Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Starring: Carmen Maura | Julieta Cardinali | Rodrigo Noya
Michael says: “This lovely Argentinian film certainly feels like the filmmaker looking back on his childhood (I actually have no absolutely nothing about this filmmaker, so I don’t know if that’s true or not.) Alejandro Agresti has written and directed
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Je-yong Lee
Starring: Do-yeon Jeon | Han-il Na | Hyeon-jae Jo | Mi-suk Lee | So-yeon Lee | Yang-ja Jeon | Yong-jun Bae
Diane says: “I read that this is the 10th iteration of Les liaisons dangereuses to hit the screen. In this very erotic Korean version, set in the 18th century with its sumptuous trappings, director Je-yong Lee uses a subplot of
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Director: Matthew Ryan Hoge
Starring: Chris Kline | Don Cheadle | Jena Malone | Ryan Gosling
Hilary says: “Generally interesting actors Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, and Jena Malone are wasted in this boring, heavy-handed tale of a teen who murders his ex-girlfriend’s brother.”
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Dermot Mulroney | Devon Alan | Eddie Rouse | Jamie Bell | Josh Lucas | Kristen Stewart | Patrice Johnson | Robert Longstreet
Bruce says: “**ATTENTION SPOILERS** “UNDERTOW is the latest film from David Gordon Green, director of GEORGE WASHINGTON and ALL THE REAL GIRLS. This is the first film which he did not write himself. Again, Green proves beyond a doubt that
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jacob Tierney
Starring: Gary Farmer | Joshua Close | Michelle-Barbara Pelletier | Nick Stahl
Bruce says: “TWIST is a film about the hapless lives of teenage Toronto street hustlers. Like other films of this genre – JOHNS, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO and SUGAR – the bleakness and danger associated with doing drugs, turning tricks
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Yôji Yamada
Starring: Hiroyuki Sanada | Nenji Kobayashi | Rie Miyazawa
Michael says: “I’ve been itching to see this film on DVD ever since Georgette mentioned how much she loved it several weeks ago. I’d never pegged Georgette for a martial arts kind of gal, and as it turns out, TWILIGHT
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Bruno Dumont
Starring: David Wissak | Yekaterina Golubeva
Bob says: “David is an American photographer from LA. Katia is his girlfriend, and possibly his model. She speaks mostly French, but I get the feeling from her name and her accent that she may be Russian. The two of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lucas Belvaux
Starring: Bernard Mazzinghi | Catherine Frot | Dominique Blanc | François Morel | Gilbert Melkhi | Lucas Belvaux | Ornella Muti | Valérie Mairesse
Barbara says: “I really liked AN AMAZING COUPLE 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?’
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid
Starring: Brian George | Jimi Mistry | Kris Holden-Ried | Kyle MacLachlan | Suleka Mathew | Veena Sood
Bruce says: “You were born in Kenya but all your ancestors were from India. You were raised in Canada and now you live away from your family in London. Who can you turn to? Cary Grant, of course. Alim (Jimi
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Satoshi Kon | Shôgo Furuya
Starring: Aya Okamoto | Toru Emori | Yoshiaki Umegaki
Michael says: “While foraging through the trash on Christmas, three homeless friends, a teenaged girl, a transvestite, and a middle-adged man find a baby who has been abandoned. Rather than bringing the infant to the police, the three embark on
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Beatrice Dalle | Isabelle Huppert | Maurice Bénichou | Patrice Chéreau | Rona Hartner
Chris says: “This is one of the most unsettling films I’ve ever seen (even more so than FAHRENHEIT 9/11!). I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because it’s best going into it knowing as little as possible,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Salvatore Mereu
Starring: Daniele Casula | Michele Carboni | Yaël Abecassis
Bruce says: “The four seasons represent the four stages of life in THREE STEP DANCING. The film is not about the life of any single person, it is the collective lives of the residents of a village in Sardinia. The
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Julián Hernández
Starring: Juan Carlos Ortuño | Juan Carlos Torres | Mario Oliver | Perla de la Rosa | Rosa-Maria Gomez | Salvador Alvarez
Michael says: “This atmospheric Mexican film surprised me after its initial dreary opening. While not nearly as brilliant a either of these, PEACE is a bit of a cross between Tsai Ming Liang’s WHAT TIME IS IT THERE and Wong
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Michael Almereyda
Diane says: “I wasn’t so keen on this docu about the staging of Sam Shepard’s ‘The Late Henry Moss.’ Especially when you compare it to the ne plus ultra of doc’s in this category, VANYA ON 42ND STREET! The snippets
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones | Chi McBride | Diego Luna | Stanley Tucci | Tom Hanks | Zoe Saldana
Bruce says: “Anyone wishing to argue Steven Spielberg’s shortcomings as a director need look no further than THE TERMINAL. This film is a textbook case. “Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a tourist from a fictional Eastern European country, who becomes
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Director: Trey Parker
Starring: Kristen Miller | Masasa | Matt Stone | Trey Parker
Tom says: “Matt Stone and Trey Parker may have the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and their humor is usually pretty lowbrow but goddamnit if they don’t always make me wet my pants with laughter. “Some of you may have grown
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Rating: 4.4
Director: Jonathan Caouette
Hilary says: “I am pleased that I finally made it to see this film. I was quite moved by Jonathan Caouette’s documentary/video diary/experimental film TARNATION. This multi-faceted piece had me completely engaged from the moment it came on the screen.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Diane says: “I recommend this rich docu by Morgan Spurlock, the engaging ‘star’ of the film, who went on a diet of pure McDonald’s for 30 days. Along the lines of a Michael Moore piece, Spurlock also travels the country
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: John Palmer
Starring: Andre Noble | Brendan Fehr | Maury Chaykin | Sarah Polley
Bruce says: “Based on some Bruce La Bruce short stories, SUGAR is a dark, bleak, coming-of-age story. When Cliff (Andre Noble) turns eighteen his precocious ten year old sister suggests that he down a split of vodka, smoke a joint
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: André Téchiné
Starring: Clémence Meyer | Emmanuelle Béart | Gaspard Ulliel | Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet | Jean Fornerod | Samuel Labarthe
Michael says: “Tonight, Scot and I watched STRAYED, a French film directed by André Téchiné (ALICE AND MARTIN; THE WILD REEDS) that I missed during its brief run at the Kendall. I was particularly interested as it features Agnès Godard
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