News & Updates - Page 408 of 446 - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Look at Me (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Agnès Jaoui
Starring: Agnès Jaoui | Jean-Pierre Bacri | Keine Bouhiza | Marilou Berri | Virginie Desarnauts

Michael says: “Agnès Jaoui is a talented actress. She is also a talented director and screenwriter! LOOK AT ME is the sixth film she has co-written with her husband Jean-Pierre Bacri (who also stars in LOOK AT ME) and the

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Loggerheads (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tim Kirkman
Starring: Bonnie Hunt | Kip Pardue | Michael Kelly | Tess Harper

Michael says: “Tim Kirkman’s LOGGERHEADS is a moving examination of adoption, religious tolerance, and sexuality. While at times it plays a little like a Lifetime TV movie of the week, strong performances and complex time shifts bring it above the

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Last Days (2005)

Bruce says: “What worked so well in Gus Van Sant’s ELEPHANT – the revisiting of scenes and events until the viewer had total familiarity with the film’s terrain and understanding of the motivation of the main characters – does not

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Ladies in Lavender (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Charles Dance
Starring: Daniel Brühl | Judi Dench | Maggie Smith | Miriam Margoyles | Natascha McElhone

Bruce says: “LADIES IN LAVENDER is the story of two elderly ladies living on the coast of Cornwall. Ursula (Judi Dench) is a spinster and Janet (Maggie Smith) is a widow. One day a body, barely alive, washes up on

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Kung Fu Hustle (2005)

Hilary says: “A kung fu comedy incorporating aspects of classic Hollywood cinema, Westerns, Looney Tunes, and a hint of musicals; no great need for a plot summary here. In short, the residents of Pig Style Alley rise up and fight

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Control (2005)

Bruce says: “This is the second Hungarian film I have seen recently that shows great promise for its director. First there was the delightfully enigmatic HUKKLE directed by György Pálfi and now there is KONTROLL, a dark, comedic allegory, directed

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Kings and Queen (2005)

Chris says: “Even though it seems like a fairly conventional dialog-rich character study on the surface, this is really a strange, complex little film, if subtly so. It tells parallel stories of two ex-lovers: Nora (Emanuelle Devos) and Ismael (Mathieu

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The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyan (2005)

Carolyn says: “I only read a short blurb before seeing this film, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I found the story engaging and the characters realistic, but not very developed. The depth was in the story and

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Junebug (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Phil Morrison
Starring: Alessandro Nivola | Amy Adams | Benjamin McKenzie | Embreth Davidtz

Chris says: “Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz), owner of a Chicago gallery specializing in outsider art, finds herself very much an outsider when she travels to small town North Carolina to acquire a local artist’s work. Coincidentally, George (Alessandro Nivola), her husband

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Inside Deep Throat (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Fenton Bailey | Randy Barbato

Michael says: “After scoring with their documentary THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE back in 2000, the writer/director team of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato tackled narrative films with the slightly disastrous PARTY MONSTER in 2003 (okay, it grabbed a Best

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Innocent Voices (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Luis Mandoki
Starring: Carlos Padilla | Gustavo Muñoz | José María Yazpik | Leonor Varela | Ofelia Medina

Bruce says: “INNOCENT VOICES gets my vote for the best cinematography in 2005. From the opening scene of the solders’ footsteps in the rain, it is clear this film will be a visual treat. The night scenes, particularly the frightening

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Imaginary Heroes (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Dan Harris
Starring: Emile Hirsch | Jeff Daniels | Kip Pardue | Michelle Williams | Sigourney Weaver

Diane says: “Dysfunctional family deals with a tragedy. Is this eligible? Noms for worst screenplay (writers threw in every family plot element but the kitchen sink), worst direction, worst soundtrack, and worst acting (although they didn’t have much to work

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I Am (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Dorota Kedzierzawska
Starring: Agnieszka Nagorzycka | Piotr Jagielski

Bruce says: “Looking at the world through a child’s eyes is a wonderful cinematic experience providing the director is competent and the child is perfect for the role. Fortunately both ingredients are present in I AM. Piotr, the lead, was

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Howl’s Moving Castle (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Akihiro Miwa | Chieko Baisho | Takuya Kimura

Chris says: “I have to admit I was hooked from the first scene, where the amazing, immense contraption that gives this film its title emerges through a brown, dusty fog. Although based on a story by Diana Wynne Jones, this

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House of D (2005)

Hilary says: “Yes, it’s as bad as it looks. David Duchovny proves that he should stay away from directing and writing and likely restrict his acting to the small screen. “Anton Yelchin as the young version of Duchovny’s character, and

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The Holy Girl (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Starring: Alejandro Urdapilleta | Carlos Belloso | María Alche | Mercedes Morán

Michael says: “Lucrecia Martel’s THE HOLY GIRL is a perplexing, but ultimately rewarding (for me) film. More a series of vignettes involving several families in Argentina, THE HOLY GIRL examines religion, awakening sexuality and family dynamics in a highly symbolic

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The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Garth Jennings
Starring: Martin Freeman | Mos Def | Sam Rockwell | Zooey Deschanel

Diane says: “First of all, I had been foiled in my movie-going efforts a few weeks ago because everything had such rotten reviews. PALINDROMES is a good example: HAPPINESS is one of my faves, but reading that PALINDROMES is more

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Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jacques Richard

Bruce says: “The opening scenes of Bernardo Bertolucci’s THE DREAMERS involve Andre Malraux’s firing of Henri Langlois founder of the Cinémathèque Française. In front of the Cinémathèque Matthew, an American, meets Isabelle and Theo, twins who have a bizarre incestuous

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Heights (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Chris Terrio
Starring: Glenn Close | James Marsden | lizabeth Banks

Hilary says: “I am relieved to read that Ismail Merchant was working on another film at the time of his death. I would be terribly sad if that this Hollywood-Normative-in-indie-clothing was his last credit. The plot (such as it is)

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Head-On (2005)

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Fatih Akin
Starring: Birol Ünel | Catrin Striebeck | Sibel Kekilli

Diane says: “Director and screenwriter Fatih Akin, himself born in Hamburg to Turkish parents, tells a bleak and bloody story of two Turkish Germans, Cahit and Sibel, who meet after their respective suicide attempts and form a marriage of convenience.

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