Village Vidiot

  “Howl,” April 17, 2011, DVD.    Very interesting piece about Alan Ginsburg (well played by James Franco) and the obscenity trial surrounding the beat poem that fused the profane and the profound in the 1950s and set a new style of poetry before the public. A mix of trial transcripts, interviews brought to life,…

   “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” 5 March 2011 (2009), DVD. We enjoyed this well-produced claymation piece based on a Raol Dahl story about a fox (George Clooney) who reforms because his wife (Meryl Streep) asks him too and becomes a journalist rather than a chicken thief. He can’t resist the call of nature. Nice voice…

  “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” 12 February 2011 (2010), DVD.    We enjoyed this banksy production (a documentary, a mockumentary? I’m not sure which) about Mr Brain Wash, aka Thierry, an obsessive videographer used clothing salesman from LA (French immigrant) who chronicled the street art scene as part of his obsession and then, with…

“The Kids Are All Right,” 11 February 2011, DVD.  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…

   “The Social Network,” 29 December 2010, theater.    This is a well-made (Kevin Spacey produced) film about the origins of Facebook, the personal betrayals and the programming and college scenes. It’s also Mark Zukerberg as genius-nerd asshole or genius-nerd social moron or genius-nerd with Aspergers Syndrome or a genius-nerd idiot savant asshole with Aspergers….

  “Doubt,” 23 December 2010 (2008), DVD.    Thoughtful and interesting look at conflict in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964 when a priest (Seymour Philip Hoffman) is seen by the head nun ( Meryl Streep in a fine turn) as getting too close and behaving inappropriately with a student. Based on the…

“A Prophet,” 11 December 2010 (2009), DVD.  Violent, thoughtful, disturbing, long (155 min), well-made and challenging look at a 19-yo, illiterate Franco-Arab who enters prison in France on a 6-yr bit and finds himself played, used, and abused by Corsican and Muslim criminals alike. He makes his own way in this mess, always the “Dirty…

  “The Last Station,” 4 December 2010 (2009), DVD.    Very interesting look at Tolstoy’s last days as his wife and his disciples battle over control of his writings. Superb and affecting work by Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as the Countess Sofya (I can’t even begin to describe the crush I have…

“A Serious Man,” 3 December 2010 (2009), DVD.   Should it be called “Jew the Obscure?” This 2009 black comedy is a return to serious film making for the Coen brothers At times it makes your skin crawl, at other points it is laugh-out-loud funny as it chronicles Larry Gopnik, an assistant professor of physics, as…

   “The Friends of Eddie Coyle,” [1974] 26 November 2010, DVD.    We watched this 1974 noir-like look at crime and criminals in Boston with my mom and little Bronwen. The three adults liked its pacing and the look at these small fry gangsters. Robert Mitchum is excellent in the title role. No glory, little…

  “Crazy Heart,” 24 November 2010 (2009), DVD.  We finally got around to watching this excellent conventional film starring Jeff Bridges (the 2010 Oscar for Best Actor, deserved) as Bad Blake, a once famous country star drunk and on the skids, and Maggie Gyllenhall as his younger love interest. Robert Duvall in a small role…

  “Gone Baby Gone,” 13 November 2010 (2007), DVD.   We both appreciated and liked Ben Affleck’s directorial debut in this adaptation from a Dennis Lehane novel set and filmed in Dorchester. Lots of local color and folk acting in this one about the disappearance of a little girl. A very good movie, very well acted…

  “The White Ribbon,” 30 October 2010 (2009), DVD.    We both liked, appreciated, and were troubled by this black-and-white German meditation on paired public and private denial, cruelty, repression, and hypocrisy. Class, religion, status, and gender all play roles in this painful cultural study of a small village on the eve of WWI plagued…

  “Departures,”29 October 2010 (2008), DVD.  We both really enjoyed this 2009 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. A young cellist loses his job when his orchestra dissolves. He and his wife leave Tokyo and return to the distant city of his youth. Searching for work, he answers an ad that he thinks is for…

  “Date Night,” 22 October 2010, DVD.    Tina Fey and Steve Correll star in this fun and silly film about a couple from NJ who get really snarled up when they take someone else’s reservation at a hot new restaurant. This is a funny movie with a really silly plot and a very dumb…

“The Hurt Locker,” 20 August 2010, DVD.  Tense from the get-go, this Oscar-winning, high energy Katherine Bigelow action flick about a bomb/IED disposal unit in Iraq starts at the letter K in this Mesopotamian alphabet. There is no “why?” Only what’s there at that moment for the men of this 3-person team in the war’s…

“Red,” April 15 2011 (2010),DVD, home. Wow, I’ve barely seen a film in a month. Maybe more. Painful. This is a trivial and silly little piece with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich (the best of the group), and Helen Mirren (boring role) as former CIA assassins who are now targets because they know bad…

  “Up In the Air,” 8 July 2010 (2009), DVD.    We all really liked this well-regarded 2009 film from Jason Reitman about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) a professional HR hitman who is hired to fire employees He knows it’s a cruel system, but he loves his work with its complete lack of connection to…

“The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans,” 14 May 2010 (2009), DVD.  Werner Herzog directed this remake–apparently completely different although I didn’t see the original—as super dark comedy as you can imagine about a pain-and-drug deranged police detective/lieutenant (Nicholas Cage in his usual over the top mode) in the Big Easy after Katrina ‘investigating’…

“Mulan: The Rise of a Warrior,” May 5 (1 a.m.),  2010 (2009), DVD.   I was pulling an all-nighter in order to do a sleep-deprived test at the hospital in the morning, and I decided to watch this long Chinese version of the Mulan story. I was bored and fed up with it by the time…

“The World,” 25 April 2010, DVD.   Set in a Bejing theme park, this slow-moving and depressing but very interesting Jiang Ke Zia study of the new China’s affect on workers. Cell phones and texting abounds in this new world of monorails, but the lives of people are vastly more tenuous than in earlier years. The…

  “Up,” April 15, 2010 (2009), animated, DVD.   We saw and enjoyed this Pixar piece about a man (voiced by Ed Asner) who floats his house south to the Amazon and Paradise. Well, not really. He’s joined by an inadvertent guest, a young scout. Along the way the battle an evil, despoiling explorer (Christopher Plummer)….

  “Russian Ark,” 10 April 2010 (2002), DVD.  We really enjoyed this film exercise (a one-take, 96-minute moving film) about spirits in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Excellent discussions about the meaning of being Russian in a place where the past is always alive. You’ll either love it or hate it. Great jaunt through the…

  “Happy Go Lucky,” 20 March 2010 (2008), DVD  Very nice little Mike Leigh film about a playful and rather zany 30-yo elementary school teacher in England (Sally Hawkins in a lovely turn as Poppy). You follow her teaching, her efforts to bring joy to the world and her growth as a caring and understanding…

  “The Town,” 12 March 2011 (2010), DVD.   Very solid 2010 Ben Affleck directed/starring film about bank and armored car robberies in Charlestown, MA. Atmospheric. Excellent work from Jeremy Renner as the borderline psycho member of Affleck’s crew and the one who forces him to do the ‘one last job’ that’s always the problem….