Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Tomasz Wasilewski
Starring: Bartosz Gelner | Katarzyna Herman | Marda Nieradkiewicz | Mateusz Banasiuk
Bruce says: “Growing up in Warsaw film director Tomasz Wasilewski was exposed to the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski at an early age. While he does not see films such as THE DECALOGUE as a direct influence, he does feel that
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Tom O'Brien
Starring: Alexie Gilmore | Chris Messina | Natalie Gold | Rich Sommer | Sarah Paulson | Tom O'Brien
Jason says: “If you’re going to go through a time of self-doubt or regret, you could find worse surroundings than Fairhaven, Mass. It’s got the kind of snow dirt and smoke don’t seem to stick to, there are good friends
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Sebastián Cordero
Starring: Anamaria Marinca | Christian Camargo | Daniel Wu | Embeth Davidtz | Karolina Wydra | Michael Nyqvist | Sharlto Copley
Jason says: “I have likely mentioned this a few dozen times, but my favorite subset of science fiction is that which takes place during the ‘interplanetary era’, as humanity expands from Earth but is still confined to the solar system
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Randy Moore
Starring: Annet Mahendru | Danielle Safady | Elena Schuber | Jack Dalton | Katelynn Rodriguez | Roy Abramsohn
Jason says: “Someday, perhaps soon, folks may accuse Randy Moore of selling out. After all, while most of the crowd for the opening-night showing of ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW seemed to be there to cheer on poking a finger in the
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Starring: Ben Falcone | Catherine Keener | James Gandolfini | Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Toni Collette
Chris says: “As dependable as Rohmer or Ozu, Nicole Holofcener could be their modern American equivalent as an auteur director. In terms of style and sensibility, she arguably makes the same film over and over again, but touches on a
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Rating: 3.25
Director: Luo Li
Starring: Dian Mai | Hai Zhang | Jia Liu | Jie Zi | Juchuan Li | Li Wen | Wei Wu | Yi Zuo
Kyle says: “The awkwardly but amusingly Anglicized title EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL is based upon three chapters from the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West” — not to be confused with Hong Kong actor-director Stephen Chow’s recent film
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Peter Webber
Starring: Eriko Hatsune | Isao Natsuyagi | Matthew Fox | Shohei Hino | Tommy Lee Jones | Toshiyuki Nishida
Jason says: “Under normal circumstances, I might grumble about EMPEROR being a case of keeping an interesting story and larger-than-life characters at arm’s length in favor of someone that the audience can perhaps more easily relate to. In this case,
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Boris Rodriguez
Starring: Alain Goulem | Dylan Smith | Georgina Reilly | Paul Braunstein | Stephen McHattie | Thure Lindhardt
Jason says: “We’ve all heard (or used) some variation on ‘my art comes from a dark place’ before; there’s also its close relative ‘suffering for one’s art’. Not exactly the inspiration you’d expect for a movie named ‘EDDIE: THE SLEEPWALKING
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Zal Batmanglij
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård | Brit Marling | Ellen Page | Patricia Clarkson | Shiloh Fernandez | Toby Kebbell
Chris says: “Serviceable—that’s the word I kept thinking of throughout this thriller in which an intelligence agency operative (Brit Marling) infiltrates herself within an eco-terrorist group that targets the agency’s corporate clients. I’m not saying this film, co-written by Marling
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Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: James Franco
Starring: Ahna O'Reilly | Beth Grant | James Franco | Jim Parrack | Logan Marshall-Green | Tim Blake Nelson
Michael says: “Of all of William Faulkner’s catalog, I have only read The Sound and the Fury, but that is enough to tell me that James Franco successfully captures the tone and feel of Faulkner in his co-written adaptation of
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