Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Gus Van Zant
Starring: Casey Affleck | Matt Damon
Emily says: “GERRY is going to be one of those that generates a lot of dissension amongst Chlotrudis ranks, I think. Its an either ‘you love it or you hate it’ kind of film. I’ll say one thing, that it
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Alex Proyas
Starring: Kick Gurry | Maya Stange | Pia Miranda | Russell Dykstra
Laura says: “Proyas, who cowrote with Dave Warner (CUT) & Michael Udesky, has made a film that resembles TRAINSPOTTING if it were sweet instead of edgy. Unfortunately, his third feature seems more like a first effort, with style borrowed from
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Rating: 3.9
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Hélène de Saint-Père | Valérie Lemercier | Vincent Lindon
Ivy says: “If you missed FRIDAY NIGHT when it played in the Boston’s Women’s Fest this Spring, please consider going tonight to the Monday Night at the Movies, or catching it at the Kendall before it leaves this Thursday. This,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Mark S. Waters
Starring: Harold Gould | Jamie Lee Curtis | Lindsay Lohan | Mark Harmon
Howard says: “The biggest surprise this summer turns out to be the one that everyone rolled their eyes at. FREAKY FRIDAY, yet another Disney remake of one of their own films, is a well-acted, well-scripted piece of family fluff. For
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Andrew Stanton | Lee Unkrich
Starring: Albert Books | Alexander Gould | Ellen DeGeneres | Willem Dafoe
Howard says: “If you can get past the first 10 minutes of Pixar’s latest, you’ll get a movie that is on par with their four other feature films. FINDING NEMO turns out to be a big, adventure film with a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: David R. Ellis
Starring: A.J. Cook | Ali Larter | Michael Landes | Terrence 'T.C.' Carson
Laura says: “FINAL DESTINATION was a cut above the standard teen horror flick, leading the pack of current films which examine luck and fate’s relationships with death (UNBREAKABLE, INTACTO), its premise obscuring its slasher film agenda of innovative death scenes.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Damian Pettigrew
Michael says: “This documentary about legendary Italian director Federico Fellini is a terrific film for fans of his work. Extensive interviews with Fellini make up the bulk of the film, with conversations with the likes of Donald Sutherland, Terrence Stamp,
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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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