Flick Picks 9/30/14: Chef, Transformers: Age of Extinction

What's New on DVD at the Library This Week?

ENTERTAINMENT: Jon Favreau gets fed up with his restaurant job and decides to go food truckin' in the feel-good comedy Chef. Favreau also wrote and directed the film and went through his rolodex to fill a cast with names such as Dustin Hoffman, Iron Man costars Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr., Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo and Oliver Platt. Also this week, those toys turned movie stars are back in another epic adventure with Transformers: Age of Extinction. Their human colleagues are played by Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer and we've got it on DVD and Blu-ray.

Crash director Paul Haggis returns with Third Person, another film featuring intertwining stories, this time focusing on three couples in Rome, Paris and New York. Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Maria Bello, Kim Basinger and Adrien Brody are all on board. Up-and-coming director Jim Mickle serves up the seedy thriller Cold in July, about a man (Dexter's Michael C. Hall) who gets involved with some very dangerous people while trying to protect his family. Sam Shepard and Don Johnson co-star. Toni Collette is a journalist who teams with documentary filmmaker Thomas Haden Church in order to find out what happened to her rock star ex-boyfriend in Lucky Them. Finally, Decoding Annie Parker features Samantha Morton as the cancer surviving title character and Helen Hunt in the true story of the doctor who discovered the breast cancer BRCA gene mutation.

SERIES: Jack Bauer proves that you can't keep a good man (or series) down in 24: Live Another Day. New this week is the BBC's set-in-Glasgow crime drama The Field of Blood, about a young female reporter investigating murders. Also this week is season 4 of the Melissa McCarthy showcase Mike and Molly.

DOCUMENTARIES: Soaring student loan debt is getting to be a major problem and Ivory Tower studies this problem while questioning how higher education can be improved. Doc Martin is nowhere in sight in exotic animal series Martin Clune's Wild Life.

Check out Enterprise for all of our new DVDs.

The Road to Us

Wondering about how we got where we are as a society or species? We have all the answers in our informational and documentary DVD collections! Try these on for size...

• Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson updates Carl Sagan's classic series with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.
• Your Inner Fish is a PBS documentary showing how we descending from the oceans.
• Bryan Cranston narrates Big History, a series that looks at how seemingly dissimilar historical events are connected.
• One evening is all you need to learn 13.7 billions years worth of our planet's past in History of the World in Two Hours.
• How did our ancestors become us? Watch The Incredible Human Journey and find out!
• The history of currency is the focus of The Ascent of Money: Boom and Bust.
• If you'd like to speculate on our future check out Life After People or Collapse to look at some possible scenarios!

Flick Picks 9/23/14: Neighbors, Scandal season 3

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: What would you do if a raucous college fraternity moved in next door? Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne must answer that question in the hilarious comedy Neighbors. Zac Efron and Dave Franco are among the partygoers in this huge hit. Director Nicholas Stoller has a pedigree of The Five-Year Engagement, Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall so you know that you're in for a good time! We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, The Rover is a rough film set in a future in which a loner (Guy Pearce) forces another man (Robert Pattinson) to help him track the gang that stole his car.

SERIES: There are two new hilarious series for you to get hooked on this week. Mom features Anna Faris as a single mother whose mother (Allison Janney) returns home. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the Golden Globe winning cop comedy that features Andy Samberg as a New York cop who frequently butts heads with his superior, played by Andre Braugher.

Back for more are seasons 2 of Nashville and Hannibal, season 3 of Scandal, season 5 of Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother ends its run with season 9.

DOCUMENTARY: In Last of the Unjust, Shoah director Claude Lanzmann revisits his 1975 interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, a rabbi who had, under Nazi supervision, helped administer ghettos and concentration camps. It's a powerful, nearly 3.5 hour long piece.

All of our new DVDs can be found in Enterprise.

Frank Lloyd Wright and More!

The Glencoe Historical Society starts its year-long celebration of 100 years of Ravine Bluffs this Sunday the 28th at 5:00 with a program at the library about Frank Lloyd Wright in Glencoe. We've got some cool videos on FLW and other architecture greats to get you in the mood!

