Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jean-Marc Barr | Pascal Arnold
Starring: Arthur Dupont | Guillaume Baché | Lizzie Brochere
Beth says: “A French film co-directed by Jean-Marc Barr (also an actor, a la COTE D’AZUR) and Pascal Arnold, this film was about a group of beautiful but aimless French teenagers screwing around, getting high and playing in a rock
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Chris Paine
Bruce says: “The story of the electric car is not a tale of fiction or sci-fi. The car was introduced to the marketplace in 1996 in response to a mandate from the State of California for reducing overall emission standards.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Kirk Marcolina | Larry Grimaldi
Bruce says: “CAMP OUT is a documentary about the first of a kind – a Christian Bible camp for gay teenagers. The camp is Bay Lake Camp in rural Minnesota. These teens are not runaways or problem children; they’re just
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Rating: 4.9
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Annie Girardot | Bernard Le Coq | Daniel Auteuil | Juliette Binoche | Maurice Bénichou
Michael says: “Michael Haneke brings to Toronto a most disturbing and challenging film with CACHÉ. This is the type of film that leaves you scratching your head, a pondering what it was you just saw. This is the type of
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Starring: Barry Pepper | Julio Cedilo | Tommy Lee Jones
Carolyn says: “Though it was only 2 hours long it seemed quite a bit longer. I think it suffers from too many plot twists that don’t really add up to anything in the end. Also despite the fact that it
Read the review...Bubble (USA; 73 min.) directed by:Steven Soderberghcast: Dustin James Ashley; Katherine Beaumier; Joyce Brookhart Bruce says: “Had Robert Bresson with his penchant for non-professional actors used Mike Leigh’s improvisational techniques, he might have made a film similar to BUBBLE,
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Keith Fulton | Louis Pepe
Starring: Harry Treadaway | Jane Horrocks | Luke Treadaway | Tom Bower
Michael says: “The directors of LOST IN LA MANCHA, Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe have constructed a false documentary set in the mid-70’s about two conjoined twins who are transformed by an entertainment promoter into a proto-punk musical act. The
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Julián Hernández
Starring: Alejandro Rojo | Fernando Arroyo | Miguel Á Hoppe
Bruce says: “BROKEN SKY is not a film that seduces its audience with flashy tricks or devices. It is a film that forces the viewer to do all the work, to discover its rhythm and fall in step. For those
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Eric Steel
Bruce says: “The Golden Gate Bridge is a majestic beauty. Filmmaker Eric Steel captures the gorgeous orangey-red structure (it’s not really gold at all) from many angles. As the film begins he familiarizes his audience with all the activities on
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Leavitt | Lukas Haas | Nora Zehetner
Michael says: “Before seeing BRICK, Rian Johnson’s debut feature that combines lays the Noir genre over a high school setting, Beth said, ‘it’s sounding from reviews that you either buy into the conceit and enjoy the film, or you don’t
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: François Delisle
Starring: Anne-Marie Cadieux | Frédérick De Grandpre | Joseph Bellerose | Stéphane Krau
Michael says: “LE BONHEUR C’EST UNE CHANSON TRISTE was presented at the Brattle Theatre by the Quebec Delegation of the Canadian Consulate. I would like to see more presentations such as this; we miss out on a lot of exciting
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Heinz Bütler
Bruce says: “As Andrew Berends describes his film, ‘The primary objective of THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER is to illustrate the infinite ripples of grief that follow the tragic killing of even just one person.’ When Ra’ad, an Iraqi photographer
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Roland Vranik
Starring: Gergely Bánki | Péter Albert | Tamás Balikó
Bruce says: “From its description BLACK BRUSH (FEKETE KEFE) is a Hungarian slacker film featuring four novice chimney sweeps and a stoned goat. Sounds irresistible, no? The plot is whacky enough but the dialogue (hopefully a bad translation) is inane.
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Anapola Mushkadiz | Bertha Ruiz | Marcos Hernández
Chris says: “Coincidentally, I saw another Mexican film this week: Carlos Reygadas’ second feature which is also set in Mexico City but could easily have taken place on another planet. The film, in a nutshell: middle-aged, poor chauffer Marcos (Marcos
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Adriana Barraza | Brad Pitt | Cate Blanchett | Elle Fanning | Gael García Bernal | Koji Yakusho | Mohamed Akhzam | Rinko Kikuchi
Michael says: “Alejandro González Iñárritu’s third feature to be released in the U.S. is a sprawling mess with a lot of intriguing ideas, but with way too much story for one film. It’s also a film with a message, and
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Starring: Jim Broadbent | John Malkovich | Max Minghella | Sophia Myles
Hilary says: “Director Terry Zwigoff’s and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes’ latest collaboration is a string of character sketches strung out with a third-rate CSI-style script. Max Minghella, the second coming of Mark Ruffalo, is all delicate features and doe eyes
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Michele Soavi
Starring: Alessio Boni | Alina Nadelea | Carlo Cecchi
Bruce says: “ARRIVEDERCI AMORE, CIAO has an English title, THE DEADLY KISS, that describes nothing contextual about the film, whereas the Italian title relates perfectly to the story. In THE BEST OF YOUTH Alessio Boni was extremely vulnerable and devastatingly
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Ian Inaba
Bruce says: “Sponsored by the Guerilla News Network AMERICAN BLACKOUT is a film that every person should see. That is not very likely since many distributors have already backed out of deals at the last moment. In an age where
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jessica Sanders
Michael says: “Jessica Sanders’ AFTER INNOCENCE is an emotional and inspirational documentary about men who were wrongfully convicted of horrific crimes, then exonerated 15 – 20 years later due to the emergence of DNA testing. The horror of being innocent
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Craig Chester
Starring: Chris Kattan | Craig Chester | Malcolm Gets | Parker Posey
Michael says: “Actor Craig Chester (GRIEF, SWOON, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) wrote and directed his first feature film, a broad romantic comedy where the two protagonists are both men. What could have been sweet, and comfortably mainstream like the films
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