Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Hamid Farokhnezhad | Hediyeh Tehrani | Houman Seyyedi | Pantea Bahram | Sahar Dolatshahi | Taraneh Alidoosti
Michael says: “The first film by Farhadi that I saw was the riveting A SEPARATION, released in US in 2012, which I didn’t realize was his first film until quite a bit later. His follow-up film, the nearly as riveting
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Peter Sehr
Starring: Adrien Brody | August Diehl | Charlotte Ayanna | Elizabeth Regen | Jon Seda | Liza Jessie Peterson | Pam Grier
Laura says: “German cowriter (with Marie Noelle)/director Peter Sehr gets points for trying something different, but his radical choices, incoherent storytelling and truly head-scratching ending add up to an intriguing failure. Star Adrien Brody has always been interesting to watch,
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Director: Carlos Reygadas
Starring: Cornelio Wall | Elizabeth Fehr | Jacobo Klassen | Maria Pankratz | Miriam Toews | Peter Wall
Bruce says: “From the opening shot of a sunrise (in what appears to be real-time) until the closing crepuscular shot, the cinematography dictates the pace and mood of SILENT LIGHT, a film in which dialogue is a rarity. The story
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: Anson Mount | Eliza Dushku | Frances McDormand | James Franco | Patty LuPone | Robert DeNiro | William Forsythe
Laura says: “DeNiro finally returns to form in his best dramatic outing since 1995 while up and comer James Franco proves his Golden Globe win for last year’s James Dean TV biopic was no fluke. Screenwriter Ken Hixon (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS)
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Brittany Murphy | Eminem | Evan Jones | Kim Basinger | Mekhi Phifer | Omar Benson Miller
Laura says: “”Producer Brian Grazer combines his passion for hip hop with a prestige director (Curtis Hanson, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL), a music superstar and a Rockyesque genre script for a solid commercial outing. 8 MILE isn’t a great film, but it is
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Director: Charles Ferguson
Bruce says: “This dazzling film examines the recent financial crisis in an efficient, insightful way. For those of us who followed the debacle on a daily basis the basic facts are nothing new; for newcomers they are concisely summarized. The
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Director: Ruxandra Medrea | Serge Bromberg
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Maren Ade
Starring: Atef Vogel | Birgit Minichmayr | Carina Wiese | Hans-Jochen Wagner | Lars Eidinger | Mira Partecke | Nicole Marischka | Paula Hartmann
Scot says: “Just watched the German film EVERYONE ELSE, which I quite enjoyed. My concise summary of the film is that it’s about that moment in a relationship when you see your partner deciding whether he/she would rather be a freak
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Director: Tanya Hamilton
Starring: Amari Cheatom | Anthony Mackie | Black Thought | Jamie Hector | Kerry Washington | Ron Simons | Wendell Pierce
Chris says: “Tanya Hamilton’s truly independent, long-gestating project is personal cinema of the sort one rarely sees anymore. Set in 1976 Philadelphia, it reunites two former Black Panthers: Marcus (Anthony Mackie), who returns to his old neighborhood after years in
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Geralyn Pezanoski
Jason says: “There are a lot of fiction films that don’t set their main plot up as artfully as MINE does. After all, the title speaks pretty directly to what the movie is about, and yet director Geralyn Pezanoski is
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