Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.75
Director: Ward Roberts
Starring: Aaron Gaffey | Amber Benson | Devin Barry | Jeremiah Birkett | Travis Betz
Jason says: “DUST UP has some very cool opening credits, clever throwbacks to the 1970s exploitation flicks it emulates over a rocking soundtrack; it’s got a couple of nifty posters along those lines, too. Like those movies, the actual product
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Peter Chan Ho-sun
Starring: Donnie Yen | Jimmy Wang Yu | Li Xiao-ran | Takeshi Kaneshiro | Wang Tei
Jason says: “Though Harvey Weinstein has saddled this movie with a generic name for when he finally gets around to releasing it in the USA (the man can’t help himself), the original Chinese name of WU XIA is even more
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Kim Jee-Woon | Yim Pil-Sung
Starring: Bae Doo-na | Jin Ji-hee | Kim Gyu-ri | Kim Kang-woo | Koh Joon-hee | Ryoo Seung-bum | Song Young-chang
Jason says: “Anthology film DOOMSDAY BOOK does not quite end the world in three ways, as one might expect it to do. Even more interesting is that the contemplative middle segment comes from noted action director Kim Jee-woon, whose unusual
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sloane U'ren
Starring: Edward Halsted | Hannah Carson | James Greene | Patrick Godfrey | Sam Harrison | Sean Hart
Jason says: “As much as I found the festival describing DIMENSIONS: A LINE, A LOOP, A TANGLE OF THREADS (to give it its full title) with ‘Imagine a sci-fi film on PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre’ to be a bit too glibly
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt | FrédéricTcheng | Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Bruce says: “Diana Vreeland is a foolproof subject for a documentary. Famous for her remark to Norman Parkinson regarding his fashion photos from a photo shoot in India , ‘I adore that pink. It’s the navy blue of India,’ Ms.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Joseph Kahn
Starring: Brooke Haven | Dane Cook | James Black | Josh Hutcherson | Parker Bagley | Spencer Locke
Jason says: “Some things about DETENTION make me think that director Joseph Kahn isn’t just making a movie for young audiences, but taunting ones my age. A movie that asks ‘how hard is it to be cool in 1992?’ (my
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Rating: 4.6
Director: Tony Kaye
Starring: Adrien Brodie | Betty Kaye | Blythe Danner | Christina Hendricks | James Caan | Lucy Liu | Marcia Gay Harden
Bruce says: “When AMERICAN HISTORY X made a big splash nearly fifteen years ago it seemed there might be a new director entering the master ranks. Then along came SNOWBLIND, LOBBY LOBSTER and BLACK WATER TRANSIT. Remember them? Of course
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Penny Vozniak
Jason says: “There are many warning signs, but when the person hired to get electronic press kit/making-of footage for a movie comes to the producer and asks if she can hang around more and keep her footage because she thinks
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Terence Davies
Starring: Ann Mitchell | Jolyon Coy | Karl Johnson | Rachel Weisz | Simon Russell Beale | Tom Hiddleston
Thom says: “I’ve been an assiduous fan of Terence Davies ever since his 1st feature film DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES back in 1988. Since then I found all of his films brilliant: THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992), THE NEON BIBLE
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jennifer Devoldère
Starring: Claude Perron | Florence Loiret Caille | Guillaume Gouix | Mélanie Laurent | Michel Blanc
Thom says: “Another outstanding winner from the ever-reliable Film Movement. This French eclair has a terrific plot with a romantic flair that often seems like the French have a lock on. Eli (Blanc) is celebrating his 60th birthday when he
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Eva Green | Helena Bonham Carter | Jackie Earle Haley | Johnny Depp | Jonny Lee Miller | Michelle Pfeiffer
Chris says: “Not exactly a return to form for Tim Burton, but easily the best remake/adaptation he’s done since his BATMAN films. Junk culture like a cheesy horror-laced soap opera seems closer to his heart than Lewis Carroll or Roald
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jin-ho Hur
Starring: Cecelia Cheung | Dong-gun Jang | Lisa Lu | Shawn Dou | Ziyi Zhang
Thom says: “This is the 8th version I’ve seen of my ALL-TIME favorite script. In order I’ve seen LE LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (1959, Roger Vadim, 5 CATS), DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988, Stephen Frears, 5 CATS), VALMONT (1989, Milos Forman, 5 CATS), a
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Rating: 3.375
Director: Whit Stillman
Starring: Analeigh Tipton | Carrie MacLemore | Greta Gerwig | Megalyn Echikunwoke | Ryan Metcalf
Thom says: “Here was a humongous surprise, not because I don’t have an enormous respect for director Whit Stillman (I’d given 5 CATS to all his movies: METROPOLITAN [1990], BARCELONA [1994], & THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO [1998], liking each
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Steve Rash
Starring: Brandon Routh | Chelsea Ricketts | Crystal Allen | Gil Birmingham | Michael Hudson
Jason says: “CROOKED ARROWS is a button-pushing sports movie notable for both the sport being played (lacrosse) and the underdog school (a Native American nation in upstate New York). It’s likely to be far from the best sports movie or
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sang-soo Hong
Starring: Isabelle Huppert | Jun-Sang Yu | Jung Yu Mi | Kwon Hye Hyo | Moon Sung Keun | So-ri Moon
Thom says: “The first of three films I saw that had the Goddess Ms. Huppert in starring roles. And, striking a novel turn that surmounted the duality of custom & culture brought 3 stories of three different women, all played
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Emily Hampshire | Juliette Binoche | Paul Giamatti | Robert Pattinson | Samantha Morton | Sarah Gadon
Thom says: “David Cronenberg has for many years been one of my top 10 living directors and, in fact, he had eleven consecutive top-rated films with me, a feat only a handful of directors have ever achieved, but his next
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Starring: Anita Caprioli | Paola Lavini | Pasqualina Scuncia | Renato Carpentieri | Salvatore Cantalupo
Thom says: “Here’s another brilliant offering from the sensational Film Movement catalog. While alarmingly anti-Catholic the film risks even more by adding an absurdist, very dark-humor to the proceedings to create an irreverent thought-provoking masterpiece. 13-year-old Marta (an amazingly languid
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Starring: Brian Cox | Gerard Butler | James Nesbitt | Jessica Chastain | Ralph Fiennes | Vanessa Redgrave
Thom says: “Being such a huge fan of Shakespeare I expected this film to be superlative, and by God it was even better than I had anticipated. After sitting through ANONYMOUS this film was a breath of fresh air, all
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Steve Kerr
Starring: Catherine Yale | David Boutin | Gilbert Comptois | Janet Lane | Maxime Dumontier | Mylene St-Sauveur | Pierre Collin
Jason says: “COLUMBARIUM is not quite one jettisoned gimmick away from being a perfect little thriller, but it’s tight and suspenseful enough to impress as it is, telling a good little story without much in the way of fat at
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Rating: 2.75
Director: David Wu
Starring: Mickey He | Peter Ho | Rongguang Yu | Song Jia | Tony Leung Ka Fai | Victor Chen
Jason says: “’Do you like guns?’ is a line that appears in more or less every action movie of this type, where the heroes’ skill set is specifically tied to how well he can shoot, and the answer usually changes
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