Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.8 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Blanca Portillo | José Luis Gómez | Lluís Homar | Penélope Cruz | Rubén Ochandiano | Tamar Novas
Bruce says: “Pedro Almodóvar is on a creative treadmill and desperately needs to hop off. Nothing about BROKEN EMBRACES seems fresh and engaging. Once again his plot centers on various characters harboring secrets that they withhold from each other and
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ounie Lecomte
Starring: Ah-Sung Ko | Do Yeon Park | Kyung-gu Seol | Man-seok Oh | Myeong-Shin Park | Sae-ron Kim
Jason says: “Though many cultures approach cinema differently, there are certain things that are constants. One of them is that if you open a film with a montage of a a happy child, something is going to happen to make
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Rachel Perkins
Starring: Deborah Mailman | Ernie Dingo | Geoffrey Rush | Magda Szubanski | Missy Higgins | Rocky McKenzie | Tom Budge
Michael says: “Without a doubt, BRAN NUE DAE, Rachel Perkins’ adaptation of a hugely successful Australian stage musical, is the most fun I’ve had in a theatre this year at TIFF! Willie is doing his mother’s bidding and studying to
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Diane says: “Freddie Wiseman’s latest. Not much fighting–good for the faint of heart–but lots of working out. Wiseman concentrates on the rhythms of the speed bag, the heavy bag, the medicine ball, the jump rope. It’s like another ballet film
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Teddy Chan
Starring: Donnie Yen | Jun Hu | Leon Lai | Nicholas Tse | Tony Leung Ka-fai | Xueqi Wang | Yuchun Li
Jason says: “Before BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS, the festival presented Development Hell, a documentary not about the making of this film, but of the collapse of multiple attempts to shoot it under multiple titles over decades. Unlike many cursed productions, this
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Daphné Baiwir | Dominique Thomas | Lola Créton | Lola Giovannetti | Marilou Lopes-Benites
Jason says: “I don’t think there have been any musical animated adaptations of Bluebeard, and the reason why is pretty obvious: Once you remove the sex and violence to make it family-friendly, there isn’t much left at all. Surprisingly, given
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Ben Shenkman | John Doman | Michelle Williams | Mike Vogel | Reila Aphrodite | Ryan Gosling
Ibad says: “This is my first review on this board as a new Chlotrudis member, so do forgive me for this. This isn’t the first review I’ve written, but this film was, truly, difficult to write about. I think it’s
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Barbara Hershey | Benjamin Millepied | Mila Kunis | Natalie Portman | Vincent Cassel | Winona Ryder
Ibad says: “Vincent Cassell informs his group of New York City ballet dancers that he’s going to stage the old staple of ballet, Swan Lake. But it’s going to be different. It’s gonna be stripped down, visceral, real. “He chooses
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Rick Jacobson
Starring: America Olivo | Erin Cummings | Julia Voth | Michael Hurst | Ron Melendez | William Gregory Lee
Thom says: “For all those missing the great Russ Meyer and his over-the-top extravaganzas (FASTER, PUSSYCAT, KILL!! KILL!!, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, MUD HONEY, etc.) here’s a terrific substitute. Big-breasted action girls in a sexploitation treat get stuck
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Michael Stephenson
Ivy says: “Because of the Brattle’s role in the making of this film I am predisposed to like it. I watched it before having ever seen TROLL 2 (the best worst movie that this doc is referring to) but had
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jessica Oreck
Jason says: “BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO would be a fine name for a tacky kaiju sci-fi movie (heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s been used). It’s not that, not even a little. Instead of being another bizarre and fantastic
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: James Rasin
Thom says: “Undoubtedly Darling was a very special and memorable person but your reaction to this film might well depend on your familiarity with her (him). I met her once at Jackie Curtis’ apartment and while seemingly withdrawn she certainly
Read the review...Backyard (Mexico; 122 min.) directed by: Carlos Carrera starring: Ana de la Reguera; Asur Zagada; Marco Pérez; Ivan Cortes; Joaquín Cosio; Alejandro Calva Ivy says: “I saw this film at TIFF because I have always been curious about this
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tomas Villum Jensen
Starring: Birgitte Hjort Sørensen | Birthe Neumann | Nicolas Bro | Nikolaj Coster-Waldau | Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Jason says: “It’s a little bit amazing, when you come to think of it, how quirky action/adventure films made outside the Hollywood system can be. Maybe it’s just because I am used to the conservative thinking that is typical here
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Rania Ajami
Starring: Bill Dawes | Camille O'Sullivan | Daniel Irizarry | Judith Hawking | Pepper Binkley | Stella Maeve
Jason says: “It’s a hoary old chestnut, but one that has stuck in the English language every since Shakespeare first used it in Hamlet because here’s a truth contained in it: ‘Method to madness.’ It’s not enough to just say
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Martin Zandvliet
Starring: Lars Brygmann | Michael Falch | Noel Koch Søfeldt | Otto Leonardo Steen Rieks | Paprika Steen | Shanti Roney
Bruce says: “At the 2007 premiere of her film WITH YOUR PERMISSION at the Toronto International Film Festival Paprika Steen announced that she and the film’s star, Lars Brygmann, would be playing George and Martha in Copenhagen in the spring
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: David Michôd
Starring: Ben Mendelsohn | Guy Pearce | Jacki Weaver | Joel Edgerton | Luke Ford | Sullivan Stapleton
TC says: “This Aussie crime thriller is an amazingly taut, heart-stopping ride from beginning to end. The story of a Melbourne crime family on the way down as seen from J, the 18-year-old nephew of the family whose mother kept
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Elijah Drenner
Jason says: “Cinema lovers: Have you spent your time in theaters and at the video store working your way through the Criterion Collection, absorbing the work of international masters, and seeing the most acclaimed films of a century of motion
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Bruno Forzani | Hélène Cattet
Starring: Bianca Maria D'Amato | Cassandra Forêt | Delphine Brual | Harry Cleven | Marie Bos
Jason says: “The most popular phrases being used to describe AMER tend to include the word giallo – it is giallo-inspired, reminiscent of the giallo films of the 1970s, etc., etc. This is true, but also misleading, because such descriptions
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Arata | Du-na Bae | Itsuji Itao | Jô Odagiri | Sumiko Fuji
Michael says: “One day an inflatable air doll, a substitute for sexual pleasure, wakes up to find she has a heart. She is self-animated, self-aware, and filled with wonder as she discovers the world around her. On a meandering sojourn
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