Village Vidiot

  “Bloody Sunday,” November 15, 2003 (2002), video.  We both liked this disturbing docudrama about the massacre in Londonderry in 1972. I was in England at the time, when 14 Irish civil rights marchers and stone throwers (some of each) were shot by British troops who overreacted and sparked the emergence of violence on an…

  “The Quiet American,” October 18, 2003 (2002), video.     We both liked this remake of the Graham Green classic about the entry of the US into the Vietnam conflict. Bronwen liked it more than I, however, as I adore the book and know it too well. It stars Michael Caine as Fowler, the English…

  “Chicago,” October 11, 2003 (2002), video.    We’re the last to see this very well done movie version of the Broadway musical. Fine songs and basically good work. Richard Geer is a very pleasant surprise as Billy the shyster lawyer, Renee Zellwenger pleases greatly as Roxie the spurned lover/chorine with ambitions and the dumb…

“Lost in Translation,” September 12, 2003, theater.  We loved this quirky intense vehicle for Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson written and directed by Sophia Coppola, produced by her and her dad. It looks at the strange trips taken by Murray, a 50-ish actor, and Johannson, the 25-yo wife of a young photographer as they meet…

  “Talk to Her,” August 17, 2003 (2002) video.  We loved this excellent Pedro Almodavar film about two men joined by their love for women in comas. Very creative, quirky and fascinating. One, a writer, is in love with a woman bullfighter hurt in a ring accident (Almodovar’s bow to gender transgression, usually he has…

  “Far From Heaven,” July 17 2003 (2002), video.   We enjoyed and appreciated Todd Haynes stylized homage to Douglas Sirk’s message films from the fifties, although it turned that decade into a caricature rather than a period inhabited by real people. And we were real people. The film follows a wife’s (Julianne Moore) struggle to…

  “Spirited Away,” July 15, 2003 (2002), video.  We loved this exciting and entrancing animated look at the Japanese spirit world. A young girl and her family get caught in the bath house of the spirit world (in a deserted amusement park). When her parents become pigs, she has to figure out how to get…

  June 17, 2003, airplane.  They’re lying to one another. Forget it. Boring despite a couple of funny jokes

“The Cat’s Meow,” May 30, 2003, DVD.  Nicely acted little piece about a murder aboard WR Hearst’s yacht “The Oneida” in 1924. The film suggests that Hearst (good work by Edward Herman who I normally don’t like all that much) shot Tom Innes, the creative force behind the cowboy movie and a producer in decline,…

  “Auto Focus,” May 18, 2003 (2002), DVD.    This is a very dark, depressing, and sad look at Bob Crane’s (Col Hogan of Hogan’s Heroes) decline into sexual addiction and the need to be filled in the act with the help of John Carpenter, a video freak and salesman who facilitates Crane’s relentless search…

  “Storytelling,” April 20, 2003, DVD.   This is another weird, funny (in a totally dark and embarrassing way) and painful film from Tod Solendz, who also gave us “Welcome to the Dolls House” and “Happiness”. It is two stories of unequal length, dealing with the creation of art and storytelling. One is about fiction writing,…

“Time Out,” April 17 2003, DVD.  This well-crafted and such a French film chronicles a man fired from his job as a manager who constructs a false life with a fake new job and keeps up the pretense, lying to his family, swindling his friends and parents to raise money, and even becoming involved in…

  “Jumangi,” March 17, 2003, DVD.  We all liked this scary/funny Robin Williams piece based loosely on the children’s book. Very frightening visuals but also enough fun to keep the kid in it and let her know it’s a film. The story examines a supernatural game with horrible results. It also looks at family, love,…

  “Barbershop,” 8 February 2003 (2002), DVD.  This is a funny, kind, largely loving look at an African-American barbershop in Chicago. Calvin (Ice T) inherits the shop from his father but has greater dreams for himself. Life in the shop provides a look at the community and this very important institution. Some fine acting from…

  “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” 25 January 2003 (2001), DVD.    This made lots of “best of” lists in 2002, and I think it’s a tad overrated. Still, both Bronwen and I liked this road/buddy/older woman look at youth, sex, politics, and (this is Mexico, after all) death. A pair of stoner high-schoolers, one rich,…

“Austin Powers in Goldmember,” January 15, 2003 (2002), DVD. Won’t I ever learn?. Oh well, hope springs eternal, I guess. I did not like this latest Austin Powers entry at all. I thought the writing was bad, the production boring, and the moralizing ridiculous. Still, I laughed a little at Mini Me and a set…

“Sunshine State,” 12 January 2003 (2002), video.  Latest from John Sayles, this look at the struggles around land development in Florida. Very nice work by most of the actors, especially Jane Alexander as the little theater lady, Edie Falco as her restraunteur daughter, Ralph Waite as their blind husband/father in the swirl of change, Timothy…

  “The Wild Thornberrys Movie,” 25 December 2002, theater.   I went with the kidlet to see this animated flick based on the TV show. It had the usual eco/environmental babble but was still fun. A lovely song by Paul Simon brightens the movie considerably. Nice subplot about family stuff. B- still enjoys this level of…

“The Importance of Being Ernest,” December 17, 2002, video.  Smart, visually pleasing adaptation of the O Wilde classic, it has great lines, but is fundamentally an empty look at empty people for whom form and money are everything. Funny, but not deep in any way. Two men who have fallen for two women who love…

  “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” December 15, 2002, video.  We really liked this dreamy neo-noir piece from the Coen Brothers starring Billy Bob Thornton as a quiet barber who blackmails his wife’s (Francis McDormand) boss and lover (James Gandolfini) who has embezzled from the store he manages. The barber gets his money, but Big…

  “Minority Report,” November 17, 2002, theater.  This film really worked for a cautionary tale about allowing a system to arrest people in relation to their ‘future’ acts. Very well done by S Spielberg, with a fine job by Tom Cruise, it only breaks down in the last 15 minutes or so. Otherwise, a fine…

  “Mulholland Drive, October 17, 2002 (2001), video.    This is an excellent, very weird David Lynch film about fantasy and reality and the confusion between the two. Although I am writing this months after seeing the film, it sticks with me for its amazing twists on dreams and reality, its use of actresses in…

  “Insomnia,” October 15,  2002, theaters.  Very unsatisfying American ripoff of the Norwegian one. It has to be neatly sown up at the end, whereas the European version has all sorts of ambiguity built into it. Pacino and Williams are ok, if predictable. Hilary Swenk is fun to watch.

  “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” September 1, 2002.  The four of us, my mom also went along, really enjoyed this very true to the book rendition of the book. I think it would have worked better if it was cut about 15-20 minutes, but it was an ok film. Kenneth Branagh is…

  “Fahrenheit 9/11” August 17 2004, theater.  We enjoyed this M Moore polemic against Bush and Republican idiocy. Some stellar footage, although Moore is an inconsistent demagogue and really should decide if Bush is too weak or too tyrannical. What is he disgusted by beyond the whole package? A double barreled attack that’s worth seeing…