Flick Picks 3/27/2015: Into The Woods, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Low Down, Ride The Pink Horse

But a few new releases this week, each of the highlighted films very much in the realm of the fantastic...



INTO THE WOODS

Based upon Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, Into The Woods is brought vividly to the screen with a strong cast, headed by the great Meryl Streep.  Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt and Johnny Depp also feature in the story which is based upon several fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, including "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "Rapunzel.  Into The Woods is available in regular DVD and Blu-ray editions.


THE HOBBIT:  BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

"Battle of the Five Armies" arrives as the last in the trilogy of films by Peter Jackson, adapting J.R.R. Tolkein's beloved The Hobbit.  It's once more unto the breach for Bilbo, Thorin, the Company of Dwarves and all those familiar characters, as the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.  "Battle of the Five Armies" is also available in regular DVD and Blu-ray. 

Not in the mood for all that fantasy?   You can keep things a bit more real with some recent additions to our feature and classic films.  


LOW DOWN      


While Whiplash was getting all the attention last fall, another film about a jazz musician saw an unfairly limited release.  Low Down is based on the memoir of Amy-Jo Albany, daughter of jazz pianist Joe Albany. Albany's career spanned from early work with Charlie Parker to recordings and performance into the late 1980's.  In between, Albany suffered and inflicted upon himself the ups and downs so associated with jazz musicians.  Low Down beautifully evokes a twilight, seedy Los Angeles of the 1970's and features yet another great performance from John Hawkes (Winter's Bone, Martha Marcy Mae Marlene), who taught himself to play piano to perform the Albany solos seen in the film.


RIDE THE PINK HORSE  

An unusual and little-seen film noir from 1947 gets the Criterion Collection treatment.  Ride the Pink Horse is one of a few films directed by Robert Montgomery, better known as an actor. Montgomery stars as Gagin, a kind of wise guy arriving in a New Mexico border town at fiesta time to exact revenge on the mobster who killed his best friend.  Featuring a typically sharp script from Ben Hecht, Ride The Pink Horse, like much classic noir, refracts post World War II malaise into a story equal parts dark and entertaining.    



Coming soon:  Wild, Interstellar, Foyles War Set 8

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Flick Picks 3/20/2015: Theory of Everything, Top Five, The Tale of Princess Kaguya

As if inspired by the thawing weather and impending spring (one uses these words very carefully in Chicago...), the flow of new DVD releases has increased this week.  There should be something for everyone.


THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

Eddie Redmayne recently picked up a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of celebrated astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.  Based on the book, Travelling to Infinity:  my life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, The Theory of Everything chronicles the meeting of Stephen and Jane while students at Cambridge, his diagnosis of motor neuron disease and eventual success in physics.

124 Minutes - Rated PG13
  

TOP FIVE

Chris Rock writes, directs and stars in Top Five, about a comic forced to reconsider his past after an interview with a journalist.  Romance, race, business, politics - Top Five hits upon it all.  Like the best of Chris Rock's comedy, the film is brash, insightful and, of course, very funny.  

101 Minutes - Rated R

THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA

Another success for Japan's revered Studio Ghibli, The Tale of Pricess Kaguya was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.  Based on one of Japan's most beloved folktales, "Princess Kaguya" is the story of a tiny girl found in a stalk of bamboo by a cutter and his wife who rapidly grows into an amazing young woman.

137 Minutes - Rated PG

If you enjoy The Tale of Princess Kaguya, try these other Studio Ghibli animated classics available at the Glencoe Library.

Spirited Away

My Neighbor Totoro

Howl's Moving Castle                                      

                              

  The Wind Rises

Also new this week...

A coming-of-age story from Brazil, The Way He Looks, centers on a blind young man whose life changes with the arrival of a new boy at his school.      
96 Minutes; Not rated.


