Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Gaspar Noé
Starring: Albert Dupontel | Jo Prestia | Monica Bellucci | Vincent Cassel
Esme says: “Okay, holy Christ, IRREVERSIBLE was b r u t a l. If you can survive the first couple of scenes (incredibly, it gets gentler, sweeter and lighter as it goes backwards), this is a really interesting movie. I
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton | Catherine Zeta-Jones | Cedric the Entertainer | Edward Herrman | Geoffrey Rush | George Clooney | Paul Adelstein | Richard Jenkins
Howard says: “There is a point in INTOLERABLE CRUELTY where George Clooney is giving a keynote speech professing his love that is long enough to make you suspect the Coen brothers have ‘sold out’ into schmaltz. Wrong! The film, in
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Eusebio Poncela | Leonardo Sbaraglia | Max von Sydow | Mónica López
Esme says: “INTACTO was great. I really like this movie. It is a well-acted, under-dramatized sort of movie that they will probably try to ruin and remake in America with Bridget Fonda as the female detective, a la LA FEMME
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Martina Kudlácek
Laura says: “Kudlacek begins her film with Mekas holding film cans marked Deren, declaring them the ‘holy grail of cinema – we don’t know what’s inside,’ before beginning a journey that details Deren’s Russian Jewish roots, influences, lovers, colleagues, travels,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tim Fywell
Starring: Bill Nighy | Henry Thomas | Marc Blucas | Romola Garai | Rose Byrne | Sinead Cusack
Laura says: “This small BBC film, adapted from One Hundred and One Dalmatians author Dodie Smith’s novel, immerses its audience into another time and place just like a good read on a rainy day. Director Tim Fywell (TV’s ‘Norma Jean
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Vadim Perelman
Starring: Ben Kingsley | Frances Fisher | Jennifer Connelly | Jonathon Ahdout | Ron Eldard | Shohreh Aghdashloo
Diane says: “I’m on a mainstream roll! HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG is a five-cat book, and here not reduced too awfully much in its film version. Ben Kingsley is perfect as Colonel Behrani, the exiled Iranian trying to recoup
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Ed Harris | Julianne Moore | Meryl Streep | Miranda Richardson | Nicole Kidman | Stephen Dillane | Toni Collette
Hilary says: “Only a few scenes into THE HOURS I found myself wishing I could start the film over and view it without the Philip Glass score. The score was used in a heavy-handed fashion, cueing the viewer to the
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Starring: Andrea Renzi | Margherita Buy | Serra Yilmaz | Stefano Accorsi
Michael says: “Disappointingly cliched drama about a woman who loses her husband of 15 years to a sudden car accident. While cleaning out his office belongings she discovers that he’d been having not only an affair, but a double-life as
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Thaddeus O'Sullivan
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter | Olivia Williams | Paul Bettany
Laura says: “After the death of their father, Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter, NOVOCAINE) stays briefly at her sister Madeline’s (Olivia Williams, THE SIXTH SENSE) London townhouse, frustrating her sister’s sense of decorum while delighting her nephew Anthony (Luke Newberry) and
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
Starring: Heather Graham | Jimi Mistry | Marissa Tomei | Michael McKean
Hilary says: “Being a sucker for musicals I have to admit that I enjoyed the first half of this film. After that it descended into Formulaic Hollywood Romance territory with Heather Graham playing yet another naïve porn star. If only
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Neil Jordan
Starring: Emir Kusturica | Nick Nolte | Nutsa Kukhianidz
Bruce says: “What possesses talented directors to remake films which for one reason or another are considered classics of their genre? Neil Jordan, director of MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME, THE BUTCHER BOY and THE END OF THE AFFAIR, must
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Shushuke Kaneko
Starring: Chiharu Nîyama | Masahiro Kobayashi | Ryudo Uzaki
Ivy says: “This Godzilla film was exceptional: All of the beasts are back for this one, being that it is ALL OUT MONSTER ATTACK. It’s a very smart Godzilla film but it still contains all of the fun from the
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Richard Day
Starring: Clinton Leupp | Dana Gould | Eric Stonestreet | Hamilton von Watts | Jeffery Roberson | Plotnick | Ron Mathews
Michael says: “GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS tells the tale of three Hollywood actresses, all at different stages of their careers. There’s the drunken shrew, Evie, a bitter, ruthless, pill-popping, aging actress who had one memorable role in a Hollywood blockbuster,
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Director: Gus Van Zant
Starring: Casey Affleck | Matt Damon
Emily says: “GERRY is going to be one of those that generates a lot of dissension amongst Chlotrudis ranks, I think. Its an either ‘you love it or you hate it’ kind of film. I’ll say one thing, that it
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Alex Proyas
Starring: Kick Gurry | Maya Stange | Pia Miranda | Russell Dykstra
Laura says: “Proyas, who cowrote with Dave Warner (CUT) & Michael Udesky, has made a film that resembles TRAINSPOTTING if it were sweet instead of edgy. Unfortunately, his third feature seems more like a first effort, with style borrowed from
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Hélène de Saint-Père | Valérie Lemercier | Vincent Lindon
Ivy says: “If you missed FRIDAY NIGHT when it played in the Boston’s Women’s Fest this Spring, please consider going tonight to the Monday Night at the Movies, or catching it at the Kendall before it leaves this Thursday. This,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mark S. Waters
Starring: Harold Gould | Jamie Lee Curtis | Lindsay Lohan | Mark Harmon
Howard says: “The biggest surprise this summer turns out to be the one that everyone rolled their eyes at. FREAKY FRIDAY, yet another Disney remake of one of their own films, is a well-acted, well-scripted piece of family fluff. For
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Stanton | Lee Unkrich
Starring: Albert Books | Alexander Gould | Ellen DeGeneres | Willem Dafoe
Howard says: “If you can get past the first 10 minutes of Pixar’s latest, you’ll get a movie that is on par with their four other feature films. FINDING NEMO turns out to be a big, adventure film with a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: A.J. Cook | Ali Larter | Michael Landes | Terrence 'T.C.' Carson
Laura says: “FINAL DESTINATION was a cut above the standard teen horror flick, leading the pack of current films which examine luck and fate’s relationships with death (UNBREAKABLE, INTACTO), its premise obscuring its slasher film agenda of innovative death scenes.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Damian Pettigrew
Michael says: “This documentary about legendary Italian director Federico Fellini is a terrific film for fans of his work. Extensive interviews with Fellini make up the bulk of the film, with conversations with the likes of Donald Sutherland, Terrence Stamp,
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