Flick Picks 4/29/14: Labor Day, Mr. Selfridge Season 2

New on DVD at the Library This Week:

ENTERTAINMENT: Jason Reitman, whose resume includes Juno, Up in the Air and Young Adult, is back with Labor Day, a film centered around the relationship between a reclusive single mother (Kate Winslet) and an escaped convict (Josh Brolin). It's both a thriller and a heartwarming romance as Winslet and her 13-year-old son must figure out whether Brolin's presence is a benefit or a threat. Geoffrey Rush leads the cast of the Hitchcockian The Best Offer which is about a solitary antiques dealer who becomes involved with a mysterious young woman. Our indie pick this week is the gritty British import The Selfish Giant, about two impoverished young friends who become increasingly involved with scrap metal theft, despite the dangers that they face.

SERIES: Jeremy Piven returns to the role of the department store owner of the title in season 2 of Mr. Selfridge.

SUBTITLED: A fantastic performance by its lead actress (and a 99% Rotten Tomatoes rating) make the Chilean drama Gloria a must-see. It's a sweet yet honest look at a middle-aged divorcee who enters into a romance with an older man. Also this week, a Laotian boy builds a rocket for a competition in order to prove that he's not cursed in The Rocket.

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

Talking Pictures
We will be screening 42, the Jackie Robinson story, on Thursday, May 1 at 1:00 as part of our Talking Pictures series of films and discussions. The film stars Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford and runs 128 minutes. The film will be shown in the library's Hammond Room. All of our film screenings are free and open to everyone!

Earth Day

Did you celebrate Earth Day last week? Earth Day always serves as a great reminder of the ways that we can change our habits to protect the planet. Here are some DVDs to help motivate you into lessening your impact!

• The David Attenborough series Planet Earth set a new standard for impossible footage filmed in remote locations.
• We hear about the oceans rising but The Island President shows us the Maldives, where residents are being forced to potentially vacate their homeland because of water levels.
• The oceans are rising but fresh water may become harder to find, as Last Call at the Oasis explains.
• What does "progress" mean for our society's future? That's the question that Surviving Progress poses to many experts.
• You may be familiar with the controversial practice of using fracking to get natural gas out of the ground. Gasland takes a look at whether fracking is safe and environmentally friendly.
• The End of the Line explorer how modern fishing practices are potentially going to cause large-scale fish extinctions.
• It turns out that our country's food supply is controlled by a few corporations, and Food, Inc. looks at what this means for consumers and farm workers.
• Both sides of the wind power debate are covered in Windfall, which shows what happens when a rural town is turned over to a wind developer.

Flick Picks 4/22/14: The Invisible Woman

New on DVD at the Library This Week

The Easter holiday means a very slow week for new releases. The good news is that this gives you more time to catch up on DVDs that you might have missed! Here's what's coming out this week:

Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Felicity Jones star in The Invisible Woman, based on Charles Dickens' love affair with the much younger actress Ellen Ternan. Fiennes performs double-duty by also directing this somber period drama.

The documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali focuses on Ali's attempt to overturn a five year prison sentence after he converted to Islam and refused to serve in Vietnam.

You can find all of our new and upcoming DVDs on Bibliocommons.

Holocaust Remembrance Day
Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, begins the evening of Sunday the 27th and we have a number of moving documentaries to help us bear witness to the Holocaust's atrocities.

• The Last Flight of Petr Ginz relates the story of a Czechoslovak boy who died in a concentration camp at age 14, leaving behind a diary and many works of art and fiction.
• Friends and family recall Anne Frank in Anne Frank Remembered, which also includes vintage footage and and photos.
• A Film Unfinished focuses on Nazi-made footage of the Warsaw Ghetto, much of which was staged for the outside world.
• Like the well-known Oskar Schindler, Nicholas Winton saved the life of many children during World War II, and the film Nicky's Family brings his name to light.
• The French film Shoah features hours of interviews with survivors, prison guards and local residents and workers.
• Hitler's Children takes a look at the descendants of some of Hitler's top associates and asks how they can deal with their past.

Flick Picks 4/15/14: Philomena, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

New on DVD at the Library This Week:

ENTERTAINMENT: One of the sleeper hits of the year is the must-see drama Philomena, based on the true story of a British mother who gave her son up for adoption (after signing an agreement that she wouldn't try to track him down) and later decided to discover his whereabouts. The film stars Judi Dench as the title character and the fantastic Steve Coogan is the reporter from the BBC who helps her out. Director Stephen Frears, whose steady hands held the camera for The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Dirty Pretty Things and many more, directs this one. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, Ben Stiller offers up his take on the The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, in which his daydreams start to take his life's center stage. Stiller stars and directs and Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt and Shirley MacLaine try to bring him back to reality.

