News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure. (Yes, we know it’s May, we had to catch up with our own viewing!)

Arbitrage.
Slick thriller sees Richard Gere play Robert Miller, an unscrupulous hedge fund manager, juggling his wife (Susan Sarandon), his temperamental artist mistress (Laetitia Casta), his CFO daughter (Brit Marling), the upcoming sale of his Investment Company, a federal audit, and the fact that he’s covering up a $400 million dollar hole in his corporate assets. When he’s involved in a late-night car accident with his mistress, his carefully built house on cards begins to crumble… Gere is commanding as the main character, easily one of his best performances in years, with solid support from newcomer Marling, and Tim Roth as the tenacious Detective who begins to unravel Miller’s complicity. Recommended if you enjoyed Margin Call, Michael Clayton, or The Ides of March. (Mark)

Parks and recreation. Season three.
I am in danger of becoming a squeaky wheel when it comes to this series, from consistently telling everyone around me who appreciates intelligent, ironic, deadpan satirical humour to watch it. People generally believe (mostly correctly) that Americans can’t do satire, but this series, produced by the same crew behind “The Office’, is arguably the funniest thing on TV at the moment and just gets better and better. By Series 2 the cast had settled into their characters and Series 3 and Series 4, which both joined the library collection in short succession due to some odd time lag, feature the larger than life but oddly believable characters delivering tight, heart-warming and incredibly funny scripts with utter confidence. (John)

Le samouraï.
Iconic French Noir classic from director Jean-Pierre Melville sees Alain Delon in perhaps his best role. Jeff Costello is a zen-like hitman, an aloof, meticulous, professional who always completes a job. When he is seen by an alluring jazz pianist as he escapes a night club after killing its owner, he is brought in for a line up by a determined Police inspector. For reasons of her own the pianist refuses to positively identify him, but despite this (and his pre-arranged alibi) the Inspector is certain of his guilt, and proceeds to have his every move monitored. Meanwhile his criminal employers become suspicious of how he secured his freedom & decide that it might be better off if he’s taken care of…Melville’s homage to 50’s crime novels & the Alan Ladd vehicle ‘This Gun For Hire’ is a master-class of style & minimalism, full of washed out colours, long silences, & Delon’s masterfully moody & subtle performance. Each shot a perfectly realized blend of cinematography, direction, and implication. An obvious influence on American directors such as Walter Hill (The Driver), Michael Mann (Thief, Heat), & more explicitly Asian cinema (John Woo’s The Killer). Lovely, sharp looking criterion edition includes an extensive booklet, including an interview with Melville & a tribute to Melville from John Woo. (Mark)

German wanderlust with Julia Bradbury.
Julia Bradbury is the girl to get you off the couch. With a stride than covers half a county and a smile almost as wide this doyen of the walking world is a celebrity in Britain and fast making a name for herself around the world. She has made several television series, most set in Britain (Canal walks, Railway walks, Wainwright walks). This series illustrates the close relationship between German romanticism and the country’s walking traditions. From the Bavarian Alps to the Baltic coast, the mighty Rhine to the River Elbe this DVD will open your eyes to beauties of an often overlooked European country. It will also open your eyes to the joy of walking. You may never use the car again. (Sue)

Night moves.
Downbeat flick from director Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde) is one of the best crime movies of the 1970’s. Gene Hackman is an ex-Football player turned Private Eye (who has just discovered his wife is cheating on him), hired by a faded actress to find her wild & wayward daughter (a young Melanie Griffith). Hackman tracks her down easily enough in the Florida Keyes, where she is staying with her stepfather. Spending time there, Hackman begins an affair with the sultry girlfriend of the girl’s stepfather while the girl, swimming one night, comes across the wreck of a crashed plane. Finally Hackman convinces the girl to return to Hollywood with him, and resumes his life – only to later learn she has been killed in a stunt accident on a Hollywood film set. But was it really an accident?…. ‘Night Moves’ exudes a bleak post-Watergate vibe of greed, personal betrayals, & disillusionment as events spiral to the violent & poignant ending. Recommended to anyone who liked Chinatown, The Drowning Pool, The Long Goodbye, or L.A Confidential. (Mark)

The hour. Series 2.
Set in 1957, this well researched historical drama successfully recreates the sombre mood of post WW2 cold war London. The story revolves around the production crew of a fledgling BBC current affairs programme ‘The Hour’, which is a precursor of TV shows such as ‘Campbell Live’, and it is remarkable to observe just how far broadcast media has evolved over 50 years. Series 1 was critically acclaimed, receiving several Bafta nominations, and Series 2 maintains the high standard of production design. Sadly, plans for a third series were scrapped, however over 20,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that the tale continue to unfold – for fans; this is the URL of the petition. (John)

Bug.
Disturbing psychological horror, based on a play by Tracey Letts, & directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection). Ashley Judd is Agnes, a lonely waitress hiding out in a dive hotel fearing the return of her abusive ex-husband (a creepy Harry Connick Jr). When charismatic drifter Peter (Michael Shannon) appears she begins to believe she has made a connection, & she reveals to him the tragic history of her missing child. However Peter is not really who he seems & slowly reveals his history as a Middle-East war vet who was experimented on by the Government, and who believes himself infected by ‘bugs’. Gradually he begins to pull Agnes into his delusion, and what follows is a weird descent into, paranoia, insanity & obsession, along the lines of Requiem For A Dream. Definitely (can’t stress that enough) not for everyone, ‘Bug’ is one of those movies that polarizes opinion. Most of the action takes place in Judd’s hotel room, and transferred from a play it has at times a stagey, overdone feel. Still both Shannon & Judd are excellent, especially Judd, and after the shocking end it’s her character that lingers longest. (Mark)

Once upon a time in Anatolia.
I’m still a bit doubtful if the last 30 minutes of this film is really necessary, but I had the most extraordinary cinematic experiences when I saw it at Embassy theatre. Since the success of Uzak (2002), Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s films have always featured at Cannes, and this film was a deserved winner of Grand Prix (the second-most prestigious prize) in 2011. This slow-burning drama appears to be a kind of crime story, but Ceylan’s eyes are on the men who are involved in the search and their life, not on solving the mystery. Masterfully taking a beauty of Turkish scenery (Anatolian steppes), the story gradually evolves into a subtly intricate human drama. You can see great inheritances of Tarkovsky, Antonioni, and Ozu in Ceylan’s creative vision. It’s anti-dramatic but a glorious watch. (Shinji)

Easy money.
Lowly Business student JW is living a double life, mingling in night clubs with Stockholm’s young & wealthy elite, while driving a cab during the day. He crosses paths with Jorge, a drug dealer who has escaped from prison who needs someone with JW’s business skills to legitimise his money. Mrado is a Serbian Mafia enforcer who has been allocated the task of taking Jorge out before he encroaches on the Serbian drug trade, however he unexpectedly finds himself having to care for the young daughter he hardly knows. Meanwhile Jorges attempt to broker a massive cocaine deal that will set everyone up for life…Slick Swedish thriller based on the best selling novel by Jens Lapidus. Definitely worth a look if you’re a fan of Euro thrillers & Scandinavian crime. (Mark)

