Flick Picks 6/25/13: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Upside Down, The Call

What's New This Week?
ENTERTAINMENT:

Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi step into more flamboyent roles than we are used to seeing them in as a pair of Siegfield and Roy-esque magicians in the comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Following an on-stage accident the two magicians break up and then must reunite to prove their relevance when a trendy new "street magician" (Jim Carrey) appears. The sci-fi flick Upside Down has the mind-blowing premise of trying to connect two lovers in a universe where two worlds face each other but each contains its own gravity. Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess are the young wannabe couple in this visually stunning film. Halle Barry helms the thriller The Call, in which she plays a 911 operator who must help track down a young woman who has been kidnapped. Finally, our indie pick of the week is In the Family, a powerful drama by first-time filmmaker Patrick Wang about a the child of a gay couple in Tennessee whose life is turned upside down when one of his fathers dies in a car accident and the will names his sister as the boy's guardian.

SERIES: New this week is Jack Taylor, about an ex-cop trying to earn a living as a private investigator in western Ireland. We've also got season 6 of Inspector Lewis, season 9 of New Tricks and season 2 of the Danish Borgen.

SUBTITLED: Room 514 explores morality and cultural conflicts within the Israeli army as a female officer interrogates an older male officer accused of beating up an Arab family.

DOCUMENTARY: Jeff Bridges narrates the documentary A Place at the Table about the large number of  Americans who aren't sure where their next meal will come from.

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

Foreign Language Series For You to Discover

Swedish novels have been a huge success at the library ever since Girl With the Dragon Tattoo took the world by storm and foreign language films are always popular at the library. We are very lucky to now have a wide variety of foreign language tv shows to choose from. If you're getting tired of the same old boring American shows you should give one of these a try!

• Borgen, the second season of which comes out this week, has been widely acclaimed as one of the best series about politics ever made. It follows the first female prime minister who tries to run the country and stay true to her own personal beliefs.
• The popular set-in-Venice Donna Leon books have been adapted by German television into the successful Commissario Guido Brunetti Mysteries.
• Maigret follows the title detective as he investigates crimes in 1950's Paris and environs.
• Blood of the Vine features a wine expert who becomes involved in solving crimes in French wine-growing regions.
• The Finnish Private Eye Vares is about a hard-drinking laid back private investigator who knows his way around a crime scene.
• The title character of Detective De Luca is a Bologna-based investigator in post-World War II Italy.

Flick Picks 6/18/13: Quartet, Jack the Giant Slayer, Stoker

New This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with Quartet, the charming adaptation of a play about a British home for retired musicians. In Quartet, four opera singers find out that the new addition to the retirement home is going to be their former singing partner who had left to go solo. Will they be able to move on beyond old resentments and jealousies in order to perform at the retirement home's Verdi gala? This film is a must-see for its music and its perfect British cast that features Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins and Michael Gambon. Also out this week are the big budget adaptation of the beanstalk fairy tale, Jack the Giant Slayer, in Blu-ray and DVD. A top-notch director in Bryan Singer, a cast that includes Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane and Bill Nighy and some very cool and scary giants make this one a cut above. Finally, Nicole Kidman heads up the cast of the atmospheric psychological thriller Stoker. After her father dies, an 18-year old's uncle comes to live with her and her emotionally unstable mother, though she soon wonders if there is something sinister behind his appearance.

SERIES: There are some exciting new foreign subtitled series arriving at the library this week. The highly acclaimed Parisian cop show Spiral is a realistic and gritty look at three cops, each with their own method for seeing that justice is done. Set in the Ferrara region of Italy, Fog and Crimes follows police inspector Franco Soneri who must solve crimes related to Italy's fascist past.  The Swedish import Beck brings us a methodical detective teamed with a more impulsive partner. Private Eye Vares, from Finland, brings us an investigator whose laid-back regular guy nature does not inhibit his ability to solve crimes. Also out this week are the second seasons of the BBC series Call the Midwife and the Lisa Kudrow comedy Web Therapy.

INFORMATIONAL: The Louvre's study days, in which works by major artists are analyzed up-close by experts, are the launching pad for Understanding Art: Hidden Lives of Masterpieces. This series will let you take a look at masterpieces by Raphael, Rembrandt, Poussin, Watteau and Leonardo as they are discussed in detail by restorers, curators, historians and scientists.

PERFORMING ARTS: Enjoy Paul McCartney and Wings at their prime with Rockshow, a concert filmed in 1976. They perform hits such as Live and Let Die, Band On the Run, Silly Love Songs and even some Beatles songs.

All of our new and upcoming releases can be accessed through Bibliocommons.

Talking Pictures

We will be screening Separate Lies on Monday, June 24 at 1:00 in the Hammond Room of the library. Separate Lies features Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson in the story of the investigation of a hit-and-run accident as well as the ways that it affects a married couple. All Talking Pictures screenings are free and are followed by a discussion with Susan Benjamin.

Are You Travelling This Summer?

Or perhaps you're looking for vacation ideas. Maybe you just need to get away in your mind. These are all great reasons to pick up one of our travel videos! The Rick Steves series of videos are great for Europe, with episodes on many individual cities. Rudy Maxa's videos cover countries in six out of the seven continents. If you've ever seen the charming Samantha Brown's shows then you know that she is fun to watch even if you're not planning on going on vacation. We've also got the Discoveries series for individual U.S. states, videos about travelling with kids, and much, much more! So before you head to the travel agent perhaps you should visit the library!

Flick Picks 6/11/13: Oz the Great and Powerful, The Newsroom, House of Cards

What's New This Week?

