Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Ken Takakura | Li Jiamin | Qui Lin | Shinobu Terajima | Wen Jiang
Bruce says: “China and Japan have a contentious relationship for hundreds of years, particularly in the years since Japan occupied parts of China and Taiwan in the early 20th century. Diplomatic relationships did not resume until 1972 and attitudes on
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring: Burghart Klaußner | Imogen Kogge | Sandra Hüller
Bruce says: “Films about illness and disability used to run the risk of being slotted into the ‘Ailment of the Week’ made-for-TV film category. That insult is mostly a thing of the past since television is now many times more
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Director: Christian Volckman
Starring: Catherine McCormack | Daniel Cragi | Patrick Floersheim
Tom says: “I can’t spell Renaissance without looking it up, but I can enjoy it anyway! Visually amazing. Like a still black and white drawing that won’t stop moving, flat but with depth. The story, it may be good, but
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Starring: Angela Baraldi | Claudia Zanella | Elio Germano | Gigio Alberti
Bruce says: “Being no fan of Salvatores’ Oscar winning MEDITERRANEO or the more recent I’M NOT SCARED, I was a bit hesitant about seeing QUO VADIS, BABY? While I was somewhat pleasantly surprised, the film is not without its problems,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Richard Glatzer | Wash Westmoreland
Starring: Chalo González | Emily Rios | Jesse Garcia
Michael says: “Sometimes a movie receives accolades and hype that makes you pause and scratch your head. QUINCEAÑERA took the audience and Jury Prizes for Best Dramatic Feature at Sundance earlier this year. It’s not that Richard Glatzer and Wash
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Jamie Babbit
Starring: Camilla Belle | Edie Falco | Elisha Cuthbert | Martin Donovan | Shawn Ashmore
Michael says: “This disappointing follow-up to Babbit’s entertaining debut, BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER has trouble deciding what it wants to be; a campy comedy, a tense thriller, a serious family drama, or a horror film. What it reminded me most
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Heather McCrory | Helen Mirren | James Cromwell | Michael Sheen
Chris says: “I’m convinced that Helen Mirren is capable of anything: She can quietly steal scenes in a Robert Altman ensemble piece (GOSFORD PARK), turn a recurring role into an icon (television’s ‘Prime Suspect’) and even survive an embarrassment like
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jay Duplass
Starring: Kathryn Asleton | Mark Duplass | Rhett Wilkins
Chris says: “The titular piece of furniture is an old burgundy La-Z-Boy purchased on E-bay by Josh (Mark Duplass). He sets off from New York with his girlfriend Emily (Kathryn Aselton) to pick up the chair in rural Virginia so
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Emily Watson | Guy Pearce | Ray Winstone | Tom Budge
Chris says: “This Aussie western sports the first screenplay to be written by goth rock legend Nick Cave. Like a good number of the man’s songs, it’s darkly poetic, somewhat macabre, heavily death-obsessed, more than a little bloody and ponderously
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Im Sang-soo
Starring: Jae-ho Song | Suk-kyu Han | Yun-shik Baek
Bruce says: “It is no secret that the President of South Korea will be assassinated in THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG; after all we are told on screen that it is 1979 and we know the film is based on fact.
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Adam Curtis
Bruce says: “Of all the political documentaries to come out in the past few years THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES is the most innovative in its thinking. According to Curtis the neo-con movement and the fundamentalist Muslim movement both had their
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: The Quay Brothers
Starring: Amira Cesar | Assumpta Serna | Gottfried John
Bruce says: “Identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have quite a reputation (albeit primarily as animators) considering THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES is just their second feature film. They were born in the USA but studied film in England where
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Xavier Beauvois
Starring: Antoine Chappey | Bruce Myers | Jacques Perrin | Jalil Lespert | Jean Lespert | Nathalie Baye | Patrick Chauvel | Roschdy Zem
Hilary says: “Nathalie Baye (VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE, etc.) stars in this glacially-paced French neo-noir. “Baye plays a veteran police officer returning to the detective squad following some personal drama. One of the squad’s new recruits, Antoine (Jalil Lespert), anxiously awaits
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Carlos Saurin
Starring: Juan Villegas | Rosa Valsecchi | Walter Donado
Bruce says: “EL PERRO (sometimes advertised as BOMBON, EL PERRO) is a delightful film. Set in Patagonia, the story is paper thin but the sentiment is sincere thanks to a lovely performance by Juan Villegas. He plays Coco, an aging
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Rachel Boynton
Bruce says: “It is 2002 and Goni (Alberto Sanchez de Lozada), the former president of Bolivia, is seeking to regain office he held from 1993-1997. When his finds himself lagging behind Manfred (Reyes Villa) in the polls, he panics and
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Dominic Harari | Teresa Pelegri
Starring: Guillermo Toledo | María Botto | Marián Aguilera
Bruce says: “Leni (Marián Aguilera), a nice Jewish girl, brings her boyfriend Rafi (Guillermo Toledo) home to meet the extended family. Rafi has one major disadvantage in this household; he is Palestinian. Leni’s belly-dancing sister Tania (María Botto) is wildly
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Daniel London | Tanya Smith | Will Oldham
Chris says: “Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (cult folk-rocker Will Oldham) were once close friends; now both in their mid-30s, they’ve grown apart as friends often do. Mark has a career and a partner and is about to become a
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Billy Kent
Starring: Danny DeVito | Parker Posy | Paul Rudd | Winter Ave Zoli
Chris says: “Stars a rarely-better Parker Posey as a Cleveland ad exec who has never had an orgasm, ever. A thin premise and somewhat clumsy script are enlivened by a decent cast: Paul Rudd (shlubby and nearly unrecognizable with copious
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Cara Seymour | Chris Bauer | David Strathairn | Gretchen Mol | Jared Harris | John Cullum | Jonathan M. Woodward | Lili Taylor | Norman Reedus | Sarah Paulson
Michael says: “In theory, the life of Bettie Page seems like a perfect basis for a biopic. A young girl growing up in the 40’s and 50’s, Page travels from Nashville to New York to pursue her dreams of acting.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Richard Eyre
Starring: Bill Nighy | Cate Blanchett | Judi Dench | Juno Temple | Max Lewis | Philip Davis
Michael says: “Richard Eyre follows-up IRIS and STAGE BEAUTY with a real romp of a thriller in NOTES ON A SCANDAL. There’s a lot of excess in SCANDAL, and the entire thing really lives and dies by Judi Dench’s performance
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