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.