Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt | Hunter McCracken | Jessica Chastain | Laramie Eppler | Sean Penn
Brett says: “Consistent garden imagery and images of ‘faded paradise’ as the eldest allows weeds to grow and so forth fit some really subtle Biblical tie-ins throughout. As far as the brothers, there is also an interesting ‘Am I my
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Leanne Pooley
Toni says: “I can understand why this film has garnered audience awards at Toronto, Melbourne, and Film Festival(s). Lynda and Jools Topp are as the title of the film and their song implies are in fact ‘untouchable girls.’ Lynda and
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch | Colin Firth | Gary Oldman | John Hurt | Kathy Burke | Tom Hardy
Chris says: “Many book-to-film adaptations fail because they aren’t faithful enough, but just as often they’re too literal to succeed as cinema. In struggling to capture a book’s essence, they adhere closely to what the prose dictates but subsequently feel
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Julie Bertuccelli
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg | Christian Byers | Marton Csokas | Morgana Davies | Tom Russell
Chris says: “In rural Queensland, Australia, Peter, a father of four suffers a fatal heart attack while driving and hits the enormous tree next to his house. Soon, his wife Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and 8-year-old daughter Simone (Morgana Davies) sense
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kurt Norton | Paul Mariano
Toni says: “I think that THESE AMAZING SHADOWS is too much of a propaganda love story to random films selected to the National Film Registry than an even documentary about the registry. There is much one might like to learn
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Azazael Jacobs
Starring: Bridger Zadina | Creed Bratton | Jacob Wysocki | John C. Reilly | Olivia Crocicchia
Jason says: “Earlier in this festival (and on many other occasions), I saw a movie about an eccentric kid growing up, and it was kind of annoying; even if inspired by actual people, the characters seemed like adult screenwriters. So
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Constantin Popescu | Cristian Mungiu | Hanno Höfer | Ioana Uricaru
Starring: Alexandru Potocean | Avram Birau | Calin Chirila | Paul Dunca | Romeo Tudor
Jason says: “When Cristian Mungiu last took audiences to Romania before the fall of communism, he gave us the tense, oppressive 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS and 2 DAYS; it seldom referenced the Ceaușescu regime directly, but still managed to perfectly
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Jessica Chastain | Katy Mixon | Michael Shannon | Shea Whigham | Tova Stewart
Diane says: “A film about the pervasive anxiety in our world, through the story of one man’s mental illness. On the literal level, this movie is good at showing the stigma of mental illness and the chaos of delusional disorders.
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Errol Morris
Chris says: “After watching TABLOID, you wonder why it took so long for someone to make a film about Joyce McKinney. Her fascinating, stranger-than-fiction life story aside, she just blooms in front of the camera without giving off the pretense
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Mark Ruffalo
Starring: Christopher Thornton | Juliette Lewis | Laura Linney | Mark Ruffalo | Noah Emmerich | Orlando Bloom
Thom says: “Oh, how I wanted to like this film a whole bunch more. I’ve long adored Mark Ruffalo and seeing as this was his initial directing credit I was hoping for a new career for the endearing actor. It
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Ellen Page | Gregg Henry | Kevin Bacon | Liv Tyler | Michael Rooker | Rainn Wilson
Diane says: “I read conflicting reviews of SUPER. One called it ‘an unwieldy mix of juvenile jokery and attempted pathos that just doesn’t pay off’ (SF Chronicle); another ‘the second coming of the avant-garde in indie film’ and ‘occasionally brilliant’
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Richards Ayoade
Starring: Craig Roberts | Noah Taylor | Paddy Considine | Sally Hawkins | Yasmin Paige
Jason says: “Watching SUBMARINE, I wondered about director Richard Ayoade’s youth, speculating that he’d spent his time in the cinema, watching French movies rather than hanging out with other kids. There’s an argument to be made that one is better
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Starring: Filipe Vargas | Leonor Silveira | Pilar López de Ayala | Ricardo Trêpa
Jason says: “It is customary, when discussing master filmmakers still producing movies well past when people in most industries have retired, to comment on how they are still vital and what an inspiration it is that they still love their
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jim Mickle
Starring: Bonnie Dennison | Connor Paolo | Danielle Harris | Kelly McGillis | Michael Cerveris
Jason says:v”Jim Mickle’s first feature (also with co-writer/star Nick Damici), MULBERRY STREET, was a low-budget and do-it-yourself as you’re going to see, and pretty impressive even when not grading on that sort of curve. STAKE LAND doesn’t quite represent a
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Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal | Jeffrey Wright | Michael Arden | Michelle Monaghan | Vera Farmiga
Diane says: “Oops! Why did I think this would be good?” Jason responds: “Well, because of Duncan Jones, I imagine. And because Jake Gyllenhaal is pretty good at this sort of action/adventure movie, and there’s a nice supporting cast
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jennilyn Merten | Tyler Measom
Jason says: “Most of the time, when the modern westerner encounters or hears of polygamy, it’s an individual case, and thus he or she thinks about the individual psychology involved. Make it more commonplace, though, and a numbers issue emerges:
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Khavn | Michael Noer
Jason says: “Did Khavn de la Cruz and Michael Noer stumble upon a potentially fascinating movie by pure chance while walking around the streets of Manila? Or did they know about the subject and gracefully insinuate themselves? Or were things
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Hans Petter Moland
Starring: Bjørn Floberg | Bjørn Sundquist | Gard B.Eidsvold | Jorunn Kjellsby | Stellan Skarsgård
Jason says: “The phrase ‘returning to the scene of the crime’ is generally used during the investigation of a mystery, but if you take a broader view of what the ‘scene’ is, almost every criminal does it eventually. It’s just
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly
Starring: Aaron Poole | Jill Hennessy | Martha Plimpton | Peter Stormare | Stephen Eric McIntyre
Michael says: “Peter Stormare gives a remarkably restrained performance as a small-town cop trying desperately not to give in to a violent past while investigating a local murder that touches close to home. Echoes of FARGO abound, in this economically
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Eduard Fernández | Elena Anaya | Jan Cornet | Marisa Paredes | Roberto Álamo
Bruce says: “THE SKIN I LIVE IN is an adaptation of the French novel Mygale by Thierry Jonquet. Judging from what I have read about the novel, Almodóvar’s adaptation is a very loose one. For a decade I have wished
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