Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Starring: Hrithik Roshan | Preity Zinta | Rakesh Roshan | Rekh
Clinton says: “KOI…MIL GAYA has been lurking around at my sister theatre the Allston Bombay Cinema for a few weeks now, and I’ve always wondered what the heck was going on. Well, after finally sitting down and watching the film
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Juan Luis Iborra | Yolanda García Serrano
Starring: Concha Velasco | Georges Corraface | Silke Hornillos Klein
Michael says: “The Spanish film, KM. 0 is a sweet, enjoyable film that probably won’t stay in my head for very long, but was certainly an entertaining ride while I was watching. Bob amusingly called it enjoyable in the way
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Darryl Hannah | David Carradine | Uma Thurman
Bruce says: “It’s only cartoon violence. That makes it OK, right? Killing, when done for revenge, can be joyous fun, can’t it? The Bride (Uma Thurman) doesn’t actually wink at the audience after each kill so perhaps I’m getting carried
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Kanji Tsuda | Kayoko Shibata | Megumi Okina | Misa Uehara | Misaki Ito | Shuri Matsuda | Yui Ichikawa | Yukako Kukuri
Ivy says: “Ned and I responded to the creepy, psychological fear raised by this ghost story thriller. The premise of the film is that when people are wrongly killed their spirits want revenge. This revenge isn’t just left focused on
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Jun'ichi Satô
Starring: Mei Oshitani | Shinnosuke Furumoto
Michael says: “Sunday afternoon at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival found me catching two Japanese movies about a couple of very different beasts. First up was the family anime film, JUNKERS COME HERE. Junkers is a special dog, a cute
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Alejandro Ferretis | Magdalena Flores | Martín Serrano | Yolanda Villa
Michael says: “JAPÓN is a bold and audacious first film from Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. There is an undeniable power in its imagery and its worldview, both beautiful and brutal. Yet for a first film, it also plays a little
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Rating: 3.3 cats
Director: Ki-duk Kim
Starring: Jae Hyun Cho | Suh Jung | Sung-hee Park | Yoosuk Kim
Laura says: “Writer/director Ki-duk Kim has created a quiet, pensive reflection on two unhappy people who connect via horrific acts of self-mutilation. While not for all tastes, THE ISLE is a compelling meditation, although unravelling its mysteries may require multiple
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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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