Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Émile Gaudreault
Starring: Claudia Ferry | Ginette Reno | Luke Kirby | Mary Walsh | Paul Sorvino | Peter Miller
Bruce says: “MAMBO ITALIANO, a coming-out comedy from Canada, does have its moments. Perhaps that is damning with faint praise. While there are some things to like, some scenes which made me laugh, I am left with a notion of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Mullan
Starring: Anne-Marie Duff | Geraldine McEwen | Nora-Jane Noone
Bruce says: “Most films which deal with Christian religion as subject matter deal in faith and redemption. Then we have films such as THE MAGDALENE SISTERS and the brilliant Canadian film, THE BOYS OF ST. VINCENT, which focus on human
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Starring: Flavio Bauraqui | Lázaro Ramos | Marcelia Cartaxa
Bruce says: “Diehard fans of CITY OF GOD should definitely add MADAME SATA to their must see list. Set in the 1930’s, this is the story of Madame Sata, a bisexual transvestite gangster, who is very much a part of
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Antonio Cerrano
Starring: Cecila Roth; Carlos Álvarez-Novoa | Kuno Becker
Laura says: “Writer/director Antonio Serrano, adapting the novel by Homónima de Rosa Montero, has created a multi-generational madcap lark that attempts to address a middle aged woman’s rebirth, marriage, kidnapping, revolutionaries and government corruption within a children’s book author’s whimsical
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Robert Cary
Starring: Andrew McCarthy | Cameron Bancroft | Isabel Rose
Michael says: “Writer/Producer/Actress Isabel Rose creates a dreamy homage to the romantic musicals of the 40’s and 50’s in this sweetly delightful film. Billie (Rose) is on the verge of giving up her cabaret career (singing at airport lounges) to
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Keith Fulton | Luis Pepe
Ivy says: “What a riveting tale of the true delicate state that most films are made in. A local film production company, Central Productions, uses as their cornerstone battle the statistic that most films are never completed. So is how
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mina Shum
Starring: Chang Tseng | Colin Foo | Sandra Oh | Tsai Chin
Michael says: “Mina Shum reunites with her DOUBLE HAPPINESS star, Sandra Oh for this funny, poignant and slightly sentimental look at several Asian-American families living in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Oh plays a single mother whose husband left her suddenly to care
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Todd Louiso
Starring: Jack Kehler | Kathy Bates | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Sarah Koskoff
Chris says: “Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a schlub whose wife commits suicide and leaves him a note that he can’t bear to read. Instead, he finds solace in increasingly dangerous dosages of gas fumes. With a screenplay written by Hoffman’s
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Artyom Bogucharsky | Lyubov Agapova | Oksana Akinshina
Michael says: “After the joyous optimism of community featured in TOGETHER, Moodysson shifts gears radically with a starkly bleak portrait of Lilya, a young girl living in an unnamed Russian city. Abandoned by her mother at age 16 so she
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Jason Flemyng | Naseeruddin Shah | Peta Wilson | Sean Connery | Tony Curran
Howard says: “Not a bad picture; however it’s not a great one either. Nothing but eye candy and some decent action sequences. Unfortunately, the plot has some blaring holes and the action is shot way too close to see what’s
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Rating: 3.375
Director: Neil Hunter | Tom Hunsinger
Starring: Bill Nighy | Clémentine Célarié | Douglas Henshall | Tom Hollander
Peg says: “This second feature from the filmmaking team of Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter is every bit as intimate and gently haunting as their first, a low-budget ensemble piece called BOYFRIENDS. Now, with a larger canvas and seasoned actors,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Starring: Alessandro Nivola | Christian Bale | Frances McDormand | Kate Beckinsale
Laura says: “Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko, who looked at a community of drug and alcohol-addled artists in New York and their effect on a naive neighbor moves to the West Coast to take a look at a bunch of pot-smoking, boozing
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Bruce Sweeney
Starring: Benjamin Ratner | Frida Betrani | Molly Parker | Tom Scholte | Vincent Gale
Michael says: “Once again, a smart, funny, well-made Canadian film misses out on U.S. theatrical distribution, and is released direct-to-video. Bruce Sweeney’s LAST WEDDING was quite the buzz-worthy film two years ago at the Toronto Film Festival. Fortunately, I was
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Director: Rakesh Roshan
Starring: Hrithik Roshan | Preity Zinta | Rakesh Roshan | Rekh
Clinton says: “KOI…MIL GAYA has been lurking around at my sister theatre the Allston Bombay Cinema for a few weeks now, and I’ve always wondered what the heck was going on. Well, after finally sitting down and watching the film
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Juan Luis Iborra | Yolanda García Serrano
Starring: Concha Velasco | Georges Corraface | Silke Hornillos Klein
Michael says: “The Spanish film, KM. 0 is a sweet, enjoyable film that probably won’t stay in my head for very long, but was certainly an entertaining ride while I was watching. Bob amusingly called it enjoyable in the way
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Darryl Hannah | David Carradine | Uma Thurman
Bruce says: “It’s only cartoon violence. That makes it OK, right? Killing, when done for revenge, can be joyous fun, can’t it? The Bride (Uma Thurman) doesn’t actually wink at the audience after each kill so perhaps I’m getting carried
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Kanji Tsuda | Kayoko Shibata | Megumi Okina | Misa Uehara | Misaki Ito | Shuri Matsuda | Yui Ichikawa | Yukako Kukuri
Ivy says: “Ned and I responded to the creepy, psychological fear raised by this ghost story thriller. The premise of the film is that when people are wrongly killed their spirits want revenge. This revenge isn’t just left focused on
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jun'ichi Satô
Starring: Mei Oshitani | Shinnosuke Furumoto
Michael says: “Sunday afternoon at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival found me catching two Japanese movies about a couple of very different beasts. First up was the family anime film, JUNKERS COME HERE. Junkers is a special dog, a cute
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Alejandro Ferretis | Magdalena Flores | Martín Serrano | Yolanda Villa
Michael says: “JAPÓN is a bold and audacious first film from Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. There is an undeniable power in its imagery and its worldview, both beautiful and brutal. Yet for a first film, it also plays a little
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Jae Hyun Cho | Suh Jung | Sung-hee Park | Yoosuk Kim
Laura says: “Writer/director Ki-duk Kim has created a quiet, pensive reflection on two unhappy people who connect via horrific acts of self-mutilation. While not for all tastes, THE ISLE is a compelling meditation, although unravelling its mysteries may require multiple
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