Shut up and play the hits: the very loud ending of LCD Soundsystem.
The best music Doco’s are those that can be enjoyed whether you are familiar with the artist or not – and this film, based around the last ever performance of New York band LCD Sound System, is just that. The performance itself is excellent – tight, inspired and funky as hell; however, intercutting sequences from main-man, James Murphy’s domestic life raises the bar considerably and changes the film from being a mere recording of a concert to something else entirely. A few years ago the Pixies film Loud, Quiet, Loud took a similar approach and consequently was featured in film festival programmes worldwide, and that is what happened to this film. Cutting from Murphy singing his heart out in front of 10,000 fans to him patiently waiting for his pet dog to take a poop outside his NY apartment is nothing short of inspired. (John)

Jackpot.
When Oscar wakes up in a seedy strip club he finds he is holding a shotgun and is surrounded by 8 dead bodies & several live policemen…who promptly arrest him. However Oscar then proceeds to tell a lurid tale of a Christmas Tree factory run by ex-criminals, a lottery jackpot, a headless corpse, a gambling debt, and a great deal of bloodshed. Farcical black comedy very much along the lines of Fargo & Tarantino. Scripted by Scandinavian crime writer Jo Nesbo & while not as good as Headhunters, based on his novel, it’s still an entertaining watch if you like your humour on the dark side. (Mark)

What about me?.
Just watched ‘I Giant Leap: What About Me?’. It was amazing! It’s not a new doco but totally absorbing. What a fantastic idea: two musos travel around the world seamlessly blending unbelievably beautiful music and singing with dialogue from philosophers, teachers, religious and spiritual ‘gurus’, political commentators etc regarding the BIG questions ‘Who Am I?’, ‘What Am I doing Here?’ and importantly ‘Why Aren’t I Happy?!’. Beautifully illustrates how real, heartfelt music and spirituality are very much conjoined. Riveting stuff! (Ellie)

Borgen. Season one.
Viewers drawn into ‘Borgen’ from other Danish shows such as The Killing or The Protectors may find ‘Borgen’ a different kettle of fish. While Season 1 of ‘The Killing’ delved into the shifting face of Danish small party politics, it was always backed by the tension of an ongoing murder enquiry, whereas ‘Borgen’ is a purely political drama. A series of co-incidences, along with an impassioned Party debate speech, suddenly thrusts Moderate Party leader Birgitte Nyborg into prominence, with the result that her Party wins a record number of seats. Charged with forming a Coalition government various political maneavourings occur, resulting in her becoming Denmark’s first female Prime Minister. The following drama plays out around various political crisis points, examining the erosion of idealism faced with the practicalities of compromise politics & the growing strain on her personal life & family. A show that requires patience to absorb. Best recommended if you’re a fan of The West Wing, Geena Davis’ Commander In Chief, or UK Political drama’s. (Mark)

Shut up little man!: an audio misadventure.
An intriguing film about a pre-internet viral media phenomenon. When two students decided to record the very loud arguments coming from their alcoholic next door neighbour’s apartment they could not foresee just how wide an audience those recordings would eventually find. While the recordings went on to spawn a play, a graphic novel and bootleg cassettes and CDs galore, the two hapless drunks had no idea that they had become an underground phenomena. This Doco traces the trajectory of the rise of a viral phenomena but also questions issues such as the right to privacy and who owns life as art. (John)

Your sister’s sister.
Entertaining offbeat, indie romance/drama sees Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed) as Jack, a directionless slacker still troubled by the death of his brother a year ago. When his best friend Iris (Emily Blunt), also his late brothers girlfriend, suggests he spend some time alone at her family’s cabin on Puget Sound he takes her up on her offer. Only when he arrives he finds that someone is already there – Iris’ sister Hannah, who has just ended a long-term lesbian relationship. When Iris decides to surprise Jack at the cabin, she soon discovers that Jack & Hannah have swapped more than just stories…Directed by Lynn Shelton, ‘Your Sisters Sister’ features a great trio of natural performances that tease out the complicated lines of romance & friendship. Has a talky, improvised feel that may not be to everyone’s taste, but definitely worth a watch as alternative to the usual Hollywood fare in this genre. (Mark)

Declaration of war.
They are Romeo and Juliet. They became parents after a one-night stand, but are optimistic and happy to raise a child. However, their baby doesn’t seem to be well; in fact, has a brain tumour. It plunges them into darkness, but they declare war against all the challenges they may face. Based on the actual experience of the director/main character Valerie Donzelli and co-writer/co-star Jeremie Elkaim, who were once together and have a child with cancer, the film depicts their journey through the treatment. This sounds rather depressing and it could have been a weepy melodrama. However, the film has a bouncing pace which gives you a feeling that they sprint throughout, and is somehow uplifting. It has even a comical touch, although there are gloomy moments, of course. This film is not about the child, but about the young parents who grow mature through their nightmare experiences. There may be some flaws in this film but it’s encouraging and heart-warming. This fast-paced film ends with beautiful slow motion. Lovely. (Shinji)

Bernie.
Completely bizarre tale, based on a real life story, of Bernie Tiede (Jack Black), an undertaker in the small Texas town of Carthage. Bernie’s zest for life & empathetic personality make him the town’s most beloved person, captivating everyone with his selfless acts. Bernie even wins over the town’s richest & meanest widow Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), eventually becoming her travelling companion & business manager. But the tyrannical Marjorie’s possessive, sour demeanour & demands on his time begin to wear down the affable Bernie until one day he just can’t take it any more… Black gives a career best, perfectly pitched, performance as Bernie and the supporting cast of MacLaine & Matthew McConaughey, as Prosecutor ‘Danny-Buck’, are also spot on. However what makes the movie so unique, is that Director Richard Linklater uses a mixture of interviews with the real residents of Carthage who knew Bernie & Marjorie to structure the story & narrative, giving the film a documentary like feel. Recommended if you like something a bit different. (Mark)

Searching for Sugar Man.
If, like me, you had put this film on your ‘will watch one day as I am curious as to why everyone seems to like it but I am not expecting a lot’ list then time for a rethink. Admirably living up to the hype, this film documents an intriguing story that would be deemed far fetched if it had been made up but is even more amazing as it is absolutely true. The existence of archival footage helps enormously and the scenes of Rodriguez eventual triumphant return to South Africa are pure movie magic. For those who don’t know, Rodriquez was a failed Latino American rock star who worked for twenty years as a builder’ labourer, completely unaware that he had attained cult status in South Africa, being bigger than Elvis Presley. This is the story of a journalists’ quest and the unexpected results. (John)

