Village Vidiot

I didn’t like this teen chick flick very much, I’m afraid. Too simpleminded and in all honesty, almost none of the characters are very interesting. Another movie with rich, remarkably talented kids, all of whom have the world at their feet. Even the one who works at the Walmart clone. B- liked the movie Yucky…

I can’t believe we haven’t seen a film in two weeks but it’s true. Anyway, Bronwen won a pair of tickets in her department raffle and so we saw this at the $925 a ticket (yikes!) Kendall. Nice art deco. The film is the latest from Pedro Almodovar and is another in his series of…

I can’t believe it’s been 2 ½ months since I saw and reviewed a film. During that time, we’ve watched all five seasons of “Breaking Bad,” staring Bryan Cranston as chemistry teacher-turned meth cook and demonic, sociopathic family man, Walter White. Well-acted, with excellent work all ‘round. Taut writing and a real focus on character…

I can’t believe it took me 12 years to see this film. Jaime Bell stars in the title role as a young (11-year old), working-class boy who prefers ballet to boxing. He is tarred as a ‘pouf’ by his family and community, both locked in conflict over a mine strike that includes his dad and…

I appreciated and enjoyed film much more than Bronwen, although I have to admit and caution that it very much alien territory to me as well. Even though shot in color, the film feels like the clothing worn by most Chassids, black and white. I can’t really evaluate what’s ‘right’ and what’s ‘wrong’ about the…

I am not a great fan of Barbara Streisand, but I enjoyed this silly, popular story of a mother/son road trip. Seth Rogen is an engineer-inventor on a road trip to try to sell his new cleaning product. Babs is his ever intrusive, loving, overwhelming mom. He finds things out about his mom that encourage…

I am ashamed to admit it, but I actually enjoyed this totally mindless piece of brain candy from Adam Sandler about the seemingly moronic bayou-born 31-year old waterboy who becomes a football phenom and uplifts everyone around him. Boring side work by Henry Winkler, but Kathy Bates as his possessive and not totally dense mama…

I admit it, films like this comic/drama freak me out and characters like Charlise Theron’s Mavis Gary make me want to hide. A depressed, divorced, narcissistic, alcoholic, arrogant bitch/former prom queen, she ghost-writes a series of young adult novels that has run its course. She sets out to woo her hometown boyfriend away from his…

I actually enjoyed the first of this duo. It was fun, campy, silly, well-meaning, and largely inoffensive. Reese Witherspoon is a fun ditz, Elle Woods, who goes off to Harvard Law School to win back her disgusting frat-boy boyfriend who sees himself on the fast track. The plot is irrelevant, Witherspoon’s performance is all, and…

Hugh Grant stars in this good and very interesting look at a man without a life. He doesn’t want one. He lives off his deceased father’s income from a song written decades before. He goes from woman to woman. Then he discovers single women with kids and realizes they are pastures of plenty. He goes…

Helen Mirren (be still my heart) is wonderful as QEII during the Princess Di death march in 1997. Who knew Blair saved the monarchy (as his wife says, “all you Labour MPs wind up kissing the Royals’ arses”). What an interesting film. The real T Blair swings both ways, sleeping with both Bush and the…

Hedge-fund oddity, Michael

Hard to say we enjoyed this disturbing Palestinian feature about resistance by three young men on the West Bank. Omar is a baker and he and two friends decide to take up arms against the occupying Israeli forces with life-altering consequences. Entirely from the Palestinian side, it paints a picture of Israeli brutality but not…

Hard to say one enjoyed this disturbing look at the last day of Oscar Grant, III, who was killed at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, CA on New Year’s Eve by a BART transit cop. Well acted by Michael B Jordan, he’s portrayed as truly resolving to turn his life around. It’s been bumpy. His mother,…

Hard to imagine, but I’ve never seen this 1952 classic of the Cold War western genre. Gary Cooper, Grace Kelley, Lloyd Bridges, and Henry Morgan, among others, tell the story of the sheriff (GC) who’s about to leave it all and go off with his new Quaker bride (GK) when he hears the baddest man…

Hard to imagine that this is the first time I ever saw this John Sayles classic, but it’s, embarrassingly, true. A well-crafted tale about the Matewan coal wars in West Virginia. Chris Cooper is superb, Hazel Dickens sang most of the songs, and it does ring true. Sayles himself plays this very bizarre right-wing preacher….

Happy Labor Day. Jiro Ono is a national treasure in Japan. He is 85 and the world’s greatest sushi chef. His eldest son is still his apprentice. His youngest is a chef but no one matches his artistry and his creativity. He dreams of sushi. I dream about teaching history but I’m not a national…

Guess what, the third time’s not the charm. Elliot Gould’s Reuben falls into a coma and the gang (sans Roberts) set out to rescue him from the evil Al Pacino and a cougar played by Ellen Barkin. Double dealings abound. Not much of a surprise in the film but some fun for b

Good, well-acted piece written and directed by David Mamet. Features excellent ensemble work by a group of fine actors (Steve Martin in a lovely character bit, Rebecca Pigeon [Mamet’s wife], Ben Gazarra, and several other really fine bits of work). Story of industrial espionage and a big con. Like all Mamet-conceived work, this plays through…

Good, scary war movie with intense first 20 minutes. Well acted, but I am rather upset at how this great opening became a set piece for a war journey picture with a predictable shoot em up ending. This war was hell but was worth the cost, says the film. All part of the boomers wanting…

Good, playful piece with fine acting by Pam Grier, Samuel L Jackson, Robert DeNiro, Michael Keaton, Bridgett Fonda. Quentin Tarrantino meets Elmore Leonard. Less scattered than Pulp Fiction. Rather like “Get Shorty” in tone but darker, edgier production. Fun. About gun runners being tracked by the feds and their use of a stewardess as bait…

Good, if overrated and overacted film about nature and human nature, love, insects, and incest, class and caste in Victorian England.

Good, if overly long, Gillian Armstrong look at the relationship between an Australian woman owner of a glass factory (Kate Blanchett) and a young English preacher (Ralph Finnes). Both are obsessive gamblers. Beautiful cinematography, wonderful acting (especially by Fiennes who has, by far, the better role). A most interesting film. Weirdness on lugging a glass…

Good, if overblown drama about a brilliant working-class man who is a janitor at MIT. Well acted, but I found myself getting angry at the academia-bashing. Minnie Driver is wasted. Robin Williams as working-class Irish shrink is a caricature as are most of the academics. Touts working-class machismo as real masculinity, if warped by violence….

Good, if not entirely accurate, presentation of the life of David Helfgott, the schizophrenic Australian pianist. Well played and acted, it suggests his illness is due to his father’s cruelty, not chemical imbalance. Interesting, though, and moving in its way.