Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.9
Director: Billy Ray
Starring: Chloe Sevigny | Hank Azaria | Hayden Christensen | Melanie Lynskey | Peter Saarsgard | Rosario Dawson | Steve Zahn
Chris says: “Here’s a film that should join ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN or ABSENCE OF MALICE as required viewing for all Journalism students. SHATTERED GLASS recreates the incredible story of Stephen Glass, the young New Republic reporter whom in 1998
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Director: Neil LaBute
Starring: Fred Weller | Gretchen Mol | Paul Rudd | Rachel Weisz
Peg says: “Based on a stage play of his (and maybe more successful in that format) this was a dark, intriguing little tale of a beautiful grad student and artist (Rachel Weisz) who seduces a geeky museum docent (Paul Rudd)
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu | Amos Gitai | Claude Lelouch | Danis Tanovic | Idrissa Ouedraogo | Ken Loach | Mira Nair | Samira Makhmalbaf | Sean Penn | Shohei Imamura | Youssef Chahine
Starring: Dzana Pinjo | Emmanuelle Laborit | Ernest Borgnine | Jérôme Horry | Kapil Bawa | Keren Mor | Kumiko Aso | Lionel Zizréel Guire | Liron Levo | Maryam Karimi | Nour El-Sherif | Taleb Adlah | Tomorô Taguchi | Vladimir Vega
Laura says: “This outstanding omnibus is a French production featuring a short film from 11 global filmmakers. Their only guidelines were that the film be a reflection on 9/11 and that it be 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Aviva Slesin
Laura says: “When Academy Award winning documentarian Aviva Slesin (THE TEN YEAR LUNCH: THE WIT AND LEGEND OF THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE) returned to Lithuania after fifty years to meet the woman who had saved her as a baby from
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Chris Cooper | Jeff Bridges | Tobey Maguire | Valerie Mahaffey
Howard says: “As a docudrama, SEABISCUIT plays wonderfully. Here are reenactments of the most important moments of the horse and the people who loved him. As a piece of cinema it lacks slightly. It’s interesting and even compelling at times,
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Rating: 3.375
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Gunnar Eyjólfsson | Hélène de Fougerolles | Hilmir Snær Guðnason
Esmé says: “THE SEA is a sort of Icelandic King Lear. An aging patriarch calls his children back from the 4 corners of Europe to give them news of what, they aren’t yet sure. He owns an antiquated fish processing
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Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Adam Pascal | Jack Black | Lucas Papaelias | Mike White
Diane says: “SCHOOL OF ROCK is the film that TO BE AND TO HAVE wanted to be! Great opp. to admire Mike White’s eyelashes once again. Only way this movie could have been improved would be to have shot it
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: David Zucker
Starring: Jenny McCarthy | Marny Eng | Pamela Anderson
Howard says: “I wondered when I watched the trailer for SCARY MOVIE 3 why I was laughing so hard. Sure I enjoyed the first two films, but they seemed… amateurish. Yeah, I know the entire series is nothing but crass,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Robb Moss
Diane says: “Documaker Rob Moss revisits some of his rafting pals from a Grand Canyon trip in 1978, made into a docu called ‘riverdogs.’ Too bad he doesn’t give newcomers like me enough context for the first trip and what
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Rose Troche
Starring: Dermot Mulroney | Glenn Close | Jessica Campbell | Kristen Stewart | Mary Kay Place | Patricia Clarkson | Timothy Olyphant
Michael says: “Day 2 of the Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema saw Rose Troche and her third film, THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS. Based on the short stories of A.M. Homes, Troche elegantly weaves the disparate stories into a unified
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Starring: Leonid Mozgovoy | Mariya Kuznetsova | Sergei Dontsov
Ivy says: “I watched RUSSIAN ARK a few months ago when Ned and I were deciding if we were brave enough to play a Sukarov film for an entire week. He has been compared to Tarkovsky but doesn’t have the
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer
Bob says: “Andy Goldsworthy is referred to as a sculptor, but the term doesn’t sufficiently describe what he does. True, he often works with solid forms, but his work is really about time, nature, and the processes those elements involve.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Liliana Cavani
Starring: Dougray Scott | John Malkovich | Lena Heady | Ray Winstone
Laura says: “Italian director Liliana Cavani (THE NIGHT PORTER) looks at Tom Ripley decades after his initial descent into evil. John Malkovich is perfectly cast as the amoral epicurean, now living grandly in a Veneto villa with his harpsichordist wife
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Deepa Mehta
Starring: Bruce Greenwood | Emilia Fox | Jackie Burroughs | Kristen Thomsen
Michael says: “Catching up on my Canadian films, this romance directed by Deepa Mehta (WATER; FIRE) was adapted from a novel by the talented Carol Shields. It played the Toronto International Film Festival in 2003, and was released in Canada
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Sollett
Starring: Altagracia Guzman | Judy Marte | Melonie Diaz | Victor Rasuk
Michael says: “So where was everyone this evening when they should have been catching this remarkable little film? RAISING VICTOR VARGAS is a sweet, and realistic tale of adolescent relationships, a little coming-of-age, and a strong family tale set in
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Brendan Fraser | Do Thi Hai Yen | MichaelCaine
Bob says: “I dont know in general, Id say I liked this one. My main problems with it were the following two items: “Frasers character was not very believable. I thought that worked well for him, oddly enough, for most
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Alex Steyermark
Starring: Ashley Eckstein | Drea de Matteo | Eddie Driscoll | Gina Gershon | Ivan Martin | Lori Petty | Marc Blucas | Shelly Cole
Bob says: “I came out of PREY thinking it was better than I’d expected. Frankly, I hadn’t expected much, so better than I expected is not so hot. But it’s fading for me already. “The film doesn’t go very far
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Geoffrey Rush | Johnny Depp | Keira Knightley | Orlando Bloom
Howard says: “Ahoy, me hearties! The pirate movie be back and, blimey, if it be keelhaulin’ the scurvy-ridden bilge that be marooned in yon summer theaters. “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL is a big, sprawling adventure.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: John Walsh
Starring: Guinevere Turner | Martin Donovan | Mary Louise Parker | Rebecca Gayheart
Michael says: “Last night Scot and I watched a sweet little independent film on DVD. I had read about this film as far as a couple years back, and I was looking forward to it with great anticipation because it
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Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Peter Hedges
Starring: Alice Drummond | Alison Pill | Derek Luke | Isiah Whitlock Jr. | John Gallagher Jr. | Katie Holmes | Lillias White | Oliver Platt | Patricia Clarkson | Sean Hayes
Diane says: “Well, the Village Voice might have called it ‘a gluttonous buffet of Sundance clichés, with an acid-reflux aftertaste of condescension and unexamined racism,’ but I’m giving it 5 cats! “PIECES OF APRIL was another delight–the story of a
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