Flick Picks 12/24/13: Don Jon

New on DVD and Blu-ray at the library this week!
The next two weeks are slow ones for new releases but there are still a few interesting ones for you to get your hands on!

ENTERTAINMENT: The biggest release of the next two weeks is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, the comedy Don Jon. In Don Jon, which Gordon-Levitt also wrote, he plays a handsome porn addict who becomes romantically involved with the more old-fashioned Scarlett Johansson. Tony Danza has a surprisingly welcome supporting role as Gordon-Levitt's father and Julianne Moore also stars.

SUBTITLED: A pair of young siblings support themselves by stealing the ski equipment of the wealthy visitors of the Swiss ski resort beneath which they live in Sister. Eventually they get drawn into some darker crimes.

DOCUMENTARIES: Love, Marilyn takes a new look at the woman whom we seem to never get enough of by featuring dramatic readings from the likes of Marisa Tomei and Uma Thurman of Marilyn Monroe's own personal papers and writings. Also, start your new year off by pondering humankind's relationship with the honeybee in More Than Honey.

HAVE A WONDERFUL, FILM-FILLED HOLIDAY SEASON AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Flick Picks 12/17/13: The Lone Ranger, Elysium, Prisoners

New at the library this week on DVD and Blu-ray

ENTERTAINMENT: They call him The Lone Ranger but he actually has a sidekick so maybe he's not so lonely after all! Gore Verbinski, the director of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, brings us a new version of the Lone Ranger tale, complete with explosions, special effects and Johnny Depp as native American partner Tonto. In this version, we learn the origin of The Lone Ranger (played by Armie Hammer) and follow him as he seeks revenge. It's available on DVD and Blu-ray. Meanwhile, the rich aren't like other people...because they live in a massive spaceship! Matt Damon is a man from a ravaged earth who must break into the orbiting satellite in order to cure a fast-moving disease in Elysium, which is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Jodie Foster is trying to keep him from succeeding. Hugh Jackman is a father who takes the law into his own hands when his daughter and her friend go missing in the morally complex Prisoners, available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Another week, another Robert De Niro movie (or so it seems) as he joins Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones in The Family, a comedy about a mafia boss, his wife and kids, who move to France while under the witness protection program. They soon end up reverting to their old ways. It took a while for the second Percy Jackson movie to be made but Sea of Monsters is finally here. In this adaptation of the popular young adult fantasy series, the son of Poseidon and friends set off after The Golden Fleece and its healing powers. The thriller Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a throwback to some of the smaller, gritty films of the seventies. It stars Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara and Ben Foster in the story of Texas outlaws on the run. The HBO dramatization Muhammed Ali's Greatest Fight takes a look at Ali's attempt to be classified as Conscientious Objector to the Vietnam War and features a great cast that includes Christopher Plummer, Frank Langella and Ed Begley Jr. Some Girl(s) is an adaptation of a Neil LaBute play and features Adam Brody as a writer who drives cross country to meet up with ex-lovers. Our indie pick of the week is Museum Hours which is about two strangers who connect in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Art Museum.

SERIES: We have new seasons of some of our more popular TV series arriving this week, with season 7 of the sly action series Burn Notice, season 4 of the Kentucky cop show Justified and season 3 of the Chicago-based family comedy-drama Shameless.

PERFORMING ARTS: Will The Sound of Music Live! make you forget the Julie Andrews film version? Possibly not, but kudos to Carrie Underwood, Stephen Moyer and the rest of the crew for trying something new by bringing the stage adaptation to television!

DOCUMENTARIES: One Direction is one of the hottest music groups around. Find out what makes them tick while also enjoying concert footage in the Morgan Spurlock directed One Direction: This is Us! For something a little darker, learn more about the concussion crisis in profession sports in the Frontline special League of Denial.

All of our new and upcoming DVDs can be found in Bibliocommons.

Best DVDs of 2013:
Looking for something interesting to watch over the holidays? One of the things that I enjoy most about my job is the ability to bring interesting feature films, foreign films, documentaries, etc. to the community. You might have missed them in the theatre, or they may not have been widely released, but the library is a great chance to find a hidden gem for free or a very low cost. And don't forget that every film that is shown at our Monday at the Movies program is available on DVD as well. I can't guarantee that they'll all be Oscar winners but who knows what kind of pleasant surprise might be awaiting you in some obscure little feature! - Mike

Here are the feature film and documentary (D) and subtitled (S) DVDs that I enjoyed most over the year:
Boy
The Central Park Five (D)
Clear History
Django Unchained
Dredd
The East
Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (D)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (S)
Flight
Game Change
Happy People (D)
Hara-Kiri (S)
Holy Motors (S)
How to Survive a Plague (D)
The Last Gladiators (D)
Last Ride
Looper
The Master
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise (D)
Mud
Nobody Else But You (PouPouPiDou) (S)
Oslo, August 31st (S)
The Other Dream Team (D)
Passion
The Place Beyond the Pines
A Separation (S)
Skyfall
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Sound City (D)
Spring Breakers
Stoker
Teddy Bear (S)
This is the End
The Well-Digger's Daughter (S)
What Maisie Knew

Flick Picks 12/10/13: Despicable Me 2, Fast and Furious 6, Doc Martin series 6

New DVDs and Blu-rays at the library this week!

