Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: David Zucker
Starring: Jenny McCarthy | Marny Eng | Pamela Anderson
Howard says: “I wondered when I watched the trailer for SCARY MOVIE 3 why I was laughing so hard. Sure I enjoyed the first two films, but they seemed… amateurish. Yeah, I know the entire series is nothing but crass,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Robb Moss
Diane says: “Documaker Rob Moss revisits some of his rafting pals from a Grand Canyon trip in 1978, made into a docu called ‘riverdogs.’ Too bad he doesn’t give newcomers like me enough context for the first trip and what
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Rose Troche
Starring: Dermot Mulroney | Glenn Close | Jessica Campbell | Kristen Stewart | Mary Kay Place | Patricia Clarkson | Timothy Olyphant
Michael says: “Day 2 of the Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema saw Rose Troche and her third film, THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS. Based on the short stories of A.M. Homes, Troche elegantly weaves the disparate stories into a unified
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Starring: Leonid Mozgovoy | Mariya Kuznetsova | Sergei Dontsov
Ivy says: “I watched RUSSIAN ARK a few months ago when Ned and I were deciding if we were brave enough to play a Sukarov film for an entire week. He has been compared to Tarkovsky but doesn’t have the
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer
Bob says: “Andy Goldsworthy is referred to as a sculptor, but the term doesn’t sufficiently describe what he does. True, he often works with solid forms, but his work is really about time, nature, and the processes those elements involve.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Liliana Cavani
Starring: Dougray Scott | John Malkovich | Lena Heady | Ray Winstone
Laura says: “Italian director Liliana Cavani (THE NIGHT PORTER) looks at Tom Ripley decades after his initial descent into evil. John Malkovich is perfectly cast as the amoral epicurean, now living grandly in a Veneto villa with his harpsichordist wife
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Deepa Mehta
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Emilia Fox | Jackie Burroughs | Kristen Thomsen
Michael says: “Catching up on my Canadian films, this romance directed by Deepa Mehta (WATER; FIRE) was adapted from a novel by the talented Carol Shields. It played the Toronto International Film Festival in 2003, and was released in Canada
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Sollett
Starring: Altagracia Guzman | Judy Marte | Melonie Diaz | Victor Rasuk
Michael says: “So where was everyone this evening when they should have been catching this remarkable little film? RAISING VICTOR VARGAS is a sweet, and realistic tale of adolescent relationships, a little coming-of-age, and a strong family tale set in
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Brendan Fraser | Do Thi Hai Yen | MichaelCaine
Bob says: “I dont know in general, Id say I liked this one. My main problems with it were the following two items: “Frasers character was not very believable. I thought that worked well for him, oddly enough, for most
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Alex Steyermark
Starring: Ashley Eckstein | Drea de Matteo | Eddie Driscoll | Gina Gershon | Ivan Martin | Lori Petty | Marc Blucas | Shelly Cole
Bob says: “I came out of PREY thinking it was better than I’d expected. Frankly, I hadn’t expected much, so better than I expected is not so hot. But it’s fading for me already. “The film doesn’t go very far
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Geoffrey Rush | Johnny Depp | Keira Knightley | Orlando Bloom
Howard says: “Ahoy, me hearties! The pirate movie be back and, blimey, if it be keelhaulin’ the scurvy-ridden bilge that be marooned in yon summer theaters. “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL is a big, sprawling adventure.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: John Walsh
Starring: Guinevere Turner | Martin Donovan | Mary Louise Parker | Rebecca Gayheart
Michael says: “Last night Scot and I watched a sweet little independent film on DVD. I had read about this film as far as a couple years back, and I was looking forward to it with great anticipation because it
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Alice Drummond | Alison Pill | Derek Luke | Isiah Whitlock Jr. | John Gallagher Jr. | Katie Holmes | Lillias White | Oliver Platt | Patricia Clarkson | Sean Hayes
Diane says: “Well, the Village Voice might have called it ‘a gluttonous buffet of Sundance clichés, with an acid-reflux aftertaste of condescension and unexamined racism,’ but I’m giving it 5 cats! “PIECES OF APRIL was another delight–the story of a
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Adrien Brody | Ed Stoppard | Emilia Fox | Michal Zebrowski
Laura says:”Polanski is quick to establish Wladyslaw’s determination not to be silenced by his continuing to play Chopin as the recording studio he inhabits is destroyed by German bombs. Brody quietly and confidently inhabits Szpilman in one of the best
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Dan Ireland
Starring: Emmy Rossum | Jason Isaacs | Sofia Milos
Laura says: “Because it is a love story set within a distinct ethnic community, PASSIONADA” is being compared to MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, but this film is more rooted in realism than that Windex-infested sitcom. That said, while there
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Rating: 0 cats
Director: Fenton Bailey | Randy Barbato
Starring: Macaulay Culkin | Seth Green Chloë Sevigny
Hilary says: “This biopic of club kid/murderer Michael Alig is monstrously bad. The quality of the script, acting and style are on par with your average WB teen melodrama, but with a gigantic budget for drugs. If Macaulay Culkin intended
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Starring: John Hurt | Minnie Driver | Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bruce says: “In OWNING MAHOWNY, Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has just been promoted to Assistant Manager of a large Toronto bank when the loan sharks descend upon him. He has to come up with some money fast. Dan is
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Carl Franklin
Starring: Denzel Washington | Eva Mendes | Sanaa Lathan
Bob G. says: “Very average cop-drama that aside from being marvelously shot and competently acted, offers up nothing of note either script-wise or in the way of style. Denzel dodges bullets and hangs from balconies with the best of ’em,
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Michael says: “If 2003 isn’t the ‘Year of the Documentary’ I don’t know what is. Film Movement’s OT: OUR TOWN is a worthy addition to the many outstanding documentaries released this summer. It’s playing at the Coolidge Corner, and I
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen | Nikolaj Lie Kaas | Paprika Steen | Sonja Richter | Stine Bjerregaard
Michael says: “You’d think, after ARARAT and WHALE RIDER, that Peg and I have diametrically opposed viewpoints when it comes to films. Not so! Scot and I watched the screener for the Danish film, OPEN HEARTS over the weekend, and
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