Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Randy Moore
Starring: Annet Mahendru | Danielle Safady | Elena Schuber | Jack Dalton | Katelynn Rodriguez | Roy Abramsohn
Jason says: “Someday, perhaps soon, folks may accuse Randy Moore of selling out. After all, while most of the crowd for the opening-night showing of ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW seemed to be there to cheer on poking a finger in the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Ben Falcone | Catherine Keener | James Gandolfini | Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Toni Collette
Chris says: “As dependable as Rohmer or Ozu, Nicole Holofcener could be their modern American equivalent as an auteur director. In terms of style and sensibility, she arguably makes the same film over and over again, but touches on a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Luo Li
Starring: Dian Mai | Hai Zhang | Jia Liu | Jie Zi | Juchuan Li | Li Wen | Wei Wu | Yi Zuo
Kyle says: “The awkwardly but amusingly Anglicized title EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL is based upon three chapters from the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West” — not to be confused with Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow’s recent film
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Peter Webber
Starring: Eriko Hatsune | Isao Natsuyagi | Matthew Fox | Shohei Hino | Tommy Lee Jones | Toshiyuki Nishida
Jason says: “Under normal circumstances, I might grumble about EMPEROR being a case of keeping an interesting story and larger-than-life characters at arm’s length in favor of someone that the audience can perhaps more easily relate to. In this case,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Boris Rodriguez
Starring: Alain Goulem | Dylan Smith | Georgina Reilly | Paul Braunstein | Stephen McHattie | Thure Lindhardt
Jason says: “We’ve all heard (or used) some variation on ‘my art comes from a dark place’ before; there’s also its close relative ‘suffering for one’s art’. Not exactly the inspiration you’d expect for a movie named ‘EDDIE: THE SLEEPWALKING
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Zal Batmanglij
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård | Brit Marling | Ellen Page | Patricia Clarkson | Shiloh Fernandez | Toby Kebbell
Chris says: “Serviceable—that’s the word I kept thinking of throughout this thriller in which an intelligence agency operative (Brit Marling) infiltrates herself within an eco-terrorist group that targets the agency’s corporate clients. I’m not saying this film, co-written by Marling
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alan Brennan
Starring: Aoife duffin | David Morrissey | Jenn Murray | John Lynn | Rafe Spall | Rory Keenan
Jason says: “You wouldn’t think a genre as hyphenated as the indie-sci-fi-romantic-comedy would have enough entries to have staples, but ‘boy thinks he’s alien/time traveler/robot, making the girl who thinks he’s otherwise sweet uncomfortable’ pops up a fair amount. It
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: James Franco
Starring: Ahna O'Reilly | Beth Grant | James Franco | Jim Parrack | Logan Marshall-Green | Tim Blake Nelson
Michael says: “Of all of William Faulkner’s catalog, I have only read The Sound and the Fury, but that is enough to tell me that James Franco successfully captures the tone and feel of Faulkner in his co-written adaptation of
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Rithy Panh
Kyle says: “DUCH, MASTER OF THE FORGES OF HELL was one of the features of the recent series titled ‘Old Ghosts, New Dreams: The Emerging Cambodian Cinema’ shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center from April 19 to 25,
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Crystal Huang | Guo Tao | Lam Suet | Li Jing | Louis Koo | Sun Honglei
Kyle says: “The New York Premiere of DRUG WAR brought out enough fans of the great Hong Kong director Johnnie To to fill the Walter Reade Theater, although more than likely, the combination of drugs, cops, criminals and gun battles
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Starring: Alba Rohrwacher | Isabelle Huppert | Maya Sansa | Michele Riondino | Toni Servillo
Bruce says: “It is impossible to sit through DORMANT BEAUTY and not think about TALK TO HER, Pedro Almodóvar’s brilliant film about the events surrounding two women in comas. While DORMANT BEAUTY also has a similar pair – one on
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Eddie Mullins
Starring: Brain Charles Johnson | Heidi K Eklund | Jason Downs | Justin Rice | Laura Campbell | Leo Fitzpatrick
Jason says: “DOOMSDAYS has gags. Lots and lots of gags about a pair of guys who, figuring that the world is going to hell anyway, just walk around taking what they want as they go through a vacation town in
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Starring: Alison Brie | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Julianne Moore | Scarlett Johansson | Tony Danza
Chris says: “Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the rare child actor who, as an adult has sculpted a markedly distinct career and identity. He’s also difficult to pin down, having convincingly played everything from a gay hustler (MYSTERIOUS SKIN) to a lovesick
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Chris says: “Divine was great and could unquestionably carry a film, but could Harris Glen Milstead do the same? Of course, Divine was Milstead’s outrageous drag alter-ego and left such a vivid legacy behind no one would dare argue against
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Renaud Gauthier
Starring: Catherine Antaki | François Aubin | Ivan Freud | Jeremie Earp-Lavergne | Nancy Blais | Sandrine Bisson
Jason says: “What is there to say about DISCOPATH that matters to anybody outside its relatively narrow target audience? It’s a slasher movie with a simple but absurd concept and some impressive effects work to show the mayhem, and both
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Henry Alex Rubin
Starring: 357 Magnumm | Alexander Skarsgård | Hope Davis | Jason Bateman | Jonah Bobo | Max Thieriot
Thom says: “This film has received lots of top, glowing reviews so I went with huge expectations but I was underwhelmed. It could be considered CRASH for the Internet Age except the three stories told here, aren’t interconnected. While not
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Matthew Johnson
Starring: Alen Deli | Krista Madison | Matthew Johnson | Owen Williams | Shailene Garnett
Jason says: “Idle question: When seeing a film about bullying – whether or not it leads to school shootings or not – is it considered a success on the part of the film makers or evidence that I’m a horrible
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Starring: Aamir Khan | Abhishek Bachchan | Katrina Kaif | Kim DeJesus | Riya Ray | Tabrett Bethell
Jason says: “No prior experience with Bollywood’s biggest action franchise is necessary to enjoy DHOOM: 3, and that appears to be very much by design – the heroes carried over from the previous two installments are very much secondary to
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ann Shin
Jason says: “THE DEFECTOR is a documentary adventure of sorts – it embeds the filmmakers and audience in a situation that has very real danger as things happen, rather than having the filmmakers dig up what they can later. Sure,
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jason Lapeyre | Robert Wilson
Starring: Aidan Gouvela | Andy Reid | Gage Munroe | Kolton Stewart | Mackenzie Munro | Michael Friend | Siam Yu | Spencer Howes
Jason says: “I DECLARE WAR is a terrific little coming-of-age movie that’s made all the better because there are no adults and no real crises in it; it’s just kids evolving into something that’s not quite the same as what
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