Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
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,
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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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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Guoqiang Tang | Jackie Chan | Li Zhang | Tao Hai | Wei Li
Starring: Bingbing Li | Jackie Chan | Jaycee Chan | Joan Chen | Winston Chao
Jason says: “Jackie Chan’s hundredth movie commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the revolution that brought down the Qing Dynasty, and both of these events seem to deserve something better for commemoration than this lifeless history lecture. “1911 and 1912, for
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Rating: 4.9
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Gorô Inagaki | Koji Yakusho | Masachika Ichimura | Takayuki Yamada | Yusuke Iseya
Thom says: “As is probably well known, I am a colossal Takashi Miike fan. I’ve almost certainly seen more (feature) films by Miike than any other director, so I had to see this presentation. What most surprised my brother and
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Anthony Hopkins | Antonio Banderas | Gemma Jones | Josh Brolin | Naomi Watts | Pauline Collins
Diane says: “Woody Allen’s latest, starring Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts among others in a fab-o cast. Fast and clever, but my companions were right when they said that Allen usually has respect, if not sympathy, for his characters, and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Regev Contes
Diane says: “Entertaining docu from Israel, screened at the Boston Jewish Film Festival today. Director Regev Contes tries to help his father get a failing insurance company back on its feet. But Dad and his two buddies would much rather
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Shirin Nehsat | Shoja Azari
Starring: Arita Shahrzad | Mehdi Moinzadeh | Orsolya Tóth | Pegah Ferydoni | Shabnam Toloui
Michael says: “This Iranian film by first-time filmmaker Shirin Neshat was on my list of films to see in Toronto back in 2009, but I ended up missing it. Then it had a brief run at the Museum of Fine
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Debra Granik
Starring: Dale Dickey | Jennifer Lawrence | John Hawkes | Kevin Breznehan | Lauren Sweetser | Shelley Waggener
Michael says: “Got out to the Independent Film Festival of Boston tonight, and was not disappointed by Debra Granik’s outstanding WINTER’S BONE. This taut, atmospheric drama has already racked up some awards at Sundance and Berlin, and I sure hope
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ben Steinbauer
TC says: “Back in the mid 70s, Jack Rebney was a television producer hired to host a Winnebago sales video. When they finished the video, the outtakes started leaking out, and it seems Jack had a penchant for swearing. This
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Todd Solondz
Starring: Allison Janney | Ally Sheedy | Charlotte Rampling | Michael K. Williams | Michael Lerner | Shirley Henderson
Diane says: “Sequel to Todd Solondz’s HAPPINESS (1998), which I loved. New actors play the characters some years on (although I was convinced that some of the women were the original actors–wrong!). Once again, the almost-laughable discomfort of inappropriate remarks,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Robecca Richman Cohen
Jason says: “WAR DON DON was what they shouted about ten years ago in Sierra Leone to announce that a vicious civil war (one barely reported abroad) was over. The end of a war, however, is seldom accompanied by an
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Don Hahn
Jason says: “Watching this movie’s opening scenes, with a bunch of animators screwing around, working more or less unsupervised in Disney’s old Ink & Paint building, brought together for being college classmates and taking breaks to do skits and home
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Margarethe von Trotta
Starring: Alexander Held | Barbara Sukowa | Hannah Herzsprung | Heino Ferch | Sunnyi Melles
Bruce says: “What a résumé! Margarethe von Trotta is in her fourth decade of making films although she began writing for film in the 60’s when she was in her early twenties. In the seventies she was one of the
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Craig Teper
Diane says: “I caught this at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, where another patron complained justifiably that the movie wasn’t Jewish enough. We see Sassoon in a synagogue with his kippe at the start of the film, then a very
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang | Johnny Hallyday | Ka Tung Lam | Suet Lam | Sylvie Testud
Thom says: “Johnnie To is another of my FAVORITE TOP 10 LIVING DIRECTORS so excitement reigned here as well. All the crime, action, shoot-outs, and general mayhem are represented here but To adds a European feel to his latest film in
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Nicols Winding Refn
Starring: Alexander Morton | Callum Mitchell | Ewan Stewart | Gary Lewis | Jamie Sives | Mads Mikkelsen
Thom says: “Charming Mads Mikkelsen was present for the Q&A after the viewing and he regaled us with stories about how hard it was to work with director Refn. This existential, religious, even metaphysical film is about a group of
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Catherine Deneuve | Emilie Dequenne | Mathieu Demy | Michel Blanc | Nicolas Duvauchelle | Ronit Elkabetz
Jason says: “THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN is based upon an incident that drew a fair amount of attention in its native France, but makes an unusual choice or two in telling the story. Director André Téchiné and co-writer Jean-Marie
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lena Dunham
Starring: Alex Karpovsky | Grace Dunham | Jemima Kirke | Laurie Simmons | Lena Dunham | Merritt Wever
Jason says: “I’m often not quite sure where I land on movies like TINY FURNITURE. They spend a lot of their time annoying me, quite honestly, with their characters’ awkward quirks and selfishness, and I’m never quite able to figure
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Henrik Ruben Genz
Starring: Anders Hove | Jakob Cedergren | Kim Bodnia | Lars Brygmann | Lene Maria Christensen
Jason says: “I take note of odd credits when watching movies, and maybe any (hypothetical) readers from Denmark could fill me in on a couple from the end of TERRIBLY HAPPY: Is it common for Danish films to credit the
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