Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Starring: Delphine Chuillot | Ethan Hawke | Joanna Kulig | Kristin Scott Thomas | Samir Guesmi
Bruce says: “It has been seven years since MY SUMMER OF LOVE, so to say the THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH was eagerly anticipated is an understatement. Although an entirely different type of film, comparisons to MIDNIGHT IN PARIS are
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Kim Gok | Kim Sun
Starring: Choi Ah-ra | Ham Eun-jung | Hwang Woo Seul-hye | Jin Se-yeon | Kim May Doni | Pyeon Jung-su
Jason says: “A girl-group horror movie isn’t really a bad idea at all: You’ve got pretty girls, who are highly competitive by nature to fuel any issues between them, and a bunch of settings and situations where people could be
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Rosser Goodman
Starring: David Wilson Page | Fay DeWitt | Jennifer Elise Cox | Joel Rush | Julie Goldman | Kate Flannery | Tyler Poelle
Thom says: “Corey appears to have it all: a wildly successful career, a caring, fun, naughty, bitchy sister, and a younger, adorable, gorgeous partner but when he wants to take his relationship to a more committed level the boyfriend freaks
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Ashley Gerasimovich | Ezra Miller | Jasper Newell | John C. Reilly | Rock Duer | Tilda Swinton
Jason says: “At no point during WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN are the words of the title actually spoken, but it’s not like it would have made a difference if they were. There’s just nothing you can do about
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: David Ayer
Starring: America Ferrera | Anna Kendrick | Frank Grillo | Jake Gyllenhaal | Michael Peña | Natalie Martinez | Zone
Thom says: “Gyllenhaal brought me to this buddy cop drama that used that too-oft-used new film technique of using hand-held cameras for film footage. Has this worked well anywhere except for [REC]2. Brian Taylor & Mike Zavala are best friends
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Te-Sheng Wei
Starring: Chi-Wei Cheng | Da-Ching | Jun'ichi Haruta | Lin Ching-Tai | Masanobu Andô | Umin Boya
Jason says: “No matter the cultures involved, movies like WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE follow a certain tragic pattern: Conquest, valiant rebellion, inevitable clampdown. Here, the invaders are the Japanese, the natives are Taiwan’s Seediq people, and the way
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Shunichiro Miki
Starring: Furni Nikaido | Rinko Kikuchi | Yoji Tanaka | Yoshiyuki Morishita
Jason says: “Understand this: THE WARPED FOREST isn’t a sequel to FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT (the famously trippy film director/co-writer Shunichiro Miki made with Katsuhito Ishii and Hajime Ishimine); it’s a movie Miki made out of the ideas that
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Nicks
Michael says: “THE WAITING ROOM is director Peter Nicks’ feature doc debut, and in it, he takes us through 24 hours of a busy hospital emergency waiting room. I joked before I saw it that it was a real look
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Patrick McGrady
Jason says: “WAGNER AND ME is probably only going to be terribly educational for those like myself whose musical knowledge is relatively shallow – the folks who sing ‘kill the wab-bit!’ to ourselves when a certain bit of Richard Wagner’s
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ho-Cheung Pang
Starring: Chapman To | Dada Chan | Ronald Cheng | Suet Lam
Jason says: “VULGARIA would certainly be an example of writer/director Pang Ho-Cheung’s incredible recent productivity if it were nothing else; it’s his second film of the year, shot in a ridiculous twelve days. Of course, it is something else –
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Bruce says: “‘I’m fighting for generations that come after me,’ Vitto Russo states early in this excellent documentary. ‘When you talk about gay rights you have to talk about Vito,’ a friend tells the camera. Born in east Harlem but
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Licinio Azevedo
Starring: Ana Maria Albino | Ermelinda Cimela | Ilda Gonzales | Iva Mugalela | Rosa Mario | Sumeia Maculuva
Bruce says: “Three of my Toronto International Film Festival films in 2012 were selected based on a single criterion, that I had never before seen a film from its country. Those countries were Angola, Guatemala and Mozambique. “When Soviet-backed bush
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh
Bruce says: “What begins as a filmmaker’s conceit turns out to be a wonderful sociological essay on rural life in northern Egypt. Namir Abdel Messeeh was born in Egypt and his parents left him behind when they emigrated to France.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Dante Lam
Starring: Andy Tien | Bing Bai | Carl Ng | Crystal Lee | Jay Chou | Lin Peng | Liu Kai-chi
Jason says: “THE VIRAL FACTOR aims to be a throwback to the pre-Hollywood films of John Woo, combining stylish action with even grander melodrama. And while director Dante Lam likely has more in common with today’s John Woo than the
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Adam Wingard | David Bruckner | Glenn McQuaid | Joe Swanberg | Radio Silence | Ti West
Starring: Adam Wingard | Calvin Reeder | Hannah Fierman | Joe Sykes | Lane Hughes | Mike Donlan | Sophia Takal
Jason says: “V/H/S is an anthology film with six segments (including the spine), each of which is the product of up-and-coming independent [horror] directors, and each of which makes an attempt to do something interesting with the ‘found footage’ conceit.
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Lauren Greenfield
Jason says: “Times are tough for everybody, although ‘tough’ can be a relative concept. The further you get from the bottom, not only does it get further from what many would consider really difficult, but harder to sympathize, at least
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Rating: 1.75
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Adriana Asti | Alexis Loret | André Dussollier | Carole Bouquet | Mauro Conti | Mélanie Thierry
Thom says: “While I’m certainly familiar with many of André Téchiné’s films including THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, SCENE OF THE CRIME, RENDEZ-VOUS, BAROCCO, STRAYED, THE WITNESSES the only one I’ll truly remember is WILD REEDS (1994). He’s always a
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Robert Connolly
Starring: Alex Williams | Anthony LaPaglia | Callan McAuliffe | Laura Wheelwright | Nick Mitchell | Rachel Griffiths
Thom says:b”This Australian television film was a real eye-opener. Connolly’s work is mostly unfamiliar to me although I did see THE BANK (2001, 3 CATS). This was a thrilling and awe-inspiring true story about the late-teen scene of one of
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Dongyu Xhou | Meijuan Xi | Rina Sa | Shawn Dou | Xuejian Li
Thom says: “With so many great films behind him (including RAISE THE RED LANTERN, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, HERO, SHANGHAI TRIAD, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, & many others) I would have thought this lovely film would have, at least,
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Rating: 4.9
Director: Paddy Considine
Starring: Eddie Marsan | Ned Dennehy | Olivia Colman | Paul Popplewell | Peter Mullan
Ibad says: “There are many films that capture the bleak landscape of humanity, with an emphasis on the treatment of women, that come across as manipulative, misogynistic, forced, and/or sadistic. No such thing in TYRANNOSAUR. Although it doesn’t deliver on
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