Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Patrice Leconte
Starring: Jean Rochefort | Jean-François Stévenin | Johnny Hallyday
Georgette says: “A man (Johnny Hallyday, French rock star and actor) gets off of the train in a quiet, cold, dark, French village. His headache sends him to the nearest pharmacy for aspirin. As he leaves the pharmacy, he realizes
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Kaige Chen
Starring: Hong Chen | Kaige Chen | Peiqi Liu | Yen Tang | Zhiwen Wang
Laura says: “Young violin prodigy Liu Xiaochun’s (Yun Tang) simple country father Liu Cheng (Peiqi Liu, SHADOW MAGIC) takes him to Beijing to audition for a prestigious school. Cheng overhears Professor Jiang (Zhiwen Wang, THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN) declare
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Nicolas Philibert
Diane says: “Sentimental docu about the rural French teacher. I fell in love with the young student, JoJo.” 3 cats Georgette says: “I truly enjoyed this quiet little documentary. I liked the way that we only learn about the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sarah Gavron
Starring: David Morrissey | Kate Ashfield | Linda Bassett | Peter Mullan
Chris says: “Honest and sad little British film about a couple that give birth to a prematurely born baby. Like LILJA 4-EVER (only gentler), it’s not an easy one to watch, but you will get so caught up in the
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood | Holly Hunter | Jeremy Sisto | Nikki Reed
Bob G. says: “It’s very difficult to view this film as anything but an amped-up AfterSchool Special. The material is unflinching and honest, but director Catherine Hardwicke is so mired in overtly arty camera work and kaleidoscopic color palette changes
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger | Claire Danes | Kristanna Loken | Nick Stahl
Howard says: “A Terminator movie without James Cameron? How could they? Easily, it seems. TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES takes place ten years after TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY. John Connor is in his early teens and has been hiding
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Rating: 3.375
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Starring: Amene Moradi | Amin Maher | Kamran Adl | Mania Akbari
Ivy says: “I am slowly picking off the last of the films I need to watch for the Chlotrudis nominations and the latest film I viewed was TEN this afternoon. I truly loved this film. As an Iranian film it
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tol
Starring: Beatrice Dalle | Hisayo Mochizuki | Shinji Takeda | Takeshi Katô
Michael says: “How can you not love a film that’s a bizarre melding of Hello Kitty, YELLOW SUBMARINE, ‘Betty Boop,’ and an indictment against consumerism and religion all at the same time? TAMALA 2010 : A PUNK CAT IN OUTER
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.375
Director: Jae-eun Jeong
Starring: Du-na Bae | Ji-young Ok | Yu-won Lee
Ivy says: “I was lucky enough to catch this on the Sundance Channel. I have seen many bad Korean films, their film industry is still trying to form an identity instead of making cut-rate Hong Kong or Japanese films and
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Blythe Danner | Daniel Craig | Gwyneth Paltrow | Jared Harris | Michael Gambon
Bruce says: “SYLVIA documents the last years of Sylvia Plath’s life, from the time she met and married Ted Hughes. While I liked this film, I found it more than a bit depressing. What was I expecting? It seems an
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: François Ozon
Starring: Charles Dance | Charlotte Rampling | Ludivine Sagnier
Bob G. says: “30 minutes into SWIMMING POOL you find yourself unavoidably engaged, much to your chagrin, given the lack of physical screen action. There’s not a lot going on here, at least on the surface, but Charlotte Rampling and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ken Loach
Starring: Annmarie Fulton | Martin Compston | William Ruane
Michael says: “British filmmaker Ken Loach released two films in 2003, both woefully underseen. I hope to catch up with THE NAVIGATORS later this weekend, but I caught his more recent film SWEET SIXTEEN, on DVD this morning. “Loach’s usual
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Joel Katz
Laura says: “In a one hour running time, Katz explores how a white Jewish schoolteacher came to write the song which Holiday claimed, incorrectly, was written for her and which was later adopted by the Civil Rights movement. STRANGE FRUIT
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mark Moskowitz
Michael says: “2003’s string of outstanding documentaries continues with Mark Moskowitz’s powerful rumination on literature and its effect on our lives. In the early 70’s Moskowitz read a review in the NYT Book Review of Dow Mossman’s first novel, The
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Rating: 4.6
Director: Thomas McCarthy
Starring: Bobby Cannavale | Michelle Williams | Patricia Clarkson | Peter Dinklage | Raven Goodwin
Bob G. says: “As Finbar McBride, Peter Dinkledge emotes a quiet storm usually reserved for icons of the ’30s and ’40s such as Bogart or Cagney. His performance is so understated, it draws attention to itself precisely through its unobtrusiveness.
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Rating: 1 cat
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Alexa Vega | Antonio Banderas | Carla Gugino | Daryl Sabara | Elijah Wood | Ricardo Montalban
Howard says: “In this latest installment of the SPY KIDS franchise, it’s painfully obvious that the decline shown in SPY KIDS 2 is moving along faster than a mom unplugging your Xbox game. Where the original was fun, goofy and
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jonas Åkerlund
Starring: Jason Schwartzman | John Leguizamo | Mena Suvari | Patrick Fugit
Emily and Greg say: “We saw this at a midnight screening in Toronto, and it was probably the best celebrity studded night. All the stars of the film came out – Mickey Rourke, looking like a plastic rebel-rocker in black
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Gabriel Byrne | Lynne Redgrave | Miranda Richardson | Ralph Fiennes
Esmé says: “This was great and who saw it? I thought Fiennes was great, and so was the directing. Lots of cats. (A man is released from the asylum and returns to his old neighborhood where he tries to make
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Robin says: “Each and every year, across the U.S., 9,000,000 kids compete for the 249 slots available at the National Spelling Bee held every year in Washington, DC. Documentary maker Jeff Blitz follows eight middle-schoolers on this road as they
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Rating: 0.5 cats
Director: Keith Gordon
Starring: Mel Gibson | Robert Downey Jr | Robin Wright Penn
Bruce says: “Robert Downey, Jr. gives one of the greatest performances in one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. While I knew exactly what was going on, THE SINGING DETECTIVE still made little sense and held little interest. “Downey
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