End of watch.
Gritty street cops story from writer/director David Ayer (Training Day, Dark Blue, Street Kings). Ayer uses found footage from video recorders, surveillance cameras, internal car cams etc, to portray the policing & friendship of two officers, Brian (Jake Gyllenhall) & Mike (Michael Pena), as they work the streets of South Central Los Angeles. The film’s key lies in its loose narrative structure, recalling the work of police officer turned writer Joseph Wambaugh, with its focus on the day to day life of officers patrolling together, the diverse, occasionally dangerous, situations they encounter, & the camaraderie, loyalty & comedy that is central to the officer’s relationship. When the two officers cross paths with a Mexican drug cartel during a routine traffic stop, events are set in motion that soon spiral out of control…Recommended if you enjoyed Ayer’s previous work. (Mark)

Ruby Sparks.
Author Calvin has writer’s block and then suddenly a young woman called Ruby seems to appear out of nowhere – no family, no friends, no background. Has she come to help or hinder his writing – is she real or fiction? This is very clever writing and well worth seeing. (Liz)
Meta rom-com from the directors of Little Miss Sunshine sees Paul Dano as Calvin, a wonderkid novelist whose first novel caused a literary sensation while he was in his teens and who, ten years later, is still struggling to write a follow-up. He starts to dream of a girl called Ruby (Zoe Kazan), & with prompting from his therapist begins to write about her…only to wake up one morning to find she is living in his house as his girlfriend. Convinced he’s found the perfect woman who loves him unconditionally, he puts away his writing…until Ruby’s attentions start to wander & he realises he can control via his writing. Scripted by actress Kazan, the film focuses on the romantic fantasy of the perfect relationship, but manages to make some strong points on the way people control each other, and while it ultimately doesn’t take the idea as far as it could possibly have it’s a lot more enjoyable than the average Hollywood rom-com. (Mark)

Sleepwalkers.
Short lived 90’s Sci-Fi series helmed by the underrated Bruce Greenwood, playing a scientist who runs The Morpheus Institute, a research facility where he & fellow scientists (Naomi Watts, Jeffrey D. Sams, Abraham Benrubi) use technology to enter the dreams of troubled patients in order to diagnose their problems. Influenced somewhat by the Dennis Quaid 1984 movie ‘Dreamscape’, it suffers from an obviously low budget, so at times comes off like an X-Files clone or bad episodes of the Twilight Zone, but when it works wells it shows an unrealised promise & ideas that would take someone like Christopher Nolan to bring to fruition with Inception. Worth a look if you have a soft spot for 90s Sci-Fi. (Mark)

Mark’s Picks:

Safety not guaranteed.
Overworked Seattle magazine intern Darius (Aubrey Plaza, Parks & Recreation) tags along with journalist Jeff & fellow intern Arnau to investigate a bizarre classified add seeking a companion to ‘travel back in time with’, expecting to find the kind of wacky story that would make a good piece for the magazine. Tracking down who placed the add, they find local supermarket clerk Kenneth (Mark Duplas). When Kenneth rebuffs Jeff’s attempt to become his time-travel companion, Jeff recruits Darius to step in. Expecting to find nothing but a crank weirdo Darius slowly finds herself drawn to the paranoid Kenneth & his oddball charm. As Kenneth initiates more serious ‘training’ & mission preparations, the journalists become more drawn into his story when they discover that the ‘Government Agents’ that Kenneth claims are following him…are in fact real. Just who is Kenneth, & can he really travel back in time? Completely charming indie film sees great performances from Duplass & Plaza. Worth 100 cookie-cutter Hollywood rom-com’s.

Moonrise kingdom.
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, 12 year old Sam resigns his commission as a ‘Khaki Scout’ and disappears – to run away & live in the wild with his secret pen-pal Suzy. Their disappearance throws the close-knit island community into chaos & the local police Chief (Bruce Willis) joins forces with the Khaki Scout Troup Leader (Edward Norton) to track the duo down – while a violent storm brews off shore, adding more danger to the situation. Wes Anderson is back in top form on ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, with his patented style of subtle humour, quirky characters & deadpan dialogue. The two young leads are great & more than hold their own against a top notch supporting cast that also includes Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, & Jason Schwartzman. With its focus on adolescent coming-of-age it may lack the broader appeal of something like The Royal Tenenbaums, so while some may delight in its quirky style, others may scratch their heads & think it all a bit silly & not really funny at all. Maybe not for all tastes but greatly enjoyable if you like that sort of thing.

Shinji’s Picks:

Le Havre.
Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki is known for his peculiar, offbeat style, and his latest film ‘Le Havre’ offers everything expected from him. Set in a small port town in French Normandy, it deals with an illegal immigration. This sounds unusual for one of his films; but from the beginning to the end, from one end to the other of the screen in every scene, it’s distinctively Kaurismaki. A local old shoe-shiner somehow befriends a young African refugee and hides him to help his escape. Police are after him and his beloved wife becomes ill. Although the film touches serious issues, it’s droll and funny with deadpan characters. It’s narrated with his trademarked retro manners, and best of all, has a double happy ending. Quirky yet heart-warming.

Le quattro volte.
This is a mysterious, yet charming little gem. It’s about reincarnation, life and the universe, but the Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino has no intention of making any assertions. This wordless, fiction/documentary may defy your preconceived notions about movies. Avoiding a people-oriented view, life in the mountainous village in South Italy is portrayed by only footage and sounds of nature. Although it has warm humour, nothing much is happening but it interestingly stimulates your imagination. Apparently Frammartino used to create installation works a lot, and this could be his new interactive work of art. Be open minded. It’s a delightful watch.

Mysteries of Lisbon.
It is said that Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz (1941-2011), who was exiled to France after the 1973 coup, made more than 100 films in his career. A lot of them are low-budget B-movies and unseen. However, he is a true genius, and this film (which was originally a TV drama in 6 one-hour episodes; the DVD is a 4 and half hour-long movie version) ‘Mysteries of Lisbon’ offers the finest example of this utterly unique filmmaker’s work. Primarily it’s a story about an orphan boy Joao, but also about his curator Father Dinis, and a lot of characters – who are nestled in others’ memories – come and go over several countries and generations. Many elegantly twisted, melodramatic events unfold throughout, and they are all related in some way and come together like a Mobius strip. This enigmatic, multifaceted drama is not the easiest to get your head around, but it gives you a mesmerising cinematic euphoria.

This is not a film.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, Bahman Ghobadi to name but a few – Iranian film makers have surprised and inspired the world with their unique perspective and innovative way of making films, but most of them have now left their country to avoid the pressure from the current regime. Jafar Panahi, who is perhaps the most political, stays but has been held under house arrest. ‘This is not a Film’ was secretly filmed to document a day in his life in his Tehran apartment. Despite the limited conditions, the film is engaging and has plenty of originality and ingenuity, and a lot of humour as well. This was shot on the day of the Persian New Year and the noise from the city and the fireworks is ominous, making us wonder if they imply what will happen to him in the future. This film was smuggled from Iran to France on a USB drive inside a cake, and premiered at Cannes in 2011. This is a strong statement from this extraordinary filmmaker.

