Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Starring: Isild Le Besco | Laurence Cordier | Nicolas Duvauchelle | Ouassini Embarek
Bruce says: “The French really know how to capture self-absorption. When it works for me as in the current LOOK AT ME, it is a joy. Other recent films such as RED LIGHTS, LOVE ME IF YOU DARE, KINGS AND
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pablo Berger
Starring: Candela Peña | Fernando Tejero | Javier Cámara | Juan Diego | Mads Mikkelsen | Malena Alterio | Ramón Barea
Hilary says: “Struggling door-to-door encyclopedia salesman Alfredo’s (Javier Camara, TALK TO HER, BAD EDUCATION) boss, Don Carlos (Juan Diego), offers him a choice: participate in a series of ‘educational’ films the encyclopedia company will be producing for their Scandinavian market,
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Starring: Issei Ogata | Rie Miyazawa
Michael says: “In the tradition of Tsai Ming Liang’s masterful WHAT TIME IS IT THERE, Jun Ichikawa’s TONY TAKITANI is a tale of loneliness filled with gorgeous imagery and moments of sudden humor. Tony’s mother died in childbirth, and he
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mike Mills
Starring: Benjamin Bratt | Keanu Reeves | Lou Taylor Pucci | Tilda Swinton | Vincent D'Onofrio
Michael says: “Mike Mills’ THUMBSUCKER is a coming-of-age film that features some terrific performances but doesn’t really say anything new. Justin is a senior in high school who still sucks his thumb when he is stressed. He’s on the debate
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Starring: Chang Chen | Di Mei | Liao Su-jen | Mei Fang | Shu Qi
Bruce says: “Hou Hsaio-hsien covers three different decades within the last 100 years. The actors Qi Shu and Chen Chang play the lead characters in all three vignettes. ‘A Time for Love’ begins with a game of pool while the
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Donal Logue
Starring: Donal Logue | Jason Isaacs | Kirk Fox | Stephen Dorff
Scot says: “I really did write this outside the Brattle before the film’s climax occurred, but found that I couldn’t send via my Blackberry: “One of the worst films I’ve seen in recent years. Actually, I am outside the Brattle
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mark Wexler
Bruce says: “TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE is a documentary about the filmmaker Haskell Wexler, a two time Oscar winner for cinematography, directed by his son Mark Wexler. Part way through TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE one of the talking
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ji-woon Kim
Starring: Geun-yeung Mun | Jung-ah Yum | Su-jeong Lim
Michael says: “I am a fan of the Asian ‘hair horror’ genre kicked off so wonderfully several years ago by RINGU. Strangely enough, so does the American movie market. A TALE OF TWO SISTERS is a Korean entry into the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Avi Lewis
Michael says: “Continuing the trend of political or socially conscious films, the Canadian team of writer Naomi Klein and director Avi Lewis (both political activists – Klein appeared in THE CORPORATION) offer their first documentary, THE TAKE. This sometimes powerful,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: William Eggleston
Bruce says: “Robert Gordon who has worked with Eggleston for many years, edited over 30 hours of film into a 76 minute film. The footage Gordon edited is the only non-still photography that Eggleston has taken on. He passionately pursued
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Paula Yates
Bruce says: “As political documentaries go STATE OF FEAR is absolutely compelling and nearly perfect. Using the twenty year reign of terror in Peru from 1980-2000, director Pamela Yates explores how terrorism in Peru led to the erosion of democracy.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Anna Paquin | Jeff Daniels | Jesse Eisenberg | Laura Linney
Michael says: “Noah Baumbach’s look at an intellectual family coming apart at the seams is funny and mildly horrifying at the same time. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play a pair of authors with two children. Daniels’ Bernard Berkham is
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Fien Troch
Starring: Jan Decleir | Josse De Pauw | Natali Broods
Bruce says: “SOMEONE ELSE’S HAPPINESS is a story of loss, guilt and suspicion. The opening shots are gorgeous; a sudden thud is heard and the camera pans to a child who is struggling to get up alongside a road but
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Moon-saeng Kim | Park Sunmin
Starring: Andrew Ableson | Cathy Cavadini | David Naughton | Joon-ho Chung
Michael says: “SKY BLUE is a bit of South Korean anime that fails (for the most part) visually, and fails bigtime in terms of story. It’s funny that I wasn’t expecting an anime film to fall prey to the utterly
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Frank Miller | Quentin Tarantino | Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Benicio Del Toro | Bruce Willis | Elijah Wood | Jessica Alba | Mickey Rourke | Rosario Dawson
Hilary says: “If you’re looking for pure big-screen entertainment and don’t mind violence, however cartoonish and hyperbolic, check out SIN CITY. “This flick appeals to both my inner film noir nerd and affection for comic book/graphic novel adaptations. I do
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Anand Tucker
Starring: Claire Danes | Jason Schwartzmann | Steve Martin
Chris says: “Why, why, why do I get all hyped up about adaptations of my favorite books, since they rarely turn out well? Steve Martin’s novella surprised me, not only by being so unexpectedly bittersweet, but also in the way
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Xiaoshuai Wang
Starring: Anlian Yao | Bin Li | Hao Qin | Xueyang Wang | Yang Tang | Yuanyuan Gao
Chris says: “The first film I saw [at the Toronto International Film Festival] was one of the very best, so good that I worried it would set an impossible standard for the rest of the festival. Set in the Chinese
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Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Alan Tudyk | Gina Torres | Nathan Fillion
Tom says: “Let’s get this out of the way right now. SERENITY > RISE OF THE SITH. By a long, long shot. Lucas should have hired on Joss Whedon to write the latest Trilogy fiasco. The characters and dialog are
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Andrew Douglas
Bruce says: “SEARCHING FOR THE WRONG-EYED JESUS is an ambitious documentary from director Andrew Douglas, a film I admire more than like. The premise of the film is that poor white southerners have but two paths to take in life:
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Michael Schorr
Starring: Harald Warmbrunn | Horst Krause | Karl Fred Müller
Johanna says: “Am I the only one who has seen this movie?? I haven’t seen any mention of it in any of the recent discussions. I’m not a great review writer, but this film is really worthwhile. Although it may
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