Category: Film Reviews

  “Midway,” March 31, 2020 (2019), DVD.  I was really looking forward to this and, as has been the norm of late, was terribly disappointed.  Based on the true story of the battle of Midway in 1942, this script is about as trite as it could be.  The acting is flat and the characters one-dimensional. …

  “Ford v Ferrari,” March 21, 2020 (2019), DVD.  I’ve been very stressed out, what with the virus, the economy, online teaching, and the like.  I turned to this as a piece of cinematic escape, and it was that.  Carroll Shelby (Matt Daman) was the only American to win at LeMans (1959) but then had…

  “Downton Abbey,” March 13, 2020 (2019), DVD.  I had high hopes for this cinematic spinoff from the acclaimed English TV series chronically changes in England through the noble Crawley family and their servants.  I’d enjoyed the first few seasons although I dropped out at the end.  It was too much of a soap about…

No, not a movie. I’ve recreated this blog as thevillagevidiot.com, having lost the ‘villagevidiot.net’ url. So it goes. I’ll be entering more films in here and hope to edit many more already in with photos and other information.  Please return and browse at will.  Your friend, The Village Vidiot.

“Motherless Brooklyn,” February 11, 2020 (2019), DVD.  Edward Norton, an actor whose work I really enjoy, read the Jonathon Lethem novel this is based on in manuscript, bought the rights, produced, wrote, directed and starred in this Wynton Marsalis-jazz infused  noir fable of power, corruption, struggle, and resolute friendship.  He moved it from our present…

  “Pain and Glory,” February 5, 2020 (2019), DVD (Spanish with subtitles.)  I have a very strange relationship to and with the films of Pedro Almodovar.  If feels as though he intentionally alternates remarkable works of cinema with superb and emotionally powerful character development and incredible dialogue with works of self-indulgent crap.   This wonderful, thoughtful,…

“The Danish Solution: The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark,” February 4, 2020, DVD, Documentary, 2003.  In these difficult times, I would recommend viewing the 2003 documentary “The Danish Solution: The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark.” Narrated by Garrison Keillor, it recounts the actions of everyday people, rich and poor, that resulted in the…

  “Toy Story 4,” January 25, 2020 (2019), DVD, animated.  Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and all the gang (fine actors doing excellent voicing, although I missed Don Rickles, d. 2017) are now Jessie’s toys as she goes off to kindergarten where she makes “Forkie,” a spork/toy who becomes part of this community after…

  “Hotel Salvation,” (in Hindi, subtitled), March 9, 2019 (2016), DVD.  Who would have thought Disney would be distributing David Lynch or that he’d make a G-rated film, but both these things apply to this marvelous 1999 film about Alvin Straight (the late Richard Farnsworth) who drove his riding mower 300 miles to see his…

Strange and occasionally funny piece about the end of disco as a scene built around Studio 54. Some horrid characters, vapid, and generally uninteresting yuppie-types, they are built out of the world this director first chronicled in “Metropolitan” and “Barcelona”. Pathetic lives lived by these successful folk, they make you feel ok about your own…

Strangely, neither Bronwen nor I was impressed with this instant cult classic about some crook wannabes. Just sort of flat and uninvolving. Can’t say more because, tellingly, I barely remember it

Technologically sophisticated digital tracking joined to animation brings this children’s tale about a young boy and other kids who take a ride on the express on Christmas Eve. Believing is what it’s all about. Tom Hanks in several interesting roles and Steve Tyler of Aerosmith continues his film cameo run. Interesting as a technical piece,…

Saw this interesting, sweet and fundamentally manic fantasy about two smart but unhappy and socially inept 13-yos, one a “Khaki Scout” the other the daughter of unhappily married lawyers (Francis McDormand and Bill Murray) who find one another and run away. Scoutmaster Eduard Norton sets out to find them as does Sherriff Bruce Willis (having…

Say what you want about Mr Allen, Woody sure can write and direct an interesting film. Well acted, fascinating, and funny look at a dark character, a writer who’s had three wives and six shrinks. A pill popping, booze swigging, whorring, philandering, talented writer. Very funny stuff. It has the look of self-criticism, but may…

Sean Baker’s (co-writer, director, editor) excellent film focuses on the hidden homeless warehoused in the cheap motels just outside Disney’s ever-joyous Magic Kingdom. Theirs is a community of the marginal poor, one step away from the street itself, struggling to survive in the insanely purple Magic Castle Motel, a welfare hotel managed by Bobby played…

Seen at the suggestion of several friends, this gentle spoof of Start Trek and Trekkie phenomena is fun. A fine cast Tim Allen as the Shatner-clone, all ego, no sense of how to share with his costars; Sigourney Weaver as the beautiful space voyager on the ship who never does anything more than look good…

Saoirse Ronan stars as Christine (Lady Bird). McPherson a high school senior at a Catholic girls high school who desperately wants to escape Sacramento and flee to the ‘cultured’ climes of NY or Boston for college. This is a very well-acted, upbeat but unsentimental look at her coming of age as she battles her mother…

Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17-yo with an incapacitated mother, two young siblings, and a missing, meth-cooking/selling dad. She’s about to lose their hardscrabble farm and house in Appalachia hill-country because he is due in court and will forfeit the house/farm/land pledged as bond. This is an isolated, musical, patriarchal, clannish and violent place where…

Returning to the original premise of the “Mad Max” post-apocalyptic vision of the 1970s, this George Miller violence and stunt festival (80-90% real stunts according to what I looked at) creates a veritable Cirque du Soleil of homicidal gags. It pits Max the Damaged (Tom Hardy, an actor I really enjoy) and war-engine driver Furiosa…

Ridley Scott’s revisions of the original film create an even darker and, I think, tighter and more interesting film. Big changes to the ending

Robert Redford stars in this one-man study by JC Chandor (writer/director) of an older man at sea (literally) struggling to survive as he loses his radio, takes water, is adrift in terrible storms, and must eventually abandon ship. There is no dialogue. It works because of Redford Some have argued that real craft these days…

Sadly, the

Other marginals, most notably Mark Braun (the ever-more wonderful Steve

Our daughter selected this story of two sisters, gorgeous/dyslexic/party girl/user/slut/failure Maggie (Cameron Diaz) and plain/style-challenged/hardworking/lawyer Rose (Toni Collette). They share a shoe size. Maggie is thrown out of her father’s home, comes to live with Rose, sleeps with her ‘boyfriend’ and wrecks that bad relationship, gets thrown out again, and then tracks down their ‘lost’…

Our friend Rebecca suggested this one and b4 insisted we watch it and I’m glad she did!. [Note: Our dear friend Rebecca died in a tragic accident two weeks after we saw this film. We miss her deeply. She and I spent many hours comparing films and we treasured her suggestions on this front as…