Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jafar Panahi | Mojtaba Mirtahmasb
Bruce says: “Although I am not a huge fan of the two Panahi films I have seen (THE WHITE BALOON and THE CIRCLE), the director’s personal story has grabbed my attention. A poster child for freedom in art and human
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Bryan Wizemann
Starring: Adina Porter | David Conrad | Dylan Baker | Lauren Ambrose | Penelope Ann Miller
Thom says: “It’s always nice to see ‘Six Feet Under’ alumnus Ambrose back on the boards and she fits her role here like a glove. Here she plays a down-on-her-luck single mother (Angela) with a precocious young daughter living in
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Jill Sprecher
Starring: Alan Arkin | Billy Crudup | Bob Balaban | David Harbour | Greg Kinnear
Jason says: “THIN ICE started life as THE CONVINCER (and played Sundance under that name) before being re-cut and re-scored to its current form, and that name would have put a bit of a target on its back. The movie
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Carrie Preston
Starring: Alia Shawkat | Anne Heche | Kate Rigg | Kellie Overby | Marcia DeBonis | Marylouise Burke | Miriam Shor
Bruce says: “Comparisons to BRIDESMAIDS are inevitable – another female buddy raunch film. That would be unfair. THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID is equally outrageous, but its sentiments are more genuine and its characters have greater depth. And while we’re at
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Mads Matthiesen
Starring: Allan Mogensen | David Winters | Elsebeth Steentoft | Kim Kold | Lamaiporn Hougaard
Bruce says: “Dennis (Kim Kold) is a 38 year old bodybuilder. He still lives with his mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft) who treats him as though he were just entering his teen years. Theirs is the quintessential co-dependent relationship. Normal boundaries
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Pascal Laugier
Starring: Jessica Biel | Jodelle Ferland | Samantha Ferris | Stephen McHattie | William B. Davis
Jason says: “THE TALL MAN tries to do something worthy and interesting, at least at points, and those intentions certainly seem praiseworthy, but it just doesn’t work. the whole thing simply isn’t very well-constructed, to the extent that whether one
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sarah Polley
Starring: Diane D'Aquila | Jennifer Podemski | Luke Kirby | Michelle Williams | Sarah Silverman | Seth Rogen
Bruce says: “TAKE THIS WALTZ will have more impact for those who have not seen Michelle Williams in BLUE VALENTINE or WENDY AND LUCY. In all of these films she plays young women in search of something undefinable and elusive.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Stephen Fung
Starring: Angelababy | Eddie Peng | Qi Shu | Tony Leung Ka-fai | Yuan Xiaochao
Jason says: “I knew going in that TAI CHI ZERO had a follow-up coming out in fairly rapid succession (a one month gap in China, three in North America), and was still a bit surprised that the movie saves its
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Haofeng Xu
Starring: Cheng-Hui Yu | Yang Song | Yuanyuan Zhao
Jason says: “It might not be obvious from the opening, which is a fine action sequence, but THE SWORD IDENTITY perhaps works best as the straightest-faced spoof of martial arts films imaginable. It’s more than that, of course, but its
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Kern Saxton
Starring: Andy Mackenzie | Cortney Palm | Danny Trejo | James Duval | Mark Hamill | Noah Hathaway | Tony Todd
Jason says: “Ugh, what an unpleasant movie. Sure, it’s the sort of grittily flamboyant crime flick that has an audience, but it’s a hollow, mean-spirited thing that isn’t nearly clever or well executed enough to be worth it. “After serving
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Starring: Adriana Mascialino | Anders W. Berthelsen | Jamie Morton | Paprika Steen | Sebastian Estevanez
Bruce says: “Paprika! Whoever suspected she would end up in a romantic comedy in Buenos Aires? Anna (Paprika Steen) is a football fanatic and, wearing an agent’s hat, she brokers deals between businessmen and athletes. Her current client is the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kang Hyung-chul
Starring: Go Su-hee | Jin Hee-kyung | Kang So-ra | Kim Min-yeong | Park Jin-joo | Sim Eung-kyeong | Yu Ho-jeong
Jason says: “SUNNY is flagrant nostalgia bait, but don’t count that against it – it’s genuinely funny, heartfelt nostalgia bait, and while that might seem odd to world cinema fans – few films that reach North America set in 1980s
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Aaron Houston
Starring: Amatai Marmorstein | Ben Cotton | Johannah Newmarch | Kacrey Rohl | Patrick Gilmore | Peter New
Jason says: “Even as mock-documentary movies go, SUNFLOWER HOUR looks kind of bare bones, but partly by design. Of course, even when cheapness is part of the aesthetic, that doesn’t mean a filmmaker knows how to use it – despite
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Starring: Alan Curran | Amy Huberman | Martin Sheen | Stephen Rea
Chris says: “To make a movie about operating a movie theater is a subject close to my heart and usually enough for me to give the filmmaker a free pass. Such a premise adds considerable charm to STELLA DAYS; the
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tom Lin
Starring: Harlem Yu | Hui Ming Lin | Janei Tsai | Kenneth Tsang | Lunmei Kwai | Rene Liu
Jason says: “Stick around through the end credits of STARRY STARRY NIGHT, which appear to contain images from Jimmy Liao’s original illustrated book. It’s not just that they’re beautiful (they are) or that they imply that this pretty stunning film
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Zal Batmanglij
Starring: Brit Marling | Christopher Denham | Davenia McFadden | Kandice Stroh | Nicole Vicius | Richard Wharton
Thom says: “I feel like an old crab not liking this more but it is becoming abundantly clear that I takes a lot of convincing for me to get into the conscience of the cult. Here, a couple ingratiate themselves
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Rating: 2.8 cats
Director: Ching Siu-Tung
Starring: Charlene Choi | Jet Li | Raymond Lam | Shengyi Huang | Vivian Hsu | Zhang Wen
Jason says: “In the opening segment of THE SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE (aka IT’S LOVE), an ice harpy played by Vivian Hsu throws boulder-sized hailstones at demon-hunting monk Fahai, who is able to dodge and counter-attack three or four
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Jens Lien
Starring: Asmund Hoeg | John Lydon | Sonja Richter | Sven Nordin
Jason says: “SONS OF NORWAY does as good a job as any movie at presenting the perspective of a kid for whom the world doesn’t make sense, and where every attempt at understanding misses the point. It’s got a light
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ashwani Dhir
Starring: Ajay Devgn | Juhi Chawla | Mukul Dev | Sanjay Dutt | Sonakshi Sinha | Vindu Dara Singh
Jason says: “I’ve got to admit, I felt like I had let someone down when it took me until SON OF SARDAAR repeated a fairly specific gag to recognize that it is much more than less an uncredited remake of
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Roberto Faenza
Starring: Ellen Burstyn | Lucy Liu | Marcia Gay Harden | Peter Gallagher | Stephen Lang | Toby Regbo
Bruce says: “Now here’s a film that is testimony to how international filmmaking has become. Directed by an Italian, bankrolled with Italian and US money, this English language film takes place in New York and stars primarily American actors. Based
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