Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Lyes Salem
Starring: Lyes Salem | Merouane Zmirli | Mohamed Boucharïb | Mourad Khen | Rym Takoucht | Sarah Reguieg
Bruce says: “MASQUERADES is one of those films that take me by surprise and win me over easily. The story is a small one and perhaps not that original. Three old men sit in the village square when a group
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Adam Elliot
Starring: Barry Humphries | Bethany Whitmore | Eric Bana | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Toni Collette
Jason says: “It’s interesting how certain things seem to arrive in clusters. Stop-motion animation never seemed to disappear quite so completely as the traditional cel-based form, but what has appeared over the last year or so has been an unexpected
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Gael García Bernal | Jan David G. Nicdao | Marife Necesito | Michelle Williams | Sophie Nyweide | Thomas McCarthy
Michael says: “As in JELLYFISH, my favorite film from last year, MAMMOTH finds as one of its core conflicts, a mother traveling half-way around the world to take care of other people’s children in order to make money to support
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Crayton Robey
Bruce says: “MAKING THE BOYS, a documentary about the creative process in developing The Boys in the Band and the resulting impact it has had on the gay community, was entered in the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival as a work-in-progress.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sebastián Silva
Starring: Alejandro Goic | Andrea Garcia-Huidobro | Anita Reeves | Augustín Silva | Catalina Saavedra | Claudia Celedón | Mariana Loyola | Mercedes Villaneuva
Bruce says: “Sebastián Silva follows the adage that one should write about what one knows. THE MAID tells the story of his family’s maid during the time he was growing up and was filmed in the actual house where the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Kôki Mitani
Starring: Eri Fukatsu | Haruka Ayase | Kôichi Satô | Satoshi Tsumabuki | Toshiyuki Nishida
Jason says: “Let’s face it: The whole deal with gangs and movies intersecting in such a way as to cause hilarious, self-referential misunderstanding is pretty darn played out. I groaned a little just reading the description for THE MAGIC HOUR,
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Director: Derick Martini
Starring: Alec Baldwin | Cynthia Nixon | Jill Hennessey | Kieran Culkin | Rory Culkin | Timothy Hutton
Diane says: “Saw LYMELIFE on the strength of the trailer, plus the appeal of two elements: Lyme disease and Long Island in the ’70s. “Variety says, ‘Startling performances, searing dialogue and an archaeologist’s sense of late ’70s period detail power
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Mark Wahlberg | Rachel Weisz | Rose McIver | Saoirse Ronan | Stanley Tucci | Susan Sarandon
Jason says: “Though I tend to think that attempting to fit a movie into a specific genre and then being frustrated when it fails to fit there nicely speaks more ill of the viewer’s inflexibility than the movie itself, I
Read the review...The Loved Ones (Australia; 84 min.) directed by: Sean Byrne starring: Xavier Samuel ; Richard Wilson; Jessica McNamee; Victoria Thaine; John Brumpton Thom says: “This Australian horror entry was brief, to-the-point, gruesome, & rather fun. It’s Prom Night in
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jonathan Hock
Jason says: “If THE LOST SON OF HAVANA were fictional, there’s a good chance that people would call its screenplay ridiculous. After all, it features the World Series, the Negro Leagues, multiple incredible returns from injury, baseball bringing about a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ellen Seidler | Megan Siler
Starring: Angelyna Martinez | Ashleigh Sumner | Cathy DeBuono | Jessica Graham | Jill Bennett
Michael says: “In Provincetown for the weekend and as luck would have it, the Provincetown International Film Festival has a slate of Women’s Week Films running at the Whaler’s Wharf! Wary of catching some amateurish, lesbian film (a la BAR
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Alex Descas | Bill Murray | Gael García Bernal | Hiam Abbass | Isaach De Bankolé | Tilda Swinton
Chris says: “Few films baffle me as much as this one initially did. Jim Jarmusch has always been a particularly austere auteur: his narratives tend to unfold at a zen-like pace and the films’ structures possess as much weight as the stories
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Starring: Go Hyun-jung | Kim Tae-woo | Kong Hyeong-jin | Uhm Ji-won
Bruce says: “I’ve never before seen a picture by director Hong Sang-soo, which appears to be a grave oversight on my part. LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL is a refreshing take on dark comedy. The anti-hero of this movie is
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Petr Lom
Jason says: “LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT is somewhat difficult to review as a film because it does its job so well. It is trying to give the audience a snapshot of the relationship Iran has with its populist president, and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Phil Claydon
Starring: James Corden | Mathew Horne | MyAnna Buring | Paul McGann | Silvia Colloca | Vira Filatova
Jason says: “As you might expect, the title came first with LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS Unlike a lot of high-concept movies, it delivers on that title, both literally – there are vampires, they are lesbians, and our heroes are going
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Eran Riklis
Starring: Ali Suliman | Doron Tavory | Hiam Abbass | Rona Lipaz-Michael | Tarik Kopty
Michael says: “In its examination of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict LEMON TREE doesn’t say anything new or surprising, but by focusing on how it changes the lives of two women on opposite sides of that conflict, it speaks deeply and effectively.
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Clark Lyda | Jesse Lyda
Jason says: “THE LEAST OF THESE is maybe not a rarity as far as documentaries go, but it does seem unusually focused. The way things were being run at the T. Don Hutto detention facility offers the filmmakers plenty of
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Jason Behr | Krysten Ritter | Lucy Gordon | Mike Landry | Money Mazur
Starring: Jason Behr | Krysten Ritter | Lucy Gordon | Mike Landry | Money Mazur
Jason says: “THE LAST INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOY was known as FROST during its time on the festival circuit, and I wholeheartedly support the name change, both because the longer title is a lot more interesting and because it downplays the fact
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Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Masayuki Miyano
Starring: Hiroki Narimiya | Saori Hara | Tomoko Murakami
Jason says: “I suppose I should just get the unfair comparison out of the way – LALAPIPO is not in the same class as KAMIKAZE GIRLS, PACO AND THE MAGIC BOOK, or MEMORIES OF MATSUKO. It’s only in the same
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Starring: Daniela Valentine | Diego Cataño | Hector Herrera | Juan Carlos Lara II | Olda López | Yemil Sefani
Bruce says: “When a director makes a big splash with a debut film, the follow-up film is under greater scrutiny than normal. Fernando Eimbcke’s DUCK SEASON is a case in point. The good news is that LAKE TAHOE, his follow-up
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