ENTERTAINMENT: The formerly villainous Gru must leave his comfortable life caring for his three daughters and many minions in order to discover which supervillain has stolen a secret laboratory in Despicable Me 2. Steve Carell returns to voice Gru and Kristen Wiig joins the cast of this fun sequel. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, the late Paul Walker stars in Fast and Furious 6, which provides nonstop action as the gang (which includes Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and new addition Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) must prevent a superweapon from being stolen. It's available on both DVD and Blu-ray.

Naomi Watts and Robin Wright are two lifelong friends who become romantically involved with each other's sons in Adore, an adaptation of a Doris Lessing short story. British director Ken Loach returns with The Angels' Share, a charming and uplifting comedy about a petty criminal who becomes a new father and decides to turn over a new leaf. Director Billy Bob Thorton's Jayne Mansfield's Car brings together John Hurt, Kevin Bacon and Robert Duvall in a comedy-drama set in a small Alabama town in 1969, where a death brings together two very different sides of a family. Our indie pick this week is the dark British comedy Sightseers, in which a caravanner must deal with various complications that threaten to send him over the edge as he tries to show his girlfriend the best of Britain.

SERIES: There are lots of Doctors to be found in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special: The Day of the Doctor. Besides the current and previous Doctor Who, we also get to meet a new Doctor (John Hurt) and revisit many previous incarnations. Plus, there are some Zygons as well! Doc Martin may not have a sonic screwdriver or Tardis but you love him and his idiosyncrasies anyway! Series 6 of Doc Martin arrives this week.

SUBTITLED: Alain Resnais brings us the unique You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, which brings a fantastic class of French theatrical actors to the reading of a playwright's will. A video of a performance of Eurydice with a group of young actors is revealed, prompting the older actors to again step into the roles. Theatre lovers will eat this one up.

All of our current and upcoming DVDs and Blu-rays can be found in our Bibliocommons catalog.

Monday Night at the Movies
Our next Monday Night at the Movies program is This is Martin Bonner, a quiet film that follows its title character in Reno, Nevada, where he has relocated to start a new life as a counselor for newly released prisoners. The film will be screened at 1:00 and 7:00 on Monday, December 16th at the Glencoe Woman's Club, 325 Tudor Ct. All of our movie programs are free and open to anyone.

Holiday Videos are Available!

Our holiday videos are now available on a cart in front of our subtitled video section! All of our holiday videos circulate for 1 week. Some highlights? Various versions of A Christmas Carol, Bill Murray's hilarious Scrooged, the classic Miracle on 34th Street, the raunchy Bad Santa and of course, It's a Wonderful Life. All of our holiday DVDs can be found here.

Also, if you're looking for a great gift, please consider a library movie rental gift card, which will give you 10 movies rentals for only $9!!! Truly a gift that all ages can appreciate!

Flick Picks 12/3/13: The Wolverine, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Smurfs 2

New on DVD and Blu-ray at the library

ENTERTAINMENT: Hugh Jackman dons the adamantium yet again for The Wolverine, which takes the X-Man of the title to Japan where he must protect the daughter of a man whose life he once saved. The Asian setting for the film makes it a unique addition to the seemingly endless stream of superhero flicks while talented director James Mangold keeps the action moving. Also this week, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is the latest young adult book to hit the big screen, telling the story of half-angels in modern day New York who must protect our world from being overrun by demons. If you are seeing little blue men it's probably not because you haven't recovered from your Thanksgiving celebration but rather the family's screening of Smurfs 2, in which Neil Patrick Harris must fly to Paris to rescue our kidnapped heroes! Finally, this week's indie pick is Drinking Buddies, a low-key comedy-drama set in a Chicago brewery where four friends (Olivia Wilde, Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick and Jake Johnson) try to figure out just exactly what they mean to each other.

DOCUMENTARIES: You probably haven't heard of Freda Kelly but she was the secretary for and friend of the Beatles, and in Good Ol' Freda she tells her story. Sir Nicholas Winton, an Englishman who rescued 669 Jewish Czech and Slovak children, is profiled in Nicky's Family.

SUBTITLED: A Canadian obstetrician living in Jerusalem and working in a Palestian refuge camp tries to build bridges between the two in Inch'Allah. The erotic Italian psychological thriller The Future tells the story of two boys who attempt to rob a former Mr. Universe (Rutger Hauer) by enlisting the help of a seductive young woman.

All of our current and upcoming DVDs can be found in Bibliocommons.

Food on DVD

Peggy Wolff's talk about her book Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food takes place Thursday night at 7:30 and it may leave you inspired. Luckily we are here to help with these great food related DVDs!