Kate’s Pick:

Brave [3D].
Brave took home the award for Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes and also won Best Animated Film in this year’s Academy Awards. Pixar Animation Studios, the creator of Toy Story 3, whisks you away on an astonishing adventure in the Scottish Highlands full of mystery, magic and tradition. Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida, a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor defies an age-old custom; where she competes against (and defeats) each of her suitors in an archery contest during the Highland Games, by which she states she is “shooting for her own hand”, much to the outrage of the lords of the land and causes a rift between mother and daughter. Merida then acquires a magic spell from a witch. The witch agrees to give Merida a spell to “change” her mother (into a bear) in the form of a cake. When chaos is unleashed in the kingdom as a result of Merida’s actions, she must harness all of her skills and resources to break the beastly curse before its too late, mend bonds “torn by pride”, and discover the meaning of true bravery. From the kilt-wearing lords, to the bagpipe music, traditional Highland games, Merida’s triplet brothers’ pranks (7 ingenious attempts to steal sweets), this is a very entertaining mother/daughter movie and a celebration of Scottish culture.

Sue’s Pick:

Salmon fishing in The Yemen.
Want to see beautiful shots of the land of the lochs and the glens? Want to enjoy wide panoramic vistas if the sands of Morocco? Want to see some beautiful people and enjoy sparkling and witty dialogue – then see this film!! I love this movie and hold myself personally responsible for any box office success it enjoyed in Wellington. I had not realised what a lot of cognisance was given to critics’ caustic comments. Many people persuaded to see it are now very glad that they did. What can be said against it? That: It’s a bit cheesy? – true, but it’s so charming you will forgive the fact. That: It’s not true to the book? – true too, but a very good thing. The book, while very well written and perhaps more true to life, is very serious and doesn’t have a happy ending. Now that autumn’s approaching take this movie home and let some sunshine in to your soul.

Monty’s Picks:

Bobby Fischer against the world.
Turns out Bobby Fischer was neglected somewhat as a child (his father left and his mother was always absent fighting for some cause or other) and that he immersed himself in chess partly because it was his nature to be intense and obsessive but also because it was his way of compensating. Your tolerance for Fischer and his unhappy beginnings may begin to wane though as this excellent documentary progresses. Fisher leaves the United States (for any country that will have him), holds court on anti-Semitic conspiracies and insults every and anyone that could be of value to him. The famous chess matches with Spassky are covered in highly dramatic and intensely edited footage, with expert commentary that often compares chess with art, or even life. Fischer lived out his final years in Iceland, scene of the Spassky triumph, unknown or known and tolerated. The movie continually revisits footage of Fischer on a park bench just before the 72 championship answering questions on life he has no answer to, or little insight of. The question – was Fisher’s life one that never really begun?

The cabin in the woods.
Unsettling and entertaining combination of horror, comedy, brutal black slapstick and end of the world silliness that never takes itself or any of the genres it satirises seriously for even a second. My quickest, most enjoyable 95 minutes of cinema for 2012.

American horror story. The complete first season.
Once you have got past spotting all your favourite scenes lifted from horror films of years past (think The Shining, Rosemary’s baby, An American Werewolf in London, any haunted house flick…) there is much fun to be had in this tale of broken families, horrific murders and ghostly possession. Jessica Lange, playing the malevolent southern matriarch to end all southern matriarchs steals every manic, beautifully written scene she’s in. Twists come thick and fast – some surprising, some predictable – and the real question might be; how can season two possibly proceed from here? Look forward to more shocks, sensations, revelations, dark humour and especially, the outrageously fantastic Jessica Lange, in season two!

(more…)

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. At the beginning of every year, we round up our favourite film and television released on DVD over the past year in one blog post. This year we had a LOT of staff favourites, so we’ve split them into two parts. Our first part features librarian and film enthusiast John’s picks – enjoy!

John’s Picks:

Boardwalk empire. The complete second season.
HBO maintain their high standards of quality TV, and this series is a good example as Steve Buscemi continues to lead the cast onwards in an engrossing and increasingly complex story set in the days of prohibition in 1920’s America.

Treme. The complete second season.
Music, food, drama and political intrigue set in post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans makes a recipe for an exceptional series.

The spice trail.
Kate Humble traces the history of six spices in this fascinating three part BBC series that traces the original spice routes and reveals the dark underbelly of colonialisation on the way.

Michael Wood’s story of England.
Those whose ancestry includes the British Isles will find this series especially interesting as the history of England, with its waves of conquerors, is revealed through the historical records of one British village.

Mad men. Season five.
‘Madmen’ may or may not be ‘the best TV show ever’, but it certainly remains the most stylish and Series 5 continues to deliver on every level.

Project Nim.
This story of a 60’s animal psychology experiment that goes horribly wrong is intriguing on several levels as we see both the dark and light side of human nature and witness the mystery of the chimpanzee world.

El bulli: cooking in progress.
This doco about the world famous restaurant in Spain that is booked out for each year’s season before it opens its doors explores the very odd world of master chef, Ferran Adrià, who is widely considered the best, most innovative and craziest chef in the world and for whom art and food inhabit the same domain.

This is not a film.
What do you do if you are a film maker under house arrest and banned from film making? If you are Iranian director Jafar Panahi you make a film in your flat and have it smuggled it out of the country on a memory stick to be premiered to international acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard.
Australia has not produced a lot of legendary artists, but recently deceased Howard S. Rowland, Nick Cave’s guitarist for years, whose idiosyncratic style influenced both My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, must come close, as illustrated in this lovingly crafted doco.

Looper.
Sci-fi movies that deal with the paradox of time travel often fall flat; however Looper is clever, doesn’t demand too great a suspension of disbelief and credibly manages to pull off a story that involves someone battling wits with their future self.

The ides of March.
George Clooney has become an accomplished director and he also stars in this very well crafted and nicely understated film that nevertheless makes a strong statement about political intrigue in the current USA.

Moneyball.
Brad Pitt seems to choose interesting roles and he doesn’t disappoint in this intriguing true story, set in the world of baseball, which is, believe it or not, actually about the power of data analysis.

The trip.
Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden are nothing short of totally hilarious in this comedy about rival TV personalities on a food tour of Britain.

We need to talk about Kevin.
Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of the best selling novel stars Tilda Swinton in a film that is not light viewing but nevertheless rewards in its telling of a provocative story of very deep family dysfunction.

A dangerous method.
David Cronenberg’s first historical drama is set in 1900’s Europe and tells the true story of Sabina Spielrein (played by Kiera Knightly), a patient of both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, whose ideas influenced the start of the pioneer psycho-analytic movement.

Route Irish.
British social realist director Ken Loach made his first film in 1964 and shows no sign of letting up. Route Irish is as hard hitting and chilling as anything he has done as he uses the Iraq war to explore the overlap of the military and big business in a tale of revenge.

Margin call.
Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons shine as soul-less corporate executives in this story that, quite plausibly, depicts what may have gone on behind the scenes in corporate boardrooms on the eve of the 2008 financial melt down.

The way.
Road movies are a dime a dozen but Martin Sheen’s performance as a bereaved father who takes a pilgrimage along Spain’s famous ‘El camino de Santiago’ helps to make this genuinely warm film something quite special.

