Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Arik Kaplun
Starring: Evelyn Kaplun | Mosko Alkalai | Nir Levy | Shmil Ben Ari
Diane says: “Director Arik Kaplun, himself a Russian immigrant to Israel, looks at the hurdles faced by Russian immigrants in Tel Aviv. The Gulf War looms, a pregnant and penniless woman is abandoned by her husband, conflicts over money lead
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Bart Freundlich
Starring: Billy Crudup | Cleavant Derricks | Julianne Moore | Karen Allen | Liane Balaban
Michael says: “Freundlich’s second feature film (following THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS) tells the story of one man’s struggle with his father. Billy Crudup plays Cal, married with one son, successful architect, and facing deep abandonment issues revolving around his absent
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Christophe Gans
Starring: Emilie Dequenne | Monica Belluci | Samuel Le Bihan | Vincent Cassel
Bob says: “I thought it had a lot of style, and that it had clearly been influenced by Besson and the folks behind THE MATRIX (who were in turn influenced by just about everybody in Hong Kong). However, I also
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Yvan Attal
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg | Noémie Lvovsky | Terence Stamp | Yvan Attal
Michael says: “This delightful French film looks at a sports writer who has difficulty dealing with the fact that his wife is a famous actress. When she travels to London to work on a film that co-stars a well-known, actor,
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Larry Fessenden
Starring: Erik Per Sullivan | Jake Weber | John Speredakos | Patricia Clarkson
Michael says: “Larry Fessenden’s chilling tale of a family from the city encountering supernatural forces in the wilderness is also a deft character study that utilizes a lot of low- budget tricks in an excellent way. “George and Kim, along
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Catherine McCormack | Elizabeth Hurley | Josh Lucas | Sarah Polley | Sean Penn
Michael says: “Completed in 2000, this schizophrenic film starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth Hurley, Sarah Polley and Catherine McCormack is finally being released this fall. Based on a best-selling Anita Shreve novel, and directed by action lenser Bigelow (NEAR DARK, POINT
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Joel Zwick
Starring: Andrea Martin | John Corbett | Lainie Kazan | Michael Constantine | Nia Vardalos
Ellen says: “For some reason I feel guilty about seeing MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING. On some level it seems mainstream and I haven’t seen anyone else post about it. But, I will announce here that I thoroughly enjoyed the
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Gary Burns
Starring: Don McKellar | Fab Filippo | Gordon Currie | Marya Delver
Ellen says: “I was one of the individuals fortunate enough to catch the U.S. premiere of WAYDOWNTOWN last night. After a wonderful dinner with Gary Burns and Don McKellar, the film kept the laughter going for me. I’ll state at
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gianni Amelio
Starring: Enrico Lo Verso | Francesco Giuffrida | Rosaria Danzè
Diane says: “I went to see this one because I loved Gianni Amelio’s 1994 LAMERICA–to jog your memory, two Italians go to Albania to take advantage of government money for new businesses and it ends miserably, miserably. “THE WAY WE
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Shohei Imamura
Starring: Koji Yakusho | Mansaku Fuwa | Misa Shimizu | Mitsuko Baisho
Laura says: “Imamura’s fanciful tale is like an offbeat Japanese homage to LOCAL HERO. An out of towner seeks riches in a strange place where people come from far off places to fish, woman have fantastical powers, strange lights are
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Rating: 4.125 cats
Director: Veit Helmer
Starring: Chulpan Khamatova | Denis Lavant | Phillipe Clay | Terrence Gillespie
Laura says: “TUVALU is a German production filmed in Sofia about a son (Dennis Lavant, BEAU TRAVAIL) trying to keep a crumbling bathhouse operating for his aging parents while his brother is bent to destroy it. Almost completing silent, the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Hilary Birmingham
Starring: Anson Mount | Catherine Kellner | Glenn Fitzgerald | Julianne Nicholson
Laura says: “After an arduous, two year trip to theatrical distribution, the multiple festival award winner TULLY arrives to make its mark as a true American independent. Based on the O’Henry prize winning story by Tom McNeal by coproducer/writer/directory Hilary
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Rating: 1.6 cats
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Alex Descas | Beatrice Dalle | Florence Loiret Caille | Nicolas Duvauchelle | Tricia Vessey | Vincent Gallo
Emily says: “Having heard Claire Denis’ new film was a disappointment after BEAU TRAVAIL (a favorite of mine), I was lucky enough to disregard these reviews and catch it during the Boston Women’s Film festival – thanks be, I loved
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Eugene Jarecki
Laura says: “Journalist Christopher Hitchens, who has famously tackled such public figures as Mother Teresa, wrote a book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, proposing that the former U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner is a war criminal.
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Rating: 3.7 cats
Director: Laurent Cantet
Starring: Aurélien Recoing | Jean-Pierre Mangeot | Karin Viard | Serge Livrozet
Diane says: “TIME OUT (L’EMPLOI DU TEMPS), directed by Laurent Cantet, is about a manager who is fired and can’t bring himself to let his family know. Vincent drives around with his cell phone, pretending to his wife that he
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ming-liang | Tsai
Starring: Kang-sheng Lee | Shiang-chyi Chen | Yi-ching Lu
Michael says: “The story unfolds ever so slowly, and the pace doesn’t change throughout the nearly 2-hour running time, but is punctuated by sudden scenes of bizarre hilarity. WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? follows the lives of three people who
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Jill Sprecher
Starring: Alan Arkin | Amy Irving | Barbara Sukowa | Clea DuVall | John Turturro | Matthew McConaughhey | Rob McElhenney | Tia Texada
Hilary says: “I find myself in the minority concerning 13 CONVERSATIONS. Although I liked the organization of the story in its MEMENTO-like reverse structure) and it had several strong performers, I never got into the story. The entire time I
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Hal Hartley
Starring: Baltasar Kormákur | Bill Sage | Helen Mirren | James Urbaniak | Julie Christie | Robert John Burke | Sarah Polley
Michael says: “I have been eagerly anticipating this film because it featured three of my favorite movie types… Hal Hartley, Sarah Polley and Helen Mirren. “Buzz around this new film had been rather negative… largely, I think, due to the
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lynn Hershmon-Lessman
Starring: James Urbaniak | Jeremy Davies | Karen Black | Thomas Jay Ryan | Tilda Swinton
Michael says: “What better way to finish off the terrific movie weekend at the Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema than a science fiction fling with the incomparable Tilda Swinton playing geeky scientist Rosetta Stone, and her three clones, Ruby,
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Dario Grandinetti | Javier Cámara | Leonor Watling | Rosario Flores
Michael says: “A group of us saw Pedro Almodovar’s sublime TALK TO HER last night. That Spanish director’s eye for creating exquisite visual portraits using the language of film just keeps growing. Each scene is so carefully crafted, and his
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