• Julia Child may no longer be with us but her legacy lives on in great books and videos, such as Julia Child's French Classics.
• The cooking series The Essential Pepin features entire episodes with Jacques Pepin focusing on a particular type of food.
• People of all sizes will enjoy the British Two Fat Ladies series.
• If you're in a hurry then you might need 30 Minute Meals With Rachael Ray.
• Filmed in the test kitchens of Cook's Illustrated magazine, America's Test Kitchen is a PBS series that will make you drool.
• For something a little different, how about How to Cook Your Life, a cooking class from a Zen master?

Flick Picks 11/26/13: Red 2, Jobs, final season of Breaking Bad

New at the library on DVD this week

ENTERTAINMENT: Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Brian Cox are once again forced to leave the bingo parlor and reenter the espionage game in order to find a lost nuclear bomb and save humanity in Red 2. Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones are along for the ride and John Malkovich is his usual eccentric self in this made-to-please sequel to the 2010 hit. Expect plenty of action, a little romance and many jokes about growing old. Also this week, Ashton Kuchter dons the black turtleneck in Jobs, a look at what made Steve Jobs tick as he changed the world with the Apple computer.

SERIES: The explosive ending of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman's adventures as drug dealers arrives this week as we reach the final season of Breaking Bad. Also up is season 6 of Murdoch Mysteries.

SUBTITLED: An actress comes out of rehab and tries to reconnect with her family and her audience while also dealing with her personal demons in the Danish Applause.

DOCUMENTARIES: The rock doc Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, focuses on Alex Chilton's influential and formerly obscure rock band.

All of our new and upcoming DVD releases are available on Bibliocommons.

Talking Pictures
On Wednesday, December 4th at 1:00 we will be screening the film Love, Actually in our Hammond Room. A conversation with Susan Benjamin will follow. All of our Talking Pictures programs are free and open to everyone.

Thanksgiving DVDs

It's time to give thanks for family, friends, health and videos! If you're looking for a film for Thanksgiving then you've come to the right place. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is always a hit with the kids and brings back some great memories for parents. If you're struggling with ideas for what to cook then you'll want to pick up Jacques Pepin's Thanksgiving Celebration. Did you know that The Last Waltz - Martin Scorcese's film of The Band's final concert - was filmed on Thanksgiving Day? The classic Woody Allen film Hannah and her Sisters begins and ends at the Thanksgiving table. Some other movies with key Thanksgiving scenes? Pieces of April, Funny People and The Blind Side!

Flick Picks 11/19/13: 2 Guns, The World's End, We're the Millers, Planes

New This Week at the Library on DVD
ENTERTAINMENT: Denzel Washington has one and Mark Wahlberg has one, and when we put them together we get 2 Guns! Washington and Wahlberg play an undercover DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence officer who are thrown together while on the trail of a Mexican drug pusher played by Edward James Olmos. Expect to see a lot more than two guns by the end of this buddy thriller. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright team up again to finish what is being referred to as The Cornetto Trilogy, the first two films of which were the hilarious Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The third in the loosely connected series -The World's End - follows five old friends as they attempt to recreate a pub crawl from their youth.

Also this week, former SNLer Jason Sudekis is a small time drug dealer who must put together a fake family (including stripper Jennifer Aniston as his wife) and escape to Mexico after upsetting his supplier in We're the Millers. The studio that brought us Cars decides to stretch its wings and offer up another animated talking vehicle vehicle with Planes. Dane Cook, Stacy Keach and Teri Hatcher are just a few of the human stars offering up their voices. Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza plays a young overachiever who decides to experience life before she goes to college in the raunchy and explicit comedy The To Do List. Michael Cera is a young American travelling through Chile who meets up with a free spirited young woman while searching for a rare hallucinogenic cactus in the rambling comedy Crystal Fairy.

SERIES: The first made-for-Netflix series Lilyhammer finally arrives on DVD. This darkly comic show features The Sopranos' Steven Van Zandt as a (surprise!) mobster who goes into hiding in Norway. Also this week, the residents of New Orleans returns for a third season of Treme.

FOREIGN: Hannah Arendt is set during the 1961 Adolf Eichmann trials (which produced Arendt's "banality of evil" concept) and superbly captures the brilliant mind of philosopher Arendt. Audrey Tautou's title character in Therese wants to escape her boring marriage in this beautiful historical drama set in southwest France.

All of our current and upcoming DVD releases can be found in Bibliocommons.

John F. Kennedy on Video

Friday is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and there has been no shortage of coverage in the news as of late. The library also has a number of videos to help you remember Kennedy and his place in American history.

• Take a look back to the early days of JFK's administration as Jackie Kennedy leads you on A Tour of the White House.
• The PBS American Experience program The Presidents looks at the history and legacy of the Kennedys in politics.
• The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings focuses on the Kennedys and the Irish-Catholics in America.
• The History Channel's The Kennedys is a dramatization of their lives and scandals and stars Greg Kinnear as JFK.
• Parkland is the recent feature film starring Zac Efron and Billy Bob Thornton about the chaotic events following JFK's assassination.

