Village Vidiot

Thousands of brief movie reviews from decades of film watching from a guy who loves the cinema.

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Female Perversions

Posted on March 28, 1998February 15, 2021 by Village Vidiot

  “Female Perversions,” 28 March 1998, video.   This interesting but overblown and melodramatic look at female insecurity chronicles a tough, accomplished, and renowned woman lawyer and prosecutor (Tilda Swinton) through her work life and very active and very bisexual love life. Despite great success in the courtroom and her soon-to-be appointment as a judge, she…

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Prisoner of the Mountains

Posted on December 20, 1997August 28, 2018 by Village Vidiot

“Prisoner of the Mountains,” 20 December 1997 (1996), video. Wonderful, powerful, Russian film about two soldiers captured by Caucasian peasants. One villager hopes to trade the Russians for his son, a prisoner of the Russians. Are they Chechen?. Who knows for sure. Still, this is a superb, loving, and very brave Russian film that should…

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Ulysses Gaze

Posted on December 19, 1997September 14, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Ulysses Gaze,” drama, 19 December 1997 (1995), video.  Very stagy, and we thought, pretentious, 1995 Greek drama about life, death, history, and the perpetual crises of the Balkans. Bronwen and I were both bored by the film and shut it down after about 40 ponderous minutes. The thought of dealing with the remaining two-and…

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The Whole Wide World

Posted on December 13, 1997May 27, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “The Whole Wide World,” drama, 13 December 1997 (1996), video. Well done, interesting, very under-rated and very touching dramatic presentation of the “true” story of Robert Thompson, the troubled young man who wrote Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonya novels in the 1930s. A love story, it chronicles the relationship he had with a…

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Margaret’s Museum

Posted on December 6, 1997October 1, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Margaret’s Museum,” drama, 6 December 1997 (1995), video.  Very nice little Canadian film with Helena Bonham Carter playing a rather wacky Cape Breton girl who marries an ex-miner. Still, it’s a tad soft in the pacing and writing, and much is never explained. Very much the story of the women/widows and children of the…

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Men in Black

Posted on November 17, 1997March 11, 2020 by Village Vidiot

    “Men in Black,” comedy, November 17, 1997, video.  What a shock, I really liked this tongue-in-cheek action-comedy about aliens on earth. Lots of good laughs, really funny, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are both quite fine, Tony Shaloub does a wonderful small bit, Vincent D’Norfrio is fun. The aliens are here among…

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Crash

Posted on November 17, 1997August 16, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Crash,” drama, November 17, 1997 (1996), video.  Very weird, David Cronenberg film based on JG Ballard novel of the same name about sexual fetisihization of cars and car crashes. Well acted with Holly Hunter, James Spader, Elias Kotae, but very flat in style and presentation. Explicitly sexual, yet strangely detached and unerotic. Sex, death,…

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Fargo

Posted on September 17, 1997September 15, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Fargo,” September 17, 1997 (1996),  video.    Very funny, intelligent, scary look at a very bizarre multiple murder-kidnapping for hire tale from the Coen Brothers. Very much about the Midwest and Minnesota in particular. Fine work by all the actors, especially Steve Buscemi and Francis McDormand (an Oscar). Stylish, nasty, and fun. See this…

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The Full Monty

Posted on September 17, 1997October 1, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “The Full Monty,” comedy, September 17, 1997, theater  Very funny, good film about 6 English steelworkers who lose their jobs in downsizing and the death of their trade in Sheffield. They turn to stripping in a wonderful little film that looks at male views of their own bodies, sex, age, race, class, gender, and…

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Booty Call

Posted on September 17, 1997November 12, 2020 by Village Vidiot

“Booty Call,” comedy, September 17, 1997, video.    This very funny, crude black date comedy really is worth seeing despite its reliance on sex and poop jokes. A good run at self-criticism by African-American comics.

