Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Angelina Nikonova
Starring: Olga Dykhovichnaya | Roman Merinov | Sergei Borisov | Sergei Golyudov | Vsevolod Voronov
Bruce says: “The purpose of the New Directors/New Films Festival is to promote emerging talent. The festival has a remarkable track record, having discovered many directors who are now considered leaders in their field. The festival is remarkably open to
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Ivana Mladenovic
Starring: Alexandru Mititelu | Dragomir Christian George | Israila Jamir | Papan Chilibar
Bruce says: “Director Ivana Mladenovic admits that the genesis of her film began as a narrative feature film crew got permission to film in a prison using inmates as actors. Although she did not go into detail, that venture fell
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ágnes Hranitzky | Béla Tarr
Starring: Erika Bók | János Derzsi | Mihály Kormos | Ricsi
Thom says: “In 1889 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the flagellation of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms o’er the horse’s neck to safeguard it then collapsed to the soil. In less than one month,
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