• Ken Burns codirects this film on the life and works of Frank Lloyd Wright.
• The A&E Network produced The Homes of Frank Lloyd Wright, which takes a look at his various residences throughout his life, with particular focus on three of them.
• Wright's brilliant art museum is the focus of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim museum.
• Visit another great architect's work with The Tugendhat House: Mies van der Rohe's Czech Masterpiece.
• The incomparable Antoni Gaudi is the focus of Gaudi's Barcelona.
• Of course you don't have to wander far from Chicago to see great architecture, as is evidenced by Chicago's Loop: A New Walking Tour.

Flick Picks 9/16/14: Godzilla, The Fault in Our Stars

New at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: They say he's got to go go go Godzilla! The rubber suit is closeted but the big lizard is back in a big budget blockbuster starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen. In this new origin story Godzilla helps out humanity by fighting off some radioactive baddies while trying not to step on anything too important. We've got it on DVD and Blu-ray! Also this week, The Fault in Our Stars is the newest John Green adaptation, telling the story of a teenager diagnosed with cancer (Shailene Woodley) who falls in love with a young man at her cancer support group. It's available on DVD and Blu-ray.

SERIES: We are OVERWHELMED with new series this week! Take some out so our shelves don't collapse under their weight! We'll start out with some British imports. Based on the G.K. Chesterton novels, Father Brown is about a priest in a small 1950s English village who enjoys solving crimes. The miniseries 37 Days brings us the events following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as the world powers attempted to avoid going to war. Also this week are the second seasons of Caribbean cop drama Death in Paradise, police procedural DCI Banks and the female cop story Scott and Bailey. Our other import this week is season 2 of Prisoners of War, the Israeli series that served as the inspiration for Homeland.

If you're a Garry Trudeau fan you've probably been wondering what he's been up to as Doonesbury remains on vacation. The answer is that he's been creating the John Goodman-fronted political comedy Alpha House, about four U.S. senators sharing a house in Washington DC. It's also interesting in that the show was produced specifically for Amazon's video service rather than an established network. A variety of chestnuts including season 6 of Castle, season 9 of Bones and season 7 of Big Bang Theory also appear this week.

DOCUMENTARIES: Ken Burns offers up another comprehensive piece of history with The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, a 14-hour study of one of our fascinating American families. Also this week, The Galapagos Affair tells the story of a 1930s murder mystery involving a doctor, his mistress and an uninhabited island.

SUBTITLED: An Argentine family welcomes a German doctor into their home, not realizing that he is a war criminal being hunted by Israeli agents in The German Doctor. Polish filmmaking great Agnieszka Holland directed Burning Bush, which shows the political turmoil of Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s. A Filipino housekeeper bonds with a Singapore family's child while facing an uncertain economy in Ilo Ilo.

You can find all of our new DVDs in Enterprise!

BANNED Films

We will be celebrating the freedom to read as Banned Books Week approaches, with a return of Books on the Chopping Block on Sunday at 2:00. Of course books are not the only types of art that have been banned around the world. Check out this list of movies that have been banned around the world for various and sometimes surprising reasons.

• Avatar - BANNED in China due to fear of the film inspiring revolt among its people (as well as hurting its own film industry due to its massive success).
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - BANNED in India due to a negative portrayal of Indians.
• Da Vinci Code - BANNED in multiple countries, including Jordan and Pakistan, due to its negative portrayal of religion.
• Noah - BANNED in multiple Muslim countries for its visual portrayal of a prophet.
• 300 - BANNED in Iran as propaganda due to its portrayal of Persians.
• The Exorcist - BANNED on home video and television in the UK until the late 90s.
• The Tin Drum - BANNED as child pornography in Canada.
• Life of Brian - BANNED by several British town councils due to blasphemy.
• The Wild One - BANNED in the UK for 14 years due to its being a "spectacle of unbridled hooliganism".
• All Quiet on the Western Front - BANNED by the Nazis due to its anti-war message.

Flick Picks 9/9/14: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Homeland season 3

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: Captain America is just getting used to life in the 21st century but trouble cannot seem to leave him alone! Luckily Black Widow, Nick Fury and Falcon are there to help him learn the identity of the mysterious assassin winter soldier. And hey, it's got Robert Redford too! Captain America; Winter Soldier is available in DVD and Blu-ray. Also this week, the casting of Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche are two prep school teachers who become involved with each other is enough to ensure that you will want to see Words and Pictures.