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure.

JSA: Joint Security Area.
‘JSA’ one of Korea’s most successful films, tells the story of a Security incident in the DMZ separating North and South Korea. Two North Korean soldiers have been killed & one wounded, with the North Korean soldier believed responsible captured. It’s a political powder keg, so a neutral Swiss/Swedish team of investigators are brought in to uncover the truth. However, beyond their initial statements -which lay the blame for the incident on each other – both the North Korean killer & the surviving soldier refuse to speak, and a disparity with the number of bullets found & the magazine capacity of the assassins gun soon reveal that some kind of cover-up is at play. The film plays out in a series of flashbacks, as the truth is slowly revealed. Both a peon to a shared humanity that triumphs over political ideology & a tragic indictment of the institutionalised hatreds that divide culture, ‘JSA’ is a powerful movie, well worth watching. (Mark)

Limbo.
Another rich character study from John Sayles (Eight Men Out, Lonestar). Set in a small town in Alaska, faced with the closure of its mill & change & uncertainty in its future, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Donna, a travelling Nightclub jazz singer, whose teen-age daughter is tired of her mother’s revolving-door of loser boyfriends. When she begins a tentative relationship with Joe (David Strathairn), a local handyman with a troubled past, things start to look up. However when Joe’s brother arrives in town asking for his help crewing his boat to a ‘business’ meeting, Joe brings along Donna & her daughter, and things take an unexpected turn… ‘Limbo’ is one of those movies that’s almost impossible to define. A drama with elements of romance, a psychological survival thriller, a Northern Exposure-esque character study of the kinds of people that end up in the Alaskan frontier…its all that & more. The ambiguous ending may not suit everyone’s taste, but it’s definitely an engaging film with some great acting (& singing by Mastrantonio, who does her own vocals) & recommended if you like something a bit different than the usual style of film-making. (Mark)

Project Nim.
Nim was a chimpanzee who was unlucky enough to be chosen as the subject of an experiment by an American linguist in the swinging sixties. This bizarre experiment involved Nim being raised as a human child (including being breast fed) and taught sign language from an early age in order to investigate how far cross species communication could be taken. When funding was abruptly stopped for the project, Nim’s future became perilous. To tell more would be to give the story away of this moving and intriguing Doco about animal rights, the folly of science and the strange foibles of human nature. (John)

Sleepless night.
The French love their thrillers & ‘Sleepless Nights’ is another solid entry in the genre. Vincent is a seemingly solid cop, but he & his partner are also robbing drug dealers at gunpoint. When a job goes wrong he is recognized, and in retaliation the local mob boss kidnaps his estranged teenage son and demands he return the bag of cocaine to his Nightclub. Vincent heads to the nightclub & prepares to make the trade, but he is on the radar of the Internal Affairs police who complicate the exchange, leaving Vincent with nothing to trade…and only the rest of the night to make good on the exchange, or his son dies. The majority of the film plays out in the confines of the various levels of the Nightclub as Vincent tries to retrieve the bag of drugs, while avoiding Internal Affairs, rival drug factions & crooked cops…It’s all somewhat contrived but the French excel at immersing you in the lives of desperate characters, & it has plenty of frenetic paced thrills & action. Recommended if you enjoyed Tell No One, Point Blank or Anything For Her. (Mark)

Rabbit-proof fence.
British colonialism at its worse. Aboriginal children were taken away from their families to give them a “better” life. Three children set out to get back home by navigating the 1,500 miles rabbit proof fence. Will they make it? (Liz)

The informers.
Fairly faithful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ loosely linked 80’s short story collection, featuring an array of L.A highlifes & lowlifes, from movie executives & trophy wives, to rock stars, con men, & rich disillusioned teenagers. Has a great cast & some great performances (Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke etc) but failed miserably at the box office, & with a lot of critics – probably because it’s extremely seedy, has no real beginning or end, and is full of genuinely morally bankrupt & completely loathsome characters. But being Bret Easton Ellis that, of course, is the point of it all. Ellis is a satirist and moralist & the movie works his continuing themes of desperation, moral & social decay. Definitely not for everyone, but worth checking out if you’re a fan of the authors work. (Mark)

Nero Wolfe. The complete classic whodunit series.
Nero Wolfe is a period murder mystery series focussing on a brilliant but eccentric detective, Nero Wolfe, who never leaves his chair if he can help it, and his dapper leg-man Archie Goodwin, who uses charm, wits or his fistS to get Wolfe the necessary information. But the more interesting thing about this series is that it decides not to shy away from the fact that it is a TV series, not real life. Rex Stout, author of the books that the series is based on, never aged his main characters, writing them as the same people from 1934 until his death in 1975. Following his cue, the series never specifies the date — one story revolves around a sound recording on a wax cylinder, another has egg chairs and miniskirts. Rather than going with naturalistic dialogue, they use the snappy and somewhat stylized patter of the gangster film and screwball comedies; and instead of replacing the majority of actors for each story, they have the same actors in different roles, in the way that a repertory theatre would use the same actors for different plays. Both light-hearted and sincere, this is as enjoyable a set of murders as you could ask for. (Celeste)

The Moderns .
From writer/director Alan Rudolph, a protégée of Robert Altman & creator of some cult-ish films such as Mrs Parker & the Vicious Circle, Choose Me, Trouble In Mind & ‘Love At large’, comes this movie, set amongst the ‘Lost Generation’ of 1920’s Paris cafe society. It’s 1926 on the Left Banke & talented painter Nick (Keith Carradine) can’t get a break, earning a living sketching caricatures for his friend’s newspaper column and buying drinks for Ernest Hemingway, when things get more complicated with the re-appearance of old an flame (Linda Fiorentino), now married to a dangerous & jealous businessman (John Lone). Rudolph’s off-beat sense of humour & stylism may not be to everyone’s taste, but he creates an atmospheric take on the romantic complications & life of the bohemian art & literary set of the time. Worth watching for anyone who enjoyed Woody Allen’s recent Midnight In Paris. (Mark)

Downfall.
Not a new film but this 2004 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film has stood up over time very well. Each generation continues to struggle to understand the social and political phenomenon that was the Third Reich and this engrossing film, set in the Berlin bunker where the remains of the Nazi high command took refuge during the final days of WWII, attempts to shed some light on the underlying psychology of Hitler’s followers. Told through the eyes of a 19 year old secretary (played by Alexandra Maria Lara of Control fame), and beginning with excerpts from a real life interview, this is a brave and powerful film. (John)

Stander.
‘Stander’ is definitely a case of the truth being stranger than fiction, in this movie based on real events in Apartheid ruled South Africa in the late 1970. Thomas Jane plays Andre Stander a Police Captain forced to participate in lethal ‘Riot Policing’ of the black population, & who allegedly begins to rob banks as a bizarre form of revenge for his increasing moral disillusionment. Eventually captured & sent to jail, he finds two willing partners while inside. After a clever escape they begin a further spree of robberies, gaining notoriety as the ‘Stander Gang’; and as their escapades become more daring the pressure mounts on the South African authorities to close in on them. Definitely something a bit different, offering up an atmospheric sense of time & place, and the conditions for Africans under Apartheid. While the film never quite penetrates the enigma of Stander’s character, Thomas Jane’s extremely charismatic, accent-perfect performance is definitely worth seeing. (Mark)

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure.

