Village Vidiot

  “Brokeback Mountain,” 11 March 2006 (2005), theater.    We saw this gorgeous film at the Lexington Flicks. Won’t they ever fix the damn sound system and get better copies?. Even with the viewing flaws, this is a stunning, painful film about two gay sheep herding cowboys who can’t come to terms with themselves and…

“The Squid and the Whale,” 22 February 2006, theater.  Off to the movies a second time this week. What an excruciatingly painful film looking at a collapsing marriage and divorce in Park Slope (Brooklyn) 1986.  This is a semi-autobiographical piece by the screenwriter/director, Noah Baumbach, produced by Wes Anderson.  The shallow, no longer successful novelist…

  “Before Sunrise,” DVD, 15 January 2006 (1995).  We both really liked this 1995 Richard Linklater piece about Jessie (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) who meet on a train going to Vienna. They ‘click’ and she agrees to get off and spend the night with him, and what a night it is. Nothing insanely…

“Last Holiday,” theater, January 15, 2006.  Queen Latifah is ok in this nice, romantic piece about a proper New Orleans working woman (works in a department store). She loves to cook but won’t eat what she cooks for fear of the weight, adores celebrity chefs, and has a crush on another sales clerk (LL Cool…

“Pride and Prejudice,” theater, 26 December 2005.  Little Bronwen went to a rock concert so we ran to the theater and saw this wonderful, sometimes cold, lush working of Jane Austen’s classic novel of class, avarice, and the moment of transition from a culture of pure formalist marriages of convenience to a world of romantic…

  “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” theater, 25 December 2005.  The three of us went to see this one at the Capital. Bronwen and I really enjoyed it. Our daughter, who’d seen it three months before, was so dismissive that it really took a little bit of the fun out the thing….

“National Treasure,” December 17, 2005 (2004), DVD.  Nicholas Cage as an obsessed historian/treasure hunter seeking to unravel the endless clues of the greatest treasure in the world, that of the Knights Templar, which somehow, inexplicably, came to be buried under NYC by the Masons before the American Revolution. The mindless absurdity is breathtaking. Still, clean…

  “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” 23 November 2005 (2005), DVD.  Willie Wonka done by Johnny Depp in this Tim Burton extravaganza. It got bad reviews and my mom and sister didn’t like it, but Bronwen, Bronwen and I really did. I miss a couple of the Oompa-Loompa songs from the old Gene Wilder piece…

    “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring,” 20 November 2005 (2003), DVD, (Korean, subtitled.)  This is a very good, contemplative and slow moving story of a Buddhist monk and his young disciple on a floating, one-monk pagoda in a river. The seasons chronicle the cycle of life of the young man as a…

“Finding Neverland,” DVD, 16 September 2005.  Johnny Depp is marvelous as James M Barrie, author of. “Peter Pan,” “The Admirable Crichton,” and other pieces of Edwardian theater. This movie is the story (loosely of course) of his creating Peter Pan based on his contact with. the Davies family. Depp’s love affair with Sylvia (Kate Winslet),…

  “Ray,” DVD, September 15, 2005 (2004).  We liked this well done biopic about Ray Charles. And yes, Jamie Foxx is simply channeling Charles. It’s remarkable. The supporting actors are good and the discussion of the music business is enlightening. Charles manageing to keep control over his work is amazing enough, but to do it…

  “Kitchen Stories,” DVD, 15 August 2005 (2004).  We both really liked this funny if slow-moving and poignant Norwegian movie with an unlikely premise. Swedish home economists are studying the movements of folks to try to design better kitchens. To do this, they position ‘recorders’ who track the movements of people throughout the day. In…

  August 8, 2005, DVD. We both were strongly moved by this painful and powerful story of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban. It is a film that shows reality going from bad to worse, where no good deed goes unpunished and where all joy in life is suspect. It is a horribly and brutally…

  “The Tripletts of Bellville,”  July 25, 2005, (2003) animated, subtitled.   We saw this one in an exhausted state late at night. It’s good and it’s weird. French animation, it trashes the US but is barely kinder to the French themselves. It follows obsessed Gallic bike fanatics and mobsters. Funny and exhausting, it is a…

  “Kung Fu Hustle,” DVD, July 17, 2005 (2004).    Very silly, sometimes funny, sometimes dumb kung fu movie that’s fun to watch but all empty calories. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I don’t know why everyone raved about it so much

  “Cinderella Man,” theater, July 17, 2005.    Traditional and very effective boxing film from Ron Howard that shows the life and travail of James J Braddock, heavyweight champion of the world. It is a fundamentally conservative film starring Russell Crowe that ‘rejects’ collective action by workers. It also is a well made and good…

July 15 2005 (2005), theater.  We all liked this silly love story about a high school teacher-crazed Red Sox fan (Jimmy Fallon) and a PR professional (Drew Barrymore). It doesn’t happen that way, but its fun to watch and that season was sooooooooo good. Go Sox. A bit racier than I’d have wanted for Bronwen…

  “The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi,” DVD, May 17, 2005 (2003), Japanese with subtitles.    This is a remake from a very popular series of films from the 1930s and again in the 1960s about a blind swordsman (Takeshi Kitano) who wanders around the country as a masseur. He stumbles into a village ruled by two…

  “Look at Me,” theater, May 17. 2005 (2004), subtitled.    This is a fine French film about Lolita, the overweight daughter of a renowned novelist with a trophy wife barely older than the daughter. She is desperate for her father’s affection (he’s narcissistic and so is she). Indeed, her unpleasant characteristics are part of…

“Fog of War,” DVD, May 14, 2005 (2003).  Robert McNamara is the subject of this auto-bio-documentary from Errol Morris. Morris interviewed McNamara about his life, WWII, Vietnam, and much, much more. Words of wisdom?. Sometimes. Honesty? Sometimes. Fascinating?. Always. Horrifying? Frequently. The war criminal as thoughtful policy wonk?. The loyal follower who knows the policy…

  “The Station Agent,” DVD, 22 April 2005 (2003).    This is a tough film to describe. It’s also a pleasure to watch. It is sly, smart, civilized, and very humane. A very lovely, small American independent film that follows Peter Dinklage’s Fin, a very isolated dwarf with a personal and professional interest in trains,…

  “Millions,” theater, April 15 2005 (2004).  What a change from Trainspotting!  Maybe a bit too sweet for some, but I needed sweet when I saw it.  This little religious fantasy follows the journey of two brothers who ‘find’ about L250,000 14 days before the pound converts to the Euro over Christmas. What do they…

“Help!,” video, 19 March 2005.  B and I are trying to show oldies but goodies to our daughter (now age 10). This is the sillier and less interesting of the two Beatles films from about 1965. I remember laughing my ass off when I saw it the first time and the first hour is still…

  “The Miracle Worker,” DVD, 11 February 2005 (1962) We loved this 1962 Anne Bancroft/Patti Duke tour de force. I hadn’t seen it since it came out. Don’t confuse this with the remake that, I think, had Duke in the Annie Sullivan role. See the original. Black and white film covers story of Helen Keller’s…

  “Dinner Rush,” DVD, 4 February 2005  (2000).    We both enjoyed this very interesting look at elite restaurant culture in NYC’s Tribeca, starring Danny Aiello. A homey trattorria run by Aiello and his partner (a pair of restaraunteur-bookies) has become a huge trendy hit under the guidance of the star chef, Aiello’s son. A…