Anglophiles have some great options this week with some new British imports. Mike Newell, the director of Four Weddings and a Funeral, offers up a new take on Dickens' classic Great Expectations, with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter leading up a talented cast. Murder on the Home Front is a mystery in which an early forensic scientist investigates murders taking place during the London Blitz of 1940. Also from the BBC, The Making of a Lady is an adaptation of a novel by The Secret Garden's Frances Hodgson Burnett about a woman who begins to fear for her life when her husband's relatives begin acting strangely towards her.

SERIES: There are two new releases from the UK, as we welcome seasons 2 of the World War II codebreaker drama The Bletchley Circle and the Victorian-age detective thriller Ripper Street.

SUBTITLED: A Touch of Sin is a drama based on four stories in contemporary China, in which economic change drives four different characters in disparate parts to violence.

DOCUMENTARIES: The fascinating The End of Time takes us to places around the world where we can witness destruction and rebirth and in doing so makes us reconsider our perception of time.

You can find all of our new and upcoming DVDs on Bibliocommons.

Monday at the Movies
Our next Monday at the Movies screening is the film Wadjda, the first full-length feature shot in Saudi Arabia and the first ever by a female Saudi director. It's the story of a young girl living in a suburb of Riyadh determined to raise enough money to buy a bike in a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. The film will be shown on Monday, April 21 at 1:00 and 7:00 at the Glencoe Woman's Club at 325 Tudor Ct. It is 98 minutes long and rated PG. All of our screenings are free and open to everybody.

Live Music on DVD

Ravinia has announced its outdoor season and surely you need something to tide you over until you can enjoy live music outside in the Highland Park breezes. We've got music of all genres to keep your toes tapping until summer arrives.

• He's plays a doctor on TV but in the real world he's got a successful musical career going. Enjoy Hugh Laurie and band as they play Live on the Queen Mary.
• Jerry Garcia's 70th birthday is celebrated by former bandmates and special guests such as Carlos Santana and Mike Gordon from Phish in Move Me Brightly.
• Love for Levon, another tribute to a deceased musician (Levon Helm from The Band), has Gregg Allman, Roger Waters, John Mayer, John Prine and many more musical all-stars offering up their takes on many Band classics.
• Paul McCartney is still playing marathon live shows but Rockshow brings you Wings at their 1970s performing peak
• If you think Adele is impressive on record then you should check her out live as well! Live at the Royal Albert Hall brings her voice to center stage.
• Neil Young's Bridge School Concerts never fail to entertain as they bring together rockers such as Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson and R.E.M. to play for charity.
• Harry Connick Jr. offers up his New Orleans-influenced repertoire in New York with In Concert on Broadway.

Flick Picks 4/8/14: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, August: Osage County

New at the Library on DVD This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: The epic tale of Bilbo Baggins and friends continues in part two of the The Hobbit trilogy: The Desolation of Smaug. In this one, Bilbo, Gandalf and the rest of the crew continue in their attempt to take the Lonely Mountain away from the control of the dragon Smaug, and we also learn more about a certain ring. Peter Jackson returns to direct, Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman are back and Benedict Cumberbatch voices Smaug. We've got it on Blu-ray and DVD. The other big release this week moves us from exotic Middle-earth to nearly as exotic Osage County, Oklahoma in the star-studded adaptation of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and the aforementioned Mr. Cumberbatch bring on the southern melodrama in this story of family secrets.

It's Stallone vs. DeNiro in Grudge Match, the story of two boxers who come out of retirement for one final bout, 30 years after their last match. The always interesting British director Michael Winterbottom offers up the drama Everday, in which Shirley Henderson portrays a mother raising four kids while her husband sits in prison. Our indie pick this week is A Field in England, a bizarre but captivating look at the English Civil War from up-and-coming British director Ken Wheatley. Fans of Ken Russell's hallucinogenic biopics might enjoy this one.

DOCUMENTARIES: Get a bird's eye view of the world with the BBC documentary series Earthflight. David Tennant narrates this gorgeous series that follows eagles, pelicans, geese and more on six continents.