Tin man.
‘D.G’ (Zooey Deschanel) is a feisty motor-bike riding waitress who has been having dreams of a strange distant place. When a dangerous storm overtakes her home and a group of men in long coats attack her & her parents, they are forced to jump into the path of the storm…and D.G wakes up in a completely new world. She soon discovers she has crossed over into The O.Z (The ‘Outer Zone’) which has been taken over by an evil sorceress called Azkadellia; and so begins an epic journey to find her parents, discover her true heritage, and defeat the evil sorceress. Luckily for DG she is joined along the way by some new friends: the scarecrow-like Glitch – who is in search of his stolen brain (a great performance from Alan Cumming); a ‘Tin-Man’ (ex-cop) called Wyatt Cain, in search of his lost wife & son; a cowardly lion called ‘Raw’; and a ‘Mystic-Man’ wizard (Richard Dreyfus) fallen on hard times. From the same writer/director/producers who have also updated other classics in a revisionist manner (’Alice in Wonderland’ as Alice; ‘Peter Pan’ as Neverland) this fantastically entertaining mini-series, from the US Sci-Fi Channel, re-imagines elements of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into something that is both fresh & original and also a fitting tribute to L. Frank Baum’s timeless classic. A great watch for the whole family, though it may is definitely a bit too dark for the little ones. (Mark)

Route Irish.
British film maker Ken Loach is not famous for making feel-good movies. His films generally deal with themes such as state-sanctioned crime, the brutality of war, the exploitation of the underclass and harsh treatment of native populations. This film is no exception, the subject being privately paid British ‘security guards’, i.e. mercenaries, employed in Iraq. This is a compelling, no holds barred, anti-Hollywood thriller that illustrates how deeply human values have been eroded and examines the intrusion of the war machine into civil society in our current corporate era. (John)

The bridge. The complete series one.
More Scandinavian crime fare sees the Danes & Swedes combining for the gritty ‘The Bridge’. When a body is found staged in the middle of the Øresund Bridge exactly halfway between Denmark & Sweden, Detectives from both countries are forced into working together. When it is quickly discovered that the body is in fact the upper & lower halves of 2 separate victims, it becomes apparent that this is more than just an ordinary crime. The killer soon makes himself known, a so-called ‘Truth Terrorist’, his aim is to draw society’s attention to 5 problems that currently plague it (the plight of the homeless, inequality in the eyes of the law, treatment of the mentally ill etc). What follows is a complex thriller, full of twists & turns as the two main characters try to apprehend him before he can claim more victims with his cleverly orchestrated killings. The two leads, Danish Detective Martin, a scruffy, empathetic, laid back family man trying to re-connect with his teenage son; and the Swedish Police Officer Saga, an aspergers-like Detective with meticulous work habits but a complete lack of tact & social skills, play off each other nicely as they form a working bond that grows stronger as the crimes twist in a different direction than they initially thought…More great Scandi-Noir, with a second series on the way, as well as an American remake. (Mark)

Margaret.
After the success of the fantastic debut feature ‘You Can Count on Me’ (2000), Kenneth Lonergan embarked on an ambitious project ‘Margaret’. The film was shot in 2005, set in post 9/11 New York City, but Lonergan was unable to find a final cut he wanted and the lawsuit followed. By the time the film was finally released in 2011, two of three producers had passed away. This sounds rather messy, and in fact, the film is chaotic with a mess-of-contradictions main character. However, it’s powerful, great chaos. An intelligent but self-absorbed teen Lisa (played by Anna Paquin, who was 23 when the film was shot) becomes obsessive after a fatal bus crash, that she may have caused, and seeks some sort of closure. Along with this simple synopsis, numerous dramas, including the relationship between Lisa and her mother, are developed throughout three hours (this director suite is 30 minutes longer than the theatre version). At times it’s absurd but has fascinatingly brilliant moments, and there is an air only exceptional movies have. This may be a love-or-hate movie but no one would argue about the brilliance of Anna Paquin’s ferocious performance. (Shinji)

The cabin in the woods.
A stereotypical group of college kids head off for a booze fuelled weekend of debauchery at a creepy cabin in the woods. Clichés abound…but the beginning is intercut with scenes from a complex of some kind as two white collar workers exchange barbed asides as they head off to another routine ‘day at the office’. The movie wastes no time in setting up its premise: that whatever is happening to the kids is being watched, even controlled, by the technicians in the office complex…but that is just the beginning of an extremely meta horror movie co-written by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity) & directed by Drew Goddard, skewering every horror movie convention, & then turning them inside out – literally. Whedon fans will recognise familiar faces & in-jokes, but this one is recommended even for those un-initiated in the Whedon-cult. Very clever & entertaining. (Mark)

The woman in black.
Harry Potter has grown up. Daniel Radcliffe plays a broody solicitor with about 90% of the dialogue. Initially a book, then a play and now the DVD, there have been changes – some good – some not so good. Quite scary in places – don’t watch it with the light off! (Liz)

Cargo.
This Swiss Sci-Fi film (which plays in dubbed English, but is better watched in the original German with English subtitles) is set in 2270 when the Earth has been devastated by an Ecological disaster & everyone lives in orbit in Space Stations. Laura is a Doctor who takes a job on a cargo ship to earn the money to move to Rhea – a blissful colonized planet, light years from Earth. The cargo ship is supposedly on an eight year journey to refit an outlying space station, but during her stint out of cyro-sleep Laura believes she sees someone in the cargo hold. Awakening the Ship’s Security Officer & Captain the trio negotiate the massive cargo hold, only for the Captain to fall & die. But was his death really accidental & what exactly is the cargo they are carrying?…Extremely ambitious Sci-Fi filmed apparently with a very small budget (in comparison with mainstream US Sci-Fi films) yet still manages to host an array of stunning visuals & scenes. Plot wise the film blends elements of everything from The Matrix to Sunshine, Solaris, & Alien, into a story that develops slowly but has its own power & sense of originality. Impressive, intelligent, Sci-Fi, manages that difficult blend of story & spectacle, recommended to anyone who found themselves underwhelmed by Prometheus. (Mark)

Miranda. Series 2.
Miranda, Series one and two – hilarious and I would recommend these to just about anyone (Fleur)

The shop around the corner.
If ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ is not the very first ‘rom-com’, it is certainly the preeminent one against which all the others are compared. Set in Budapest, Jimmy Stewart is the head salesman at ‘Matuschek & Company’, a leather goods gift shop. When a new girl (Margaret Sullivan) wrangles herself a job they clash immediately, with her sassy attitude & sharp tongued banter against his barbed & snappy asides. However what neither realises is that they are already in love with each other as anonymous pen-pals… Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, the movie is perfectly paced & the supporting characters fully realised, especially the shop owner Mr Matuschek & his poignant marriage woes. A charming classic, remade a couple of times as a film & stage musical, and most recently as the 1988 Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan vehicle You’ve got Mail. (Mark)

