Village Vidiot

Edgy black comedy from Nicole Holofcener about a mother Brenda Blethyn and her three daughters, two grown (one an actress, one a married mom) Emily Mortimer and Katherine Keener, and one an adopted black 8-year old. It has funny moments, but the people are really not nice or attractive as people. Liposuction and body/looks concern…

Eddy Murphy’s tour de farce playing many roles. He’s great, it’s funny and very offensive about issues of weight. So sue me, I liked it

Ed Harris starred in, directed, co-wrote and produced this interesting, sort of quirky, western about a sheriff (Harris) and deputy (Vigo Mortenson—very good and not as dark as usual) for hire arriving in a town after the murder of the previous sheriff and his two deputies by the rancher, Jeremy Irons, and his men. Hell,…

DVD. Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandan, and Charlize Theron star in this well-paced Paul Haggis (dir, writer, producer) vehicle about the impact of the war on some of the American soldiers who are serving. Jones plays the retired Army MP father of a soldier sent to Iraq and damaged, along with all his comrades. Jones…

DVD. This very good historical drama is excellent at relating Adam’s virtues (his devotion to the American cause) and flaws (his arrogance, his sense of superiority and his lack of understanding of others). Paul Giomatti is excellent as Adams, Laura Linney is fine as a very real Abigail, and an excellent supporting cast fleshes this…

DVD. This is one odd film. A very dark Mike Figgis comedy about an assassin, played as uncool, unsophisticated, drunken and distasteful by Pierce Brosnan who meets Greg Kinnear’s computer geek in Mexico City where the former is on a job and the latter is trying to pitch his computer work. They strike up a…

Dumb movie about a 12-step junkie, Stewart Smalley, who saves his family from itself. Touching despite the fact that it’s stupid and not funny past the first ¼ of the film. Not worth seeing

Disappointing French farce about a boring accountant who gets fired. He gets his job back by staging a fake outing as gay, so that his condom manufacturing boss can’t fire him. It’s got a few funny bits (the sex scene between him and his supervisor in the factory is really hilarious) and, surprisingly, Gerard Depardieu,…

Directed by Stephen Frears, Judy Dench stars as the aging Queen Victoria to Ali Fazal’s Abdul Kareem, the Muslim clerk who, sent to deliver a gift to the Queen, stayed to become her friend, teacher and confident. Devoted to her until the day she died, he opened her to some knowledge of India and allowed…

Directed by renowned documentarian Steve James with Martin Scorcese as Executive Producer (both appear throughout the film), this is a love letter to the late Roger Ebert, long-time film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, and to his wife Chaz. It was begun with their collaboration before Ebert’s death. He was already unable to eat, drink,…

Directed and written by Juan Antonio Bardem (Javier’s uncle) this 1955 Spanish b & w neo-realist/noir fusion classic studies the despair and decadence of the mid-1950s Spanish bourgeoisie and culture. A math lecturer (very bourgeois in background) and his mistress, the wife of a powerful industrialist, hit a cyclist and leave him to die. What…

Directed and co-written by Richard Linklater, this is the sequel to the Vietnam film “The Last Detail” by Darryl Ponicsan, who authored both books and screenplays. It’s the story of Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carrell), a Vietnam-era Navy vet with a bigger story, who seeks out Marine friends who share a past with him and…

Despite its plot flaws, I liked this subversive Chinese film that examines the new class structure that is emerging in the new China. Bronwen did not like it. A 17-yo country lad, Gui, comes to Beijing to make his way in the new world order. He gets a job as a bicycle messenger and has…

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe star in this brutal Ridley Scott look at the drug ‘business’ under Frank Lucas in NYC in the early 1970s and the honest cops led by Detective Richie Roberts who brought him and ¾ of the city’s drug cops down. This is a vicious, well written and well acted bit…

Delightful documentary about Bill Cunningham, the NYT fashion photographer who does both society charity affairs and the Sunday fashion on the street collage. If. “The Devil Wears Prada” is a fanciful look at the darker forces of fashion, this loving bio-doc is a study of the industry’s Peter Pan. You’ll never find anyone who enjoys,…

David Mamet conceit about a successful coverup of a sexual groping by the President. DeNiro and Hoffman are wonderful, but the film bored Bronwen, and I found it smug and, despite its tight 96 minutes, overly long. It breaks down, especially when Woody Harrelson makes his appearance as a moronic psychopath soon-to-be hero. But oh…

Darn, old age really sucks. Here’s our more recent viewing

Darker and more interesting in some ways, this is nonetheless less satisfying than the two earlier and sweeter pieces. Certain elements don’t hang together unless you’ve read all the books (which I have) and the film is choppier and less complete that the others. Why, for example, does he conjure his father’s stage image?. In…

Damn, not the director’s cut I thought it was (got it from Bentley), but it was nice to see this remarkably atmospheric, tightly written chestnut again. Good work by all concerned, with a real film noirish character. Sci fi detective work. Rutger Heuer and Darryl Hannah are excellent, as are many of the supporting characters….

Cute Australian romantic comedy fantasy about a guy (Rhys Ifans) who sails away from his mind/soul numbing life on a chair lifted by helium filled balloons. He’s ‘deposited’ into an idyllic town full of wonderful characters where he meets the true love of his life (Miranda Otto). An open life is the only one worth…

Columbian film about Karen who leaves her loveless marriage to Mario after 10 years and, starting at the bottom, has to make her way in the world. Her tears are those of women and are also part of the theater she must create to gain enough money to survive. She meets some good men along…

Co-written, co-directed by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz (brother and sister), the film also stars Ronit in the title role of this, the third film in a family saga that chronicles the arc of an unsuccessful marriage. It is a scathing look at the confessional control of marriage and divorce in Israel, where Orthodox rabbinical courts…

Classic with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Katherine Ross. A small bit from Strouther Martin as a ‘colorful’ mine engineer in Bolivia is a wonderful joke given his work with Newman in “Cool Hand Luke”. We wanted b to see this fine old western, but she really had some difficulty getting parts. Also, the whole…

Choppy but almost too complete and strangely flat historical drama about the life of Martin Luther (Joseph Finnes). Most critics really liked this 2003 production and it caused a religious war on IMDB, but I still went unmoved. Stellar work by Peter Ustinov as the prince of Wittenburg who protects him and goes along with…

Children’s flick based on the book. Classic story of child with horrible parents, saved by wonderful teacher (Miss Honey) who she in turn saves as well from her wretched aunt/principal. Nicest work by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (he produced as well) as the awful parents. Fun to start, but the stress on her goodness…