Village Vidiot

I was really looking forward to seeing this film. It has a wonderful cast including George Clooney, Kate Blanchet, Bill Murray, Matt Daman, John Goodman, Bob Baliban, Jean Dujardin, and Hugh Bonneville, and was produced , written, and directed by Clooney who did such wonderful work in “Good Night and Good Luck,” and it focused…

I was really disappointed in this highly touted mass-market remake of the original with Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas. Yucky plot, a weird mix of swords and kung-fu type choreogrpahy, a zorro-like batcave, plot twists that make no sense at all, and just plain strangeness. Occasional good humor. No nudity to redeem the film

I was quite captivated by, and more than a little scared of, Notorious RBG after seeing this very well done and moving film. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an intense, thoughtful jurist whose commitment to using law as a vehicle to enable equality of opportunity, is a remarkable testament to her courage and her…

I was looking forward to seeing this film with Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy because of the cast and because, well, it made such a big splash as a novel. Everyone (except me) was reading it. I wait years and then usually find out yes, everyone was right (eg, The World…

I was honestly surprised by this movie. It’s based on the bestselling sentimental novel of the same name by Frederik Bachman, but it isn’t cloying and it’s worth a look for its take on connection, aging, immigration and Sweden today. Ove ( Rolf Lassgard, one of Sweden’s foremost dramatic stage actors) is a 59-yo widower…

I was deeply moved by this look at the brief but profound connection between David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg), a struggling novelist and Rolling Stones writer and author of the book this film is based on and the film’s co-author, and David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel), the talented but troubled author of the monster comic novel…

I was blown away by this remarkable1963 Luchino Visconti three-hour masterpiece. Burt Lancaster (dubbed) plays the Prince of Salina in Sicily as Garibaldi invades to establish a republic and unify Italy. His nephew takes sides with G but the prince stays above/outside all politics His is the class of the leopard and lion. He correctly…

I waited a while to see this 2007 film and was a little disappointed. Still, we both enjoyed this unusal Brit comedy about two misfit kids (one, repressed and fatherless from a home of religious zealots, the other out of control in an environment of parental indifference) who get together and plan a movie about…

I very much liked this Phil Donahue/Ellen Spiro piece about Tomas Young, a 25-yo quadriplegic Iraqi War vet. His politicization, his candor, his pain are there for all to see. It is very graphic and disturbing. The producers juxtapose his 5-day life changing stay in-country with the banality of the House/Senate pseudo-debate giving Bush/Cheney the…

I very much enjoyed this Steven Spielberg piece on the Israeli assassination program that followed on the Munich massacre of 1972. It is really a meditation on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It offers no easy answers, the acting is good, the passion is genuine. Every now and then it slips into setups that are too easy,…

I thought this an interesting little film about a French sportswriter (Yvonne Attal who also wrote and directed the film and is a less well known actor) who is more than a little envious of his much more successful and better known English actress-wife (Charlotte Gainsborough—Attal’s real life companion). He follows her to London where…

I’d wanted to see this Korean thriller from Jooh-ho Bong for quite a while and it did not disappoint. Very well written and acted, it looks at a single mother (wonderfully played by Hye-ja Kim) who supports herself selling medicinal roots and herbs, whose son, a slow and rather irascible young man, is accused of…

I survived this one, although it put Bronwen to sleep. Where are Steve Reeves, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, and Howard Fast when we need them most?. In the early 1960s, Spartacus praises the slaves rising against their masters. Here the slaves struggle to free Rome from the bad emperor to create. . the slave-based Republic?….

I saw this when I was about 10 or 12 and enjoyed it once again on DVD. Frank Skeffington (Spencer Tracy—older, more tired, but real chops!) is seeking his fifth term as mayor of a New England city a la Curley in Boston. His machine is truly that, a machine. He loves the power, isn’t…

I saw this one in Minneapolis at Erica’s home. We both enjoyed this 2007 Peter Berg-directed look at anti-American terrorism in Saudi Arabia and the follow-up to car bombings at an American complex. Starring Jamie Foxx as an American FBI guy who, along with Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman go off to SA…

I saw this at a salon-like DVD party at Bruce Sylvester’s and that was half the fun of it. Thanks Bruce. This is an odd family road trip movie written, directed, produced, etc by Allen Wagner. It stars his mom, dad, two sisters and several friends. The dysfunctional but long-lived Wagner family take a trip…

I really liked this unusual conceit of a film from Richard Linklater shot over 12 years using actors as they aged. So much could have happened to short circuit this project, but it came to fruition and produced a film that has everyday life, real tensions and personal evolution at its core. Some of my…

I really liked this sci-fi, social commentary about aliens stranded and housed in shanty-towns outside Johannesburg, SA. Very well acted and weird piece by Peter Jackson. Both SA and US content. Creepy prawnlike aliens. What happens when we ‘cross over?’. B walked out of this one. Creeped her out way too much. Stick with it….

I really liked this Paul Thomas Anderson written and directed Adam Sandler vehicle about an oppressed, henpecked misfit filled with rage who makes his way through life badly. He finds a soul-mate (Emily Watson) almost as weird as he is, but after an intense conflict with folks from Utah (the brothers, who are brothers) after…

I really liked this Oscar-winning look at (mostly female) backup singers in pop music including Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer, Tata Vega, Merry Clayton, Patti Austin, Cheryl Crow, and Judith Hill, among others. It considers their place in the song and notes that in many cases they are the chorus for the audience (live…

I really liked this film about the young Che and a 9000 km trip around South America he took with a friend when he was 23/24. Wonderfully acted by both professional and non-professional actors (Bernardo Gael is great as Che and the guy who plays his friend is really marvelous). and directed with real skill…

I really liked this Cannes award-winning French film about a high school class, the teacher and the working-class immigrant students. It’s a rough film but very well done. Based on an autobiographical novel, it stars the writer and real students. Wow, what acting. It felt like a documentary but it’s not See this film!

I really liked this bizarre look at the life of Chuck Barris, game-show creator, culture degrader, and, he says, CIA assassin. The perfect post-modern film. There is no reality but the story and who knows what’s real. Nice direction and acting by George Clooney, with a fine star turn by Julia Roberts. Really fun and…

I really enjoyed, frequently laughed out loud, and was also more than a little disturbed by this wacky Boots Riley vehicle He wrote and directed. He’s the frontman for The Coup, a radical hip hop band that’s influenced by folks like George Clinton. I play their albums with some regularity on my show. I found…

I really enjoyed this 2010 slaughter-fest action drama from Takashi Miike. Thirteen men, mostly samurai (led by Koji Yokusho—”Shall We Dance”!) including a Ronin and men in training, but also some commoners, band together in 1844 at the behest of the councilor to the Shogun to kill their lord’s evil, sadistic and pathological brother who…