Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Amanda Bauer | Brett Jacobsen | Claire Sloma | Jade Ramsey | Marlon Morton | NikitaRamsey
Julie says: “There was one funny moment in the grocery store at the beginning of the movie which involves a loud speaker. Feel free to turn the movie off after that. The rest just seemed very amateurish to me and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jim Kohlberg
Starring: Cara Seymour | J.K. Simmons | Julia Ormond | Lou Taylor Pucci | Mia Maestro | Tammy Blanchard
Jason says: “As near as I can tell, J.K. Simmons has never had a starring role in the movies or on television. He’s been part of ensembles, and stolen scenes in supporting parts, but being the first guy listed in
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Qasim Basir
Starring: Danny Glover | Dorian Missick | Evan Ross | Nia Long | RogerGuenveur Smith | Summer Bishil
Jason says: “MOOZ-LUM opens with ‘based on actual events,’ and it does wind up feeling like the sort of the sort of movie that such a label gets applied to. It’s well-observed and at times fascinatingly authentic, but also clearly
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Alexander Siddig | Freida Pinto | Hiam Abbass | Vanessa Redgrave | Willem Defoe
Michael says: “Julian Schnabel, director of the acclaimed THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this ambitious historical tale told from the point-of-view of an idealistic, but naive young Arab woman named Miral. In 1948, Hind
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Yoshimasa Ishibashi
Starring: Anna Ishibashi | Eiji Okuda | Maiko | Mieko Harada | Seijun Suzuki | Takayuki Yamada
Jason says: “MILOCRORZE: A LOVE STORY is the sort of colorful, genre-mashing flick that doesn’t just try to bowl the audience over, but practically insists on it, overwhelming the viewer with color and sound and sudden shifts until they either
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Lech Majewski
Starring: Charlotte Rampling | Michael York | Rutger Hauer
Diane says: “RUSSIAN ARK meets Mel Gibson’s PASSION. This gorgeous, soporific Polish film turns Bruegel’s painting, ‘The Way to Calvary,’ into a mostly wordless narrative. Concept is great (digitized background of the painting’s landscape with live actors in middle- and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Kurt Fuller | Michael Sheen | Mimi Kennedy | Owen Wilson | Rachel McAdams
Thom says: “I was all prepared to like this brilliant film from all the rave reviews but I had no idea I’d love it this much. The story: a successful but frustrated Hollywood screenwriter (Gil, Owen Wilson) travels to his
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jacques-Rémy Girerd
Starring: Charlie Girerd | Dany Boon | Garance Lagraa | John Di Maggio | MatthewModine
Jason says: “MIA AND THE MIGOO isn’t a new film; it played the festival circuit and various markets two and a half years ago, including the New York International Children’s Film Festival. Apparently Matthew Modine saw it at one of
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård | Brady Corbet | Cameron Spurr | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Kirsten Dunst | Udo Kier
Jason says: “As hooks go, it’s tough to beat the one Lars von Trier uses to start MELANCHOLIA: The world ends in such slow motion that time almost seems to be standing still. It’s a fantastic scene of planetary destruction,
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Michelle Wiliams | Paul Dano | Shirley Henderson | Will Patton | Zoe Kazan
Jason says: “Why don’t you want to see this movie at the end of a long day? Because it is frequently boring, and seeing it in that condition will exacerbate this. Reducing it to simply that one adjective is tremendously
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sean Durkin
Starring: Brady Corbet | Elizabeth Olsen | Hugh Dancy | John Hawkes | Sarah Paulson
Michael says: “To kick off this season’s CineCache co-presentation with the Brattle Theatre, we got a sneak preview of the Sundance hit, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. This is one impressive debut film… heck, it’s a pretty impressive film all around.
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Demi Moore | Jeremy Irons | Kevin Spacey | Mary McDonnell | Paul Bettany | Penn Badgley | Simon Baker | Stanley Tucci | Susan Blackwell | Zachary Quinto
Julie says: “Writer/Director J.C. Chandor outdid himself in his first feature debut, MARGIN CALL. The movie (billed as a drama / thriller) while fictional tells a story very close to the truth. It follows the key people at an investment
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ash Christian
Starring: Charles Solomon Jr. | Heather Matarazzo | Jennifer Coolidge | Ryan Boggus
Chris says: “Ash Christian’s debut feature FAT GIRLS wasn’t a great film, but it wasn’t bad for being written, directed and produced by a 21-year-old (he starred in it, too). A tad slapdash but often hilarious, it positioned him as
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Carl Colby
Diane says: “CIA director William Colby’s son gets on the filial doc bandwagon. But there are drawbacks to a film intended to show the opacity of its subject. E.g., you feel like you’ve wasted your time. The only parts I
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Rating: 2.3
Director: Alex Gibney | Allison Ellwood
Chris says: “If nothing else, see MAGIC TRIP for its amazing archival footage of Ken Kesey and his ‘Merry Band of Pranksters’ on their infamous 1964 cross-country bus trip. They filmed hours and hours of footage along the way, but
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mark Hartley
Jason says: “I wonder where Mark Hartley’s next stop will be. Hong Kong? Thailand? Indonesia? After spotlighting the exploitation cinema of Australia in Not Quite Hollywood and the Philippine Islands in MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!, there must be other spots on
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Adam Mason
Starring: Andrew Howard | Ian Duncan | Matthew Rhys | Tess Panzer | Xander Berkeley
Jason says: “I’m not saying that it should be an ironclad rule that a movie by the name of LUSTER, with a sort of Jekyll-and Hyde theme, should go a little more heavy on the sex, but that would have
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Julian Gilbey
Starring: Alec Newman | Eamonn Walker | Ed Speleers | Garry Sweeney | Holly Boyd | Kate Magowan | Melissa George | Sean Harris
Jason says: “There is a certain joy to a move that takes the word ‘cliffhanger’ literally, as A LONELY PLACE TO DIE does in its very first scene. Director Julian Gilbey will go back to this well another time or
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Mike Ott
Starring: Atsuko Okatsuka | Cory Zacharia | Rintaro Sawamoto | Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez
Jason says: “I wonder and worry a bit about how LITTLEROCK will play outside the festival circuit. It’s a wonderful little film, but it would be easy for a well-meaning distributor to drastically change the experience. Of course, I’m also
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Drake Doremus
Starring: AlexKingston | Anton Yelchin | Charlie Bewley | Felicity Jones | Jennifer Lawrence | Oliver Muirhead
Jason says: “First love can burn very bright but not be that complicated, and since that’s what LIKE CRAZY is about, it makes a bit of sense for it to have a certain shallowness about it as well. The question
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