Flick Picks 6/19

New This Week!

ENTERTAINMENT The Duplass brothers are a promising pair of writers/directors whose Cyrus was a pleasant surprise in 2010. This week we see the release of their quirky Jeff Who Lives at Home, starring Jason Segal and Ed Helms as brothers, one of whom refuses to move out of his parents' house. Another funny little film this week is Wanderlust, which stars Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as a couple who lose their high-powered New York City jobs and then decide to move to a commune dedicated to nudism, veganism and free love. Finally, the kids will want to see Big Miracle, the "based on a true story" film starring Drew Barrymore as a Greenpeace worker who helps free whales that are trapped in ice in the Arctic Circle.

If you're looking for an unusual indie film from a director with a proven track record you might want to try Guy Maddin's Keyhole. Previous Guy Maddin films, such as The Saddest Music in the World and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs combine surrealism and humor and perhaps make him a Canadian David Lynch. Keyhole stars Isabella Rossellini and Jason Patric in the story of a gangster who returns home.

TV SERIES Web Therapy is an interesting new Showtime comedy starring Lisa Kudrow as a therapist in a mostly improvised show. It has a long list of guest stars including Lily Tomlin, Conan O'Brien and Rosie O'Donnell. Also, set 5 of the English police drama Trial and Retribution arrives this week as well.

SUBTITLED The wonderful French film My Afternoons With Margueritte comes out this week, with Gerard Depardieu as an illiterate man who befriends an elderly woman and finds out he's not as stupid as he thinks. It's a charmer! Also, the Japanese Norwegian Wood is a hypnotic adaptation of Haruki Murakami's love story by the director of the beautiful Scent of Green Papaya.

DOCUMENTARIES Finally, we've got two top-notch documentaries coming to the library this week. Steve Martin narrates Give Me the Banjo, which also features interviews with some of our premier banjo players. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance profiles the Chicago ballet company and tells its history of unique and influential choreography.

Don't forget - all of our new and upcoming DVDs are available in Bibliocomons for you to place holds.

Explore more Iranian cinema

Many of you have commented on how much you enjoyed the last Monday Night at the Movies showing of Certified Copy. Director Abbas Kiarostami is a well-respected Iranian director, but Certified Copy was atypical for him in that his films are usually shot in the Persian language. We own his poetic classic The Wind Will Carry Us, as well as two films that he wrote - Crimson Gold and Deserted Station.

You might not be aware Iran has been putting out quality films for years. Some other excellent examples of Iranian film are Border Cafe, about a woman who bucks tradition to run her husband's cafe and A Time for Drunken Horses, the first Kurdish language feature film. Also consider revisiting Persepolis, the animated film that tells the story of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution. It was also a surprise Monday Night at the Movies hit! Finally, keep your eyes peeled for the Oscar winning Iranian film A Separation which arrives in August.

Flick Picks 6/12

New This Week!

Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes is back this week as he and Watson (Jude Law) battle Holmes's insidious arch-enemy Moriarity in Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. It's an action packed sequel to the 2010 hit and we have it on both DVD and Blu-ray. If you're looking for a quality smaller film try Thin Ice, which stars Greg Kinnear in a charming Fargo-esque comedic caper set in winter Wisconsin. Also, Too Big To Fail, based on the bestselling story of the Lehman Brothers collapse, is another well-made made-for-HBO movie. With a cast that includes William Hurt, James Woods, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup and many more great actors you know that this has got to be worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of true-life big business dramas like Margin Call.

Vince, Ari and the rest of HBO's fun-loving Hollywood gang of buddies returns for a final season of Entourage. If you find yourself going through Entourage withdrawal we've got a funny new Showtime series called Episodes, which stars Matt LeBlanc playing himself as the manipulative new star of British-import series. LeBlanc won a Golden Globe award for this role in a series that is like a cross of Ricky Gervais's Extras and Entourage. Also, worth checking out is ABC's Scandal, a tense political drama about a crisis management consultant (Kerry Washington) in Washington DC. It was created by Shonda Rhimes who also brought us Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice, so it has an excellent pedigree!

The Polish drama In Darkness tells the true story of how a Catholic businessman saved Jews during the Holocaust by hiding them in the town's sewers. This powerful and visually striking film shows how despite being at first motivated purely by money he eventually discovers his conscience.

