Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Philippe de Broca
Starring: Daniel Auteuil | Fabrice Luchini | Marie Gillain | Vincent Perez
Laura says: “This French film has been made numerous times over the decades and de Broca’s version has a distinctly old- fashioned flavor that serves it well. ON GUARD! is classic cinema served up with heart and humor. “The old
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Mike Leigh
Starring: Alison Garland | Daniel May | Helen Coker | James Corden | Lesley Manville | Marion Bailey | Paul Jesson | Ruth Sheen | Sally Hawkins | Timothy Spall
Laura says: “After diversions with career girls and period performers, writer/director Mike Leigh returns to the working class of SECRETS & LIES and LIFE IS SWEET. Within the confines of a dreary South London housing unit, Leigh and his actors
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Director: Arthur Bradford
Diane says: “Okay, so it’s not a moviehouse movie, but if you’ve got Cinemax, I strongly recommend catching this documentary. I saw it at a special showing at the Brattle last week with cast present–one of the most thrilling movie
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Eric Schaeffer
Starring: Bill Duke | Caroline Aaron | Jeffrey Tambor | Jill Clayburgh | Lisa Rabe
Laura says: “Schaeffer’s screenplay has an occasional glimmer of originality (the ‘talking point’ napkin Christopher draws up for Grace on their first date) and good dialogue, although it is telling that the dialogue improves dramatically with the level of performer
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Stephen Earnhart
Diane says: “MULE SKINNER BLUES is a docu along the lines of AMERICAN MOVIE. Music video director Stephen Earnhart met up with Beanie Andrew, a retired shrimper who considers himself an entertainer. Andrew’s dream has been to make a horror
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Mark Pellington
Starring: Debra Messing | Laura Linney | Richard Gere | Will Patton
Laura says: “Gere is good as the grieving widower intent on discovering what his link is to the shadowy things which his wife experienced. He may be onto a startling journalistic piece or he may be losing his mind. He
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Sandra Nettelbeck
Starring: August Zirner | Martina Gedeck | Maxime Foerste | Sergio Castellitto
Laura says: “MOSTLY MARTHA takes its cue from every film that’s ever found a single adult suddenly become responsible for a child. The cold climate/warm climate analogies of ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS are present everywhere, from the restaurant’s name to Lina’s
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Rating: 3.2 cats
Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton | Halle Berry | Heath Ledger | Peter Boyle
Hilary says: “One of the most stunning things about the film is the stark contrast between the quality of the visuals and the incredibly bleak story. The prison, the dusty roads, the stuffy old house that ‘Hank’ (Billy Bob Thornton)
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Mira Nair
Starring: Lillete Dubey | Naseeruddin Shah | Shefali Shetty | Vijay Raaz
Diane says: “Janet and I liked MONSOON WEDDING very much. We’re both nom’ing Vijay Raaz (events manager) who makes a beautiful transition from an ugly boor to an eccentric lover. The opening and closing credits are very colorful and original.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Tarô Rin
Starring: Jamieson Price | Kei Kobayashi | Kouki Okada | Yuka Imoto
Bob says: “I for one didn’t see much of a connection to Lang’s film at all. There is the setting — a huge mechanized city in which many of the people find themselves below the surface (literally and figuratively), an
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Claude Chabrol
Starring: Anna Mouglalis | Isabelle Huppert | Jacques Dutronc | Rodolphe Pauly
Laura says: “Septuagenarian Chabrol, long known as the French Hitchcock, knows how to utilize Huppert’s cool brand of calculation. Their seventh collaboration is both as twisty and as obvious as the black web Mika literally spins with her crochet needle.
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Cary Elwes | Eddie Izzard | Edward Herrmann | Jennifer Tilly | Joanna Lumley | Kirsten Dunst
Ellen says: “I was not especially excited to see this film based on the previews, but if my friends ask me to go, I’m usually game to try to expand my horizons unless I know I’ll absolutely hate something. Going
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Sandra Goldbacher
Starring: Anna Fiel | Michelle Williams | Oliver Milburn | Trudy Styler
Michael says: “The final day of the Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema kicked off with a film that was being co-presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival. ME WITHOUT YOU was directed by Sandra Goldbacher, who did the film
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Rating: 3.75 cats | 3.9
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Diego Luna | Gael García Bernal | Maribel Verdú | Marta Aura
Ellen says: “I can see that MAMA might be a ‘teen movie’ because it is about teens and has those silly things that teens do – fart jokes, drinking, etc as noted by others. But, I felt these elements were
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Marlo Poras
Michael says: “The final film of our P-Town extravaganza comes from Boston filmmaker Marla Poras. Mai is a Vietnamese girl who comes to America… more specifically rural Mississippi to spend her Senior Year in High School as an exchange student.
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Jean-Pierre Denis
Starring: Isabelle Renaud | Julie-Marie Parmentier | Sylvie Testud
Laura says: “Denis’ claustrophobic film evokes the sinister European wartime era feel of DOCTEUR PETIOT) where close houses hide dark secrets, and the downtrodden dankness of Claude Chabrol’s biopic of Marie Latour (THE STORY OF WOMEN), who was executed for
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Brenda Blethyn | Catherine Keener | Emily Mortimer | Jake Gyllenhaal | James LeGros | Raven Goodwin
Michael says: “The Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema kicked off with LOVELY & AMAZING, Nicole Holofcener’s follow-up to WALKING & TALKING. Once again starring Catherine Keener, LOVELY & AMAZING explores the lives of a mother and her three daughters.
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Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood | Ian McKellen | Sean Astin | Viggo Mortensen
Laura says: “The only beauty to be found in THE TWO TOWERS is in the faces of the women who love Aragorn, Arwen (Liv Tyler) and the Rohan King’s niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto), and the majestic New Zealand landscape. The
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: DeMane Davis | Khari Streeter
Starring: Barbara Montgomery | Eugene Byrd | Kerry Washington | Lonette McKee
Michael says:”LIFT takes the viewer into the world of ‘boosters,’ or professional shoplifters to the rest of us. Set on the streets of Boston and Roxbury, Kerry Washington, so loved in OUR SONG, plays Niecy, floor manager of an upscale
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Angelina Jolie | Edward Burns | Stockard Channing | Tony Shalhoub
Laura says: “It’s the lead actors who make this piece work. Jolie is appealing and believable as a hurt little girl masquerading as a shallow career gal. Playing Lanie Kerigan was a smart choice on Jolie’s part, softening her own
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