Flick Picks 11/12/13: Man of Steel, Turbo

New on DVD at the library this week:

ENTERTAINMENT: Mild-mannered reporter by day and superhero when needed, Superman returns in the Zack Snyder-directed Man of Steel, which offers yet another origin story detailing the arrival, early years and first major battle of earth's greatest protector. Henry Cavill dons the cape, Kevin Costner is his wise earth dad, Amy Adams is Lois Lane and Michael Shannon threatens mankind as General Zod. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Turbo is the newest animated film from the creators of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda and tells the tale of a snail who wants to be the greatest racer in the world. It features the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph and many others and we own it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Also this week, Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin wrote, directed and starred in the comedy Dealin' With Idiots, which focuses on the adults surrounding a youth baseball league. It's semi-improvised and also features the talents of Gina Gershon, Bob Odenkirk and Nia Vardalos. Finally, we've got a couple of fun indie picks this week from established independent directors. The always interesting Noah Baumbach, who directed The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, offers up Frances Ha about a young woman (Greta Gerwig) finding herself in New York City. Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green gives us the offbeat comedy Prince Avalanche featuring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as men painting traffic lines on a deserted rural highway.

SERIES: How does it all end for the killer who only kills killers? Find out in the final season of Dexter. We've also got a few new series from the BBC this week.The Paradise focuses on a Victorian era shopgirl in Britain's first department store. In Last Tango in Halifax, childhood sweethearts reunite after being apart for 60 years, though their families create challenges in their attempt to be together again. Finally, Silk follows rival barristers attempting to advance in the British legal arena.

SUBTITLED: An Israeli Palestinian doctor with a comfortable life in Tel Aviv finds out that his wife was a suicide bomber in The Attack. Barbara, which won the Best Director award at the Berlin film festival, is a Cold War spy thriller about a woman trying to escape from East Berlin. The leisurely paced, artsy Tabu brings us the story of an elderly Portuguese woman's past in Africa, fifty years earlier.

DOCUMENTARIES: Blackfish is a brutal look at orcas, or "killer whales", in captivity, including one that has taken the lives of several people. On the lighter side, Hava Nagila discusses the history and meaning of the celebrated title song.

PERFORMING ARTS: There's something for Deadheads this week, as Move Me Brightly celebrates what would have been Jerry Garcia's 70th birthday with performances by surviving members of the Grateful Dead and others such as Carlos Santana and members of Phish and the Black Crowes.

All of our current and upcoming DVDs can be found in Bibliocommons.

Monday Night at the Movies
On November 18th we will be screening Stories We Tell at the Woman's Library Club. The film chronicles actor and director Sarah Polley’s quest to determine her biological father. It runs 108 minutes and is free and open to everyone.

Veterans Day Films

Veterans Day has come and gone but we never want to stop honoring those who have served our country. Here are some great films that look at what soldiers have gone through.

• Best Years of Our Lives is the classic Frederic March and Myrna Loy film about three soldiers returning to their small towns following World War II.
• Director Clint Eastwood tells the life stories of the Marines and Naval officer who raised the flag at Iwo Jima in Flags of Our Fathers.
• Saving Private Ryan is Steven Spielberg's classic and intense look at a group of soldiers who must venture behind enemy lines to rescue and bring home a soldier.
• Return features Linda Cardellini as an Iraq War veteran who brings personal demons back home to her husband (Michael Shannon) and small town.
• A soldier whose job it is to inform people when their family is killed in battle faces an ethical dilemma when he becomes romantically involved with a widow in The Messenger.
• In the recent Academy Award winning The Hurt Locker, a soldier charged with disarming bombs comes home only to find that he misses the adrenaline of his military career.

Flick Picks 11/5/13: The Hobbit, White House Down, Grown Ups 2

New on DVD at the library this week!

ENTERTAINMENT: This week brings us a cornucopia of new movie choices - if you don't check one of these out it must be because your DVD player is broken! To start, Peter Jackson returns to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which offers the adventures of a young Bilbo Baggins as he's swept into a quest to help the dwarves and battle a nasty dragon. If you loved the Lord of the Rings series then you definitely need to get started on The Hobbit trilogy before the second film of the trilogy comes to theaters next month! The film stars Martin Freeman and returns Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm and more to their Lord of the Rings roles. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, police officer Channing Tatum and U.S. President Jamie Foxx must take matters into their own hands when a paramilitary group attacks the title building in White House Down, available on DVD and Blu-ray. Finally, the low-brow comic dream team of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade return to relive their youth in Grown Ups 2.

Other new entertainment releases:

• Parkland takes a behind the scenes look at the events that unfolded on the day that John F. Kennedy was shot and features Zach Efron, Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and Marcia Gay Harden.
• Amanda Seyfried has received raves for her portrayal of the title character in Lovelace, the story of the woman who either willingly or under coercion portrayed the starring role in the infamous porn film Deep Throat.
• In the comedy-drama Girl Most Likely, Kristen Wiig plays a failed playright forced to move back in with her mother (Annette Bening) after she fakes a suicide attempt. 
• Larry David's Clear History is a made-for-HBO movie about a former marketing director who plots revenge against his former boss (Jon Hamm) who cheated him out of millions. It is a must-see for Curb Your Enthusiasm addicts. 
• The always stylish Brian DePalma also offers up a corporate revenge story with Passion, a remake of the French Love Crime, which focuses on the competition between an advertising executive (Rachel McAdams) and her protege (Noomi Rapace). 
• The coming-of-age film Broken focuses on an 11 year-old English girl who tries to manipulate through various neighborhood dramas. Cillian Murphy and Tim Roth are the big names in this little film. 
• Finally, our indie pick for the week is the surprisingly humorous Computer Chess, which does a fantastic job tackling the early days of technology as it focuses on computer nerds trying to build the ultimate chess machine.

