Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Amy Berg
Michael says: “I’m quite disappointed that Amy Berg’s powerful documentary DELIVER US FROM EVIL received such an abbreviated release this year (in Boston anyway) so that most of us didn’t get to see it. In her first feature film, Berg
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Pat O'Neill
Starring: Kane Crawford | Lilia Barsegian | William Lewis
Bruce says: “THE DECAY OF FICTION is an original. In spirit, it is more akin to GOODBYE, DRAGON INN than any other film that comes to mind; the films of Guy Maddin are closest in style. It is impossible to
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Cristi Puiu
Starring: Doru Ana | Ion Fiscuteanu | Monica Barladeanu
Bruce says: “Dante Remus Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) wakes up one morning with a splitting headache and severe nausea. A widower for ten years, he is now alone since his daughter has left Romania, emigrating to Canada. Living with three cats
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hamid Rahmanian
Starring: Hosein Yari | Maryam Amirjallali | Zabi Afshar
Bruce says: “DAY BREAK (DAME SOBH is the film’s Persian title) is the film I most liked at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. Happily, I have noticed that DAY BREAK and FAMILIA (my favorite film from the 2005 Toronto International
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Kevin Willmott
Starring: EvamariiJohnson | Larry J. Peterson | Rupert Pate
Michael says: “Sigh. Mockumentaries that are also satires are very difficult to pull off. Over the years, Christopher Guest has mastered the art, but with CSA: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, director Kevin Willmott tries to have his cake (satiric
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hans Canosa
Starring: Aaron Eckhart | Brianna Brown | Erik Eidem | Helena Bonham Carter | Olivia Wilde
Michael says: “Hans Canosa’s second feature film (the first being ALMA MATER, which I had never heard of) is a two-person piece about a formerly married couple who haven’t seen each other in many years, then re-connect at a wedding.
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Anthony Cordier
Starring: Jean-Philippe Écoffey | Johan Libéreau | Salomé Stévenin
Michael says: “The best thing I can say about DOUCHES FROIDES, my first film at the Toronto International Film Festival, is that it was all up from there. I was skeptical before I went, just looking at the image from
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Peter Richardson
Bruce says: “Rex Clemens, born in 1901, owned one of twelve logging companies in Philomath, Oregon. Today Philomath is an entirely different place. Depending on who is talking there are now just one or two logging companies and the spotted
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Beatrice Dalle | Don McKellar | Maggie Cheung | Martha Henry | Nick Nolte
Michael says: “In CLEAN, Olivier Assayas (DEMONLOVER) reunites with his IRMA VEP star (and ex-wife) Maggie Cheung, to paint a portrait of a young woman trying to kick a drug addiction, and find her place in the world. When Lee,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Michael Mabbott
Starring: Alberta Watson | Devon Bostick | Douglas Smith | Vivica A. Fox
Beth says: “A Canadian misfit in high school comedy. I hadn’t read too much about it; it was a late switch alternative when I decided I didn’t want to start the day on a dark note (which my original choice
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Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Claire-Hope Ashitey | Clive Owen | Julianne Moore | Michael Caine | Pam Ferris
Shannon says: “I must say that CHILDREN OF MEN is one of the most captivating films I have seen in quite a while. Clive Owen is amazing as a reluctant hero; and the film, which is ultimately the story of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Todd Field
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley | Jennifer Connelly | Kate Winslet | Patrick Wilson
Chris says: “Alexander Payne’s sharp, wickedly funny adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel ELECTION remains one of the best-ever book-into-film conversions. A long-belated follow-up to his great directorial debut IN THE BEDROOM, Todd Field’s adaptation of another Perrotta novel doesn’t scale
Read the review...Changing Times (France; 90 min.) directed by: André Téchinéstarring: Catherine Deneuve; Gérard Depardieu; Gilbert Melki Chris says: “André Téchiné‘s latest reunites Catharine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu as once-lovers who meet up after three decades apart. Actually, Depardieu’s never gotten
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jean-Marc Barr | Pascal Arnold
Starring: Arthur Dupont | Guillaume Baché | Lizzie Brochere
Beth says: “A French film co-directed by Jean-Marc Barr (also an actor, a la COTE D’AZUR) and Pascal Arnold, this film was about a group of beautiful but aimless French teenagers screwing around, getting high and playing in a rock
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Chris Paine
Bruce says: “The story of the electric car is not a tale of fiction or sci-fi. The car was introduced to the marketplace in 1996 in response to a mandate from the State of California for reducing overall emission standards.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Kirk Marcolina | Larry Grimaldi
Bruce says: “CAMP OUT is a documentary about the first of a kind – a Christian Bible camp for gay teenagers. The camp is Bay Lake Camp in rural Minnesota. These teens are not runaways or problem children; they’re just
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Rating: 4.9
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Annie Girardot | Bernard Le Coq | Daniel Auteuil | Juliette Binoche | Maurice Bénichou
Michael says: “Michael Haneke brings to Toronto a most disturbing and challenging film with CACHÉ. This is the type of film that leaves you scratching your head, a pondering what it was you just saw. This is the type of
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Starring: Barry Pepper | Julio Cedilo | Tommy Lee Jones
Carolyn says: “Though it was only 2 hours long it seemed quite a bit longer. I think it suffers from too many plot twists that don’t really add up to anything in the end. Also despite the fact that it
Read the review...Bubble (USA; 73 min.) directed by:Steven Soderberghcast: Dustin James Ashley; Katherine Beaumier; Joyce Brookhart Bruce says: “Had Robert Bresson with his penchant for non-professional actors used Mike Leigh’s improvisational techniques, he might have made a film similar to BUBBLE,
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Keith Fulton | Louis Pepe
Starring: Harry Treadaway | Jane Horrocks | Luke Treadaway | Tom Bower
Michael says: “The directors of LOST IN LA MANCHA, Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe have constructed a false documentary set in the mid-70’s about two conjoined twins who are transformed by an entertainment promoter into a proto-punk musical act. The
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