Flick Picks 5/14/13: Cloud Atlas, Dexter Season 7

New This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT: This week's big release has a name cast (with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry leading the way), not just one but two major directors in Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run) and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy), and was based on a popular book. Perhaps Cloud Atlas was a little too off-the-wall to pick up a major audience at the theaters - also it's almost three hours long - but now that it's out on DVD and Blu-ray it's a great opportunity for you to give it a try! Hanks plays six characters from the past and future and many other actors portray multiple roles as well in six interwoven stories. It's a unique, fanciful, visually exciting film that may turn out to be right up your alley! Our indie pick this week is Leonie which stars Emily Mortimer in the true story of Leonie Gilmour, an independent woman whose unconventional lifestyle shook up Japan in the early 20th century.

SERIES: How long can Showtime's Dexter continue to hide his "dark passenger"? Will he at least be able to keep it hidden through season 7, which comes out this week? Also, PBS series The Bletchley Circle follows four women who use their World War II code-breaking skills to solve a series of murders in London.

SUBTITLED: The Rabbi's Cat is a French animated film about an Algerian Rabbi's cat that gains the ability to speak after eating a parrot. The movie is a fascinating look at Jewish, Arab and French culture in 1930s Algeria.

DOCUMENTARIES: Joel Grey narrates Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, a PBS that highlights the contributions that Jewish performers such as Irving Berlin, The Gershwins, Stephen Sondheim and more have made to the Broadway musical. It features performances by Matthew Broderick, Barbra Streisand, Nathan Lane and Zero Mostel as well as interviews with many other greats. If you are a fan of Susan Benjamin's musical theater programs then you will definitely want this DVD. Rock and rollers will want to see Beware of Mr. Baker, a look at the cranky but incredibly talented and groundbreaking Ginger Baker, the former drummer of Cream.

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

Monday Night at the Movies
We will be screening Gerhard Richter Painting at 1:00 and 7:00 on May 20th at the Women's Library Club, 325 Tudor Court. It's a film that lets your learn about it's subject - German abstract artist Gerhard Richter - as well as explore his creative process. All of our Monday Night at the Movies screenings are free.

Focus on American Schools

The closing of public schools in the Chicago school system has been in the news lately. As your child's school year wraps up why not pick up one of these stimulating looks at various aspects of the American education system?

• Waiting for "Superman" advances the idea of charter schools as the solution to many of the challenges facing failing public school systems.
• The problems of a pressure-filled testing environment leaving kids unprepared for college is the issue addressed in Race to Nowhere.
• Including Samuel focuses on one man's attempt to integrate his cerebral palsy afflicted son into all activities of life including schools.
• The Hobart Shakespeareans tells of an inspiration inner-city Los Angeles teacher whose fifth grade students perform a Shakespeare play every year.
• American Teacher shows us the challenges faced by four teachers in different parts of the country.