Based on the darkly humorous Nick Hornby book, A Long Way Down brings together four suicidal strangers who meet on the roof of a high rise on New Year's Eve. The four, who include Pierce Brosnan and Toni Collette, form a loose-knit family trying to find reasons to keep on living. Renaissance man James Franco's story collection Palo Alto, about troubled California teens, comes to life onscreen in a film starring Emma Roberts, with direction by the newest Coppola director, Gia. Finally, John Turturro and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman star in the black comedy/drama God's Pocket, set in the mean streets of Philadelphia. Directed by Mad Men's John Slattery, the film involves a dead body that just can't be buried and the people who want to know the truth behind it.

SERIES: If you can't get enough of that superhero fun then you should check out season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which follows Captain American and Iron Man's support staff. The eagerly awaited season 3 of Showtime's Homeland also arrives this week as does season 4 of Tom Selleck's cop drama Blue Bloods.

DOCUMENTARIES: The producer of An Inconvenient Truth brings us Fed Up, which takes a look at what it considers the food industry's war on nutrition. A follow-up to the intense Restrepo, Korengal takes an honest look at the Afghan War's effect on its soldiers. Finally, Teenage is a fun look at the invention of the concept of teenager.

You can find all of our new and upcoming DVDs on Enterprise!

Monday Night at the Movies
Our next Monday Night at the Movies film is Belle, a work of fiction imagined from the real life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the mixed-race daughter of an English nobleman. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as the young woman born in the West Indies and raised by her father’s uncle and wife in London’s Kenwood House. The film runs 105 minutes and is rated PG. All of our Monday Night at the Movies films are open to everyone and free of charge.

Back to School

Can you believe that the kids are heading back to school already? Neither can we! Whether you are sad or excited about getting the kids out of the house, we've got a high school movie that you'll love!

• Mean Girls is the set-in-Chicago modern classic of the high school comedies, and while you've probably seen it already there's no reason not to enjoy it again!
• Jack Black runs a loud and unorthodox classroom in School of Rock.
• The charming Emma Stone had her breakout role in Easy A, a modern take on The Scarlet Letter.
• The importance of football in a Texas high school is the focus of Friday Night Lights, which went on to become a successful tv series.
• Glee's Chris Coifer wrote and starred in Struck by Lightning, about a boy and his friends as he attempts to take down the popular kids.
• The remake of 21 Jump Street was a surprise hysterical hit and its sequel 22 Jump Street will be here soon!
• If you haven't seen the John Hughes clique classics The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles recently then come grab 'em!
• Also on the north shore, Tom Cruise comes up with a business plan that just might get him into Harvard in Risky Business.

Flick Picks 9/2/14: Draft Day, Moms' Night Out, Night Moves

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: Just in time for football season, Kevin Costner's Draft Day follows a team's general manager as he trades for the first draft pick in an attempt to bring a championship football team to Cleveland. Ivan Reitman directed the film, which is a must-see for any fantasy football lovers or anyone else interested in the ins and outs of the NFL. The top notch cast is rounded out by Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Ellen Burnstyn and Frank Langella. Maybe while dad is enjoying Draft Day in his man cave mom can catch the comedy Moms' Night Out, in which Patricia Heaton and friends attempt to find bliss in an evening's entertainment while their husbands manage the homestead.

Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard are three radical environmentalists from different backgrounds who must come to terms with the consequences of their motivations in Night Moves. They Came Together is a takeoff on the romantic comedy genre, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler portraying a couple facing various challenges on the road to true love. Finally, our indie pick this week is the Coen Brothers-esque Canadian film Whitewash, which follows the consequences when a snowplow operator (Thomas Hayden Church) accidentally kills a man while driving drunk.

SERIES: It's a big week for new episodes of your faves, with Grey's Anatomy hitting season 10, season 3 of both Person of Interest and New Girl, season 2 of Chicago Fire and the British police drama Line of Duty and the brand new Chicago P.D., the Chicago Fire spinoff.

SUBTITLED: A young Palestinian boy in a Jordanian refugee camp decides to escape its confines with a similarly minded group of people in When I Saw You. Finally, Grigris brings us a dancer with a bum leg in Chad who hooks up with a prostitute with whom he finds himself on the run.

