Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Giovanni Sanseviero
Starring: Giovanni Sanseviero | Michael Maldonado | Tony Ryan
Michael says: “After pursuing an acting career on the stage, and while trolling the audition circuit in New York City, Giovanni Sanseviero found a mostly abandoned building in Hell’s Kitchen and thus was born the idea for his first film.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Michael Almereyda
Bruce says: “Born in Oxford, Mississippi, William Eggleston settled in Memphis where he has lived most of his adult life. WILLIAM EGGLESTON IN THE REAL WORLD begins as Bill Eggleston and his son traipse around Mayfield, Kentucky on a photo
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Hans Weingartner
Starring: Daniel Brühl | Julia Jentsch | Stipe Erceg
Bruce says: “***SPOILERS*** “Buoyed by top notch acting and a wickedly comic, insightful script, Hans Weingartner’s THE EDUKATORS keeps us in the edge of our seats while it teaches us some valuable lessons about human nature, politics, ethics and integrity.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Craig Lucas
Starring: Campbell Scott | Patricia Clarkson | Peter Saarsgard
Michael says: ” Craig Lucas would have been better served with a skilled director handling this adaptation of his stage play. Each character in THE DYING GAUL commits acts of kindness and cruelty, sometimes one under the guise of the
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Alexandra Maria Lara | Bruno Ganz | Corinna Harfouch | Juliane Köhler | Ulrish Matthes
Bruce says: “For many years Bruno Ganz has given some of the my favorite performances in films such as THE AMERICAN FRIEND, A KNIFE IN THE HEAD, CIRCLE OF DECEIT, WINGS OF DESIRE and ETERNITY AND A DAY. A consistently
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Amanda Micheli
Bruce says: “DOUBLE DARE is the story of two stunt women at different points in their career. Jeannie Epper at the age of 62 is the doyenne of Hollywood stuntwomen. Everyone knows and respects her. She has paid her dues
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Rating: 2.25
Director: Matthew Parkhill
Starring: Gael García Bernal | James D'Arcy | Natalia Verbeke
Hilary says: “I’m terming this one Gael Garcia Bernal’s DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS. Please avoid the Hollywood Normative route your Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN costar has taken, GGB! “This flick has an enjoyably sick twist but no substance, so isn’t
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Sergio Castellitto
Starring: Claudia Gerini | Penélope Cruz | Sergio Castellitto
Bruce says: “Timoteo is the small boy looking down into the courtyard watching an inexcusable act of cruelty, neighborhood boys beating a small frog to death. After the assailants leave, Timoteo runs down to the courtyard, finds the frog and
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima | Miho Kanno | Tatsuya Mihashi
Chris says: “Made before THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, this is surely one of Takeshi Kitano’s unlikeliest features. Taking a cue from the Japanese tradition of Bunraku puppet plays, the film presents three intertwined love stories based on them. The first
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Beto Brant
Starring: Felipe Ehrenberg | Lilian Taublib | Marco Ricca
Bruce says: “An effete intellectual theatre critic finds that his written words are powerful enough to seduce women. The smart set – those in Brazilian artistic circles – all know who he is, an unusual position for a writer. One
Read the review...Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania; 154 min.) directed by: Cristi Puiustarring: Ion Fiscuteanu, Monica Barladeanu, Doru Ana Bruce says: “Dante Remus Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) wakes up one morning with a splitting headache and severe nausea. A widower for ten
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shona Auerbach
Starring: Emily Mortimer | Gerard Butler | Jack McElhone | Mary Riggans
Bruce says: “Pulling your heartstrings from every conceivable direction, DEAR FRANKIE is unabashedly sentimental. Just when you think that one more heartbreaking moment will be absolutely unbearable the film takes some turns that give pause to wonder why you had
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hubert Sauper
Bruce says: “DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE is an atypical political documentary. It understates its case. About fifty years ago a lone fisherman introduced Nile perch into Lake Victoria. Until that time Lake Victoria was a source of food for much of Tanzania.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sebastián Cordero
Starring: Alfred Molina | Damián Alcázar | John Leguizamo | José María Yazpik | Leonor Watling
Bruce says: “Similar in message to CAPOTE, this film tells the story of a reporter who is willing to compromise his integrity for fame and professional recognition. What makes the film interesting is how this comes about, a grim reminder
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Rating: 2.9 cats
Starring: Brendan Fraser | Don Cheadle | Matt Dillon | Ryan Phillippe | Sandra Bullock | Thandie Newton | Tony Danza
Amanda says: “I just saw CRASH last night and I cannot stop thinking about it. Sign of: good film that you want to share (like this), bad film that you want people to avoid (I don’t know if I should
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Amy Stewart | Darcy Fehr | Melissa Dionisio
Chris says: “If Guy Maddin’s most accessible effort, THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, failed to move you, I’m not even going to try to convince you to check out this hour-long film that was made roughly around the same
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Olivier Ducastel
Starring: Edouard Collin | Gilbert Melki | Jacques Bonnaffé | Jean-Marc Barr | Romain Torres | Sabrina Seyvecou | Valeria Bruni Tedeschi | Yannick Baudin
Michael says: “This delightful French sex farce from the director of THE ADVENTURES OF FELIX, is a pleasure from start to finish. Mark and Béatrix are spending a summer in their seaside villa in Italy with their two teenaged children.
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Bernard Otieno Oduor | Bill Nighy | Damaris Itenyo Agweyu | Daniele Harford | Danny Huston | Hubert Koundé | Rachel Weisz | Ralph Fiennes
Bruce says: “Had anyone asked I would have said John Le Carré is prolific, but that is hardly the case considering he has published only eighteen novels in forty four years. “Le Carré (The Tailof of Panama, The Spy Who
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Starring: Carmen Maura | Eduardo Antuña | Jesús Bonilla | María Asquerino | Marta Fernández Muro | Paca Gabaldón
Michael says: “I try to see any film that Carmen Maura appears in that is released in the States. I still think Pedro Almodóvar’s best films were during the Carmen Maura period. Carmen has done some mediocre films since she
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Andrew Adamson
Starring: Anna Popplewell | Georgie Henley | James McAvoy | Jim Broadbent | Skandar Keynes | Tilda Swinton | William Moseley
Michael says: “Scot and I got passes to a special sneak preview of the much-anticipated THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH & THE WARDROBE, the film version of the first part of C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy series. There
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