SERIES: Don Draper and the rest of the crew return for season 6 of Mad Men. Also this week, Stephen King brings us the adaptation of his novel about a town trapped under a transparent roof in Under the Dome. The eagerly anticipated second season of the highly regarded French cop thriller Spiral also arrives this week.

SUBTITLED: In 1915, the son of elderly painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir returns home after being wounded in World War I in the impressionistic feeling Renoir. Also, a great Swedish trilogy of tv movies makes its way to the U.S. as the Johan Falk trilogy follows a tough Swedish cop across Europe.

DOCUMENTARY: Deceptive Practice takes a look at magician/actor/raconteur Ricky Jay and includes lots of rare early footage. The HBO documentary An Apology to Elephants shines a light on abuse and poor living conditions in zoos and circuses. Another HBO documentary, Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden, serves as a nice companion to Zero Dark Thirty. Masters of Money is a three part film that lets a BBC economist explain the global economic crisis of 2008 by focusing on the theories of Keynes, Hayek and Marx.

Talking Pictures
Our next Talking Pictures program with Susan Benjamin is the Woody Allen drama Match Point. This film will be screened in the library's Hammond Room on Thursday, November 7th at 1:00 and will be followed by a discussion. All of our movie programs are free and open to everyone.

The best films are on Criterion!

Are you familiar with The Criterion Collection of films? Criterion takes some of the best classic, foreign and new films and offers pristine transfers as well as fascinating commentaries and informative booklets. The library has a large collection of Criterion films and they're almost always worth checking out! Here are a few titles:

• Jack Benny's peak as a film star was To Be Or Not To Be (later remade by Mel Brooks) which is both hilarious and subversive as it takes on the Nazis in the early years of World War II. Also be sure to check out director Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living and Trouble in Paradise.
• If you enjoy the show Girls then you'll want to watch Tiny Furniture, Lena Dunham's feature film debut.
• Filmed in 1953, Tokyo Story is the timeless story of elderly parents visiting their children who live a very different lifestyle.
• The Ruling Class is the bizarre and hilarious story of a man (played by Peter O'Toole) who believes that he's god, only to be "cured" to become convinced that he is Jack the Ripper.
• Pina is Wim Wenders' creative and colorful look at modern dance original Pina Bausch.
• Reconnect with indie filmmaking pioneer John Cassavetes' classics Faces and A Woman Under the Influence.
• Before Robert Redford was trapped on a boat he was an Olympic skiing hopeful in 1969's Downhill Racer.

Flick Picks 10/28/13: Monsters University, R.I.P.D., Byzantium

New on DVD at the library this week

ENTERTAINMENT: If you left Monsters, Inc. wishing that you had more of the backstory about the lead characters Mike and Sulley then you'll definitely want to enroll in Monsters University. This Pixar-made prequel to the 2001 blockbuster brings back the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman as it tells the story of how the leads moved from being rivals to friends while enrolled in enrolled in the prestigious title college. Also this week, Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are undead police officers who must spoil the dastardly plot of a villain determined to bring the dead back to life in R.I.P.D. A third supernatural tale this week is Byzantium, in which Interview With the Vampire director Neil Jordan returns to the subject of the undead and tells the tale of a mother and daughter pair of vampires who are just trying to get by in a world filled with mortals. This stylish film features Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan and Jonny Lee Miller.

SERIES: Christopher Guest's funny new semi-improvised HBO series Family Tree stars Chris O'Dowd as a young man investigating his family history. For something a little darker, the BBC cop drama Line of Duty follows an officer in an anti-corruption unit as he investigates an award-winning detective.

SUBTITLED: Jean Reno and Melanie Laurent star in Le Rafle, about the infamous Paris raid of 1942 that sent 13,000 Jews to concentration camps.

You can find all of our new and upcoming releases on Bibliocommons!

SPOOOOOKY Halloween DVDs!

You never really need an excuse to watch a scary movie. Nonetheless, Halloween is always a great inspiration to turn off the lights and tune in to some ghosts, goblins and ghouls. We have an excellent collection of classic and new horror flicks to raise your hair!

