Flick Picks 7/8/14: Bad Words, Le Week-End, Nymphomaniac

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: Jason Bateman's career renaissance continues with Bad Words, a ribald new comedy that Bateman not only stars in but directs as well. In Bad Words, Bateman finds a way to enter a a teen spelling competition and causes chaos as he ruthlessly attempts to crush the competition. Kathryn Hahn, Philip Baker Hall and Allison Janney co-star. Also this week, Le Week-End features Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a married couple who revisit Paris in an attempt to breathe new life into their relationship. Provocateur Lars von Trier offers up Nymphomaniac, which actually consists of two complete films, as a first and second volume. The film, with a cast that includes Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Christian Slater and Stellan Starsgard, follows the title character as she explores the darker corners of her life. Finally, Wrinkles shows that animated films are not just for kids, as Martin Sheen and Matthew Modine voice the elderly characters who populate this made-in-Spain film's retiree home.

SERIES: Ian MacKellan and Derek Jacobi, who play a gay couple who have been together for nearly half a century, make the hilarious Vicious a must-see. Also arriving this week is season two of Inspector Morse's early years in Endeavour.

DOCUMENTARIES: Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempt to create a film of Frank Herbert's novel Dune in the mid-1970s is documented in Jodorowsky's Dune. It is a fascinating look at a filmmaker's single vision and the industry that he inhabited. Maidentrip is the story of a 14-year-old girl who battled Dutch authorities in order to launch a two-year solo sea voyage (accompanied by video camera). Finally, you can explore the relationship of humans around the world with water in the brilliantly shot Watermark.

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

Explore the Animal Kingdom

The best animal documentaries try to get inside the minds of creatures that we can never fully understand. Before you see the new Planet of the Apes film you should take home one of these great DVDs and get to know some cuddly, odd or dangerous animals!

• Speaking of Planet of the Apes, Project Nim is the true story of a chimpanzee raised as a human.
• One of Werner Herzog's best documentaries - Grizzly Man - follows a man who lived among grizzly bears, eventually meeting a tragic end.
• Did you know that there's a yearly competition to crown the world's ugliest dog? Get all the details in Worst in Show.
• French director Nicolas Philibert brings us a quiet, contemplative look at a 40-year-old orangutan in Nenette.
• Academy Award winner The Cove is a difficult film to watch, as it follows activists trying to bring to light dolphin slaughter in Japan.
• The plight of circus elephants is covered in the HBO documentary An Apology to Elephants.
• Meet the people who are obsessed with Central Park's flying denizens in Birders.
• The title character of Buck is a real life horse whisperer who trains horses using compassion.