Finally, are you wondering how to live forever? Well the answer is finally here! The DVD How to Live Forever features interviews with celebrities and great minds on the topics of life, death and what it might mean to live forever. This one is sure to get you thinking!

Monday Night at the Movies

We'll be showing Certified Copy at 1:00 and 7:00 on Monday, June 18th at the Women's Library Club as part of our Monday Night at the Movies program. Certified Copy is the first feature by renowned filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami to be set outside of his native Iran.  Over the course of an afternoon, two apparent strangers set out for a Tuscan village.  A discussion about artistic origins gradually transforms into an inquiry of the relationship between the man and woman.  Are they really strangers?  Juliette Binoche stars as the mysterious woman, “Elle,” and is as beguiling as ever. Find all of our past Monday Night at the Movies DVDs on Bibliocommons!

We will rock you!

Ravinia is not the only place to catch great live music this summer! Bring home a DVD from the library and turn your living room into your own live music festival! We've got performance DVDs from great acts like Adele, Tony Bennett, The Band, Neil Young and Friends, Harry Connick Jr., Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood and so much more. Jazz, classical, opera and rock can all be found in our performing arts DVD collection. Take some time to explore our performing arts collection and you might find some real gems!

Flick Picks 6/5

New This Week

John Carter: underrated intelligent sci-fi popcorn flick or overstuffed bomb? This week you can judge for yourself as Disney's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic story comes out on DVD and Blu-ray. Then come back to earth for the tense thriller Safe House, about CIA agents in South Africa. It stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and is also available on both DVD and Blu-ray.

There are some big TV series releases coming out this week with season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm leading the pack. In this season Larry heads to New York and discomfort ensues. AMC's Breaking Bad is as addictive as the crystal meth the characters produce and the fourth season hits the shelves this week.

BBC fans have some good options this week too. Everyone's favorite surly doctor Doc Martin is back for a fifth season, and now he's got a baby with him! Also from the Beeb, New Tricks is back for a seventh season!

The USA Network is also putting out fun, quality shows. White Collar, about a con man turned FBI consultant, is on its third season - lots of time to get caught up on seasons one and two this summer! Burn Notice is fun and sexy and is all the way up to the fifth season. Or try the new Fairly Legal about a female lawyer turned mediator who tries to get along with her father's young widow (who just happens to run the law firm where she works)!

If you're looking for an intriguing documentary with an artistic bent, try The Woodmans. Francesca Woodman was a photographer who committed suicide at the age of 22, only to have her reputation swell in ensuing years. Her parents, also artists, wrestle with her death while also trying to find fulfillment through their own artistic practices. The film has a 94% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and could easily be enjoyed by those of you who like other quirky artistic documentaries like Marwencol.

You can access and put holds on all of our new and upcoming DVDs in Bibliocommons.

One you might have missed

The Mill and the Cross is a beautiful film that is about art and is a piece of art itself. Rutger Hauer plays painter Pieter Bruegel, walking among the setting of his epic 1564 painting "Way to Calvary". The film is both a lesson in the creation of art and the history behind the creation. But most impressively the film is like a painting itself - it is lush and gorgeous in its scenery. There are some violent scenes but they are a reflection of the time that the painter was living and and trying to refer to in his portrayal of Christ's collapse under the weight of the cross. The film also stars Michael York and Charlotte Rampling.

Don't forget about Movies on the Green!
Friday, June 8th at sundown we will be cosponsoring The Muppets on Wyman Green. Other films this summer will be Puss in Boots on July 13th and Soul Surfer on August 8th.

Celebrate the Diamond Jubilee!

You might not be able to fly to the UK for the Diamond Jubilee celebration so grab some royal DVDs to celebrate at home! The Queen is a five-part docudrama from Britain, following Queen Elizabeth over five episodes in her life. It is not to be confused with the Helen Mirren movie The Queen, also about Queen Elizabeth. Queen Victoria's Empire is a look at the queen who once ruled over 1/5th of humanity.The BBC documentary Windsor Castle shows you a year inside the Queen's favorite home. Or settle down for a while with the exhaustive 16 episode series Monarchy.

Flick Picks 5/28

New This Week
There's lots of quality stuff coming out this week, including season 4 of True Blood. At the end of True Blood season 3 Sookie Stackhouse learned that she is part fairy, thus explaining her special powers. So what new creatures can we expect to meet in Bon Temps, Louisiana in season 4? And just how complicated will Sookie, Eric and Bill's relationship become? Put a hold on the DVD and find out!

