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.
