Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Brandon Trost | Jason Trost
Starring: Art Hu | Brandon Barrera | Caitlyn Folley | James DeBello | Jason Trost | Lee Valmassy | Nick Principe
Jason says: “THE FP is the sort of flick that is precisely built to appeal to a certain category of movie fans, who are often surprised when it doesn’t do much for others. I have no doubt that it will
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Aleksei Fedorchenko | Harmony Korine | Jan Kwiecinski
Starring: al Kilmer | Darya Ekamasova | Igor Sergeev | Justyna Wasilewska | Pawel Smagala | Pawel Tomaszewski | Rachel Korine | Tomasz Tyndyk
Jason says: “The makers of this anthology were given dozens of instructions that ranged from restrictive to twee, or so the legend goes, although ultimately they had a fair amount of leeway so long as they made a movie on
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Joshua Sanchez
Starring: Aja Naomi King | E.J. Bonilla | Emory Cohen | Kathryn Meisle | Wendell Pierce
Thom says: “This is an amazingly problematic, thoughtful, but off-putting film. It’s a 4-character study that starts out with a middle-age roly-poly African American salesman, Joe, having an assignation with a white 15-year-old-boy, June. Wendell Pierce, who anyone that loves
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ela Thier
Starring: Dalena Le | Laura Camien | Noa Rotstein | Udi Razzin | Virginia Hastings
Thom says: “The essence of this Film Movement experience is a beautiful one but the awkward interpretation brought it down a peg for me. Ellie. a young girl from Israel, has moved to the United States in the 1980s because
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Emi Takei | Ito Ono | Sakura Andô | Satoshi Tsumbuki | Takumi Saito | Tsuyoshi Ihara
Jason says: “FOR LOVE’S SAKE is the sort of crazy mix of adolescent emotions that seem over-the-top when you describe it, often going from pure sweetness to eye-rolling to angry violence in the very same scene. It’s just what one
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Joseph Cedar
Starring: Albert Iluz | Alma Zack | Lior Ashkenazi | Shlomo Bar-Aba | Yuval Scharf
Chris says: “An Israeli father and son, both well-versed scholars in Talmudic studies, experience conflict when one is mistakenly awarded a prestigious annual prize that was actually meant for the other. The mistaken winner, however, is unaware of the mistake.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Justin Calen Chenn
Starring: Brad Roller | Laura Waddell | Napoleon Ryan | Paris Benjamin | Paulie Rojas | Rachel Rath | Sherill Turner
Jason says: “FOLKLORE is the sort of comedy that will, over the course of the film, tell the audience about a hundred jokes in the hope that enough hit to make the whole thing worth it. It’s got a hit
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Tsui Hark
Starring: Chen Kun | Gordon Liu | Jet Li | Li Yuchaun | Mavis Fan | Zhou Xun
Jason says: “Foreign movies often take a while to open in the United States for a number of reasons, and while the eight months since FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (LEE MEN FEI JIA) opened in Hong Kong actually isn’t
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Christian Bale | Han Xiting | Huang Tianyuan | Ni Ni | Zhang Doudou | Zhang Xinyi
Jason says: “It sort of makes sense when Hollywood makes a movie about something that happened outside the borders of America and Europe but makes a white guy the protagonist – silly, but understandable. When a Chinese filmmaker decides that
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Director: Arnon Goldfinger
Bruce says: “Similar to documentaries 51 BIRCH STREET and STORIES WE TELL, THE FLAT is the story of a filmmaker who discovers hidden stories in his family history. This time the history involves not parents as in the previously mentioned
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Edward Burns
Starring: Brian d'Arcy James | Connie Britton | Dara Coleman | Edward Burns | Heather Burns | Kerry Bishé
Bruce says: “Rather like John Sayles who has consistently alternated between acting & writing to acquire enough money to independently produce his own films, Burns has become a reliable B-list actor to finance his directorial projects. But while Sayles has
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Rating: 4.6
Director: Bess Kargman
Diane says: “How long is it now that we’ve been watching docs about kids in competitions? Is there no end? FIRST POSITION follows half a dozen kids, aged 11 to 17, in their quest to score in the Youth America
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Jeon Kye-soo
Starring: Ha Jung-woo | Ji Jin-hee | Jo Hie-bong | Kong Hyo-jin | Lee Byung-joon
Jason says: “LOVE FICTION is a romantic comedy that never quite gels, despite a pair of fairly likable leads and Jeon Kye-soo’s script having a quirky, individual voice. The trouble is that said voice is often using unusual words to
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Diane Kruger | Léa Seydoux | Michel Robin | Noémie Lvovsky | Virginie Ledoyen | Xavier Beauvais
Bruce says: “Based on the novel by Chantal Thomas, director Benoît Jacquot gives the final days of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) and the Court of Louis XVI the upstairs/downstairs treatment. Events are seen and heard through the eyes and ears
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Chris Hopewell | Crispian Mills
Starring: Alan Drake | Clare Higgins | Elliot Greene | Paul Freeman | Simon Pegg
Jason says: “For a while, I had the feeling that A FANTASTIC FEAR OF EVERYTHING had run short and been padded out with Simon Pegg doing a bunch of slapstick. Not a bad way to get a movie up to
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Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Ewen Bremner | Helena Bonham Carter | Holliday Grainger | Jason Flemyng | Jeremy Irvine | Olly Alexander | Ralph Fiennes | Robbie Coltrane | Sally Hawkins
Thom says: “Director Newell has proved himself to be an able and durable director without ever establishing an oeuvre. With such varied entries as FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL, DANCE WITH A STRANGER, THE GOOD FATHER, ENCHANTED APRIL, AN AWFULLY
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.25
Director: Richard Bates Jr.
Starring: AnnaLynne McCord | Ariel Winter | Jeremy Sumpter | John Waters | Malcolm McDowell | Marlee Matlin | Roger Bart | Traci Lords
Jason says: “Richard Bates Jr.’s Excision is a feature version of his short film, and it’s sort of got that feel: More observation than story, strong visuals that exist for their own sake, and one central character that dominates an
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ana Piterbarg
Starring: Daniel Fanego | Javier Godino | Oscar Alegre | Sofia Gala | Soledad Villamil | Viggo Mortensen
Thom says: “Viggo plays twin brothers Agustin (a respected pediatrician who’s withdrawn from the world) and Pedro (a backwater lowlife from the Tigre Delta who is dying of cancer as well as being involved with a nasty murder). Pedro busts
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: hirely Henderson | John Simm | Peter Gunn | Robert Kirk | Shaun Kirk
Thom says: “Winterbottom, a must-see director as much for his style which isn’t all that discernable as his willingness to expand his horizons by making a variety of genres and techniques. You’ll, of course, recall his THE KILLER INSIDE ME,
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Matthew Heineman | Susan Frömke
Julie says: “Well done doc that puts the obvious altogether in one nice package. It is obvious but somehow not to the current U.S. medical system. I hope that the next 4 years might see more change in this direction.
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