Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Starring: Hitomi Satô | Jun Inoue | Keisuke Horibe | Rie Tomosaka | Ryô Nishikido | Shiori Kutsuna
Jason says: “A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI has a well-worn fantasy premise that could have very easily proceeded in a very predictable fashion. However, even if the original novel it was based on did not have its time-lost samurai discovering
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Starring: Jenjira Pongpas | NatthakarnAphaiwonk | Sakda Kaewbuadee | Thanapat Saisaymar
Ibad says: “UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES, which enchanted Tim Burton’s jury this year to a Palme D’Or win at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a mystifying and exquisite crowning jewel on Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Richard Weiss
Starring: Dennis Duggan | Genevieve Antaky | Julia Sanford | Pamela Wycliffe | Stan Weston
Jason says: “As remarkably inept as THE BOOK is, I was still willing to give it a recommendation of the ‘guilty pleasure’ variety, almost entirely for its commitment to its retro-bizarre style. A man can only take so much, though,
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Eduard Fernández | Guillermo Estrella | Hanaa Bouchaib | Javier Bardem | Maricel Álvarez
Thom says: “I have no idea why it took me so long to see this cinematic gem. The film was nominated for best Foreign Film in the 2010 Oscar race, Javier Bardem is always a mesmerizing actor, & I’ve become
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Richard Press
Diane says: “A killer! Bill Cunningham is a New York Times fashion photographer, now 82, whose humility and modest lifestyle belie a single-minded passion. A great study of a man and his unceasing search for beauty. You will fall in
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Stevan Mena
Starring: Alexandra Daddario | Brett Rickaby | Michael Biehn | Nolan Gerard Funk | Spencer List
Thom says: “This is an unusually well-made horror film that is positively horrifying, and definitely nor for the feint-of-heart. If graphic horror films leave you repulsed or disturbed don’t see this shocker. In the prologue of the film a 6-year-old
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Philip Cox
Jason says: “Often, a good documentary will seem like the result of as much good fortune as anything; after all, it’s entirely possible to have a compelling topic, an interesting subject to follow around, and a good crew, but that’s
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Evan Glodell
Starring: Evan Glodell | Jessie Wiseman | Rebekah Brandes | Tyler Dawson | Vincent Grashaw
Jason says: “The end of a relationship can certainly seem like the end of the world, and while BELLFLOWER is not explicitly post-apocalyptic, it takes a number of its cues from that direction. It’s not the first love story to
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Constance Marks
Jason says: “I don’t have kids of my own, but I have a four-year-old niece, and Elmo sort of drove her parents up the wall, at least for a while. Something about the high voice, the talking in the third
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mike Mills
Starring: Christopher Plummer | Ewan McGregor | Goran Visnjic | Kai Lennox | Mélanie Laurent
Chris says: “BEGINNERS puts a novel twist on the coming out narrative: this time, it’s the father, 75-year-old Hal (Christopher Plummer) who tells his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) that he’s gay. Neither played for farce nor melodrama, the relatively painless
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Wai-keuing Lau
Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang | Danying Feng | Liang Tian | Qi Shu | Ye Liu
Jason says: “You’ve got to sort of admire a movie like A BEAUTIFUL LIFE. It’s filled with characters that could easily be defined by how they are handicapped or burdensome, and yet it’s not a pity-baiting exercise. Well, not more
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Richard J. Lewis
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Minnie Driver | Paul Giamatti | Rachelle LaFevre | Rosamund Pike | Scott Speedman
Thom says: “Adapted from the Mordechai Richler (who sadly passed before this film was released) novel this film does have loads of charm that tried very hard to overcome the basically obnoxious protagonist. Barney Panofsky is a very successful Canadian
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Semih Kaplanoglu
Starring: Alev Uçarer | Ayse Altay | Bora Altas | Erdal Besikçioglu | Tülin Özen
Ibad says: “The Turkish film BAL in English, HONEY is infused with a quiet power. The film’s rich and hauntingly soulful imagery makes it nearly impossible to do the material justice in a single review. BAL is the third film
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Joe Cornish
Starring: Alex Esmail | Franz Drameh | Jodie Whittaker | John Boyega | Leeon Jones | Luke Treadaway | Simon Howard
Jason says: “ATTACK THE BLOCK got ridiculously high praise from genre fans at festival showings this year, and it’s not quite that good. Then, in between its US opening and its expansion to Boston, the London riots started, and talk
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Richard Griffin
Starring: Alexander Lewis | Alexandra Cipolla | Brandon Luis Aponte | Colin Carlton | Daniel Lee White | David Lavallee Jr. | Michael Reed | Ruth Sullivan | Sarah Nicklin
Jason says: “It’s fair to look at a movie like ATOMIC BRAIN INVASION and sigh. Another one of these things? After all, to put it bluntly, the people with legitimate first-hand nostalgia for 1950s sci-fi flicks are dying off, and
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Starring: Bérénice Bejo | Beth Grant | James Cromwell | Jean Dujardin | John Goodman | Penelope Ann Miller
Thom says: “This delightful black & white silent film is an out-and-out winner. Silent film superstar George Valentin (Dujardin, Best Actor at Cannes 2011) is worried that with the advent of talkies he will lose his stardom. His marriage is
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Clio Barnard
Chris says: “Outside of England and perhaps a few modern drama departments, playwright Andrea Dunbar remains obscure, a status this unusual documentary hopes to obliterate. Raised on a notoriously tough council estate, she wrote a play (which gives this film
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mike Cahill
Starring: Brit Marling | DJ Flava | Matthew-Lee Ehrlbach | Meggan Lennon | William Mapother
Jason says: “I’m not sure which part of ANOTHER EARTH annoys me more – the terrible science or the weird relationship that develops over the course of the film. Though stranger things than the latter have happened in real life,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: David Thewlis | Derek Jacobi | Edward Hogg | Helen Baxendale | Joley Richardson | Mark Rylance | Rafe Spall | Rhys Ifans | Sam Reid | Sebastian Amesto | Trystan Gravelle | Vanessa Redgrave | Xavier Samuel
Diane says: “Is this really eligible? Very Hollywood in production design, camerawork, dialogue and hair. A story of who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays (in this version, Edward Devere), amid a lot of court intrigue. “Vanessa Redgrave is wonderful as the
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Angela Winkler | Annedore Kleist | Devid Strieso | Sebastian Schipper | Sophie Rois
Diane says: “3, Tom Tykwer’s latest about a love triangle, is sabotaged by its very ordinary ending (see movie poster). Up to then, it’s smart, snappy, visually appealing, and has two great leads. The metaphor of stem cell manipulation is
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