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LA Confidential

Posted on August 14, 1997August 24, 2018 by Village Vidiot

“L.A. Confidential,” 14 December 1997, theater. Good but very violent cop drama in neo-noir style about the unseen corruption in the city of the angels. Well acted with very nice work by Kevin Spacey and a cast of lesser known and very talented character actors. Good work by Kim Bassinger. The plot follows on a…

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The People vs Larry Flint

Posted on August 10, 1997August 20, 2018 by Village Vidiot

   “The People vs. Larry Flint,” biography, August 10, 1997 (1996), video.   Funny but problematic piece about Flint, the Hustler publisher. Woody Harrelson is good and Courtney Love as his wife Althea is even better. I just found I couldn’t believe the lawyer, the shift to Flint as true believer in the First Amendment, and…

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Ridicule

Posted on July 15, 1997August 28, 2018 by Village Vidiot

“Ridicule,” drama, July 15, 1997, video, home. Wonderful French film about life in Louis the XVI’s court over issue of wit and verbal sparring as key to success. Sense of emptiness of the verbal as sport as young doctor goes to court to try to save his town from disease caused by the mosquitoes in…

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Flirting with Disaster

Posted on March 17, 1997October 1, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Flirting with Disaster,” comedy, March 17, 1997 (1996), video.    Very funny film about an adopted man (Ben Stiller) searching for his bio parents. Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, George Segal, Lily Tomlin, Susanne Arquette, Tea Leone, and other excellent actors. Excellent work all the way around.

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Big Night

Posted on December 15, 1996July 15, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Big Night,” December 15, 1996, in theater.  We loved this excellent film about food, Italian-American immigration, culture, love, capitalism, the American dream, language, and lots more. It’s stellar. Very well acted by folks like Stanley Tucci (he wrote, directed, and stars), Tony Shaloub (you’ll never believe he can’t really speak Italian), Minnie Driver (my…

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Cold Comfort Farm

Posted on October 17, 1996October 25, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Cold Comfort Farm,” October 17, 1996 (1995) video.  Too stylish and predictable for my taste. This look at British eccentrics set right by a happy go lucky girl in the twenties won the critics’ hearts but not mine. Maybe it plays better on the big screen.

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A Time to Kill

Posted on August 17, 1996June 11, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “A Time to Kill,” theater, August 17, 1996.    Well acted but predictable piece about race, law, justice and the possibilities in the south. Olive Platt is very good in a bit role. Sandra Bullock is boring. About a black father who kills the two white men who rape and beat his daughter. Trial…

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Trainspotting

Posted on August 17, 1996January 4, 2021 by Village Vidiot

  “Trainspotting,” August 17, 1996, seen in theaters.    This is an excellent, funny, cynical look at drug use and abuse in Scotland. It is a great treatment of class. Scary about the drugs, crime, and the emptiness of modern life as a consumer. A really fine film. Very rough. See this one.  Very much…

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Leaving Las Vegas

Posted on July 17, 1996October 20, 2020 by Village Vidiot

  “Leaving Las Vegas,” July 17, 1996 (1995), video.  Very depressing good film about an alcoholic drinking himself to death in Las Vegas. Nicholas Cage with Elizabeth Shue as the hooker who takes him in on his own terms. I sometimes find Cage doing lines as though they are poetry, and that’s a bit much….

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Braveheart

Posted on March 15, 1996August 21, 2018 by Village Vidiot

“Braveheart,” March 15, 1996 (1995), VHS.   Predictable, unrealistic, ultra-violent yet satisfying old-style film by Mel Gibson about the Scots’ search for independence and freedom (whatever the hell that meant in the fourteenth century.)  Gibson stars.

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Country Life

Posted on December 15, 1995August 24, 2018 by Village Vidiot

“Country Life,” December 15, 1995 (1994), VHS, home.  Australian version of “Uncle Vanya,” with a nice job by Sam Neill, but essentially flat and not very interesting or exciting. Maybe I’ve just seen too many Vanya’s. (4) in one year.

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Chariots of Fire

Posted on September 17, 1981October 25, 2020 by Village Vidiot

“Chariots of Fire,” September 17 2006 (1981), DVD.  Very fine, inspirational film we watched with B4 although she seemed bored by the whole thing. Wonderfully acted and inspiring story of the British athletes of the 1920 Olympics, and especially the evangelist and the Jewish sprinter.   Remarkable Vangelis soundtrack.  Worth seeing regularly.

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