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

Mickey Rooney 1920 - 2014

Mickey Rooney was one of our last connections to silent Hollywood and looking at his filmography one is amazed at his ability to keep working (with ups and downs) throughout his nearly 90 year career. He was a teen superstar, earning $150,000 a year before he turned 20, and despite the challenges of shifting his career into adult roles he was able to bookend his 1938 Academy Award with a 1983 Emmy Award (for Bill). We've got his 1991 memoir Life is Too Short available if you'd like to hear more from the man himself! Here are some of the Mickey Rooney films available in our video collection:

• A young Mickey Rooney playing a street tough costars with Spencer Tracy in the classic Boys Town.
• In National Velvet, Mickey is a former jockey training a young Elizabeth Taylor for England's Grand National Sweepstakes horse race.
• Rooney plays an irreverent helicopter pilot in the William Holden Korean War vehicle The Bridges at Toko-ri.
• Seemingly every Hollywood star ever is on hand in the madcap comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
• Rooney's last great role in The Black Stallion returned him to the world of horse racing, in which he helps turn a wild horse into a champion.
• Active in Hollywood until recent years, Rooney had a hilarious supporting role in the Ben Stiller vehicle Night at the Museum.

Flick Picks 4/1/14: Anchorman 2, 47 Ronin

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: Stay classy, Glencoe and get your hands on Anchorman 2, the latest adventures of Ron Burgundy, Brick Tamland and the rest of San Diego's top-rated news team, as they tackle the new world of 24-hour news. Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, David Koechner and Christina Applegate all return, though certainly Will Ferrell's Burgundy remains the eye of this comedy hurricane. Keanu Reeves and approximately 4 dozen other actors tell the story of masterless samurai out for revenge in the fantasy-thriller 47 Ronin. Andy Garcia and Vera Famiglia are parents who bond and explore their lives while dropping their kids off (one of whom is played by Vera's real life sister Taissa!) at college in the romantic-comedy At Middleton. Daniel Radcliffe continues to expand his post-Harry Potter repertoire in Kill Your Darlings, in which he stars as a young Allen Ginsberg. Finally, the little ones will insist on seeing The Pirate Fairy, a Peter Pan spinoff that follows Tinker Bell's battles against pirates in an attempt to rescue her kidnapped fairy friend.

SERIES: David Tennant moves beyond Doctor Who to play one of two detectives determined to solve a murder in a small English coastal town, in Broadchurch. This week also brings us season 6 of George Gently.

SUBTITLED: Easy Money: Hard to Kill is the action packed sequel to the Swedish hit that picks up the story of JW, the former drug smuggler who faces challenges in trying to regain a normal life. Juliette Binoche powerfully plays the artist of the title who was confined to a mental institution in Camille Claudel, 1915. Our latest Israeli import - Lost Islands - is set in the 1980s and follows twin brothers, one of whom joins the Israeli Army while the other stays home and takes care of his family. Finally, from Argentina comes Viola, about romance between actors playing Shakespeare in Buenos Aires.

DOCUMENTARIES: Is there something unique about the relationship between Jewish culture and comedy? When Jews Were Funny explores this topic, while interviewing comedians such as Shecky Greene and the recently deceased David Steinberg and providing classic comedy clips. On a more serious note, Let the Fire Burn takes a look at the Philadelphia police's attack on radical group MOVE, leading to the deaths of 11 people and the destruction of 61 homes.

All of our new and upcoming releases are available in Bibliocommons.

Talking Pictures
We will be screening Robot and Frank, starring Frank Langella, on Friday, April 4 at 1:00 pm in the Hammond Room. The film will be followed by a discussion led by Susan Benjamin. All of our screenings are free and open to everyone.

It's Springtime!

It looks like the brutal cold and snow is almost gone (knock on wood)...so it's time to start thinking spring! The following videos should help

• It's baseball season and hope springs eternal. You can get even more excited about this upcoming season by watching 100 Years of Wrigley Field or White Sox Memories! You can also watch them again in a month when both teams are mathematically eliminated.
• Start imagining your next garden projects (with help from Martha Stewart) by watching Martha's Spring Gardening.
• If you think this winter was taxing for you just imagine how your house feels! Check out The Best of Ask This Old House or Dare to Repair for lots of good tips!
• Perhaps this weather is inspiring you to get away for a weekend. Samantha Brown has lots of great ideas in her Passport to Great Weekends series.
• Maybe you're stuck at home and you need a break. Be glad that you're not getting in trouble with the crew of Spring Breakers. Maybe you just need a Beach Party!