Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Bernard Mazzinghi | Catherine Frot | Dominique Blanc | François Morel | Gilbert Melkhi | Lucas Belvaux | Ornella Muti | Valérie Mairesse
Barbara says: “I really liked AN AMAZING COUPLE and after seeing it was able to look back at ON THE RUN and think better of it. After seeing ON THE RUN Mary, Tim and I all sort of went ‘Huh?’
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid
Starring: Brian George | Jimi Mistry | Kris Holden-Ried | Kyle MacLachlan | Suleka Mathew | Veena Sood
Bruce says: “You were born in Kenya but all your ancestors were from India. You were raised in Canada and now you live away from your family in London. Who can you turn to? Cary Grant, of course. Alim (Jimi
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Satoshi Kon | Shôgo Furuya
Starring: Aya Okamoto | Toru Emori | Yoshiaki Umegaki
Michael says: “While foraging through the trash on Christmas, three homeless friends, a teenaged girl, a transvestite, and a middle-adged man find a baby who has been abandoned. Rather than bringing the infant to the police, the three embark on
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Beatrice Dalle | Isabelle Huppert | Maurice Bénichou | Patrice Chéreau | Rona Hartner
Chris says: “This is one of the most unsettling films I’ve ever seen (even more so than FAHRENHEIT 9/11!). I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because it’s best going into it knowing as little as possible,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Salvatore Mereu
Starring: Daniele Casula | Michele Carboni | Yaël Abecassis
Bruce says: “The four seasons represent the four stages of life in THREE STEP DANCING. The film is not about the life of any single person, it is the collective lives of the residents of a village in Sardinia. The
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Julián Hernández
Starring: Juan Carlos Ortuño | Juan Carlos Torres | Mario Oliver | Perla de la Rosa | Rosa-Maria Gomez | Salvador Alvarez
Michael says: “This atmospheric Mexican film surprised me after its initial dreary opening. While not nearly as brilliant a either of these, PEACE is a bit of a cross between Tsai Ming Liang’s WHAT TIME IS IT THERE and Wong
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Michael Almereyda
Diane says: “I wasn’t so keen on this docu about the staging of Sam Shepard’s ‘The Late Henry Moss.’ Especially when you compare it to the ne plus ultra of doc’s in this category, VANYA ON 42ND STREET! The snippets
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones | Chi McBride | Diego Luna | Stanley Tucci | Tom Hanks | Zoe Saldana
Bruce says: “Anyone wishing to argue Steven Spielberg’s shortcomings as a director need look no further than THE TERMINAL. This film is a textbook case. “Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a tourist from a fictional Eastern European country, who becomes
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Director: Trey Parker
Starring: Kristen Miller | Masasa | Matt Stone | Trey Parker
Tom says: “Matt Stone and Trey Parker may have the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and their humor is usually pretty lowbrow but goddamnit if they don’t always make me wet my pants with laughter. “Some of you may have grown
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Jonathan Caouette
Hilary says: “I am pleased that I finally made it to see this film. I was quite moved by Jonathan Caouette’s documentary/video diary/experimental film TARNATION. This multi-faceted piece had me completely engaged from the moment it came on the screen.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Diane says: “I recommend this rich docu by Morgan Spurlock, the engaging ‘star’ of the film, who went on a diet of pure McDonald’s for 30 days. Along the lines of a Michael Moore piece, Spurlock also travels the country
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: John Palmer
Starring: Andre Noble | Brendan Fehr | Maury Chaykin | Sarah Polley
Bruce says: “Based on some Bruce La Bruce short stories, SUGAR is a dark, bleak, coming-of-age story. When Cliff (Andre Noble) turns eighteen his precocious ten year old sister suggests that he down a split of vodka, smoke a joint
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Clémence Meyer | Emmanuelle Béart | Gaspard Ulliel | Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet | Jean Fornerod | Samuel Labarthe
Michael says: “Tonight, Scot and I watched STRAYED, a French film directed by André Téchiné (ALICE AND MARTIN; THE WILD REEDS) that I missed during its brief run at the Kendall. I was particularly interested as it features Agnès Godard
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Director: Byambasuren Davaa | Luigi Falorni
Starring: Amgaabazar Gonson | Chimed Ohin | Janchiv Ayurzana
Diane says: “Daily life of camel herders in Mongolia. Don’t know why this was chosen as the Closing Night Film of the International Film Festival of Boston; might be more appropriate to the Animal Channel. But pleasant, educational and nice
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Doyle Jr.
Rob says: “There is a moment in BACK TO THE FUTURE II (1989) when Charles Fleischer says to an incredulous, time traveling Michael J. Fox, who has recently arrived in 2015 and just read (on a holographic billboard) of a
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Bette Midler | Christopher Walken | Faith Hill | Glenn Close | Matthew Broderick | Mike White | Nicole Kidman | Roger Bart
Bruce says: “More is certainly less. The number of giant stars in a film is inversely proportionate to the number of cats it will receive. That’s a rule of thumb I should have memorized by now. THE STEPFORD WIVES roped
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Bronwen Hughes
Starring: David O'Hara | Deborah Kara Unger | Dexter Fletcher | Thomas Jane
Michael says: “Color me stunned. This was one enjoyable film! “Take your (anything but standard) biopic, add some bank robberies, some time in the big house, gun play and car chases, chic late ‘70’s fashion, steamy love scenes between a
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Jae-kyeong Seo | Jong-ho Kim | Yeong-su Oh
Bruce says: “The United States is a religious country. I’ve heard that among all nations we are second only to Malta where religion is involved in the secular state. But are we spiritual? From South Korea, SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER…
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Alfred Molina | Donna Murphy | Dylan Baker | J.K. Simmons | James Franco | Kirsten Dunst | Rosemary Harris | Tobey Maguire
Bruce says: “Tobey Maguire is so likable it is difficult for me to be objective about his films. Ordinarily I would not rate derivative comic book action films very high on my list. But I find the Spider-Man films enjoyable
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Director: David Mamet
Starring: Derek Luke | Ed O'Neill | Tia Texada | Val Kilmer | Vincent D'Onofrio | William H. Macy
Peg says: “The characters in David Mamet’s new thriller might be mistaken for those in a Michael Crichton novel if not for their tendency to spout profane haiku instead of dialogue. Val Kilmer’s Robert Scott is an ex-Marine and Secret
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