Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Alfred Molina | Bill Murray | Cate Blanchette | Iggy Pop | Steve Coogan | Tom Waits
Diane says: “Found most of this tedious. Maybe because I don’t like coffee _or cigarettes? I enjoyed three or four of the eleven conversations: the closing one with Rice and Mead listening to an imagined Mahler lied (Beckett-like), the great
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Bruno Lastra | Christopher Simpson | Jeanne Balibar | Nina Fog | Om Puri | Samantha Morton | Tim Robbins | Togo Igawa
Bruce says: “The prolific Michael Winterbottom (BUTTERFLY KISS, JUDE, WELCOME TO SARAJEVO, WONDERLAND, 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE and IN THIS WORLD) could never be accused of making the same film twice. Each of his works is very different from the
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Clive Owen | Jude Law | Julia Roberts | Natalie Portman
Janet says: “Just got back from the Embassy Cinema after seeing this film about a quartet of lovers who lust after and betray one another, and I’m very excited about it. I’m not a Julia fan—every time I see her
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Pieter Jan Brugge
Starring: Helen Mirren | Robert Redford | Willem Dafoe
Hilary says: “Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford), a wealthy rental-car executive, is abducted by a disgruntled former employee, Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). Hayes’ wife Eileen (Helen Mirren) is soon surrounded by family and FBI agents, hoping for Wayne’s safe return. “Mirren’s
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Antonio Hernández
Starring: Fernando Fernán Gómez | Geraldine Chaplin | Leonardo Sbaraglia
Michael says: “This semester’s Sunday Eye-Opener kicked off with a Spanish/Argentinian co-production that promised to be intriguing, but for me, ended up being soap operaish melodrama that didn’t live up to its possibility. Hot off is intriguing role in INTACTO,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kai S. Pieck
Starring: Sebastian Urzendowsky | Tobias Schenke
Bruce says: “THE CHILD I NEVER WAS is the true story of Jurgen Bartsch who first killed a boy when he was fifteen and subsequently became infamous as a serial killer. The second killing did not happen for another three
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Starring: Aidan Quinn | Kevin Bacon | Kyra Sedgwick
Bruce says: “As demonstrated by the sensational performances of Ali Sheedy, Patricia Clarkson and Radha Mitchell in HIGH ART followed by Frances McDormand’s ultra-hip, oversexed mom in LAUREL CANYON, Lisa Cholodenko has established herself as a director who pushes women
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Director: Kazuaki Kiriya
Starring: Akira Terao | Kumiko Aso | Yusuke Iseya
Tom says: “Before I start, check out the trailer at http://www.apple.com/jp/quicktime/trailers/casshern_large and make sure you’re wearing depends, because you will wet your pants. “Because I’ve seen HERO, I can’t call CASSHERN the most visually stunning movie I’ve ever seen. Luckily, the
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Joseph Mealey | Michael Shoob
Bruce says: “BUSH’S BRAIN is a documentary about Karl Rove. Bush’s two Presidential campaign victories were carefully engineered by Rove. Often quoted that he would stop at nothing to win an election, Rove has been credited with almost every dirty
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Eloy de la Iglesia
Starring: Dritan Biba | Fernando Guillén Cuervo | Pepón Nieto
Bruce says: “My guess is the script of BULGARIAN LOVERS looked good on paper as it covers some interesting topics such as bisexuality and the culture gap between Eastern and Western Europeans; however, it does not fare well on the
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: John Dullaghan
Bruce says: “BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS is a documentary about the poet and novelist Charles Bukowski who was known to his friends and business associates as Hank. Born in 1920, the act of writing came early for Bukowski but success
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Nir Bergman
Starring: Daniel Magon | Eliana Magon | Maya Maron | Nitai Gaviratz | Orly Silbersatz Banai
Michael says: “If you’re looking for that last film to catch before you nominate, and your local video store has a good Foreign Film section, I highly recommend BROKEN WINGS, and Israeli film by writer/director Nir Bergman. This moving and
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Eléonore Faucher
Starring: Ariane Ascaride | Lola Naymark | Thomas Laroppe
Bruce says: “The international title for this film is A COMMON THREAD which is an English translation from the French title, BRODEUSES. With releases already planned in four countries, not to mention having played in six film festivals including Toronto
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Rick McKay
Michael says: “How delightful it was to take a break from the political docs of recent weeks to take a look at a bit of arts history. BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN YEARS is an entertaining look at the 40’s & 50’s
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ross McAlwee
Chris says: “If you’re familiar with documentarian Ross McElwee’s earlier films (SHERMAN’S MARCH, TIME INDEFINITE), watching this one is like fondly catching up with an old friend. The latest, long-awaited chapter in his series of autobiographical cinematic memoirs, BRIGHT LEAVES
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Stephen Fry
Starring: Emily Mortimer | Imelda Staunton | Jim Broadbent | Peter O'Toole | Richard E. Grant | Stephen Campbell Moore | Stockard Channing
Janet says: “Stephen Fry draws on his experience as Wodehouse’s Jeeves in adapting this busy story of male and female Bertie Woosters. Lots of fun to watch, with some superb acting (Fenella Woolgar is a millefeuille pastry of irony layered
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Paul Greengrass
Bruce says: “ATTENTION, SPOILERS. “Jason Bourne is a wanted man. Trained by the CIA to be a hit man, he can’t escape his past. Although he remembers very little about his one and only CIA assignment, his dreams are offering
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jean Paul Rappeneau
Starring: Gerard Depardieu | Isabelle Adjani | Virginie Ledoyen
Bruce says: “BON VOYAGE is a French bedroom farce without a bedroom…well not totally, bedrooms do figure into the plot here and there. It’s just that the German invasion of Paris, secrets about the atom bomb and a nasty corpse
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: John Furse
Starring: Ian Hart | Linus Roache
Bruce says: “BLIND FIGHT is based on a true story about an Irish teacher, Brian Keenan, and a British journalist, John McCarthy, who were captured by Lebanese terrorists. They lived together in various cells and makeshift prisons for four and
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Jang Li
Starring: Baoqiang Wang | Qiang Li | Shuangbao Wang
Michael says: “After winning several awards at recent film festivals, including Berlin and Tribeca, this powerful film explores the dark and the light of humanity as embodied by mine workers in China. Song and Tang work the mines, but they
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