Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Chris Eigeman
Starring: Famke Janssen | Jaymie Doman | Matt Ross | Rip Torn
Jason says: “When talking to people waiting in line for TURN THE RIVER and at other screenings over the weekend, a certain consensus emerged: We loved Famke Janssen, but couldn’t name very many movies she was in that were very
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Cédric Anger
Starring: Gilbert Melki | Grégoire Colin | Mélanie Laurent | Sophie Cattani | Xavier Beauvois
Jason says: “LE TUEUR is the very image of what the phrase ‘French film’ often brings to mind. It’s alternatively talkative and quiet, casually sexual, and deals with matters of life and death with what seems like emotionless detachment. What
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Brad Anderson
Starring: Ben Kingsley | Eduardo Noriega | Emily Mortimer | Kate Mara | Thomas Kretschmann | Woody Harrelson
Jason says: “The train thriller is almost a genre in itself: You get a group of people on a train, something bad happens, and the characters have to figure out who can’t be trusted by the rest, and the impending
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Bruce McDonald
Starring: Ellen Page | Julian Richings | Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Michael says: “This was surely the year of Ellen Page at the Toronto International Film Festival. After receiving well-deserved accolades for her fine comedic work in JUNO, she turns around a floors audiences in Bruce McDonald’s (‘Twitch City’; HIGHWAY 61)
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Alan Ball
Starring: Aaron Eckhart | Eugene Jones III | Maria Bello | Peter Macdissi | Summer Bishil | Toni Collette
Bruce says: “Jasira (Summer Bishil) is just thirteen. Her sexual awakening is triggered by a potpourri of clues. Most involve mixed messages. Her mother’s boyfriend offers to shave her pubic area; her whining, hubristic father is screwing his girlfriend within
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Pablo Larraín
Starring: Alfredo Castro | Amparo Noguero | Elsa Poblete | Hector Morales | Paola Lattus
Bruce says: “***Disgusting Spoilers*** “Who remembers Tony Romero? He is the character John Travolta immortalized in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, not high on my list of favorite films. It is not a particular treat to see Tony back on screen in
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Helen Hunt
Starring: Ben Shenkman | Bette Midler | Colin Firth | Helen Hunt | Matthew Broderick
Michael says: “I love this time of year… when I get to catch up on a lot of movies that I missed at the theatre in preparation for nominating. Through screeners, DVD rentals and borrowing from the library, it’s a
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Guillame Canet
Starring: François Cluzet | Kristen Scott Thomas | Marie-Josée Croze | Nathalie Baye
Bruce says: “TELL NO ONE is the first of Harlan Coben’s novels to be adapted for the screen. This novel is not from Coben’s famous mystery series featuring sports agent Myron Bolitar. A film version of DEAL BREAKER, which is
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Starring: Ashley Springer | Hale Appleman | Jess Weixler | John Hensley | Josh Pais
Jason says: “Every site I’ve seen that tags movies by genres lists TEETH as a horror movie, but I’m not sure that’s really the best description. Sure, if you’re a guy, the very concept of vagina dentata is scary as
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alex Gibney
Bruce says: “TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE would have been an entirely different experience had I not already seen Rory Kennedy’s superior GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB and Michael Winterbottom’s more experimental ROAD TO GUANTANAMO, two films which made it to
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Director: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Catherine Keener | Hope Davis | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Samantha Morton
Marilyn says: “The most important film we caught in Toronto was SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK written and directed by Charlie Kaufman who said at the Q&A that he appreciated the audience very much because they clearly ‘got it.’ The film starring
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Oren Jacobs
Bruce says: “CONSTANTINE’S SWORD is an adaptation of Boston Globe columnist James Carroll’s 2001 book Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews – A History, an examination of the roots of religious hatred and violence. Carroll, also a novelist and
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Doug Pray
Julie says: “I was somewhat mesmerized by SURFWISE. Director Doug Pray tells the story of Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz, a Stanford educated doctor and renowned surf guru who chose to raise his 9 children in a somewhat ‘unconventional’ way (although Paskowitz
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Hideaki Ito | Kaori Momoi | Kôichi Satô | Masanobu Andô | Yusuke Iseya
Jason says: “As much as I love Takashi Miike for being an outrageous filmmaker who does unpredictable things, I sometimes wonder if that can be a double-edged sword. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO is unabashedly a gimmick movie; if you’ve heard about
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Ole Bornedal
Starring: Jonas Wandschneider | Mollie Maria Gilmartin | Nikolaj Falkenberg-Klok | Paprika Steen | Ulrich Thomsen
Michael says: “This Danish science fiction/comedy/suspense film hits all the right notes, especially with the casting of the divine Paprika Steen in the title role. What’s a willful and rowdy class of students to do when they discover that the
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Stuart Gordon
Starring: Mena Suvari | Rukiya Bernard | Russell Hornsby | Stephen Rea
Jason says: “STUCK is based on a true story that made headlines a few years back, although much-beloved cult filmmaker Stuart Gordon has changed almost all the details to make a feature-length film out of it. That’s fine, though; the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Erez Tadmor | Guy Nattiv
Starring: iron Levo | Lubna Azabal
Bruce says: “Rana (Lubna Azabal) has come to Berlin for the 2006 World Cup, France against Italy. Eyal (Liron Levo) is attempting to reconnect with a former girlfriend. On a subway in Berlin these two strangers with identical back packs
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Zhang Ke Jia
Starring: Haiyu Xiang | Hong Wei Wong | Lin Zhou | Sanming Han | Tao Zhao | Zhubin Li
Bruce says: “Anyone who has seen THE WORLD will likely expect great things from Jia Zhang-ke, one of China’s ascending directorial stars. While THE WORLD was not a totally satisfying film it did portend great things to come. Happily, the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Bruce says: “Today William Castle is not exactly a household name although he was quite well known in his day. Labeled the B-Movie Alfred Hitchcock, he never argued that point as he reveled in a spotlight borrowed from P.T. Barnum.
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Amy Sedaris | Jeanetta Arnette | Kate Beckinsale | Michael Angarano | Olivia Thirlby | Sam Rockwell
Michael says: “The latest effort from Chlotrudis-favorite director David Gordon Green is a bit of a disappointment. SNOW ANGELS is adapted from the novel by Stewart O’Nan, and sadly, it seems to have been more than Green could handle. SNOW
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