N

Strange — there were only six movies on our list that started with “N.”

Good:

• Night and Fog — 1955. Short and brutal documentary about the Holocaust. Why hasn’t the narration been translated into multiple languages?
• Nashville — 1975. I’ve come to the conclusion that Robert Altman’s flicks just don’t translate to the small screen very well. I could see the genius of this, and I was impressed by it, but I kind of had to extrapolate the experience which was really meant for the big screen.
• Never Mind the Bollocks — 2002. There’s nothing punk about this documentary, except the subject matter: surely the greatest rock album ever. The feature runs less than one hour, but the extras are every bit as interesting.
• Naqoyqatsi — 2002. Think of it as a long music video.

Mixed bag:

• No Man’s Land — 2001. Soldiers get caught in no man’s land during the Bosnian Conflict. Good premise, lackluster execution. Worth seeing once.
• Napoleon Dynamite — 2004. Ummmm…. I really didn’t know what to think of this. I found it sort of stylistically confusing, and that was kind of nice. But it also seemed kind of repellent and stupid. Seeing the geeky protagonist get slammed up against the lockers brought back memories of high school.