Village Vidiot

“A Family Thing,” November 17, 1997 (1996), video.  Nice little film about race, virtues, etc, but not as good as many reviewers said. With good work by Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, it still has the moralistic and predictable feel of a made for tv movie, which it was. For HBO.

  “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…

  “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…

“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.

  “Cold Fever,” drama, September 1997 (1995), video.    This excellent and very strange Icelandic film looks at a Japanese businessman who goes to Iceland to perform a religious ritual for his parents but discovers much about himself and the world in the process. Very nasty vision of some American thug/hitchhikers played wonderfully by Lily…

“Copland,” drama, August 15, 1997, theater.  Sylvester Stallone acts and does a good job as the slob cop who nonetheless has some scruples. Set up in a small NJ town to be a fake cop by cop-boss Harvey Keitel, Sly comes through in the end and is standup along with Robert DeNiro as the NYPD-DIA…

“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…

   “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…

“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…

“Heavy,” drama, June 20, 1997, video.  Sad, fascinating movie about an overweight pizza chef in upstate New York. Fine acting by the whole cast, but especially Debbie Harry and an amazing bit by Taylor Pruitt Vance. Liv Tylor and Shelly Winters are also fine. Wonderfully sad film about family and loneliness. Very good. See this…

“The Life and Times of Alan Ginsburg,” documentary, April 17, 1997, video.  OK documentary about the wonderful late poet. Very interesting interviews. However, clearly a self-congratulatory puff piece, with little in the way of critical comment about his weaknesses as a person or poet.

  “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.

“Love Jones,” 17 January 1998 (1997), video.  OK 20-something love story/comedy about black intellectuals trying to come together. Witty, very cerebral, he’s a novelist/poet, she’s a photographer. Both are beautiful. Their friends range from sharp, professional homeboys and girls to creeps who haven’t a clue about how to deal with issues of men and women….

  “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…

  “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.

“The Search for One-Eyed Jimmy,” October 17, 1996 (1994), video.  OK but not great film about wacky Brooklyn neighborhood characters and thieves. Nice work by Anne Meara, Nick Tutturo, and several other character actors. Worth seeing, but stops being funny or serious at the half-way mark.

“City Hall,”  November 15, 1997 (1996) video.  Nice work by Pacino and John Cusak, but the film falls apart midway as people act in unbelievable yet formulaic ways.  The guys are good, the women’s roles are weak.

“The American President,” October 15, 1996 (1995), video.  Michael Douglas as a nice, liberal president who starts dating Annette Bening. OK, warm, old-fashioned movie making. It works.

“Shanghai Triad,” September 17, 1996 (1995), video.  Slow, beautiful Chinese movie that looks at Chinese gangster culture and family in the 1930s as a metaphor about Chinese life and corruption today. Could be better, but worth seeing subtitled.  This was one of my earliest reviews in this set.

  “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…

  “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…

  “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….

“Richard III,” July 17, 1996 (1995), video.  Modern/1930s version of Shakespeare’s greatest history starring Ian McKellam as Richard. Set in a fascist England in the 1930s. Very stylish and scary, but the supporting work by the American actors is not up to the Brit’s work.

“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.

“Everyone Says I Love You,” 24 January 1998 (1996), video.  Sometimes funny Woody Allen musical about the lives and loves of the rich, white, liberal New Yorkers he hangs out with. A couple of wonderful musical comedy numbers about love done to old standards, but a real piece of fluff all around. As usual, nice…