Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Todd Rohal
Starring: Koko Lanham | Miki Ann Maddox | Robert Longstreet | Steve Little | Wally Dalton
Jason says: “There are two distinct types of strange at play in THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM – weird characters in a somewhat conventional situation and parts that are just plain bizarre. Some in the audience aren’t going to be down for
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Wuershan
Starring: Ashton Xu | Kitty Zhang Yuqi | Liu Xiaoye | Masanobu Andô | You Benchang
Jason says: “THE BUTCHER, THE CHEF, AND THE SWORDSMAN certainly doesn’t lack for style; it’s got more styles than you can shake a stick at. At times, overwhelmingly so – though the movie is often quite funny and exciting, director
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: John Landis
Starring: Andy Serkis | Isla Fisher | Jessica Hynes | Simon Pegg | Tim Curry | Tom Wilkinson
Jason says: “The true story of 19th Century serial killers Burke & Hare is not a natural fit for romantic comedy, so this take on the characters is certainly going to stand out for that. It works better than one
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Gereon Wetzel
Jason says: “EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS has a strange start for a documentary abouta famous chef and his equally famous restaurant: The kitchen is disassembled and packed away. This is not, however, a precursor to a jump back in
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yu Li
Starring: Bingbing Fan | Bo-lin Chen | Lisi Danni | Sylvia Chang | Yu Chen | Zhenjiang Bao
Jason says: “It doesn’t always work out this way, but ending the trip to New York City for the Asian Film Festival with BUDDHA MOUNTAIN turned out to be a nice way to decompress. After a non-stop barrage of movies
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Cindy Meehl
Toni says: “The inspiring story of Buck Brannaman. He took bad from the past and made good by translating it to understanding horses as a real live horse whisperer. As many have mentioned, you really don’t have to be into
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Rowan Joffe
Starring: Andrea Riseborough | Helen Mirren | John Hurt | Philip Davis | Sam Riley
Thom says: “This absorbing adaptation of the great Graham Greene (how could he have not won the Nobel prize is a mystery) novel is a remake of a 1947 entry which I haven’t seen which starred the young Richard Attenborough.
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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
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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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