Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jordan Melamed
Starring: Don Cheadle | Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Michael Bacall | Sara Rivas | Zooey Deschanel
Laura says: “Tyro director Jordan Melamed gets natural and perceptive work from a cast comprised of amateurs and professionals. They mine their own truths improvising their way around actors Michael Bacall and Blayne Weaver’s script despite some genre cliches. However,
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Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Danny Pang | Oxide Pang Chung
Starring: Angelica Lee | Chutcha Rujinanon | Lawrence Chou | Yut Lai So
Howard says: “See this before Tom Cruise’s company turns it into Hollywood schlock. THE EYE is the latest of the Asian films to be bought up by the power brokers in Tinsel Town and like THE RING will probably be
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Gavin Heffernan
Starring: Denise DePass | Erin Simkin | Gavin Heffernan | Janet Lane | Paul Rogic | Yetide Badaki
Michael says: “First-time director Gavin Heffernan writes and stars in this overly-ambitious ‘out-all-night’ film with mixed results. Given the difficulties that low-budget, independent films face today, the very fact that EXPIRATION exists is certainly an impressive feat. The twenty-three year
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Starring: Brent Carver | Don McKellar | Jane Leeves | Olympia Dukakis | Parker Posey | Sarah Polley
Michael says: “‘Some films are difficult to review. THE EVENT, the latest film from one of my favorite filmmakers, Thom Fitzgerald (THE HANGING GARDEN, THE WILD DOGS) is one such film. The reason that it is so difficult to review
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Bob Newhart | Ed Asner | James Caan | Mary Steenburgen | Will Ferrell | Zooey Deschanel
Howard says: “While ELF has some cute and amusing moments, it plays like most other vehicles of Saturday Night Live players – a skit that goes on too long. Will Ferrell is best when he’s alone off doing his weird,
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: George Gallo
Laura says: “Griffin wastes no time tipping his hat to his idol Richard Pryor during his opening concert salvos with a bit on the way white people walk. He also follows what seems to be the current de rigueur rule
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Dave Moroni | Tara Birtwhistle | Wei-Qiang Zhang
Michael says: “Guy Maddin is a talented and creative filmmaker. For his latest U.S. release, he has taken Mark Godden’s interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and turned it into an beautifully eerie film with moments
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Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: David Hyde Pierce | Ewan McGregor | Renée Zellweger | Sarah Paulson
Peg says: “In what might have been a suave, swinging homage to the Rock Hudson/Doris Day cat-and-mouse romances of the 1960s, director Peyton Reed (BRING IT ON) serves up a pastel-colored ice-cream soda of a movie: sweet and bubbly at
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Elia Suleiman
Starring: Elia Suleiman | George Ibrahim | Manal Khader | Salwa Nakkara
Bob says: “I found DIVINE INTERVENTION funny, in a very odd way. A lot of it reminded me of Keaton and Tati (so with THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE we’ve got two Tatiesque movies this year), with a silent, mostly unemotional
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Audrey | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Sergi Lopez | Sophie Okonedo | Tautou
Ivy says: “DIRTY PRETTY THINGS is the newest film by Stephen Frears (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE). It is a thriller set in the world of illegal citizens in London and what they have to do in order to work, get citizenship,
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Mark Rucker
Starring: Charles Busch | Frances Conroy | Jason Priestly | Phillip Baker Hall | Stark Sands
Howard says: “Good satire requires an understanding of your subject matter, comic and dramatic timing, good pacing, but most of all bite. Unfortunately, there’s not much bite to Charles Busch newest camp fest, DIE, MOMMIE, DIE! Based on his screen
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Jennifer Dworkin
Michael says: “In a year of stellar documentaries, LOVE AND DIANE deserves a place near the top of the list. This debut feature documentary from Jennifer Dworkin is a hard-hitting look at a mother struggling to reunite with her family
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Alan Rudolph
Starring: Campbell Scott | Dennis Leary | Hope Davis | Robin Tunney
Diane says: “Great perfs by Campbell Scott and Hope Davis; I loved the ambivalence of the ending.” 4 cats Esme says: “I caught this one the other night. I don’t have that much to say about it. The intentionally
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Olivier Assaya
Starring: Charles Berling | Chloe Sevigny | Connie Nielsen | Gina Gershon
Michael says: “Well, the several Chlotrudis members who attended the second installment of the Sunday Eye-Opener were treated with a sneak preview of Olivier Assayas’ stylish tale of corporate cyber-espionage. Assayas, whose IRMA VEP is a cherished fave film of
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Josef Bierbichler | Juliane Heinemann | Katja Studt | Nina Petri
Michael says: “Tom Tykwer introduced his first feature film, DEADLY MARIA, to a sold out theatre at the Museum of Fine Arts last night. It was great seeing all those Chltorudis members, including Tim, Sara Rubin and new members Erin
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Ron Shelton
Starring: Kurt Russell | Michael Michele | Scott Speedman
Laura says: “Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman, DUETS) seemingly has it made. His uncle Jack (Brendan Gleeson, GANGS OF NEW YORK) is the head of SIS, his partner Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell, VANILLA SKY) is a favored veteran and he’s just
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Rating: 3.25
Director: John Malkovich
Starring: Elvira Mínguez | Javier Bardem | Juan Diego Botto | Laura Morante
Esmé says: “I thought Javier Bardem was great in this. I really liked this movie, the story, the filming, the understated way Malkovich showed us the lifestyle of the characters. The tension, the revelation, awesome! (A terrorist group is threatening
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Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh | Mark Ruffalo | Meg Ryan
Bruce says: “This film is a textbook for fatal flaws in filmmaking. With one exception – an absolutely perfect performance from Mark Ruffalo – IN THE CUT is a total mess. Mark Ruffalo knows his character and captures every earthy,
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Alexander Rughozhkin
Starring: Anni-Christina Juuso | Viktor Bychkov | Ville Haapasalo
Bob says: “What I liked most about this film is the way the language barrier between the characters is used to drive the story forward – often to delay it. After the first few conversations, the fact that no one
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Matthew Barney
Starring: Aimee Mullins | Matthew Barney | Paul Brady | Richard Serra
Laura says: “Multi-media artist Matthew Barney explores the evolution of form via Celtic mythology, automotives, biology and vaseline in his five part Cremaster cycle, which began in 1994 with CREMASTER 4 and move from a state of ascendance to descendance
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