ENTERTAINMENT
Visual stylist Sam Raimi, who also brought us the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, offers the pre-Dorothy story of the land of Oz in Oz The Great and Powerful. In this film, circus magician Oscar Diggs is transported to Oz where he meets three witches who were expecting a wizard and not a carnival huckster. Unfortunately, one of the witches has some wicked plans. The movie stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz and is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, the always watchable Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) flexes his acting muscles in Snitch, the story of a man who agrees to become an informant for the DEA in order to keep his son out of prison. Our indie pick is the comedy It's a Disaster, which tells the story of a monthly "couples brunch" that leads to craziness when an attack on the city traps the characters inside the house. It features David Cross, Julia Stiles and America Ferrera.

SERIES
HBO's The Newsroom comes from the creative pen of Aaron Sorkin, who gave us so many enjoyable seasons of The West Wing. It stars Jeff Daniels as an anchor at a fictional news agency who must deal with his corporate masters and an ex-girlfriend. The Netflix exclusive series House of Cards also arrives on DVD. It's a remake of the BBC series of the same name and features Kevin Spacey as a power-hungry Congressman. The third season of Rizzoli and Isles and season two of Fairly Legal are also out this week.

DOCUMENTARIES
The Loving Story is a powerful look at the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in 1967  (following nearly ten years of legal battles). Also, learn about some of our country's greatest architects and their works in 10 Buildings That Changed America.

SUBTITLED
The intense Vincent Cassel stars as The Monk, a story about a well-respected Monk in 17th century Madrid who becomes tempted by a woman, which may or may not have something to do with strange occurrences taking place at the monastery. Reminiscent of Stand by Me, three French teenagers must fend for themselves over the summer in the sad and heartwarming The Giants. The wonderfully intimate 11 Flowers is set near the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution during which a child in a remote rural town is asked to wear a clean new shirt to lead his school in gymnastics, requiring his family to make sacrifices.

Check Bibliocommons for all new and upcoming DVDs and Blu-rays.

Monday Night at the Movies
Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about a Brooklyn school where 65% of students live below the federal poverty level, yet the school has the highest-ranked junior high chess team in the nation. The film will screen at 1:00 and 7:00 on Monday, June 17th at the Women's Library Club at 325 Tudor Ct. Admission is free.

Chicago on Film

It's always fun to learn about your city through the movies. We've got lots of Chicago-centered choices for helping you get informed and entertained!

• Find out how in only 60 years Chicago grew from swamp town to lively city in Chicago: City of the Century.
• Remembering Chicago, Remembering Chicago Again and Remembering Chicago & World War II are great avenues for looking back on the Chicago of the past!
• Geoffrey Baer leads you on some fascinating tours of Chicago's history in the WTTW specials Chicago by Boat, Chicago's Loop and Chicago's North Shore.
• The heyday of Maxwell Street is the subject of And This is Free.
• Jewish Chicago: 1833 to 1948 follows the migration of Jewish emigrants to the city.
• Tom Palazzolo was an experimental filmmaker whose Four More Films: Chicago 60's capture the unveiling of the Picasso sculpture, the 1968 Democratic convention, Maxwell Street and Riverview Amusement Park.
• It's not a documentary but Medium Cool, set during the 1968 Democratic Convention, contains actual footage from the riots, including a scene where the director Haskell Wexler was really gassed by police.

Flick Picks 6/4/13: A Good Day to Die Hard, Identity Thief, Breaking Bad Season 5

New This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT: New York Cop John McClane travels to Russia to help his son who is imprisoned in Moscow in the latest installment of the Bruce Willis Die Hard saga, A Good Day to Die Hard. They must overcome their differences and work together to foil a nuclear weapons heist. Also, lots of things get blown up. Also this week, Jason Bateman tries to clear his name after con-woman Melissa McCarthy steals his identity in the road movie comedy Identity Thief. If you're looking for a unique, funny take on horror along the lines of Shaun of the Dead, then give Warm Bodies a try. It's a take on Romeo and Juliet, except that Romeo is a zombie and Juliet is a human. It received rave reviews based on its originality and sweetness. Finally, we've got the animated kids' tale Escape From Planet Earth, about an alien trapped on a scary planet - that happens to be ours!

SERIES: What mischief will meth dealers Walt and Jesse get into in season 5 of Breaking Bad? And just how involved will Skyler become with the family business? Find out this week! We've also got new seasons of Falling Skies (season 2), The Big C (season 3) and the English cop buddy drama Vexed (season 2).

Monday Night at the Movies Schedule
We've announced the titles in the next three months of Monday Night at the Movies and there's something for everyone. The films are as follows:

Brooklyn Castle (June 17) - Documentary about a chess program at a public school in Brooklyn
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (July 15) - Werner Herzog co-directs this documentary about indigenous people living in the heart of the Siberian Taiga.
No (August 19) - Gael Garcia Bernal stars in the story of the attempt to remove Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet from his position through a plebiscite.

All Monday Night at the Movies showings take place at 1:00 and 7:00 at the Women's Library Club, located at 325 Tudor Ct. There is no charge.

Movies on the Green Schedule

Summer also brings us a new batch of movies for Summer on the Green. Films will be shown on Wyman Green at dusk one Friday each month (with screenings moved to the council chamber in Village Hall in the event of rain). The Glencoe Chamber of Commerce, Glencoe Youth Services, Glencoe Public Library, Friends of the Glencoe Public Library, Glencoe Park District, and the Village of Glencoe work together to present outdoor entertainment for the whole family to enjoy together. Dates and movie titles for this summer’s lineup:

Despicable Me (June 7)
The Lorax (July 12)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (August 9)