Author: Village Vidiot

Not as good as the first Rugrats movie, this one is sweeter and less tense. Also, much less well developed transitions between the scenes. Better for the kid, though. We ate way too much popcorn and drank too much root beer. Fun to see with her.

Not a Christmas film, this rough 2010 French-Canadian drama follows twins Simon and Jeanne Marwan as they journey to Lebanon. to discover their roots and learn about their mother’s life. Lebanon in the 1970s-80s was a tangled mess of confessional and warlord nightmares. The timeline here is a bit confusing and compressed, but the film…

Nicholas Cage as an obsessed historian/treasure hunter seeking to unravel the endless clues of the greatest treasure in the world, that of the Knights Templar, which somehow, inexplicably, came to be buried under NYC by the Masons before the American Revolution. The mindless absurdity is breathtaking. Still, clean idiotic fun and genuinely historical drivel. Worthless,…

Nicely acted little piece about a murder aboard WR Hearst’s yacht “The Oneida” in 1924. The film suggests that Hearst (good work by Edward Herman who I normally don’t like all that much) shot Tom Innes, the creative force behind the cowboy movie and a producer in decline, accidentally when he thought he was shooting…

Nice, well constructed older movie by Jodie Foster with good work by all the actors including Foster, Diane Weist, David Pearce, Harry Connick, Jr, Debbie Mazur, and others. Painful in parts, it looks at a genius child born to a single-mother waitress. So funny to see such a well done, understated piece where the director…

Nice, occasionally funny if predictable mid-life crisis film about an electrical engineer (John Tuturro) whose behavior has made him boring to all those around him. He finally learns to relax a bit as a result of some crazy young folk he meets on his trip home from Tennessee to Chicago when a job he’s doing…

Nice work by Pacino and John Cusak, but the film falls apart midway as people act in unbelievable yet formulaic ways. The guys are good, the women’s roles are weak. It starts strong but really punks out

Nice to see director

Nice piece by Henry Jaglom about a film actress paying a visit to an over-the-top NY theater family at their summer home in the Hamptons. About the tension between theater and film people/environments. Who knows how tightly scripted it was, but it is very well done. Lots of great improv work. Fine jobs by Vivica…

Nice little film about race, virtues, etc, but not as good as many reviewers said. With good work by Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, it still has the moralistic and predictable feel of a made for tv movie, which it was. For HBO

Nice ensemble work about alcoholism, AA, and the people at one meeting. Features Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Diane Weist, Spaulding Gray in a superb bit, Howard Rollins (tragically—he died of. alcohol and drugs), and a very nice supporting cast including Parker Posey. A bit stagey at times and Lewis sometimes overacts (it’s a screenplay from…

Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are the ‘perfect’ lesbian couple. Well not a perfect couple, but they are cringe-inducing caricatures of modern parenting and attitudes. N is the ob-gyn money earner, control-freak mom; J is the free spirit, unsuccessful stay-at-home trying to find her way in a new business as a landscape architect…

Newsguy can’t get it right and feels God has deserted him. God (Morgan Freeman) makes him God for his local area to show him how hard it is to be God. Moralistic, sentimental, some raw language. One “fuck” and a couple of “shits” Other than that, it’s ok for the kid. Mediocre but a good…

Myers, Murphy, and Diaz are back as Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona in this fun sequel. Not quite as good as the original, but less pitched to the kids also. More grown-up and it loses something in that

My first trip to a movie theater in months. I really enjoyed this futuristic but utterly accessible, sly, thought provoking excursion from Spike Jonze. It follows a lonely, professional personal letter-writer, Theodore (a fine performance from Joaquin Phoenix) as he seeks to move on from his failed marriage. He establishes a unique connection with his…

My daughter, Bronwen, asked that I sit and watch this one with her. I was not enthused at first, but it was worth the time. It is overly well-meaning but has a good plot line as Monty, a good mechanic, dad, and neighborhood man, struggles to get custody of his three kids after his mother-in-law…

Most folks seem rather down on this well done and very interesting look at the life and death of Gloria Grahame, an American starlet/actress and Oscar winner from the noir period, whose career declined in her later years along with her four marriages She’s played very bravely by Annette Bening. I say brave in that…

Modern/1930s version of Shakespeare’s greatest history starring Ian McKellam as Richard. Set in a fascist England in the 1930s. Very stylish and scary, but the supporting work by the American actors is not up to the Brit’s work

Mixed iconography, wonderful computer graphics, great special effects and stunts in this 2011 Spielbergian drama with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. I really liked it, despite myself. In the end, the Apache are right, the white man’s lust for gold brought the aliens but they all join together. Olivia Wilde is good and so is…

Minor Spielberg. Tom Hanks stars as a visitor from Krachovia, some Eastern European country, who is stuck in diplomatic limbo when he arrives in NYC and can’t get out of the terminal because the US doesn’t accept his papers. He also can’t return home. Over time he becomes a beloved construction worker due to his…

Minor Jim Carrey vehicle watched with

Mike Leigh’s tribute to the trivialities of Gilbert and Sullivan. Well acted and sometimes painful to watch, it is rich and wonderful. To think this improvised is quite amazing and a true tribute to director and actors. The subject is so small and meaningless but so wonderful and rich. Quite the paradox

Mike Leigh’s post-“Lies and Whispers” return to the small, intimate films that look at interaction. A good film, but I felt it too complete, that is, too many coincidences are used to tie everything together. It looks at the development from freshman year to their late-20s of two intense young women. Well acted with some…

Michael Moore’s latest look at our strange and sad society. This one takes on guns and gun abuse in the US. A few wonderful bits, the best was a look at a bank that gives out guns for opening an account in Upper Peninsula Michigan. There are also some fine interviews with militia guys who…

My apologies