Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Tamra Davis
Jason says: “In the last review I wrote (for the delightful MARWENCOL), I said that documentaries about art and artists were frequently disappointing, in part because filmmakers have a hard time translating the brilliance they see into something a non-artist
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Starring: Amy Ryan | Daphne Rubin-Vega | John Ortiz | Philip Seymour Hoffman
Michael says: “Hats off to Philip Seymour Hoffman! Not only is his directorial debut a warm, funny, brilliantly acted, gorgeously written romance, it’s also the most adept depiction of the internal lives of people I’ve seen on screen. It’s a
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Anna Boden | Ryan Fleck
Starring: Emma Roberts | Jeremy Davies | Keir Gilchrist | Lauren Graham | Viola Davis | Zach Galifianakis
Jason says: “The title of IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is its own review. It’s just a matter of where you want to put the emphasis. It’s got enough jokes and amusing moments to qualify as a funny story,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Wilson Yip
Starring: Donnie Yen | Lynn Hung | Sammo Hung Kam-Bo | Simon Yam | Sui-Wong Fa | Xiaoming Huang
Jason says: “When I reviewed IP MAN last year, I was enthusiastic, comparing it to classic Shaw Brothers and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA. As I said then, that’s pretty good company for a martial arts epic to be
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Claude Chabrol
Starring: Clovis Cornillac | Gerard Depardieu | Jacques Gamblin | Marie Bunel | Marie Matheron | Vahina Giocante
Jason says: “The opening scene of Claude Chabrol’s final theatrical film gives a hint to why he was often compared to Alfred Hitchcock, though with a French sensibility: His camera threads its way through a graveyard until it finds corpse
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jamin Winans
Starring: Christopher Soren Kelly | Jennifer Batter | Jeremy Make | Jessica Duffy | Quinn Hunchar
Jason says: “The makers and marketers of INK are a little bit too ready to call it a cult classic, although given time, I could see it getting there. It’s got a better-than-decent urban fantasy set-up, a few extremely impressive
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Casey Affleck
Starring: Anthony Langdon | Carey Perloff | Casey Affleck | Joaquin Phoenix | Larry McHale
Thom says: “I don’t have a clue what to make of this. Joaquin Phoenix has long been a must-see for me. I probably came to know him because of my love for his brother River. And since he was supposedly
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Anne Dorval | François Arnaud | Monique Spaziani | Patricia Tulasne | Suzanne Clément | Xavier Dolan
Bruce says: “Xavier Dolan began writing his script for J’AI TUÉ MA MÈRE when he was sixteen with the goal in mind of getting his film into the Cannes Film Festival. Not only did he achieve that goal but he
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Toni Myers
Jason says: “The Hubble Space Telescope did not make a great first impression; its launch in 1989 was quickly followed by the discovery that a warped mirror rendered it no more powerful than ground-based telescopes. This got a lot of
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jeffrey Friedman | Ron Epstein
Starring: Alessandro Nivola | Bob Balaban | David Strathairn | James Franco | Jeff Daniels | Jon Hamm | Mary-Louise Parker
Thom says: “There wasn’t any reason to suppose that this wouldn’t be a great film but since this was Epstein & Friedman’s first dramatic film (although based on recorded events) I only plunged in because they have made quite a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ursula Meier
Starring: Adélaïde Leroux | Isabelle Huppert | Kacey Mottet Klein | Madeleine Budd | Olivier Gourmet
Michael says: “As we near the final quarter of 2010, I’ve started to catch up on some movies I’ve missed in the theater (and there are a lot of them!) HOME is a French film starring Isabelle Huppert, the first
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard | Cécile de France | Derek Jacobi | Matt Damon | Thierry Neuvic
Thom says: “I’m certainly not Clint Eastwood’s biggest fan (UNFORGIVEN is his only 5 CATS film for me) but he definitely has to be greatly admired for not sticking to one style or genre. Here he goes for a dramatization of the
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Director: Darko Lungulov
Starring: Antone Pagan | Branislav Trifunovic | Cyndi Lauper | David Thornton | Goran Radakovic | Jelena Mrdja | Mirjana Karanovic
Bruce says: “HERE AND THERE is a tale of two cities, New York and Belgrade. It is not the best of times in either city. New York is very un-Manhattan is this film. Belgrade, we are told, in part of
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: André Dussolier | Anne Consigny | Emanuelle Devos | Mathieu Amalric | Sabine Azéma
Bruce says: “You have to be a devotee of absurdist comedy to appreciate a film like LES HERBES FOLLES (now re-titled WILD GRASS for English audiences.) Similar in theme to HAPPENSTANCE, the Audrey Tatou vehicle prior to her success with
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Christine Molloy | Joe Lawlor
Starring: Annie Townsend | Danny Groenland | Dennis Jobling | Sandie Malie | Sonia Saville
Jason says: “I’d like to think I’m generous when reviewing and rating movies: If I enjoy a movie while watching it, but it loses something on later examination, I make sure to emphasize that this doesn’t undo the initial good
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Pascal Chaumeil
Starring: Andrew Lincoln | François Damiens | Héléna Noguerra | Julie Ferrier | Romain Duris | Vanessa Paradis
Jason says: “Making a good romantic comedy seems easy enough, in theory: Come up with some witty banter, figure out what makes the people delivering it interesting and likable, add a reason that they aren’t kissing by the end of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Starring: César Bordón | Claudia Cantero | Daniel Genoud | Guillermo Arengo | Inés Efron | Maria Onetto
Jeff says: “In the end, how you will have come through this movie will depend on what you saw in a brief shot towards the beginning of the picture. Vero, a successful dentist in a rural Argentine town, fumbles for
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bob Byington
Starring: Alex Karpovsky | Justin Rice | Kevin Corrigan | Kristen Tucker | Pat Healy
Diane says: “Caught this at International Film Festival of Boston. A very funny, rambling story of one guy’s heartbreak, and the response of those around him. (Could he be compared to the Job of A SERIOUS MAN?) Justin Rice is
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Bette Gordon
Starring: Aidan Quinn | Campbell Scott | Jamey Sheridan | John Savage | Karen Young | Mariann Mayberry | Steve Buscemi
Bruce says: “In 1983 Bette Gordon was an underground artist who decided she could make as good a film as the next guy (let’s face it, there were few female filmmakers in 1983.) The result was the stunning VARIETY which
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Julio DePietro
Starring: Aaron Yoo | Alexis Bedel | Andrew McCarthy | Anna Chlumsky | Bryan Greenberg | Scott Porter
Jason says: “Tommy Fielding (Scott Porter) is a pretty good guy, especially considering he’s a Wall Street trader. He doesn’t overindulge; he isn’t pressuring his girlfriend Beth (Alexis Bledel) to have sex even though it’s been a couple months and
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