Arriving from the big screen, Ralph Fiennes has adapted Shakespeare's Coriolanus for a modern audience and despite being considered a minor Shakespeare play the film received fantastic reviews. It stars Fiennes and Gerald Butler as former enemies who join together to seize their destiny. We Need to Talk About Kevin may not take place on a battlefield but it is perhaps an equally bruising story of a mother's relationship with her evil son.

On a lighter note, if the Hanson Brothers are your favorite hockey players you will want to check out the hockey comedy Goon, about a player drafted solely for his fighting skills. It will make a great double feature with Slap Shot!

Two musical icons are profiled this week in two separate dvds. Carol Channing's colorful career is surveyed with anecdotes from many of her partners-in-performance in Carol Channing : Larger Than Life. Also, Harry Belafonte is profiled, from performance to politics, in Sing Your Song.

If you're looking for new tv series we have two this week. Fans of the series House you should try the BBC medical drama Monroe in which James Nesbitt stars as a cynical neurosurgeon working in Leeds. Or for a series that takes place closer to home, try the AMC series Hell On Wheels, which is a Western set in the time immediately following the Civil War. In Hell On Wheels, a Confederate soldier seeks revenge on the Union soldiers who murdered his wife. AMC has been putting out one quality series after the other, with Mad Men and Breaking Bad leading the pack.

Lovers of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera who have longed to find out what happened to the Phantom and Christine after the musical ends will finally have their chance with Love Never Dies. Andrew Lloyd Webber's follow-up to Phantom hasn't yet hit Broadway so the DVD might be your only chance to see it for some time!

Upcoming film programs
We've got a special Monday afternoon Talking Pictures screening of The Chorus, a French film about the power of transformation through song. It will be in the Hammond Room at 1:00 on Monday, June 4th and will be followed by a discussion. Also, Movies on the Green will be back on Friday, June 8th, with The Muppets screening on Wyman Green at dusk.

Get in shape for summer!

Have you gotten your beach body out of storage yet? Why not check out one of our exercise DVDs? All of our informational DVDs are free and older ones check out for two weeks. We've got yoga, zumba, pilates, dance workouts and more!

Flick Picks 5/21

New This Week
Perhaps the most anticipated release of the week is a BBC series. Last year, the makers of Sherlock tortured us by only offering three episodes of this fun modern take on Sherlock Holmes. In addition, they left us with a cliffhanger that saw Sherlock and Watson facing Moriarty and explosives. Season 2 of Sherlock is finally here and while it's once again only three episodes, it leads towards its own dramatic cliffhanger.

Rizzoli & Isles might be the American Sherlock and Watson...or maybe not. Either way, it's a fun show and season 2 arrives this week.

Also this week, Daniel Radcliffe makes a major break from Harry Potter movies with The Woman in Black, a return to old-fashioned spooky ghost stories. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Or if you like a love story blended with a little action check out This Means War, with Chris Pine and Tom Hardy as CIA agents competing for the hand of Reese Witherspoon.

Hayao Miyazaki, whose Studio Ghibli has brought us the visual splendor of Ponyo, Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro, has rewritten the story of The Borrowers in the form of The Secret World of Arrietty. Despite being found in our children's department, Studio Ghibli films are always massively entertaining for the whole family. We've got Arrietty on DVD but you may want to get the Blu-Ray, if this is an option for you, in order to see the film in its full hi-res glory!

Next week the vampires, shape shifters and fairies of Bon Temps, Louisiana return, as do the people and creatures who love them (or want to see them destroyed).

One You Might Have Missed

A Lonely Place to Die is a tense action flick set in the Scottish Highlands. A group of mountain climbers come across a young girl, unable to speak English, buried by kidnappers for an unknown reason. The climbers attempt to bring the girl to safety and bad things happen. The movie premiered at Cannes and despite interest from distributers in the United States it was not released here. Luckily we have the DVD to see what we missed on the big screen, including big thrills and gorgeous scenery.

Memorial Day Documentaries

This Memorial Day you can pay tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives while also learning our country's history by taking out one of our well-made documentaries about war. Ken Burns' The War tells the story of how the Second World War affected the lives of ordinary Americans on the home front and overseas. Or for amazing color footage of World War II check out WWII in HD. We've also got the American Experience production of Vietnam: A Television History as well as more incredible footage in Vietnam in HD. The Tillman Story is a heartbreaking look at a soldier who walked away from a career in professional football only to be killed by "friendly fire" in the Gulf War. Or if you'd like to get a look at all of our military conflicts from the Revolution to the Iraq War, give America at War a try.

