Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Michael Gondry
Starring: Elijah Wood | Jane Adams | Jim Carrey | Kate Winslet | Kirsten Dunst | Mark Ruffalo | Thomas Jay Ryan | Tom Wilkinson
Bruce says: “For starters, I’m a big Jim Carrey fan. Let me qualify that. I think that he is one of the most talented actors alive. He needs a strong director. His performances too often have traces of juvenilia, mugging
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Benoît Cohen
Starring: Laurence Côte | Mathieu Demy | Romane Bohringer
Georgette says: “NOS ENFANTS CHÉRIS was a light romantic comedy about three couples who spend a vacation together in the South of France. As the movie goes on it’s obvious that there is much shared history and much that still
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Rating: 2.9 cats
Director: Roger Michell
Starring: Daniel Craig | Rhys Ifans | Samantha Morton
Michael says: “What could have been fascinating and unusual turned out to be fairly pedestrian, beautifully filmed, and occasionally over-the-top. ENDURING LOVE, based on the novel by Ian McEwan, was directed by Roger Michell, whose unusual career includes such films
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Jim Fields | Michael Gramaglia
Chris says: “Well, now that this is being held over at the Kendall for another week, I can encourage all you Boston folk to check it out. Music films should be seen in a theater with an appreciative audience, dagnabit!
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Xavier Giannoli
Starring: Catherine Salviat | Julian Bouvard | Laura Smet | Marie Denarnaud | Maurice Antoni | Nicolas Duvauchelle
Bruce says: “EAGER BODIES is an uncomfortable film to watch yet I can’t get it out of my mind. Charlotte (Laura Smet) is twenty and not feeling well. When she goes to the doctor he performs routine tests. The doctor
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Rating: 0 cats
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Hilary says: “Just a few words on Bernardo Bertolucci’s latest effort, THE DREAMERS: silly, pretentious, and unsexy.” Janet says: “I had not intended to see this film, but today was so gray, and I was numbingly bored with both
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Rating: 2.9 cats
Director: Tod Williams
Starring: Bijou Phillips | Elle Fanning | Jeff Bridges | Jon Foster | Kim Basinger | Mimi Rogers
Bruce says: “Beware, spoilers. There is something very off about THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR; I think it’s the writing. And the money. It is very difficult to have bundles of sympathy for those who live in a gorgeous house
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Ben Gazzara | Blair Brown | Chloe Sevigny | Harriet Andersson | James Caan | Lauren Bacall | Nicole Kidman | Patricia Clarkson | Paul Bettany | Philip Baker Hall | Stellan Skarsgård
Ivy says: “I caught this last night at the Brattle. I am so glad I saw it on the big screen! I have felt for years that Von Trier is a talented filmmaker and DOGVILLE just reconfirms this belief. “It
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Starring: Emin Toprak | Muzaffer Özdemir | Nazan Kesal | Zuhal Gencer Erkaya
Bruce says: “Mahmut (Muzaffer Ozdemir) and Yusuf (Emin Toprak ) both hail from the same mountain village. Mahmut, who is the elder by at least a dozen years, is a self-made man. He is educated, a successful photographer in both
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: John Waters
Starring: Chris Isaak | Johnny Knoxville | Mink Stole | Patricia Hearst | Selma Blair | Suzanne Shepherd | Tracey Ullman
Chris says: “A DIRTY SHAME is an intermittently amusing but generally trite film. NC-17 rating and all, I wasn’t expecting John Waters to make another PINK FLAMINGOS, but there’s absolutely nothing shocking or subversive going on here. Like every other
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ondi Timoner
Chris says: “This frenzied documentary is worthy of the hype lavished upon it. A chronicle of seven years in the lives of two bands (The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre) who start out as friends and end up
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Irwin Winkler
Starring: Ashley Judd | Jonathan Pryce | Kevin Kline
Scot says: “To everyone who wanted to take the extra pass Michael had for the new biopic of Cole Porter’s life, but couldn’t, I say, ‘Consider yourselves lucky.’ It was de-lousy. “I hate to discourage *anyone* from seeing more musicals,
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Frank Matter | Robert Margolis
Starring: Frank Krias | Kelli Barnett | Robert Margolis
Bruce says: “This bleak piece of filmmaking is the story of Robert, an unemployed actor who has been making the rounds in New York for a decade or so. He has a childish optimism that keeps him going in spite
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Andy Lau | Carina Lau | Jacky Cheung | Leslie Cheung | Maggie Cheung | Rebecca Pan
Bruce says: “While for some time THE DAYS OF BEING WILD has been available for viewing at home in the room of your choice, it has never before had a theatrical release in the United States. Made in 1991, it
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Azita Rayeji | Hossain Emadeddin | Kamyar Sheisi
Michael says: “CRIMSON GOLD is the latest film by Iranian director Jafar Panahi (THE CIRCLE) written by Abbas Kiarostami (TEN, A TASTE OF CHERRY.) This circular film examines the class inequities in Iran in a similar way to Panahi’s THE
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Director: Gregory Jacobs
Starring: Diego Luna | John C. Reilly | Maggie Gyllenhaal
Hilary says: “This remake of 2002 Chlotrudis-eligible film NINE QUEENS managed to be even more boring than the original. “John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, and Maggie Gyllenhaal go through the paces of a ridiculous elaborate con plot and the result
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Jennifer Abbott | Mark Achbar
Bruce says: “In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented a steam engine that pumped water from the depths of coal mines, making them safer and more accessible. This event triggered the Industrial Age; everything could suddenly be measured in units – units
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Bruce says: “American media often mentions that Al Jazeera is influencing the entire Arab world, creating anti-American propaganda. The Western world identifies Al Jazeera primarily as the outlet for all the Bin Laden tapes. It is not far-fetched to assume
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Robert Altman
Starring: Barbara E. Robertson | James Franco | Malcolm McDowell | Neve Campbell | Susie Cusack | William Dick
Bruce says: “THE COMPANY is a difficult film to classify because it isn’t much of anything. Robert Altman loves tackling complicated scenarios. One would think a peek-a-boo film about what goes on behind the scenes at a dance company would
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Jada Pinkett Smith | Jamie Foxx | Tom Cruise
Bruce says: “What exactly does the title of this film mean? Four different definitions could be possibilities: running side by side, concomitant, serving to support, and subordinate. “Jamie Foxx plays Max, a LA taxi driver who always has a dream
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