Classic horror: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Psycho, The Exorcist, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, Rosemary's Baby, The Bad Seed, The Stepford Wives, Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Bloodsuckers: Fright Night, Dark Shadows, Let Me In, The Twilight Saga, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Spirits: The Woman in Black, Ghostbusters, The Sixth Sense, Evil Dead, Mama, Sinister, Insidious

Brain Eaters: World War Z, Warm Bodies, Zombieland, 28 Days Later

Slashers: The Silence of the Lambs, Scre4m, The Purge

All of the Above: Cabin in the Woods

For the Kids: Monster House, The Haunted Mansion, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Casper, ParaNorman, Wiggly Halloween, Hotel Transylvania

Flick Picks 10/21/13: Before Midnight, The Conjuring, The Internship

New on DVD at the library this week

ENTERTAINMENT: Richard Linklater continues the tale of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), the couple who first met in Vienna, later reunited in Paris and, after the events of the second film, remained a couple and had twin girls together. Before Midnight, which takes the couple to a friend's house in Greece, once again follows the two as they try to deal with the struggles of family and love. Some people have called the Before Sunrise / Before Sunset / Before Midnight trilogy one of the best film trilogies of all time. The Conjuring was both a surprise box office hit and a well reviewed horror film, coming just in time for Halloween! Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Ron Livingston star in this spooky tale of paranormal investigators trying to figure out why a farmhouse is haunted.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson bring the laughs in The Internship, which follows the two as they try to prove that they are not too old to succeed in the digital workplace of Google. The touching The Way, Way Back follows an unhappy 14-year old who bonds with the owner of a nearby waterpark. A fantastic cast of Steve Carell, Maya Rudolph, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell and Amanda Peet make this a can't miss comedy. If you enjoy the Four Weddings and a Funeral brand of British romantic comedy then you'll want to take home I Give it a Year, which features Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall as a married couple approaching their one year anniversary. Simon Baker, Anna Faris, Stephen Merchant and Minnie Driver round out the cast. Finally, fans of Drive won't want to miss the similarly ultraviolent neon-lit Only God Forgives which reunites director Nicolas Winding Refn with Ryan Gosling, while bringing Kristin Scott Thomas along for the story of a man trying to avenge his brother's murder in Bangkok.

SUBTITLED: The mysterious The Wall shows us a woman who must survive when the sudden appearance of a wall locks her in the Austrian countryside, cutting her off from the rest of civilization.

DOCUMENTARIES: With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, it seems like an opportune time for The Waiting Room, which shows how an Oakland, California hospital deals with an influx of largely uninsured patients. Leviathan is as much of an experience as it is a documentary, as it takes you aboard an enormous New England commercial fishing vessel. It's beautifully filmed even as it captures the harshness of this life.

All of our new and upcoming DVDs and Blu-rays are available in Bibliocommons.

Nutrition and diet DVDs

Did you catch Jeanne Nolan's talk on Tuesday night about her life in organic gardening? If you found it inspiring you should know that we have many great videos about the food that you choose to put in your body!

• Explore the benefits of a vegetarian diet with Forks Over Knives.
• One man changes his diet and his life in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.
• In Super Size Me, director Morgan Spurlock eats only McDonalds for a month and observes the effect that it has on his body.
• If you or someone you know have food allergies then you should check out I'm Not Nuts, which sheds a light on causes and coping strategies.
• Food Inc. takes a look at the small number of companies that control the food supplies in the U.S.
• Do you drink a lot of bottled water? Tapped just might make you think twice as it follows water from ocean to bottle.

Flick Picks 10/14/13: Pacific Rim, The Heat

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: If giant monsters fighting massive robots isn't your idea of entertainment, then Pacific Rim is probably not for you! On the other hand, those of you who realize that it's the BEST form of entertainment will want to watch this epic visual treat on the largest screen possible. Sci-fi stylist Guillermo del Toro brings us the story of robot jockeys (including Charlie Hunnam) fighting to keep our world safe from invaders. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are also fighting bad guys in The Heat. The director of Bridesmaids brings us a buddy cop flick in which two mismatched police officers must work together to bring down a drug lord. It's also available in both DVD and Blu-ray. Finally, fans of previous collaborations of actor Steve Coogan and director Michael Winterbottom (which include Tristram Shandy and The Trip) will definitely want to check out The Look of Love, about Paul Raymond who opened the UK's first strip club in 1958.

SERIES: Gillian Anderson is back on tv in the BBC crime drama The Fall, in which she plays a British detective hunting a serial killer in Belfast. History Channel's first scripted series Vikings follows the head of a Norse clan who rises to King.

SUBTITLED: Fans of the movie Captain Phillips won't want to miss the similarly themed A Hijacking, about a Danish ship taken over by Somali pirates. The brilliant Luc Besson colorfully adapts a popular French adventure comic about an adventurous young woman in early 20th century Paris in the fun live action Adele Blanc-Sec. Finally, the gorgeously animated The Painting resembles art more than cartoons in the parable of the artist and his various creations. It's a French animated film that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

DOCUMENTARIES: Tom Selleck is the narrator of North America, a beautifully shot look at the continent on which we live. Jeremy Scahill adapts his book to bring us the movie Dirty Wars, which investigates the U.S. involvement in covert wars. Anglophiles will want to take a look at Julien Temple's London: The Modern Babylon, that shows the combination of historical factors that have created the exciting and diverse London that we know.