Flick Picks 5/14

New on DVD:

There are movies for the whole family this week! If you're looking for action, you won't be disappointed as Liam Neeson battles hungry wolves in the exciting thriller The Grey, which is available in DVD and Blu-ray. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum sees her film debut in One For the Money, starring Katherine Heigl. The Oscar-nominated Albert Nobbs, with Glenn Close in a powerful performance as the title character, also comes out this week on DVD.

The Avengers are not the only folks with superpowers as you'll discover when you watch the well-reviewed Chronicle. In Chronicle, teenagers acquire new abilities when exposed to an alien discovery...but how will they deal with such powers? If you are looking for quality, thought-provoking science fiction, Chronicle is your flick. It's available on DVD and Blu-ray.

If you're interested in seeing one of the top acting performances of last year you'll want to check out Rampart, with Woody Harrelson as a complex, corrupt LA cop. The movie was co-written by James Ellroy, whose crime writing is tops and whose hard-boiled crime fiction served as the basis for the excellent L.A. Confidential and more.

For a moving foreign film try Kinyarwanda, which follows various characters and stories across a chaotic Rwandan landscape.

Finally, if you're looking for a rarity - a fair and balanced environmental documentary - give Windfall a shot. It tells the story of the small town of Meredith, NY, which was approached by a wind developer looking for a location to put wind turbines. However, the town soon learned the downside of what appeared to be a no-brainer environmentally friendly technology. This film won raves across the political spectrum, with positive reviews coming from Salon.com, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal -- unusual for a film about this type of hot button environmental issue.

Our newest and forthcoming films can always be found in Bibliocommons.

Upcoming Film Program
Come by the Women's Library Club on Monday, May 21st at 1:00 or 7:00 for our Monday Night at the Movies program. This week we'll be screening Today's Special, a charming slice of life set among New York City's Indian community. Samir, an aspiring chef, reluctantly takes over his family's restaurant in Queens when his father takes ill.

In the Mood for Art?

Our Roy Lichtenstein program will surely make you want to grab one of our documentaries about unique artists and collectors. In My Kid Could Paint That is young artist Marla Olmstead a future Jackson Pollock or a young fraud? Or check out Herb and Dorothy, a utterly charming documentary about a couple with modest incomes who have acquired one of the premier modern art collections in the world.  In Marwencol you can get a fascinating look at a unique figure in outsider art.

Flick Picks 5/7

New This Week

It's a slow week for new releases but the filmed-in-Chicago The Vow is sure to please you romance lovers. Rachel McAdams wakes up from a coma with severe memory loss and Channing Tatum has to win her love back. Bring lots of kleenex!

There's good news for lovers of Showtime's dramedy The Big C, as the second season hits dvd. Golden Globe winner Laura Linney returns as melanoma survivor Cathy Jamison, who finds support from family and friends as she examines her life.

Next week's new releases feature Liam Neeson vs. wolves, a pack of kids with superheroes who aren't the Avengers and a woman who dresses as a man. You can put holds on our new and forthcoming releases through our Bibliocommons catalog.

Mother's Day is Coming Up
Why not show mom a family-themed movie she loves?

• Maybe it's time to revisit the Von Trapp family of The Sound of Music. 
• Mother and Child is a look at three women whose lives have all been touched by adoption. 
• Mildred Pierce is the ultimate devoted mother and we have both the original and the recent remake. 
• Because I Said So stars Diane Keaton as a devoted mother of three girls. 
• My Sister's Keeper is the moving adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel. 
• The Kids are Alright is a funny and touching look at modern families.
•  And speaking of Modern Family, we've got season 1 and season 2!

Interesting People Make For Entertaining Films
Charlotte Rampling: The Look talks to the actress and her friends and acquaintances in order to form a portrait of her nontraditional approach to a successful film career. Paul Goodman Changed My Life provides a fascinating portrait of the poet, pacifist and counterculture figure and the New York he inhabited. Garbo: The Spy tells the story of Juan Pujol, a Spanish double agent during WWII who was one of the few to receive decorations from both sides. Three great profiles of three compelling people!