ll likely only
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Kei’ichi Sato | Kentarô Ohtani
Starring: Ayame Gôriki | Hiro Mizushimal | Mizuki Yamamoto | Yûka
Jason says: “One of the women in front of me was throwing her hands up roughly every ten minutes or so during this movie, and I wondered off the top of my head whether she was just having a general
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Robert Lemelson
Jason says: “BITTER HONEY opens with a bit of informative text, including the fact that it was filmed over a seven-year period. It’s an odd bit of information to include, because while director Robert Lemelson does a fair job of
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Amy Ryan | Damian Young | Ed Norton | Emma Stone | Merrit Wever | Michael Keaton | Susan Blackwell | Zach Galifianakis
Diane says: “Too bad I didn’t get it, before seeing BIRDMAN, that the real-life career of its star, Michael Keaton, peaked with the BATMAN movies. But the story of an actor trying to make a comeback–this time by writing, directing,
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Director: Pascale Ferran
Starring: Anaïs Demoustier | Geoffrey Cantor | Josh Charles | Radha Mitchell | Roschdy Zem | Taklyt Vongdara
Michael says: “I caught this unusual French film at the Toronto International Film Festival, and while the film overall is very good, it is most notable for a terrific performance by Josh Charles (most recently seen in ‘The Good Wife’)
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Eric Slade | Stephen Silha
Thom says: “It’s a rare film where I have a personal connection with the protagonist, no matter how small, which is the exact case here where for one semester on my way to my B.A. in Film from San Francisco
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Aharon Keshales | Navot Papushado
Starring: Doval’e Glickman | Dvir Benedek | Lior Ashkenzai | Menashe Noy | Rotem Keinan | Tzahi Grad
Jason says: “Even if Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado were just one filmmaking team out of many people making this sort of movie in Israel, BIG BAD WOLVES would be a pretty terrific movie, a step up from their already
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