Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Jasmila Zbanic
Starring: Leon Lucev | Luna Mijovic | Mirjana Karanovic
Michael says: “GRBAVICA: THE LAND OF MY DREAMS is a great candidate for a Buried Treasure nominee, with echoes of OR (MY TREASURE) and THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS. This powerful debut form Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic looks at the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Maziar Miri
Starring: Hassan Poorshirazi | Mohammed-Reza Foroutan | Niloofar Khoshkholgh
Bruce says: “GRADUALLY (BE AHESTEGI…) is a gentle film about a couple coming to grips with personal issues that may be affecting their marriage. Mahmoud is a railroad welder who works hard and loves his wife Pari. But she has
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Amy Madigan | Amy Ryan | Casey Affleck | Ed Harris | John Ashton | Michelle Monaghan | Morgan Freeman
Bruce says: “For his directorial debut (we won’t count his earlier short I KILLED MY LESBIAN WIFE, HUNG HER ON A MEAT HOOK, AND NOW I HAVE A THREE-PICTURE DEAL WITH DISNEY) Ben Affleck had the good sense to draw
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Starring: Aurora Quattrocchi | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Vincenzo Amato
Chris says: “Emanuele Crialese’s film puts a novel spin on the oft-told tale of Europeans immigrating to America in the early 20th Century: instead of fixating on a traveler’s first few proud, iconic moments in the new world, THE GOLDEN
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asger Leth | Milos Loncarevi
Jay says: “According to the information presented at the start of this film, the Cité Soleil section of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is considered the most dangerous place in the world by the United Nations. The poorest section of the poorest
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: David Munro
Starring: Alan Cumming | Judah Friedlander | Matt McGrath
Michael says: “I’m not a particular fan of male characters in film or literature who don’t want to grow-up. I’ve always had a little trouble with PETER PAN (although admit to really enjoying the 2003 film version). FULL GROWN MEN
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Daniel Auteuil | Dany Boon | Julie Gayet
Bruce says: “During a business dinner with other successful antique dealers, the subject of friendship comes up when François Coste (Daniel Auteuil) asks his business partner Catherine (Julie Gayet) the name of the attractive woman at the other end of
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Andrea Staka
Starring: Ljubica Jovic | Marija Skaricic | Mirjana Karanovic
Bruce says: “This lovely, haunting film is first rate independent fare – wonderful characters, an offbeat story, and an ending that is enigmatic. Ruza came to Switzerland from Yugoslavia thirty years ago and has determinedly set about to find a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Sterlin Harjo
Starring: Cody Lightning | Jeri Arredondo | Laura Bailey | Tamara Podemski
Chris says: “Sterlin Harjo’s first feature arrives nearly a decade after SMOKE SIGNALS promised a wave of Native American cinema that never really amounted to much. It’s another coming-of-age, leaving-the-Reservation tale, this time set and filmed in Oklahoma. The main
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Lorraine Levy
Starring: Catherine Jacob | Marilou Berry | Pierre Arditi
Bruce says: “This coming of age story features Chlotrudis award winning actress Marilou Berry as Hannah Goldman, an ugly duckling with two older, attractive sisters. Like the character Berry played in LOOK AT ME, Hannah does not know how to
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Luis R. Vera
Starring: Adela Secall | Katty Kowaleczko | Tiago Correa
Bruce says: “It’s Patriot’s Day in Chile and the meaning of the occasion varies greatly person to person. Ostensibly Macarena’s (Adela Secall) parents have gathered the family to their country home to honor the approaching engagement of their daughter. Her
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Griffin Dunne
TC says: “FIERCE PEOPLEhas taken a long, roundabout road to the big screen. Filmed in 2004, and having premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, it has been this close to release several times since then, only
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Director: Andrew Currie
Starring: Billy Connolly | Carrie-Ann Moss | Dylan Baker
Beth says: “This was my first Canadian film. Apparently it was the largest budgeted independent film made in British Columbia, who’da thunk a ‘boy and his pet zombie’ flick would have that distinction. Anyhoo, yup it’s a zombie film, in
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Hal Hartley
Starring: Elina Löwensohn | James Urbaniak | Jeff Goldblum | Liam Aiken | Parker Posey | Saffron Burrows | Thomas Jay Ryan
Michael says: “At certain points throughout FAY GRIM, the latest film by Chlotrudis Award winner Hal Hartley, particularly as the screen went black and the credits began to roll, a little thrill of excitement skittered down my spine. It’s the
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Michel Kammoun
Starring: Elie Mitri | Issam Bou Khaled | Michel El Hourany
Bruce says: “Beirut was once known as the Paris of the Middle East. Now, partly in ruins, Beirut is missing the tourists but the joie de vive still survives. FALAFEL explores the city through the wanderings of three friends during
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: George Hickenlooper
Starring: Guy Pearce | Hayden Christensen | Sienna Miller
Barbara says: “FACTORY GIRL outlines the bizarre and very sad life of Edie Sedgewick and her relationship with Andy Warhol whose ‘genius’ is surpassed by his meanness. Though the movies leaves you with a ‘What a waste of lives’ feeling,
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Johnnie To
Starring: Anthony Wong Chau-sang | Francis Ng | Josie Ho | Nick Cheung | Simon Yam
Michael says: “One of the things I love about the Chlotrudis/Brattle co-presented Sunday Eye Opener series is that it gives me the opportunity to see films I would never select on my own. Johnnie To’s EXILED is one such film.
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jason Todd Ipson
Starring: Cerina Vincent | Jay Jablonski | John Kapelos
Jason says: “EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE ITALIAN is a delightfully slight romantic comedy. The film has a cute hook but isn’t held hostage by it, there are only one or two characters who aren’t at least occasionally funny, and the
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ivan Vyrypayev
Starring: Maksim Ushakov | Mikhail Okunev | Polina Agureyeva
Bruce says: “Aside from two or three lovely moments, EUPHORIA is a rather grim and dreary film. Filmed on the steppes of Russia, the terrain is bleak and the story, bleaker. After meeting Vera at a wedding months earlier, Pavel
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Abbie Cornish | Cate Blanchett | Clive Owen | Geoffrey Rush | Samantha Morton | Tom Hollander
Michael says: “Who can resist Cate Blanchett, royal, imperious, hair unbound, clad in armor, riding on a white horse? Apparently not me, as I went to see ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE on opening weekend. I enjoyed ELIZABETH, one of Blanchett’s
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