Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jorge Torregrossa
Starring: Antonio Garrido | Blanco Romero | Carmen Ruiz | Clara Lago | Daniel Grao | Maribel Verdú | Miquel Fernández
Thom says: “This apocalyptic thriller has a lot going on its behalf like a professional, attractive cast, a lovely well-structured feel, and a riveting plot. A group of college pals have reunion years later with a mysterious secret that needs
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Malgorzata Szumowska
Starring: Anaïs Demoustier | Joanna Kulig | Juliette Binoche | Krystyna Janda | Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
Bruce says: “Few stars are lovelier than the radiant Juliette Binoche. Her appeal is not superficial for she radiates an inner beauty that infuses her characters. As Anne, a reporter for Elle Magazine, Binoche adds another layer. She comes from
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev
Starring: Aleksey Rozin | Andrey Smirnov | Elena Lyadova | Nadezhda Markina
Jason says: “There’s a certain type of story that appears in magazines devoted to mystery and suspense which doesn’t really present much of either, but instead strips all the plot away and focuses tightly on what the pressures on one
Read the review...Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal (Canda/Denmark; 90 min.) directed by: Boris Rodriguez starring: Thure Lindhardt; Dylan Smith; Stephen McHattie; Alain Goulem; Paul Braunstein;Georgina Reilly Jason says: “We’ve all heard (or used) some variation on ‘my art comes from a dark place’
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Francesco Bruni
Starring: Barbara Bobulova | Fabrizio Bentevoglio | Filippo Scicchitan | Giacomo Ceccarelli | Stefano Brunori
Bruce says: “Winner of three prizes at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, EASY! is a satisfying comedy about parenting and coming of age. Writer director Francesco Bruni, best known for his screenplay for CATERINA IN THE BIG CITY, demonstrates the
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Matthew Gordon
Starring: Casey Brown | John Alex Nunner | Joice Baldwin | Patrick Rutherford | William Ruffin
Thom says: “The extraordinary Film Movement series comes through with another winner here and just in time to be included in the Coming-of-Age extravaganza offered by dear Chlotrudis. Anyone seeing this one would be the first to agree. Having already
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Julio Hérnandez Cordón
Starring: Fernanda del Nido | Juan de Dios Larraín | Julio Hernández Cordón | Pamela Guinea
Bruce says: “As in many South and Central American countries war has ravaged the population and the environment. In Guatemala, it was an unfair war in which the poor people of the country suffered immeasurably. After the war ended women
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