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.