Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.75
Director: John Turturro
Starring: Bobby Cannavale | James Gandolfini | Kate Winslet | Mandy Moore | Steve Buscemi | Susan Sarandon
Diane says: “Zany beginning fades to a ragged story in John Turturro’s third outing as director. James Gandolfini opens with an all-out singing and dancing number on the street of his Brooklyn neighborhood, supported by garbagemen et al. His wife,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris Gorak
Starring: Mary MCcormack | Rory Cochrane | Tony Perez
Jason says: “No-one uses the word ‘terrorism’ in RIGHT At YOUR DOOR, but that’s not because it’s irrelevant to the movie. It’s all about terror, and the fear that comes from not knowing what just happened, what’s going to happen, and
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Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Koji Yakusho | Manami Konishi | Tsuyoshi Ihara
Bruce says: “RETRIBUTION is a thought-provoking mixed genre film – . part police procedural, part horror, part thriller – which is a bit of a muddle. The acting, editing, set design and cinematography are all outstanding so there is much
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Terry George
Starring: Eddie Alderson | Elle Fanning | Jennifer Connelly | Joaquin Phoenix | Mark Ruffalo | Mira Sorvino | Sean Curley
Bruce says: “Were the acting not so good, my recommendation would be to not bother with this overwrought drama which is reminiscent of IN THE BEDROOM with its vengeful father and WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE and THE ICE STORM
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: Christian Bale | Jeremy Davies | Steve Zahn
Michael says: “I’m not a fan of war films, but leave it Werner Herzog to get me to go to one, and even to enjoy it for the most part. Of course, in most ways, RESCUE DAWN isn’t your typical
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Brian De Palma
Starring: Izzy Diaz | Kel O'Neill | Mike Figueroa | Patrick Carroll | Rob Devaney | Ty Jones
Jay says: “Remember MTV Unplugged? It was a series of specials where rock stars would do an acoustic set, relying on craft and material rather than raw power. Brian De Palma is doing something similar with REDACTED; he was a
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Andrew Armour | Kate Dickie | Martin Compston | Natalie Press | Paul Higgins | Tony Curran
Bruce says: “Andrea Arnold is getting lots of attention these days. RED ROAD won the Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Film at the Miami International Film Festival. RED ROAD has interesting origins. With an Academy Award for her short
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Jessica Yu
Michael says: “I’ve been looking forward to seeing PROTAGONIST since I read about it a couple of months before it played at the Independent Film Festival of Boston last April. Unfortunately I missed it at the IFFB, but I got
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alain Resnais
Starring: André Dussollier | Isabelle Carré | Lambert Wilson | Laura Morante | Pierre Arditi | Sabine Azéma
Bruce says: “Alain Resnais is eighty four and by now must have had plenty experience feeling lonely. PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES is all about loneliness and appears the work of a subject matter expert. Theirry (André Dussollier) is a
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Davide Ferrario
Bruce says: “In January, Primo Levi was released from Auchowitz where he had been incarcerated since February 1944. His journey home to Turin, Italy, took him almost a year. He and other freed Italian prisoners travelled through Poland, the Ukaraine,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bill Haney
Jason says: “Everything we eat and use, it seems, has some sort of despicable behavior involved at some point in the supply chain. Why should sugar be any different? At least in documenting this, THE PRICE OF SUGAR is also able
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: César Charlone | Enrique Fernández
Starring: César Troncoso | Mario Silva | Virginia Méndez | Virginia Ruiz
Bruce says: “**SPOILERS** “On May 8, 1988 the Pope is scheduled to visit Melo, Uruguay. Melo is in northeastern Uruguay and many Brazilians are expected to come over the border in tour buses. Weeks before the event the media creates
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Damian Lee
Starring: Daryl Hannah | Jonathan Scarfe | Nina Dobrev | Zachary Bennett
Jay says: “You’re not supposed to laugh at movies like THE POET. It’s serious business, after all: Polish Jews running from the advancing German army! A good young man caught between his own loving, artistic heart and the brutality of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Starring: Ananda Everingham | Apinya Sakuljaroensuk | Lalita Panyopas | Phorntip Papanai | Pornwut Sarasin
Chris says: “PLOY, the latest from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, initially seems worlds away from LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE: it follows a couple checking into Bangkok hotel and is all rendered in washed out earth tones and barely audible ambient music
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Chris Metzler | Jeff Springer
Michael says: “Sometimes documentary filmmakers will stumble across a subject that’s just so flat out weird, or fascinating that half the battle of making an interesting film is won right there. Filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer have done just
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Alexander Voulgaris
Starring: Alexander Voulgaris | Argiris Thanasoulas | Christina Mathea | Romanna Lobats
Bruce says: “There are many things to like about PINK. PINK is a meditation on personal history, love, loss and creativity. It unconventionally wanders between fantasy and reality. Using a clay model of Athens to tell his story director Voulgaris
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Duncan Roy
Michael says: “British director Duncan Roy got a little attention several years ago with AKA, a film about a young working class man who impersonates an aristocrat. For his latest film, Roy creates a modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s well-known
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Marjane Satrapi | Vincent Paronnaud
Starring: Catherine Deneuve | Chiara Mastroianni | Danielle Darrieux | Gabrielle Lopes | Simon Abkarian
Jason says: “In recent years, Persepolis has been sliding into the spot that Maus used to occupy: The socially-relevant graphic novel that makes inroads into the mainstream and is used as an example of how the medium is good for
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Glenn Standring
Starring: Dougray Scott | Leo Gregory | Saffron Burrows | Scott Willis
Jason says: “For PERFECT CREATURE, the question of ‘what if vampires were real’ isn’t quite good enough; it asks what if vampires were real, but instead of being feared, they were objects of worship? It’s kind of a dodgy idea,
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Hector Babenco
Starring: Ana Celentano | Analía Couceyro | Gael García Bernal | Marta Lubos | Mimí Ardú | Moro Anghileri
Bruce says: “Based on a novel by Alan Pauls, THE PAST is a story with many themes: separation, jealousy, tragedy, and loss of love. At a party, Frida (Marta Lubos) toasts Rimini (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Sofia (Analía Couceyro) who
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