Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.7 cats
Director: Molly Bernstein
Jason says: “Even those of us who have never seen Ricky Jay do close-up magic will likely recognize the man from his side gigs as a character actor – and if you stay through the credits of those movies and
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Anthony Dixon
Starring: Jamie Abrams | Jenna Jade Rain | Ryan Brownlee
Jason says: “‘THE DEAD EXPERIMENT’ is going to get abused as a title. There’s the way it’s probably meant to be taken, as a sinister-sounding article-adjective-noun combination, but it also turns out to be a true sentence describing the plot
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: John Roberts
Starring: Bryan Dick | Carlos Acosta | Charity Wakefield | Christopher Simpson | Eva Birthistle | Manuel de Blas
Bruce says: “The value of such films as DAY OF THE FLOWERS lies not in cinematic prowess of any sort. They help us understand the many layers of many cultures that most of us never experience firsthand. On the plus
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Denis O'Hare | Jaerd Leto | Jennifer Garner | Kevin Rankin | Matthew McConaughey | Steve Zahn
Chris says: “On paper, this scans as a calculated attempt by Matthew McConaughey to complete his multi-film rehabilitation from rom-com leading man joke to well-respected, award-winning Actor. However, from the instant you see him startlingly emaciated as Ron Woodruff, you
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastián Silva
Starring: Agustin Silva | Gaby Hoffman | José Miguel Silva | Juan Andrés Silva | Michael Cera
Chris says: “At the very least, CRYSTAL FAIRY features two irrefutably memorable, if supremely irritating characters, both of them twenty-something Americans in Chile. The first, Jamie (Michael Cera) babbles on pretentiously about The Doors of Perception and harbors an obsession
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sophie Letourneur
Starring: Camille Genaud | Carole le Page | Julien Gester; Eugenio Renzi | Sophie Letourneur
Bruce says: “LES COQUILLETTES is an enjoyable piece of fluff, an example of amateur filmmaking pushing its way into the festival circuit, possibly the mainstream. Anyone can be a filmmaker today especially if they can tap into the beat of
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Byung-gil Jung
Starring: Jung Hae-kyun | Jung Jae-young | Kim Young-ae | Park Si-hoo
Jason says: “If movies were graded on a strict plus-minus system, CONFESSION OF MURDER would grade out as average; it’s packed full of silly and unbelievable plotting and twists along with a feeling of missed opportunities with its media satire,
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Rating: 4.6
Director: Stacie Passon
Starring: Funda Duval | Janet Moloney | Johnathan Tchaikovsky | Julie Fain Lawrence | Robin Weigert
Michael says: “No one has mentioned CONCUSSION in all this, and I have to say, I was quite surprised when Brian pitched it so hard at the Nominating Committee meeting, and even more surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kim Dae-Seung
Starring: Jo Yeo-Jeong | Kim Dong-Wook | Kim Min-Joon | Park Ji-Young
Kyle says: “THE CONCUBINE received its North American Premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival. Fans of the hit HBO television series GAME OF THRONES will feel right at home, although I am not sure that is the proper
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Anja Daelemans | Nicholas Bonner
Starring: Gwang Hun Kim | Han Jong-Sim
Kyle says: “COMRADE KIM GOES FLYING received its New York Premiere and was hailed by ‘Film Comment’ Editor Gavin Smith as the first North Korean film ever presented at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The occasion was greeted with
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Andrew Bujalski
Starring: Gerald Peary | Gordon Kindlmann | Myles Paige | Patrick Riester | Robin Schwarts | Wiley Wiggins
Jason says: “I think I’m done with Andrew Bujalski. I’ve seen three of his four films, and even the one I kind of liked didn’t really impress me. And while I can see some merit in the ones like COMPUTER
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Atsuko Maeda | Hiroki Narimiya | Masanobu Katsumara | Naomi Nishida | Satomi Tezuka | Sosei Tanaka
Jason says: “Hideo Nakata’s new one seems to start out with such promise – creepy visuals, a likable lead, the possibility of a whole apartment complex haunted with ghosts, and a knack for building tension out of small, real things
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Anna Kendrick | Brendan Gleeson | Brit Marling | Chris Cooper | Julie Christie | Nick Nolte | Richard Jenkins | Robert Redford | Sam Elliott | Shia LaBeouf | Stanley Tucci | Stephen Root | Susan Sarandon | Terrence Howard
Jason says: “THE COMPANY YOU KEEP can play a bit like a brute-force attack at times – sure, it’s kind of slow at times and eventually the audience winds up a couple steps ahead of the protagonist, but every ten
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Emil Christov
Starring: Lilia Abadjieva | Mihail Bilalov | Rousy Chanev | Ruscen Vidinliev
Thom says: “Batko becomes the master in his creation of an invisible web of informants by a group of revolutionaries that end up spying on each other. He controls his own secret fount of information. After the fall of communism,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Longman Leung | Sunny Luk
Starring: Aaron Kwok | Alex Tsui Ka-kit | Andy Lau | Charlie Young | Chin Kar-lok | Tony Leung Ka-fai
Kyle says: “THE GREAT WAR, DRUG WAR, COLD WAR, lots of movies about wars ancient, modern, political and imaginary: After dozens of these at the New York Asian Film Festival, it is a little confusing to remember which war is
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Starring: Dale Dickey | Dean Stockwell | Denis O'Hare | Jonathan Groff | Troian Bellisario
Chris says: “I’ve waited years for someone to make a film out of one of David Sedaris’ autobiographical essays, knowing that any attempt could go either way (see Ryan Murphy’s meh version of Augusten Burroughs’ RUNNING WITH SCISSORS). Fortunately, this
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: John Crowley
Starring: Ciarán Hinds | Denis Moschitto | Eric Bana | Jim Broadbent | Julia Stiles | Rebecca Hall | Riz Ahmed
Jason says: “It says something about humanity, the world we live in, or perhaps just me personally, that I’m bored by the brand of paranoia that keeps CLOSED CIRCUIT running. Is that in spite of how visible abuse of power
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jackie Chan
Starring: Jackie Chan | Kwon Sang-woo | Liao Fan | Linda Weissbecker | Oliver Platt | Vincent Sze | Yao Xingtong | Zhang Lan-xin
Jason says: “It’s not just one thing that has brought Jackie Chan to the point where his latest movie is something of a loud, sloppy mess, but everything working together: Age takes a toll on a performer this physical. Hollywood
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Starring: Cecilia Guitierrez | Erasmo Rodriguez | Manuel Ramos | Maria de Jesus Canales Ramirez | Monica Guzman
Jason says: “Yes, LOS CHIDOS goes there. Fill whatever twisted thing you want in for ‘there’, and that statement is likely to be true, although in actuality it’s not even in answer to a question – it’s doing something jaw-droppingly
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Rohit Shetty
Starring: Deepika Padukone | Nikitin Dheer | Priyamani | Satyaraj | Shah Rukh Khan
Jason says: “I’m not sure quite how far we are into CHENNAI EXPRESS when the indicator of where the intermission would be comes up (the movie just kept going in Boston but likely paused in India), but the realization that
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