PERFORMING ARTS: The big green guy is back and now he sings in Shrek: The Musical, the Broadway adaptation of the popular film.

You can find all of our new and upcoming releases in Bibliocommons.

Monday Night at the Movies
Our next Monday Night at the Movies is What Maisie Knew, which stars Julianne Moore and Alexander Skarsgard in the modern adaptation of the Henry James novel about a divorce as seen through the eyes of a six-year-old. The film will screen at 1:00 and 7:00 on Monday, October 21st at the Woman's Library Club (325 Tudor Ct.) Our Monday Night at the Movies films are free and are open to everyone.

Videos on Islam

We are almost at the end of the 4-day festival Eid al-Adha, which is one of the most important holidays from the Islamic calendar. Would you like to learn more about the world's second most popular religion? We can help!

• Islam, Empire of Faith is a PBS program that provides an overview of the history of the religion.
• Frontline's Muslims looks more specifically at what it means to be a Muslim in the 21st century.
• The National Geographic show Inside the Koran focuses on the religion's religious text.
• Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World looks at 1400 years of Muslim arts, crafts and architecture.
• Based on an autobiographical graphic novel, the animated Persepolis shows what it was like to grow up a woman in an Iran run by Islamic fundamentalists.

Flick Picks 10/7/13: Hangover Part III, Much Ado About Nothing, After Earth

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: This week, one of the most important and provocative movies of all time comes to DVD...oh, who are we kidding? The Hangover Part III continues the misadventures of the Wolfpack as they return to Las Vegas, the scene of the first Hangover movie. The team gets involved with gangsters and giraffes and see the return of Mr. Chow, who wreaks his own particular havoc. Director Todd Phillips once again directs and Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha all return to provide us with the usual dose of uneasy laughs. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. There's a slightly classier alternative this week, as Avengers director Joss Whedon brings us a modern adaptation of William Shakepeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Filmed in under two weeks in black and white, Whedon gives us a great young cast of Nathan Fillion, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg and Amy Acker in the tale of a pair of battling young lovers.

After Earth was publicized as a Will Smith film but it's pretty much his son Jaden's show, as the kid must survive a hostile planet in order to rescue both his father and himself. M. Night Shyamalan directs. Can you imagine a world in which there is very little crime excepting one night a year, when violence is encouraged? This is the premise of The Purge, which stars Ethan Hawke as the head of a family that makes the mistake of letting an injured man into their secure compound on the wrong night. For something a little lighter, Greg Kinnear plays a divorced novelist, Jennifer Connelly is his ex-wife and Kristen Bell is the neighbor offering him encouragement in the romantic comedy Stuck in Love. Finally, Salman Rushdie wrote the script for the adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children about two Indian kids who are switched at birth.

SERIES: A second season of American Horror Story is upon us just in time for Halloween, and while it has an entirely different setting and plot from the first season, a number of actors - including Jessica Lange - return. If you like your spooky series with an English accent then check out Secret of Crickley Hall, in which a family moves into a haunted house that is somehow connected to their missing son. We've also got new seasons of Bones (season 8), White Collar (season 4) and The Middle (season 3).

SUBTITLED: Aliyah is about a French drug dealer who becomes in touch with his Jewish roots as he tries to get his life together and emigrate to Israel.

You can find all of our new and upcoming DVD releases in Bibliocommons!

Modernized Shakespeare

This week's release of Much Ado About Nothing brings us a new adaptation of a classic Shakespeare play in a modern setting. Should this whet your appetite for the Bard, we have many other Shakespeare-based films in modern and surprising settings!

• One of the more obscure Shakespeare works, Coriolanus, was set in ancient Rome but has been moved to modern times by director Ralph Fiennes.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream's setting has been shifted to 19th Century Italy in the 1999 Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer adaptation.
• Baz Luhrmann gives us his contemporary flashy take on Romeo and Juliet, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the tragic lovers.
• Hamlet gets a modern touch (his castle has security cameras!) in the David Tennant and Patrick Stewart made-for-BBC version.
• Get your kids started young on Shakespeare with...The Lion King??? Sure enough, this animated classic was based on Hamlet!
• Ran is director Akira Kurosawa's classic version of King Lear set in feudal Japan.
• We also have no shortage of Shakespeare filmed in more traditional ways!

Flick Picks 9/30/13: This is The End, The Croods, The Frozen Ground

New on DVD this week at your library!

ENTERTAINMENT: Some of Hollywood's funniest young stars portray themselves as the apocalypse arrives in This is The End. Funnyman Seth Rogan co-wrote, co-directed and co-stars in this raunchy, star-studded comedic look at what happens when self-indulgent Hollywood actors are faced with the end of civilization as they know it. James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride are the leads and there are cameos from Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum and more. Also this month, you might have missed the Nicholas Cage and John Cusack mystery The Frozen Ground when it was in the theaters so now you can get caught up! It's based on the true story of an Alaskan state trooper who tries to track a serial killer. Finally, kids will want to meet The Croods, a Stone Age family that is forced to explore the world after its cave is destroyed. Nicholas Cage's voice stars in this one, along with those of Emma Stone, Catherine Keener and Ryan Reynolds.

