Tough call on Homegrown, a 52-minute documentary about the Dervaes family who grow 6,000 pounds of organic produce every year on their one-fifth acre parcel next to the 210 freeway in Los Angeles. I thought it would be one of those inspiring films, but I was disappointed. As a film, it was weak. And the family is weird — almost creepy. Jules has raised his now-adult three kids who (at least at the time of this film) still live at home and appear to be lacking in outside-home social activities. Hey, I’m into organic foods, environmentalism and all those liberal causes, something here isn’t quite right. Again, I’m probably in the minority on this one. Lots of other people leaving the film loved it. So check it out and make your own call. And let me know what you think.

My recommendation for this 27-minute documentary is easy. If you live in Marin County or if you’re interested in organic farming and ranching, see it. Otherwise, you probably won’t be interested. And to make it easy, you can see Hidden Bounty of Marin: Farm Families in Transition in its entirety on YouTube. It’s probably not really a documentary, but more of a marketing piece for the farmers of Marin and GrownInMarin.org. I enjoyed it, but I live here and I know some of the farmers (from the local farmers’ markets) and the great CowGirl Creamery.

Original is one of the best Danish features I’ve seen in a while. It seems I often describe Danish films as quirky, and this one is no exception to that observation. Are Danes just naturally quirky by American standards?

As Kristine Kolton wrote in the Mill Valley Film Festival program, “If there’s one thing Henry has learned, it’s that reality is overrated. When his father dies bizarrely in a moose-hunting accident, Henry’s mother checks out of the real world for good.” Working from a highly inventive script, the cast are all excellent. The film is clever and very well paced but lightweight. Don’t expect a masterpiece here, just enjoy it. It’s just a lot of fun, and you’ll just grin your way through the whole thing.

This is one for geeks, musical or otherwise. Filmmaker John Korty (The Crazy Quilt, for those who are old enough to remember) spent two years documenting the rebuilding of a 1927 Steinway piano donated to U.C. Berkeley. In the mid-70s I built a Zuckermann harpsichord, and while that’s a lot simpler than a piano, I could truly relate to the craftsmen at Callahan Piano Service in Oakland who do this work. (Most of those in the film were at tonight’s screening along with Korty.)

The film is in Korty’s classic dry style. He just puts it out there. No glitter or gloss. The soundtrack includes parts of performances by the students who were competing to win the finished piano. It probably won’t bother most people, but I was distracted by the differences in audio between the close-mic’d interviews intercut with the distant-mic’d piano performances taped in Berkeley’s Hertz Hall. I’ve recorded there, and my guess is that they used just a pair of ceiling-hung mics. Nothing wrong with the quality. It just didn’t match the rest of the track.

I’m a Korty fan, but I wouldn’t recommend seeing Miracle in a Box: A Piano Reborn for the filmmaking. If you like machines, moving parts or musical instruments, see it for Callahan and the piano. You’ll probably have to track it down on DVD or watch the preview.

Shadow & Light is a charming 28-minute video documentary (William Farley, director) about a great Bay Area local artist, Elaine Badgley Arnoux. The film is good, but Arnoux (now 82) is great. Terrific art and an even more fascinating attitude. No distribution yet for the video, however. Rumor is that producer Mary Morrow is trying to get a PBS deal. You can see an 8-minute preview on YouTube. Minor aside: Farley, a respected local filmmaker uses, a bit of a fascinating technique to get a 3D-like effect from panned still images. I wanted to ask how he did that but didn’t have a chance.

Coincidentally (?) we saw An Education here in Mill Valley on the same night it opened in New York and Los Angeles. I was surprised that the director, Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself — both great) was here and not at one of those major cities. But thank goodness she was, because her Q&A made me appreciate a lot more about this film. Unfortunately, others won’t have the benefit of hearing her insights. The early buzz on this film is hot, and by giving it a B- I’ll probably be in the minority.(I just read A.O. “Tony” Scott’s review in the NY Times. He loved it. Don’t read his review, as usual, unless you want to know most of the plot.)

Technically, it’s a coming-of-age film, but with a darker-than-usual twist. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a 16 year-old girl in London in the 1960s. David (Peter Sarsgaard) is the sleazy older man who pursues her. It takes a long time for us to understand just why David is sleazy, but we sense from the beginning that something isn’t right. The problem is that there’s no benefit to us, the audience, from waiting to learn what’s up. We just have to wait.

Mulligan is suddenly the new It girl, and she deserves the attention she’s getting for this role. She is terrific. This is actually her first major role, having made this film two years ago when she was 22. But the rest of the film isn’t at the level of her performance. Sarsgaard is just his usual placid self. Alfred Molina, playing Jenny’s father, is at first a buffoonish stereotype whom we later have trouble accepting as warm and sincere when the plot takes a turn. The music and editing are awkward. Cinematography just mediocre.

The film will get a lot of attention due to Mulligan’s great performance, and luckily she’s on screen in virtually every scene, but this is one that the more I think about it, the less I like it. I keep thinking of all the ways in which it could have been better. I loved Sherfig’s earlier films, so I have hope for her future. Maybe it’s because this is her first in English. Maybe it’s the larger budget. (Italian for Beginners was a dirt-cheap Dogme 95 film.) Let’s see what the audiences say. I’m expecting to take some flak for this one.