C I N E B L O G 2 0 0 4
Notes and reviews from Cinequest 2004.
By W. Fred Crow
Cineblog
The NightOwls of Coventry
Director Laura Paglin
Cast: Seymour Horowitz, Donna Casey, Paddy Connor, Bernard Canepari, Anne Kitral, Allan Pinsker
NightOwls is a storied treat. Take a cutting-corners cafe owner who underpays his staff, short changes his customers, and hides from bills and food inspectors. Then throw in a crotchety group of older men who sit in that cafe every night, each wanting to focus the conversation on their own thoughts. Enter a neophyte to the city seeking to make a life on her own terms and you have a tongue-in-cheek enjoyable and warming film with a plot.
Bad—drug scenes and roaches (the scurrying kind). Good—dialogue, wit and wisdom, audience connection to the cast, and the tempo—all makes for a very nice film.