DOCUMENTARIES: The Showtime series Years of Living Dangerously, which picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, features celebrities such as Harrison Ford, Matt Damon and Arnold Schwarzenegger as it tackles the challenges of climate change. The financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees on 9/11 and Out of the Clear Blue Sky tells the story of this disaster as well as their attempts to rebuild in the years following. Who is Dayani Cristal? tries to find out the identity of an immigrant found dead in the Arizona desert, creatively interjecting dramatic reenactments starring Gael Garcia Bernal with documentary footage.

All of our new and upcoming DVDs can be found on Bibliocommons.

Download Movies With Hoopla

We are excited to offer a new service that will allow you to download up to 10 movies and tv shows per month (as well as music and audiobooks). Visit the Hoopla site and sign up for an account and check out their great selection of videos that can be checked out for 3 days. You can view them on your computer or mobile device (using the Hoopla app). If you have questions please contact the library or attend our September 16 Technology Tuesday class at 1:00 on Hoopla and other online video services and devices.

Talking Pictures
We will be screening Saving Mr. Banks, the story of Disney's attempt to adapt Mary Poppins to film, on Thursday, September 4th at 1:00. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson costar in this film that runs 120 minutes and is rated PG-13. Susan Benjamin will lead a discussion following the screening, which takes place in the Hammond Room of the library. All of our film screenings are free and open to everyone.

Labor Day Films

It's sometimes easy to forget the reason that Labor Day exists while we are enjoying our barbecues and last days of beautiful summer weather. Take a look at these films that focus on the working man and woman, some of which are more lighthearted than others!

• Marlon Brando fights the corrupt union leaders and confronts his brudda Charlie in the classic On the Waterfront.
• Who knew that the hilarious Office Space would end up a modern classic, in its tale of a man and his TPS Reports.
• The Little Tramp rages against the industrialization of society in the nearly silent Modern Times.
• Steinbeck's migration worker classic The Grapes of Wrath received its ultimate realization in its Henry Fonda-starring adaptation.
• Set on the holiday weekend of its title, Labor Day features Josh Brolin as an escaped convict who hooks up with mother Kate Winslet.
• Erin Brockovich is the true story of a woman who fought a large energy corporation.
• Pursuit of Happyness follows a homeless salesman as he attempts to provide for his son.

Flick Picks 8/26/14: Blended, The Double, The Normal Heart

What's new on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT You say that you want more of Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore after watching The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates for the 1000th time? Your wish has come true! In Blended, Sandler and Barrymore play single parents who coincidentally find themselves on the same African safari after a disastrous blind date. Will they find true love? Can their kids coexist without murdering each other? Will comic mayhem ensue? Watch and find out! Next, The Double takes a modern Dostoyevskian look at a downtrodden worker (Jesse Eisenberg) whose charismatic lookalike (also played by Eisenberg) becomes a coworker and begins to take over his life.

HBO's production of The Normal Heart, based on Larry Kramer's 1985 play, features a cast jam-packed with stars like Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, Alfred Molina and Taylor Kitsch as it tells the story of the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City. It won an Emmy Monday night so it will be in demand! Finally, Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson are a divorced pair who scheme to steal a diamond from the wealthy financier who was responsible for the loss of their retirement nest egg in The Love Punch.

SERIES There are a few new treats for British TV lovers starting with the BBC's new take on everyone's favorite skilled French 17th century fencers in The Musketeers. Also from England is Breathless, a doctor drama set in the early 1960s and season 2 of the P.G. Wodehouse series Blandings.

We've also got a couple of new Italian police shows this week. Donna Detective follows the title character as she leads an investigative squad in Rome while dealing with family issues. Seasons 1 and 2 of Inspector Manara give us a cop who makes a fresh start in a small Tuscan town only to find that an old girlfriend from the police academy is also on the force.

Back on this side of the pond there's not shortage of new series this week as we get season 2 of the modern take on Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, season 3 of the, um, revenge drama Revenge and more zombies with season 4 of The Walking Dead.

SUBTITLED: Based on a book by Jo Nesbo, Jackpot is a darkly comic bloody tale of Christmas tree factory supervisor who wakes up surrounded by a pile of corpses. In Young and Beautiful, acclaimed French director Francois Ozon gives us the portrait of a young woman who becomes a call girl.

DOCUMENTARIES: If you are interested in the people who are leading the push for green energy technology then you will want to check out the Discovery Channel special Earth: The Sequel.

All of our new and upcoming DVDs can be found in Bibliocommons.

2014 Emmy Awards

Monday night brought us another great crop of Emmy winners. Here are the big ones!

