Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Laurie Collyer
Starring: Brad William Henke | Bridget Barkan | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Sam Bottomw
Michael says: “There is one reason to see SHERRYBABY, and that’s for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s fearless performance as Sherry, a single mother recently released from jail and on parole after serving three years for stealing to support her drug habit. It’s
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr | Helen Mirren | Joseph Gordon Leavitt | Stephen Dorff
Bruce says: “Mixed genre films are tricky business; they are difficult to carry off and equally difficult to digest upon a single viewing. SHADOWBOXER is a black comedy, thriller, romance and crime drama all rolled into one unique package. To
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Alain Chabat | Aurélia Petit | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Gael García Bernal | Miou-Miou | Sacha Bourdo
Bruce says: “Gael Garcia Bernal (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, BAD EDUCATION, AMORES PERROS, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, and THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO) has extraordinary talent. THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP is a wise choice for his resume, literally a showcase for
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Richard Lanklater
Starring: Angela Rawna | Chamblee Ferguson | Keanu Reeves | Mitch Baker | Robert Downey Jr | Rory Cochrane | Winona Ryder | Woody Harrelson
Chris says: “In 2001, Richard Linklater’s WAKING LIFE merged live action with animation via a process called ‘interpolated rotoscoping,’ creating a fluid visual tableau that one could best liken to watching a painting coming to life. Much of its appeal
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Starring: Andrea Di Stefano | Barbora Bobulova | Lisa Gastoni
Bruce says: “**SPOILERS** “In my opinion Ferzen Ozpetek’s films have improved with every film he has made beginning with STEAM , followed up by HIS SECRET LIFE and FACING WINDOWS. I unhappily report that SACRED HEART (CUORE SACRO in Italian)
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Cédric Klapisch
Starring: Audrey Tautou | Cécile de France | Kelly Reilly | Kevin Bishop | Romain Duris
Bruce says: “RUSSIAN DOLLS is written by a director who loves his characters yet is not afraid to have them make plenty of mistakes as they discover how to love and be loved. Employing plenty of digital tricks in the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mat Whitecross | Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Arfan Usman | Farhad Harun | Jason Salkey | Riz Ahmed | Shahid Iqbal | Sher Khan | Waqar Siddiqui
Bruce says: “Michael Winterbottom, one of the most prolific film directors currently working, is often attracted to political subjects in films like WELCOME TO SARAJEVO and IN THIS WORLD. Those films touched on the aftermath of wars in Yugoslavia and
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Zhang Yimou
Starring: Ken Takakura | Li Jiamin | Qui Lin | Shinobu Terajima | Wen Jiang
Bruce says: “China and Japan have a contentious relationship for hundreds of years, particularly in the years since Japan occupied parts of China and Taiwan in the early 20th century. Diplomatic relationships did not resume until 1972 and attitudes on
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring: Burghart Klaußner | Imogen Kogge | Sandra Hüller
Bruce says: “Films about illness and disability used to run the risk of being slotted into the ‘Ailment of the Week’ made-for-TV film category. That insult is mostly a thing of the past since television is now many times more
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Director: Christian Volckman
Starring: Catherine McCormack | Daniel Cragi | Patrick Floersheim
Tom says: “I can’t spell Renaissance without looking it up, but I can enjoy it anyway! Visually amazing. Like a still black and white drawing that won’t stop moving, flat but with depth. The story, it may be good, but
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Starring: Angela Baraldi | Claudia Zanella | Elio Germano | Gigio Alberti
Bruce says: “Being no fan of Salvatores’ Oscar winning MEDITERRANEO or the more recent I’M NOT SCARED, I was a bit hesitant about seeing QUO VADIS, BABY? While I was somewhat pleasantly surprised, the film is not without its problems,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Richard Glatzer | Wash Westmoreland
Starring: Chalo González | Emily Rios | Jesse Garcia
Michael says: “Sometimes a movie receives accolades and hype that makes you pause and scratch your head. QUINCEAÑERA took the audience and Jury Prizes for Best Dramatic Feature at Sundance earlier this year. It’s not that Richard Glatzer and Wash
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Jamie Babbit
Starring: Camilla Belle | Edie Falco | Elisha Cuthbert | Martin Donovan | Shawn Ashmore
Michael says: “This disappointing follow-up to Babbit’s entertaining debut, BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER has trouble deciding what it wants to be; a campy comedy, a tense thriller, a serious family drama, or a horror film. What it reminded me most
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Heather McCrory | Helen Mirren | James Cromwell | Michael Sheen
Chris says: “I’m convinced that Helen Mirren is capable of anything: She can quietly steal scenes in a Robert Altman ensemble piece (GOSFORD PARK), turn a recurring role into an icon (television’s ‘Prime Suspect’) and even survive an embarrassment like
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jay Duplass
Starring: Kathryn Asleton | Mark Duplass | Rhett Wilkins
Chris says: “The titular piece of furniture is an old burgundy La-Z-Boy purchased on E-bay by Josh (Mark Duplass). He sets off from New York with his girlfriend Emily (Kathryn Aselton) to pick up the chair in rural Virginia so
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Emily Watson | Guy Pearce | Ray Winstone | Tom Budge
Chris says: “This Aussie western sports the first screenplay to be written by goth rock legend Nick Cave. Like a good number of the man’s songs, it’s darkly poetic, somewhat macabre, heavily death-obsessed, more than a little bloody and ponderously
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Im Sang-soo
Starring: Jae-ho Song | Suk-kyu Han | Yun-shik Baek
Bruce says: “It is no secret that the President of South Korea will be assassinated in THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG; after all we are told on screen that it is 1979 and we know the film is based on fact.
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Adam Curtis
Bruce says: “Of all the political documentaries to come out in the past few years THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES is the most innovative in its thinking. According to Curtis the neo-con movement and the fundamentalist Muslim movement both had their
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: The Quay Brothers
Starring: Amira Cesar | Assumpta Serna | Gottfried John
Bruce says: “Identical twins Stephen and Timothy Quay have quite a reputation (albeit primarily as animators) considering THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES is just their second feature film. They were born in the USA but studied film in England where
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Xavier Beauvois
Starring: Antoine Chappey | Bruce Myers | Jacques Perrin | Jalil Lespert | Jean Lespert | Nathalie Baye | Patrick Chauvel | Roschdy Zem
Hilary says: “Nathalie Baye (VENUS BEAUTY INSTITUTE, etc.) stars in this glacially-paced French neo-noir. “Baye plays a veteran police officer returning to the detective squad following some personal drama. One of the squad’s new recruits, Antoine (Jalil Lespert), anxiously awaits
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