Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Vladan Nikolic
Starring: Al Nazemian | Ana Asensio | Didier Flamand | Jason Robards III | Peter Scanavino
Jason says: “ZENITH is a bad no-budget science fiction movie, but at least it’s considerate enough to place itself toward the end of the alphabet. After all, while it did somehow manage to get itself booked in a few theaters
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Justin Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron | Collette Wolfe | Elizabeth Reaser | Patrick Wilson | Patton Oswalt
Diane says: “Major disappointment! Maybe I was too excited by my sister’s prediction that YA would be the female CHUCK AND BUCK. Maybe I’ve been too captivated by the cringeworthy, edgy dialogue of the Duplass brothers. YA’s story is flat
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Andy Mitton | Jesse Holland
Starring: Anessa Ramsey | Cassidy Freeman | Clark Freeman | Laura Heisler | Lee Wilkof
Jason says: “YELLOWBRICKROAD is a movie constructed out of every tangentially-related spooky idea that its makers could graft onto the setting, and that grab-bag approach can be a dangerous way to put a movie together, even one where the usual
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Jim Broadbent | Lesley Manville | Oliver Maltman | Peter Wight | Ruth Sheen
Ibad says: “ANOTHER YEAR is the latest offering from Mike Leigh and among the most emotionally affecting films of the year. The film, among other things, studies age and its various consequences and connotations. Among his illustrious string of performance
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Laura Israel
Jason says: “WINDFALL was not quite the movie I expected to see. The usual narrative about wind power here in Eastern Massachusetts involves liberals who support green energy until it threatens to become a part of their expensive sea views,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Thomas McCarthy
Starring: Alex Shaffer | Amy Ryan | Bobby Cannavale | Jeffrey Tambor | Melanie Lynskey | Paul Giamatti
Michael says: “Paul Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, an attorney in a New Jersey town who is struggling to make ends meet. When an opportunity presents itself for him to become the guardian of one of his elderly clients and make
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Larysa Kondracki
Starring: David Strathairn | Monica Bellucci | Nikolaj Lie Kaas | Rachel Weisz | Vanessa Redgrave
Jason says: “THE WHISTLEBLOWER has a good cast and a topic that provokes a strong emotional reaction, and when a project starts with that, making a memorable film can often come down to not screwing up. Co-writer/director Larysa Kondracki doesn’t
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Daming Chen
Starring: Andy Lau | Chengru Li | Daming Chen | Gong Li | Jing Hu | Kelly Hu | Osric Chau
Jason says: “It’s bad enough that WHAT WOMEN WANT is a romantic comedy that has deficiencies were both halves of the term are concerned, relying on its stars’ charm to get the audience to ignore writing that is sloppy and
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Andrew Haigh
Starring: Chris New | Tom Cullen
Chris says: “In Richard Linklater’s BEFORE SUNRISE, two people meet and form a deep bond despite only having a limited window of time to spend with each other. Initially, Andrew Haigh’s film acts as a gay male take on that
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Simon Curtis
Starring: Dominic Cooper | Eddie Redmayne | Julia Ormond | Kenneth Brannagh | Michelle Williams
Bruce says: “Brilliant, astonishing, miraculous, breathtaking….there are not enough words to describe Michelle William’s uncanny Marilyn Monroe, a role that is almost inconceivable for any actress to attempt, much less conquer. Williams has the look, the voice, the subtle wit,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Anne Makepeace
Jason says: “A few years ago, one of the documentaries that played IFFBoston (on, I believe, the same screen at roughly the same time) was a film by the name of THE LINGUISTS, about linguists seeking out dying languages before
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Emilio Estevez
Starring: Deborah Kara Unger | Emilio Estevez | James Nesbitt | Martin Sheen | Yorick van Wageningen
Diane says: “Emilio Estevez, you’re no screenwriter. I say that with some sadness, since I did have a crush on him in the ’80s. “Martin Sheen and director/writer Estevez play father and son, frustrated in their relationship. Healing comes on
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chen Jin
Starring: Degang Guo | Enhe Feng | Hao Hao | Huang Haibing | Yunwei He | Zige Fang
Jason says:”THE WARRING STATES is the sort of movie that, for one reason or another, only China seems to make: The period melodrama about the clash of nations and individuals, with playful comedy existing side-by-side with romance and horrible betrayal.
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Amber Heard | Danielle Panabaker | Laura-Leigh | Marnie Gummer
Thom says: “Over the years director Carpenter has certainly established some credibility in the B-movie category (HALLOWEEN (1978), ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE FOG (1980), THE THING (1982), STARMAN) although in the past few years his reputation has slightly faltered.
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Djo Munga
Starring: Diplome Amekindra | Hoji Fortuna | Manie Malone | Marlene Longange | Patsha Bay
Thom says: “Quick, how many films have you seen from the Democratic Republic of the Congo? While this was a screener I had my doubts but the gigantic surprise that was awaiting me was all thrills. Because this was director
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Woo-Ping Yuen
Starring: Andy On | Man Cheuk Chiu | Michelle Yeoh | Xiaogang Feng | Xun Zhou
Jason says: “As the English-language title suggests, TRUE LEGEND is based upon an actual historical figure, although I strongly suspect that he is, as they say, being ‘used fictitiously.’ After all, you don’t go to a Yuen Woo-ping movie for
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: André Øvredal
Starring: Glenn Erland Tosterud | Johanna Mørck | Otto Jespersen | Tomas Alf Larsen | Urmila Berg-Domaas
Scot says: “TROLL HUNTER, released in 2010 in Norway but 2011 in the US, represents a fine evolution of the ‘found footage’ fictional narrative style most famously exploited by THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. It’s not a new
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Claire Keelan | Margo Stilley | Rebecca Johnson | Rob Brydon | Steve Coogan
Diane says: “More SIDEWAYS than MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP has British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon engaged in one-upmanship as they travel the North Country on a gastronomicaltour. The dialogue is not as profound or
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Bruce McDonald
Starring: Callum Keith Rennie | Don McKellar | Molly Parker | Sarah Polley | Tracy Wright
Michael says: “When Kat and Vic, two old friends who performed together in a punk rock band twenty years ago are reunited, tensions are high, but so are the powerful memories of a strong bond that the two women shared.
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Ben Mendelsohn | Cam Gigandet | Liana Liberato | Nicolas Cage | Nicole Kidman
Thom says: “I would love to know the story behind this film which was presented at TIFF 2011 at a Gala. Directed by Schumacher who is the director behind such largely mediocre product like FLAWLESS, ST. ELMO’S FIRE, THE LOST
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