A separation.
This is the first Iranian film to receive a Golden Globe award, winning Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. What begins as a fairly simple story of a family in crisis gradually draws the viewer into a series of increasingly complex situations. Extremely well-crafted, the twists of the plot present new moral dilemmas for all the protagonists, which are presented objectively and explored without judgment. As in life (not the Hollywood version), it is all grey areas. This is a fascinating human drama that explores themes of family loyalty, love, duty, the folly of religion and pride – and it is refreshing to watch a film that does not tell the viewer what to think. (John)

The perfect host.
John (Clayne Crawford) is a career criminal who has just robbed a bank. Injured, he finds himself trapped in a residential neighbourhood with the police closing in. Using a postcard he steals from a letterbox he manages to convince mild-mannered home owner Warwick (David Hyde Pierce) that he is a friend of a friend who has just arrived in town, lost his luggage & been mugged. Warwick is in the middle of preparing a lavish dinner party for some guests about to arrive, but being the consummate host invites John in, insisting he stay for dinner. However, John slowly begins to realise that there is much more to Warwick than meets the eye…To say anything more about this dark gem would give the story away, but if you think you know where things are going the movie continually surprises you with one surreal, deranged turn after another, and David Hyde Pierce’s performance is simply mesmerizing. Recommended if you enjoy whacked-out thrillers such as Jennifer Lynch’s Surveillance or Kevin Costner’s Mr. Brooks. (Mark)

This is not a film.
Another Iranian film, this is the documentary made by banned Iranian film maker, Jafar Panahi, which was smuggled out of Iran on a memory stick to premier at Cannes. Panahi is under house arrest and faces a seven year jail term and a 20 year ban on film making for his, allegedly, anti establishment films. He invited a friend over and they made this film in his flat, ostensibly about his day to day life, however, what develops is a very subtle but strong sub-text about the act of film making itself. This is exemplified in the surreal sequence when we witness footage of two cameras filming each other – a very clever and surprisingly engrossing film. (John)

Ted.
Eight year old John is an ostracized lonely kid. Bonding with a teddy bear he receives for Christmas he wishes it would come to life so they could be friends forever…which it then does. John grows up to be Mark Wahlberg & Ted grows up to be a second rate celebrity has-been, & together they like to hang out, drink beer, smoke lots of dope & watch Flash Gordon - much to the chagrin of John’s steady girlfriend (Mila Kunis), who wants John to grow up & get his life together. Directed, produced, co-written & voiced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane ‘Ted’ – as you would probably expect – is rude, crude, lowbrow & generally offensive on pretty much every level imaginable. However it’s also really, really funny, and in many ways more of a genuinely poignant ‘buddy’ movie than anything Judd Aptow has churned out. The great juxtaposition of the cheesy Disney-like set-up (complete with voice over & perky Disney-like soundtrack) & the ‘reality’ of Ted, who likes to party with hookers & do bong hits drives the story, and both Wahlberg & Kunis are good enough to make the whole three-way dynamic seem believable, with Wahlberg demonstrating some great comedy chops. Just good dumb fun. (Mark)

The way.
Martin Sheen plays ‘Tom’ in this road movie with a difference. A family tragedy takes Tom to France where he finds himself walking the 1000 year old, 500 mile pilgrimage trail across Northern Spain – El Camino de Santiago. Along the way, of course, he meets a collection of eccentric fellow travellers, but, thankfully, they don’t all have an adventure that “changes their lives forever”. The tone is low key and understated and what emerges is a curiously sincere and affecting tale of unlikely camaraderie and affirmation – great cinematography as well. (John)

The grey.
Liam Neeson’s late-career re-invention as an action-lead was one of the best things to happen in movies for a long time, but the Taken sequel was such a dud, that not even his acting could make it a semi-decent film. However all is forgiven with ‘The Grey’, an exciting survivalist thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness. Neeson is a weary sniper, seemingly at the end of his rope, employed by an oil company to keep the workers safe from marauding wolves. When the plane he is on with a crew of oil roughnecks crashes, the survivors are stranded and struggle against the brutal elements to create shelter & warmth. However, soon a new element is thrown into the mix…a group of hyper-aggressive territorial wolves begin to surround their camp. With no choice the men have to strike off over the brutal terrain to find safety…but the wolves begin to stalk their every move. There is some fairly ropey dialogue, and unbelievable elements & situations that the men find themselves in, with of the metaphorical philosophizing is a bit over the top; but at the end of the day that doesn’t really seem to lessen its impact. Tense, dark & gripping right to the end. (Mark)

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure.

Thief.
‘Thief’ from director Michael Mann sees James Caan play a career jewel-thief, feeling his age, who wants to retire, settle down & live the idealised family life he’s always dreamed of. When one of his ’scores’ brings him & his partner (James Belushi) into the radius of a local ‘Outfit’ boss, he turns down an offer from the mobster to work jobs for him. But when he convinces his new girlfriend (Tuesday Weld) to start a life with him he agrees to sign on…for one big last score…Adapted from the novel ‘The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar’ (penned by a real jewel-thief), Mann’s first movie features many of the trademarks he would later utilise on bigger pictures like Manhunter & Heat: gritty dialogue, pounding music (courtesy of ‘Tangerine Dream’), neon lit cinematography, & a realistic portrayal of criminal life & techniques (real thieves were hired as technical ‘consultants’ for the burglary scenes). Caan is intense, in probably his best role, as he comes to realise the Faustian nature of the bargain he’s made. Recommended if you’re a fan of the director’s work. (Mark)

The Adjustment Bureau.
In a perfect world there would be films made of ALL of Philip K Dick’s stories… and it seems as though we may slowly be getting there with ‘The Adjustment Bureau’ joining the list alongside Minority Report, Blade Runner, Total Recall and A Scanner Darkly. This is essentially a romance with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt portraying star crossed lovers struggling against a Truman Show kind of behind the scenes cabal who’s job is to make sure ‘the plan’ is adhered to. Walking a nice line between irony and sincerity this is a well made sci-fi movie offering an entertaining take on the notion of free will vs. fate. Also features a nice surprise performance from Terence Stamp as ‘Thompson’. (John)

A lonely place to die.
Gripping UK thriller sees Melissa George play one of a group of climbers working their way through a remote area in the Scottish highlands, where they make the shocking discovery of a girl buried alive in an underground chamber with an air pipe to the surface. Setting the girl free, they attempt to return to the nearest town, only to find the girl’s ruthless kidnappers hot on their trail. What follows is an intense cat-and-mouse chase, with some squeamish climbing scenes, and moments of sudden violence. The bad guys are memorably nasty, in a creepy matter-of-fact manner, and the film builds to an exciting climax in a crowded town in the middle of a highland Festival. Definitely worth a look if you’re a thriller fan. (Mark).

