Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Takashi Miike
Michael says: “Ah, the rollercoaster ride that is a Takashi Miike film. With his latest American release, GOZU, we have a ride that starts of slowly, if perplexing. Midway through, things have gotten downright freakish, but the pace is still
Read the review...Guerilla: the Taking of Patty Hearst (USA; 90 min.) directed by: Robert Stonedocumentary Michael says: “It’s a fascinating subject, to be sure, and the archival news footage and interviews with two of the surviving members of the Symbionese Liberation
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ryan Fleck
Starring: Karen Clinton | Matt Kerr | Shareeka Epps
Chris says: “I wish our short film festival received more entries like this somber, subtle, soulful sketch about a 12 year-old girl and one of her teachers. Everything is delicately nuanced and left open; if the filmmakers succeed in expanding
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Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Chulpan Khamatova | Daniel Brühl | Katrin Saß
Janet says: “In this worthwhile film, a young East German man hides the unification of Germany in order to protect his fragile Socialist mother from dying of shock. Like most films that work the premise of going to any length
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Rating: 3.6
Director: Ming-liang Tsai
Bruce says: “Ming-liang Tsai’s films are somewhat of an acquired taste, a delicious long-lasting taste once one gets in tune with his style. Not many directors go out of their way to capture the aesthetic of a deserted hallway or
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Starring: Katsuya Onizuka | Miho Yoshioka | Noboru Kaneko
Michael says: “I am filled with Mothra love! While not quite as strong as the epic GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: ALL-OUT GIANT MONSTER ATTACK!, this penultimate entry into the Godzilla cannon is fun (it even includes the Mothra fairies again,
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Rating: 3.4
Director: Zach Braff
Starring: Ian Holm | Natalie Portman | Peter Sarsgaard | Zach Braff
Bruce says: “In 1997, Elizabeth Wurtzel grabbed the country’s attention by declaring we were a Prozac Nation. Prozac is just one of many drugs generously distributed by doctors to fight depression. In GARDEN STATE, Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), now 26,
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Peter Webber
Hilary says: “The film is adapted from the novel by Tracy Chevalier, which creates a backstory for the Vermeer painting, ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring.’ As with most book-to-film adaptation, the timeline is condensed and little of the heroine’s, Griet
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Rating: 3 cats
Director: Ian Gabriel
Starring: Arnold Vosloo | Quanita Adams | Zane Meas
Bruce says: “Each year the Toronto International Film Festival has a program which highlights films from a single country – this year that country was South Africa, chosen to celebrate the tenth anniversary of democracy and the end of apartheid.
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Rating: 4.2 cats
Director: Errol Morris
Bob says: “Errol Morris gets up-close-and-personal (in more ways than one) with Robert McNamara. Even if the former Secretary of Defense did not deliver some of the most profound, thought-provoking statements ever uttered here, the film would still be a fascinating
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