Teaching audiences to view films actively
By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.75 cats
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Adrien Brody | Ed Stoppard | Emilia Fox | Michal Zebrowski
Laura says:”Polanski is quick to establish Wladyslaw’s determination not to be silenced by his continuing to play Chopin as the recording studio he inhabits is destroyed by German bombs. Brody quietly and confidently inhabits Szpilman in one of the best
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Rating: 0 cats
Director: Fenton Bailey | Randy Barbato
Starring: Macaulay Culkin | Seth Green Chloë Sevigny
Hilary says: “This biopic of club kid/murderer Michael Alig is monstrously bad. The quality of the script, acting and style are on par with your average WB teen melodrama, but with a gigantic budget for drugs. If Macaulay Culkin intended
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Rating: 2.75
Director: Dan Ireland
Starring: Emmy Rossum | Jason Isaacs | Sofia Milos
Laura says: “Because it is a love story set within a distinct ethnic community, PASSIONADA” is being compared to MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, but this film is more rooted in realism than that Windex-infested sitcom. That said, while there
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Rating: 4 cats
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Starring: John Hurt | Minnie Driver | Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bruce says: “In OWNING MAHOWNY, Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has just been promoted to Assistant Manager of a large Toronto bank when the loan sharks descend upon him. He has to come up with some money fast. Dan is
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy
Michael says: “If 2003 isn’t the ‘Year of the Documentary’ I don’t know what is. Film Movement’s OT: OUR TOWN is a worthy addition to the many outstanding documentaries released this summer. It’s playing at the Coolidge Corner, and I
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Carl Franklin
Starring: Denzel Washington | Eva Mendes | Sanaa Lathan
Bob G. says: “Very average cop-drama that aside from being marvelously shot and competently acted, offers up nothing of note either script-wise or in the way of style. Denzel dodges bullets and hangs from balconies with the best of ’em,
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Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen | Nikolaj Lie Kaas | Paprika Steen | Sonja Richter | Stine Bjerregaard
Michael says: “You’d think, after ARARAT and WHALE RIDER, that Peg and I have diametrically opposed viewpoints when it comes to films. Not so! Scot and I watched the screener for the Danish film, OPEN HEARTS over the weekend, and
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Rating: 2 cats
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Antonio Banderas | Johnny Depp | Mickey Rourke | Salma Hayek
Howard says: “As exciting as the trailer was, the film is not. Robert Rodriguez has attempted to make another Mexican mythology picture in his ‘El Mariachi’ series. Oh, it’s pretty, there are a couple of great action sequences and all
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Director: Chris Hegedus | D.A. Pennebaker
Peg says: “Veteran music documentarian D. A. Pennebaker (ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS) and Chris Hegedus (STARTUP.COM) team with journalist Roger Friedman to play old-home week with legendary soul singers in New York, Chicago, and Memphis. Friedman is
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Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Michael Polish
Starring: Claire Forlani | Duel Farnes | James Wood | Mark Polish | Nick Nolte
Laura says: “Writer/director Michael and Writer/star Mark Polish complete their American Heartland trilogy with a dreamlike meditation on death and departure. Using two groups of angels, the bureaucratic guardians of the real world and a rag tag assemblage looking for
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