What do you do after playing the Caped Crusader through three blockbuster films?  If you're Christian Bale, you play Moses in Ridley Scott's,  Exodus:  Gods and Kings.  
150 minutes; Rated PG-13



And penguins...who doesn't like penguins?  The busy Benedict Cumberbatch and John Malkovich are among the actors lending their vocal stylings to The Penguins of Madagascar.
92 minutes; Rated PG

COMING SOON:  Into The Woods, Foyles War, Set 8

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Flick Picks 3/13/2015: Hunger Games Mockingjay, Part 1, Rosewater

Fantasy or reality?  Take your pick.  Both arrive in the form of fictional feature films this week.  One story is based on real events. The other?  Not so much....


HUNGER GAMES MOCKINGJAY, PART 1

Yes, the intrepid and wily Katniss Everdeen is back in this first film based on the final book of Suzanne Collins' enormously successful series.  Jennifer Lawrence again plays the story's heroine, assuming the role of "Mockingjay," the symbol of rebellion to the oppressed citizens of Panem, fighting that no good president, Coriolanus Snow.    


ROSEWATER

Based on the memoir, Then They Came For Me, by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy, Rosewater is the first foray into film writing and direction by the Daily Show's John Stewart.  Bahari appeared on the Daily Show, an interview which Iranian authorities used as a pretense to arrest and detain the Iranian-Canadian journalist was for 118 days in 2009, often brutally interrogating him.  The talented Gail Garcia Bernal plays Bahari 

Also available:  KILL THE MESSENGER, NIGHTCRAWLER

Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb, who in the 1990's alleged in a series of articles that the CIA's was involved in importing cocaine in the United States to support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.  Jeremy Renner heads a strong cast as Webb, whose efforts are not appreciated by the C.I.A.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this largely nocturnal L.A. thriller about a thief who finds a dubious niche, providing footage of crime and accidents for local news.  Well-reviewed, Nightcrawler was nominated for best original screenplay at the 2015 Academy Awards.  

Coming soon:  FOYLES WAR SET 8, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, INTERSTELLAR

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Flick Picks 3/6/2015: Foxcatcher, Outlander

A very quiet week for new releases, with Foxcatcher and the first season of the series Outlander.  If you're like me, this is a time to pare down that tower of videos awaiting you on the DVD player (in your Netflix queue, on Hulu...).  You might also want to catch up on some fine, recently-released films from 2014 that can be found among our new DVDs.



FOXCATCHER

One of the better films of 2014, Foxcatcher is based on true events.  John Eleuthere du Pont, he of the very elite family, convinced Olympic wrestlers Mark and Dave Schultz to join his Foxcatcher wrestling team in the late 1980's.  Eventually, the relationship between patron and athletes went very bad.  Nearly unrecognizable behind a lot of makeup and a prosthetic nose, Steve Carrel's Oscar-nominated performance was one of the year's best, playing the disturbed scion of the du Pont family.  Nearly as good, Channing Tatum does what might be the best work of his career as the younger Schultz brother with a very big chip on his shoulder.  Foxcatcter is a chilling, arresting story that's full of substance.  Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) directs.

Have you seen Pride?  Ida?    

If Foxcatcher leaves your faith in humanity in need of a bolster, you might want to check out Pride.  Based on much more encouraging true events, Pride dramatizes the unlikely alliance of striking Welsh coal miners and gay rights activists from London in Margaret Thatcher's Britain of the 1980's.  A very appealing cast includes Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Paddy Considine.  If you're looking for a a feel-good film, look no farther.

A deserving winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, Ida is another story of seeming opposites united.  In the case of Ida, a young novitiate nun seeks out her very wordly aunt in 1950's Poland, to experience life outside the convent walls and determine what happened to the rest of their family during World War II.  Beautifully shot in black and white, Ida is one of the most memorable films of 2014.  

Coming soon:  Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Part 1, The Theory of Everything, The Tale of Princess Kaguya.



OUTLANDER, Season 1

Based on the fictional series by the fantasy favorite, Diana Gabaldon, Outlander is the fanciful tale of World War II nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall transported back in time to 1743 Scotland.  Already an audience favorite, Outlander promises quality escapism from the persistent winter.

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