Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Satoshi Miki
Jason says: “There’s clear intent to make a clever movie in IT’S ME, IT’S ME from the opening shots of identical buildings, insistent posters about a rat infestation, and other bits that tie into the high concept of a young
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Daniele Cipri
Starring: Alfredo Castro | Aurora Quattrocchi | Giselda Volodi | Guiseppe Vitale | Toni Servillo
Bruce says: “The film opens with Busu, a disheveled man in an institutional waiting room, talking to anyone who will listen. It seems he has a story to tell and at first it is impossible to know how he fits
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Till Schauder
Thom says: “Here’s a fine offering from ever-reliable Film Movement, this one a documentary. I was thrilled to see the production collaboration between Iran & the US although the nature of the story most probably accounts for that. Kevin Sheppard
Read the review...In the House (France; 105 min.) directed by: François Ozon starring: Fabrice Luchini; Ernst Umhauer; Kristin Scott Thomas;; Emmanuelle Seigner; Denis Ménochet Chris says: “That old adage, ‘Write what you know’ receives an ironic, cautionary spin in Francois Ozon’s latest,
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Eugenio Derbez
Starring: Alessandra Rosaldo | Daniel Raymont | Eugenio Derbez | Jessica Lindsey | Loreto Peralta
Jason says: “INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED has proven surprisingly successful at the American box office over the past few weekends, and it’s not hard to see why: It’s got an appealing cast, it’s unpretentiously funny, and it makes a naked but
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Rating: 4.8 cats
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Adam Driver | Carey Mulligan | Garrett Hedlund | John Goodman | Justin Timberlake | Oscar Isaac
Lorraine says: “Coen Brothers’ newest. About a folk musician trying to make it in 1961. Fabulous cast and musicians. Traditional songs and ones written for the film. Music performed live on set. Strong performances. “Loved that we are allowed to
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Leon Yang Shupeng
Starring: Hiruma Yoshinori | Huang Xiaoming | Sun Lei | Wang Lie | Zhang Xinyi | Zhang Yi
Kyle says: “AN INACCURATE MEMOIR (dubbed EASTERN BANDITS upon streaming release) received its North American Premiere at the 12th New York Asian Film Festival. Comparisons to director Sam Peckinpah and the violence of his films such as THE WILD BUNCH
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Rating: 3.4
Director: Lake Bell
Starring: Alexandra Holden | Demetri Martin | Eva Longoria | Ken Marino | Lake Bell | Rob Corddry
Jason says: “Funny thing; even when trailers starting with ‘in a world…’ supposedly happened all the time, I don’t ever recall hearing it enough to snicker when it did show up. Still, the very fact that people act like it
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Stobe Harju
Starring: Anette Olzon | Francis-Xavier McCarthy | Joanna Noyes | Marianne Farley | Quinn Lord | Tuomas Holopainen
Jason says: “This fantasy movie is kind of a peculiar thing: Based on the band Nightwish’s concept album of the same name but not seeming to have that many songs from it – I think two are performed and another
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Antonio de la Torre | Carlos Areces | Cecilia Roth | Hugo Silva | Javier Cámara | Lola Dueñas | Paz Vega | Penélope Cruz | Raul Arevalo
Thom says: “Most ‘movie’ folks have been assiduous followers of the Spanish master Almodóvar since early in his career and I count myself among them although, honestly, I’ve rarely considered the possibility of him going to the TIP-TOP, mainly due
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Anne Louise Hassing | Annika Wedderkopp | Lasse Fogelstrøm | Mads Mikkelsen | Susse Wold | Thomas Bo Larsen
Bruce says: “Mads Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 for his portrayal of Lucas, a man falsely accused of child molestation. Mikkelsen’s performance is a textbook case in underplaying a role to achieve
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lee Won-seok
Starring: Kim Jeong-tae | Kim Joon-seong | Lee Si-yeong | Lee Won-jong | Oh Jeong-se | Park Yeong-gyoo
Kyle says: “The title, seen at the New York Asian FIlm Festival in its North American premiere, refers to a series of idiotic but highly successful self-help videotapes on how to meet, influence and win over guys. It is a
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Director: Hong Ji-young | Jung Bum-sik | Kim Gok | Kim Sun | Lim Dae-woong | Min Kyu-dong
Starring: Jin Tae-hyun | Jung Eun-chae | Kim Hyun-soo | Kim Ji-won | No Hyeon-hee | No Kang-min | Yoo Yeon-seok
Jason says: “You could get a lot of horror anthology action at Fantasia this year, between this Korean picture, Hong Kong’s TALES FROM THE DARK and (mostly) America’s V/H/S/2. One thing that I find interesting, looking at the three, is
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yuichi Fukuda
Starring: Fumika Shimizu | Ken Yasuda | Nana Katase | Ryohei Suzuki | Tsuyoshi Muro
Jason says: “Look, I’m not going to make HENTAI KAMEN out to be anything other than it is: It is a deeply silly, tacky, crude spoof of the superhero genre that takes Warren Ellis’s description of their outfits as ‘underwear
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jeremy Kipp Mitchell | John Mitchell
Jason says: “It’s odd but true: These days, an act like Future Folk can be both a local secret and have a national (or international) cult following. Even if both cases are true, a movie centered around such a band
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Starring: Abdihakin Asgar | Dar Salim | Gary Skjoldmose Porter | Pilou Asbæk | Roland Møller | Søren Malling
Kyle says: “To most Americans, the word ‘hijacking’ is forever associated with 9/11/2001; to many seamen on voyages in the Indian Ocean, it is a fearsome nightmare perpetrated by 21st century Somali pirates, and a potential danger all the time.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Adrian Garcia Bogliano
Starring: Alan Martinez | Barbara Perrin Reivemar | Francisco Barreiro | Laura Caro | Michele Garcia
Jason says: “There are two sorts of horror movies in the world: The kind looking to make the audience jump with a thrill of excitement and the kind aiming to make them shake because they’ve been confronted with an idea
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.4
Director: Mika Ninagawa
Starring: Anne Suzuki | Ferika Sawajiri | Nao Omori | Shinobu Terajima
Kyle says: “All the definitions of ‘gonzo’ in www.urbandictionary.com have to do with pornography, except for the single simple ‘bizarre.’ It’s up to slack-jawed audiences at the end of this outrageous Japanese film to decide which applies most clearly. I
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Takashi Ishii
Starring: Kokone Sasaki | Mitsu Dan | Naoto Takenaka | Tasuku Emoto
Jason says: “HELLO, MY DOLLY GIRLFRIEND (FIGYUA NA ANATA in the original Japanese) is just as bizarre a movie as its name makes it sound, and it gets a little stranger if you start following hyperlinks on the online movie
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Roberta Grossman
Thom says: “Everyone knows the Jewish staple celebration song Hava Nagila. This film tracks the history of the song from its origins in Eastern European shtetls to pedways of the world. It’s been featured in hundreds of films and this
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