Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ken Harder | Scott Milam | Todd Pottinger
Chris says: “A Seattle fixture for decades, Richard Peterson is a mentally challenged, musically gifted savant obsessed with Johnny Mathis and orchestral cues from the ’50s TV show ‘Sea Hunt.’ Initially, I feared that the filmmakers were crudely exploiting Peterson
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Leander Haussmann
Starring: Christien Ulmen | Detliev Buck | Katja Danowski
Bruce says: “Christien Ulmen got his start in show business as a German MTV host. This is his second feature film and he could become a major star. He has the charm and intelligence of Paul Rudd (I happen to
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: István Szabó
Starring: Annette Bening | Bruce Greenwood | Jeremy Irons | Michael Gambon | Miriam Margoyles | Shaun Evans
Hilary says: “Annette Bening moves to the top of my growing Best Actress nominations list playing Julia Lambert, a stage actress of a certain age, in 1930s London. It is refreshing to see a woman over 30 who both acts
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke | Julie Delpy
Chris says: “When I first heard that Richard Linklater was making a sequel to BEFORE SUNRISE, I thought, ‘What a terrible idea.’ I remember finding the first film pleasant, but not particularly wanting to sit through it again (whereas I
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Carol Bausch | José María Doménech
Barbara says: “What I found interesting about this documentary was that it was so neutral politically. I thought it would be a big anti-Castro film focusing on the perils faced by the Cuban refugees who try to escape by homemade
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Fele Martínez | Gabriel García Bernal | Lluís Homar | Pedro Almodóvar
Bruce says: “Because Pedro Almodóvar is so proficient and so accomplished I tend to perhaps expect too much from him. In BAD EDUCATION we see Almodóvar fine-tuning his craft once again, this time turning to suspense and a bit of
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Paul Hough
Rick says: “While this fascinating documentary is no longer playing at the Coolidge, it is available on DVD. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes documentaries and has an interest in youth subcultures or sociology. But not for those
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Mario Van Peebles
Starring: David Alan Grier | Joy Bryant | Mario Van Peebles | Nia Long | Ossie Davis | T.K. Carter | Terry Crews
Hilary says: “BAADASSSSS! is Mario Van Peebles’ biopic of his father Melvin’s attempt to make his groundbreaking film SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAAD ASSSSS SONG (1971), the first of the ‘blaxploitation’ genre. “There are some interesting elements to the story as it
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Gonzalo Justiniano
Starring: Eduardo Barril | Juan Falcón | Manuela Martelli | Ricardo Fernandez | Sergio Hernández
Bruce says: “Kathy (Manuela Martelli) is fourteen. Her father (Eduardo Barril) is in prison, her mother (Lorene Prieto) is giving in to the sexual demands of her employer to keep her job and make ends meet, and her brother (Felipe
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Adam Scott | Alan Alda | Alec Baldwin | Cate Blanchett | Danny Huston | France Conroy | Gwen Stefani | Ian Holm | John C. Reilly | Jude Law | Kate Beckinsale | Leonardo DiCaprio
Bruce says: “Similar to the childhood flashbacks in RAY, THE AVIATOR attempts to explain away Howard Hughes’ drive and craziness by presenting a telltale scene from his childhood. Scorsese has chosen a moment in 1927 where Howard’s mother is washing
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Shinji Aramaki
Starring: Ai Kobayashi | Jûrôta Kosugi | Yuki Matsuoka
Michael says: “APPLESEED is a action-packed anime film in the science fiction genre. Based on the comic by Masamune Shirow (GHOST IN THE SHELL), APPLESEED takes place on earth, far in the future, where much of the planet is involved
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Director: Jerzy Stuhr
Starring: Anna Dymna | Dominika Bednarczyk | Jerzy Stuhr
Ivy says: “I don’t know how many of you love Kristof Kieslowski but this weekend at the Brattle we are premiering a film based on one of his unproduced scripts – BIG ANIMAL. It is directed by one of his
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Al Pacino | Ben Shenkman | Emma Thompson | Jeffrey Wright | Justin Kirk | Mary Louise Parker | Meryl Streep
Michael says: “Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning play was adapted into a 6-hour HBO miniseries a couple years ago, with stunning results. Kudos to Mike Nichols and Kushner for doing a splendid job adapting the stage play to the screen. “I
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Catherine Breillat
Starring: Amira Casar | Rocco Siffredi
Bruce says: “It is hard to say whether Catherine Breillat knows what she is doing or not. Her message is, I think, both blatant and encrypted. For a while I thought I was watching a feminist hate poem. Slowly my
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Director: Louis Schwartzberg
Peg says: “Director Louis Schwartzberg was once employed by one of the world’s largest film-stock libraries. That may explain why many of the images in this film (more a collection of portraits than a documentary) are familiar: the Bandaloop dance
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Dominique Blanc | François Morel | Gilbert Melki | Ornella Muti | Valérie Mairesse
Barbara says: “I really liked this movie 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?’ Of
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Duncan Roy
Starring: Diana Quick | George Asprey | Lindsey Coulson | Matthew Leitch
Bruce says: “This film is partially autobiographical, for the director, Duncan Roy, actually served a prison sentence for impersonating the son of an aristocrat. In AKA, the central character, an eighteen year old working class boy, goes by the name
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jonathan Demme
Michael says: “THE AGRONOMIST is a fascinating documentary by Jonathan Demme, examining the life of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. More of a portrait (as Ned so adeptly noted) than a documentary, Demme’s film traces Dominique’s
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Bernard Mazzinghi | Catherine Frot | Dominique Blanc | Gilbert Melki | Ornella Muti
Barbara says: “After much discussion Mary and I both agreed that this was the best made film of the trilogy but we enjoyed AN AMAZING COUPLE the most. After seeing AN AMAZING COUPLE I didn’t think I could ever like
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Director: Gary Winick
Starring: Andy Serkis | Crista B. Allen | Jennifer Garner | Judy Greer | Mark Ruffalo | Sean Marquette
Peg says: “From director Gary Winick (TADPOLE) and writing team Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith (WHAT WOMEN WANT) comes a bubbly remake of BIG for women who buy Cosmo for the articles. Suburban New Jersey, 1987: Jenna Rink (Crista B.
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