SERIES: Guy Pearce comes to the small screen in the Australian import Jack Irish, in which he plays an alcoholic criminal lawyer turned private investigator following his wife's murder. We've got the second of the classic Doctor Who specials The Doctors Revisited 5-8, which features a documentary about the second quartet of Doctors as well as a representative episode from each one. This week also brings us season 8 of How I Met Your Mother, season 4 of Glee and season 2 of New Girl.

DOCUMENTARIES: If you're interested in an overview of the evolution of the environmental movement you'll want to see A Fierce Green Fire, which is narrated by Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Ashley Judd.

You can find all of our new and forthcoming releases in Bibliocommons!

Talking Pictures
Susan Benjamin returns to host Talking Pictures on Monday, October 7th when we will be showing Parental Guidance, starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. Talking Pictures features are screened in the Hammond Room of the library at 1:00 and are free and open to everyone.

TV for a Government Shutdown

We're now in the midst of a government shutdown which may inspire you to want to see more of the comedy, back-stabbing and intrigue that happens behind Washington DC's locked doors. The following series are all great looks at politics, U.S. and elsewhere

• Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Vice President Selina Meyer in Veep, as she tries to negotiate politics and deal with a crazy staff.
• Another Emmy winner - Kevin Spacey - stars in House of Cards, which follows the political manipulations of a vengeful Congressman. It is based on the BBC series of the same name.
• President Bartlett in The West Wing probably could have averted a government shutdown with an appeal to the American people's conscience.
• The UK government has its own craziness as the darkly comic The Thick of It (later adapted into the feature film In the Loop) shows.
• No Job for a Lady was a sitcom about the misadventures of a newly elected female British Prime Minister.
• A much darker look at UK politics is the miniseries The Politician's Wife, in which a woman tries to end her husband's political career after discovering his affair.
• One of the best political dramas around - Borgen - comes from Denmark and revolves around their fictional first female Prime Minister.

Flick Picks 9/24/13: Iron Man 3, Redemption, Unfinished Song

New on DVD at the Library This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT: Robert Downey once again dons the metal suit and takes on the baddies in Iron Man 3. This time, Downey must fight international terrorist The Mandarin who has targeted Tony Stark for elimination. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle return to once again bring us nonstop action interspersed with wisecracks (or is it the other way around?) We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. If that's not enough action for you, Jason Statham plays an ex-Special Forces officer who is out for revenge when he learns the identity of his friend's murderer in Redemption.

We also have some quieter options as well. The incredible Terence Stamp stars in the sweet and sentimental Unfinished Song, about a curmudgeon whose discovery of his love of music changes his life. Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Eccleston and Gemma Arterton round up the cast. Opera fans are sure to enjoy 1st Night, which features Richard E. Grant as a wealthy businessman who decides to stage an opera while romancing Sarah Brightman (playing an orchestra conductor). Our indie pic this week is The Kings of Summer, a quirky look at three teenagers who decide to build a house and live off the land. It was a hit at the Sundance festival and has a supporting cast that includes Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie.

SERIES: Everyone's favorite cannibal is the focus of the series Hannibal, which follows the relationship between psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and a young FBI profiler (Hugh Dancy). Also arriving this week are season 7 of Foyle's War and season 4 of Modern Family.

SUBTITLED: Kristin Scott Thomas works out her French-speaking muscles in the darkly comic drama In the House about the relationship between a teacher who becomes involved in the life of a talented teenage boy. Also from France, Carlos director Olivier Assayas brings us Something in the Air, about a young couple in early 1970s France who become politicized, and eventually head down a dangerous path. Finally, Israel sends us the drama Fill the Void, in which a woman must choose between marrying her true love or her sister's widower. It won 7 Ophir awards (the Israeli Oscars) and was Israel's entry for Best Foreign Language at the Academy Awards.

DOCUMENTARIES: Are you a fan of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining? You're probably not anywhere as big a fan as the people who are interviewed in the eccentric Room 237, each of whom brings his or her insane theories to explain the meaning of the film.

All of our new releases are available in Bibliocommons!

Get Caught up on Emmy Winners

The winners of the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced Sunday night and as usual the show was a mix of comedy, clothes and controversy! We've got all of the Emmy Award winners that are currently available on DVD so it's a great time to watch them all!

Drama Series: Breaking Bad
Comedy Series: Modern Family
Miniseries or Movie: Behind the Candelabra
Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Claire Danes, Homeland
Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra
Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie: Laura Linney, The Big C: Hereafter
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Bobby Cannavale, Boardwalk Empire
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Tony Hale, Veep
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie
Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie: Ellen Burstyn, Political Animals (coming soon)
Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: James Cromwell, American Horror Story
Directing for a Drama Series: House of Cards
Directing for a Comedy Series: Modern Family
Directing for a Miniseries or Movie: Behind the Candelabra
Writing for Miniseries or Movie: The Hour
Writing for Drama Series: Homeland
Writing for Comedy Series: 30 Rock