Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Claude Lanzmann
Kyle says: “AT BERKELEY and THE LAST OF THE UNJUST share little in common aside from both being Main Slate screenings of the 51st New York Film Festival, both having very long running times, and both being sharply revealing contemporary
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Juan Solanas
Starring: Holly Uloth | James Kidnie | Jim Sturgess | Kirsten Dunst | Timothy Spall
Jason says: “I admit, you can’t honestly look at Juan Solanas’s UPSIDE DOWN and call the writing much other than a mess – there really isn’t one thing in this movie that makes sense. But, on the other hand, I
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Rating: 1.75
Director: Will Slocombe
Starring: Amy Ferguson | Ashton Holmes | Cheryl Hines | Peter Bogdanovich | Ross Partridge | Sonya Walger
Jason says: “Folks from other continents much watch movies taking place on Thanksgiving and wonder why Americans have given themselves and extra week end of annoying travel to share a relatively bland meal and unresolved issues with family – even
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Rating: 2.3
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Danny Sapani | James McAvoy | Matt Cross | RosarioDawson | Vincent Cassell | Wahab Sheikh
Chris says: “Danny Boyle peaked early and spectacularly with TRAINSPOTTING; since then he’s mostly made one bummer after another (at this point, I’d watch only 28 DAYS LATER and maybe 127 HOURS again). What sinks most of his post-Ewan McGregor
Read the review...By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Shannon Plumb
Starring: Alexandra Hennrikson | Cody Cianfrance | Derek Cianfrance | Jason Quarle | Lora Lee Gayer | Shannon Plumb | Walker Cianfrance
Bruce says: “New York filmmaker Shannon Plumb draws on her own experiences of motherhood for the vignettes in TOWHEADS. In the film her name is Penelope and her real live husband, Derek Cianfrance (THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES and BLUE
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Lynn Shelton
Starring: Alison Janney | Ellen Page | Josh Pais | Rosemarie DeWitt | Scott McNairy | Shannon Kipp
Michael says: “Lynn Shelton’s latest film, TOUCHY FEELY, didn’t get very good reviews on rottentomatoes.com, but I actually quite liked it. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Abby, a massage therapist one day finds she has developed an aversion so skin and to
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Hikari Mitsushima | Momoko Tanabe | Takeru Shibuya | Tamaki Ogawa | Teruyuki Kagawa
Jason says: “TORMENTED is not a bad title for this particular Takashi Shimizu movie – it’s generic, sure, but it does reflect some of what’s going on. I must admit to favoring its original title, RABBIT HORROR 3D. I like
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Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Zhangke Jia
Starring: Wu Jiang; Lanshan Luo; Li Meng; Baoqiang Wang; Jia-yi Zhang; Tao
Jason says: “Considering the tales that have been told about China’s film censorship bureau and the way that most of the films exported from tend to be set in a prosperous Beijing, the existence of something like A TOUCH OF
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Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Starring: Gaku Hamada | Haru | Kana Kurashina | Kei Tanaka | Kento Nagayama | Naomi Ortega | Nene Otsuko
Jason says: “I feel vaguely like we’ve been taking Yoshihiro Nakamura for granted. Though he got his start writing horror movies for the likes of Hideo Nakata, he’s spent the last few years on a string of off-beat but surprisingly
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Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: John Haptas | Kristine Samuelson
Jason says: “It’s not uncommon to watch a documentary and say that the scale is in-between the usual levels, neither comprehensive nor truly a broad introduction. TOKYO WAKA at times seems to be around those extremes, covering an extremely specific
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