American Horror Story (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie - Jessica Lange; Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie - Kathy Bates)
The Big Bang Theory (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series - Jim Parsons)
Breaking Bad (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Bryan Cranston; Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - Anna Gunn; Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Aaron Paul; Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series; Outstanding Drama Series)
Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey (Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Series)
The Good Wife (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series - Julianna Margulies; Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series - Dylan Baker)
JFK (American Experience) (Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special)
Louie (Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series)
Masters of Sex (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series - Allison Janney)
Modern Family (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - Ty Burrell; Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series; Outstanding Comedy Series)
The Normal Heart (Outstanding Television Movie)
Orange is the New Black (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series - Laverne Cox)
Sherlock (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie - Benedict Cumberbatch; Outstanding Guest Actor in a Miniseries or Movie - Martin Freeman; Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special)
True Detective (Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series)
Veep (Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series - Julia Louis-Dreyfus)

Flick Picks 8/19/14: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Fading Gigolo

New on DVD at the Library This Week

ENTERTAINMENT: The rebooted Spidey returns to face not one, not two, but THREE villains in the blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Emma Stone plays the girlfriend while Green Goblin (Dane DeHaas), Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) threaten to be formidable adversaries for Andrew Garfield's webhead. Will they defeat him? Find out by picking up the DVD or Blu-ray! Next, a rare acting-only turn by Woody Allen is just one of the reasons to see John Turturro's Fading Gigolo. Turturro wrote and directed this film while casting himself as a male prostitute who signs up with Woody Allen's "manager" in an attempt to pay the bills. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are perfectly cast as a pair of vampire lovers in Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, a stylishly unique take on the supernatural genre.

SERIES: It's a good week to get caught up on some of your favorites as HBO's crime drama Boardwalk Empire hits season 4, while addictive legal drama The Good Wife is up to season 5. The always hilarious and meme-tastic Parks and Recreation is at season 6, Parenthood reaches season 5 and The Mindy Project offers up a sophomore season.

SUBTITLED: The Empty Hours brings us the 17-year-old manager of a small Mexican motel who becomes intimately involved with one of its customers who spends her time waiting for a lover.

DOCUMENTARIES: The slow-paced but hypnotizing Manakamana follows a series of rides in a cable car over a Nepalese jungle, focusing on both the landscape and the passengers.

All of our new and upcoming DVDs can be found in Bibliocommons.

The Legacies of Two Greats
The loss of Robin Williams last week was shocking and offers us a chance to assess a career in which he was able to do what very few comic actors are able to do, by transitioning into becoming a successful dramatic actor. Lauren Bacall's death was perhaps not as shocking and also lets us look back at the stunning quality of work that she produced.

Robin Williams

• Perhaps Williams's greatest dramatic role, Good Will Hunting features him as the professor who encourages Matt Damon's working class characters to succeed.
• You'd have to be a fool to fall for Robin Williams as an elderly housekeeper but as a comedy, Mrs. Doubtfire delivers the goods.
• Williams and Nathan Lane are the gay couple who must play it straight for a wedding in The Birdcage.
• Aladdin shows just how important voice casting can be, as Williams makes the genie his own creation.
• Jumanji is crazy fun for the whole family, offering Williams where he belongs - in the center of chaos.
• Williams made a number of thrillers including The Night Listener, in which he plays a radio talk show host who begins to question the identity of one of his callers.
• The recent The Butler offers up some interesting stung casting in Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Lauren Bacall

• Bacall will always be associated with Humphrey Bogart, to whom she was married for more than 10 years. To Have and Have Not, an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, was their first pairing. Bacall was 19 and Bogie was 44.
• The Raymond Chandler adaptation The Big Sleep followed and was actually pulled from post-production so that new scenes with Bacall and Bogie could be added, as their chemistry was so visible.
• Dark Passage and Key Largo were their third and fourth collaborations and are also worth seeing.
• Oil company geologist Rock Hudson is secretly in love with Bacall, who happens to be married to his brother, in the melodrama Written on the Wind.
• Bacall enters into a difficult relationship with jazz musician Kirk Douglas in Young Man With a Horn.
• If you're interested in seeing Bacall do comedy, try Designing Woman, in which she marries sportswriter Gregory Peck.
• Also worth checking out is Bacall's 2005 memoir By Myself and Then Some.