Rampart.
The most recent movie directed and written by Oren Moverman (The Messenger, I’m Not There) and co-written by James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential), starring Woody Harrelson, who also starred in ‘The Messenger’. The story of a tough, old-school LAPD cop, used to doing “other people’s dirty work” who refuses to acknowledge or conform to the shift in society’s and the Police Department’s attitude to his hard hitting, violent street policing. Fighting for his survival takes an emotional toll not only personally but also on the people closest to him. This is dark, edgy movie, with a brilliant performance by Harrelson, who is tough, articulate and believable, supported by Anne Heche, Ice Cub and Sigourney Weaver. (Linda)

Margin call.
Powerhouse performances anchor this gripping account of the last days of an investment firm before the 2008 financial crisis. When 80% of the trading floor are fired a departing executive (Stanley Tucci) hands off a flash-drive to a young analyst (Zachary Quinto), warning him to be careful with the figures he’d been looking into. When Quinto’s character runs the data he makes some missing connections & comes up with a sobering picture: the firm is so over-leveraged with mortgage-backed securities that the potential loss would exceed the firm’s total value. The information is slowly fed up the corporate ladder through various levels of corporate bosses (Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker) all the way to CEO Jeremy Irons, resulting in a series of tense meetings in which the firm’s fate rests on the decisions that will be made…Hard hitting drama explores the financial & moral ambiguities that define Wall Street & 21st Century capitalism. Recommended to anyone who enjoyed Glengarry Glen Ross or Inside Job. (Mark)

Albert Nobbs.
Albert Nobbs has a secret, kept for many years while working in a Dublin Hotel. Actress Glenn Close first played this role in a 1982 stage production and has returned again to the pivotal role. The story is one of hope as well as sadness. (Liz)

Episodes. [Season 1].
‘Episodes’ is an extremely funny take on Television shows & their creation. Married British writers (Tamsin Greig & Stephen Mangan) are the creators of an award-winning UK TV show called ‘Lyman’s Boys’, about an erudite School headmaster in love with a lesbian librarian. Wooed to America by US Network boss (John Pankow) who promises to faithfully remake their show, they find ‘American’ TV is a whole different world, and soon their Shakespearean lead actor has been replaced by Matt Le Blanc from Friends, his love interest is no longer a lesbian, & they are making a show called ‘Pucks’ about a Hockey Coach. A great cast enliven this very meta inside take on TV politics, as the beleaguered Brits find themselves in all sorts of complicated situations navigating their new life in Los Angeles, as well as their ever changing show. Matt Le Blanc is actually excellent as an extremely dodgy version of himself. All in all a very clever mix of British & American humour. (Mark)

Love like poison.
Small in scale but almost flawless, Katell Quillevere’s debut feature ‘Love Like Poison’ is a beautifully crafted coming-of-age drama. It’s a one-summer-event of 14 year old Anna who returns from her boarding school for the holidays. Anna is in between innocence and maturity, and struggles with the fact that her parents are separated, with Christian faith and her own sexual awakening with Pierre. These adolescence themes are nothing new, but the combination of delicate direction, well thought-out camera work, soundtrack and lush French countryside setting bring a nice aroma. Personally, it is intriguing that there are elements that remind me some of Maurice Pialat’s works; Catholic boarding school, Anna’s relationship with her parents, grandfather’s character and so on. It doesn’t have the super realist Pialat’s uniqueness or intensity, but it’s a lovely watch. (Shinji)

The raid.
Indonesian martial-arts star Iko Uwais helms this exciting & extremely violent action-fest. The plot set-up is simple in the extreme. An elite SWAT team are sent into a run-down 15-floor ‘criminal hotel’ complex in Jakata to extract the gang overlord who controls the complex. However their cover is soon blown & they find themselves trapped inside, with all the apartment complex residents offered financial incentive to kill them by whatever means at hand…leaving them no choice but to fight. There is a degree of ‘back-story’ thrown in, with some elements of political corruption & familial redemption, but mostly it’s about the action. Lots & lots of action; Guns, knives, explosions, fists, swords, furniture, fridges…pretty much anything is ‘weaponised’, as what follows is some of most insane action choreography put to film. Recommended to all fans of action/martial arts cinema. (Mark)

Dandelion mind/Bill Bailey.
It is great to see British comedian Bill Bailey enjoy the world wide success he deserves. He is a genuinely funny man with a razor sharp wit, a keen political awareness and an endearing self deprecating humor. He is also am accomplished musician; consequently his live shows include a strong musical focus. His last DVD release Bill Bailey’s Guide To the Orchestra was hilarious and hugely entertaining and he delivers once again with this DVD release of his last live tour. Highly recommended. (John)

Homeland. The complete first season.
‘Homeland’ tells the story of an obsessive CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Clare Danes) with a secret Bi-Polar condition, who comes to believe that US Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody(Damien Lewis), rescued from years of imprisonment & torture in Iraq, has in fact been turned by his captors & is now working for a Bin-Laden like terrorist leader. Unable to generate support from within the CIA or her mentor Saul Berensen (Mandy Pantikin) she begins an illegal surveillance on Brody. Meanwhile Brody finds the stress of returning to his children & wife Jessica (Morena Baccarin), & the resulting media spotlight threatening to break his fragile hold on reality. But what is his real agenda, if any? Is he just a damaged soldier, or is it something more sinister…’Homeland’ definitely works a post 24 political vibe, and if you haven’t checked out this show yet (or think that even after all the Emmy nods it’s still not your cup of tea genre wise) it plays out more as a psychological thriller about two damaged people, rather than a terrorist-action show, and is recommended for anyone after some satisfyingly intelligent drama. (Mark)

Autoluminescent : Rowland S. Howard.
Rowland S. Howard is not a household name but this nicely put together Doco illustrates how influential the Melbourne based guitarists distinctive and original style has been on contemporary rock music. When you see Kevin Shield’s of My Bloody Valentine saying how much he was affected by seeing The Birthday Party playing live in Britain in the early 80’s then you know that this is a story of an underground musician who never received the recognition he deserved before his sad early death. This is a story of creativity and extremes…. both for fans and those interested in the development of indie rock. (John)

Spooks. 10.
How to end a long running series is always a tough call. Some shows succeed. Most don’t, as the notoriously lame endings to several recent shows can attest to. The end of ‘Spooks’ does a fairly solid job, after the last two seasons have seen some somewhat ropey writing & plots. Harry (Peter Firth) & Ruth (Nicola Walker) return with a new Section Chief, & as the UK prepares to cement a new ‘friendship’ with old enemy Russia, in the form of Russian spy-turned-politician Ilya Gavrik, secrets involving Garvik’s wife Elena from Harry’s ‘Cold War’ spy days come to light…which could derail the whole process. But just who is it that is manipulating events?…Everything wraps up pretty well in the end, with a nice cameo from a Spooks alumna in the finale. While some may not like the fate the writers assign to Ruth & Harry, the final line of the show rings true. (Mark)

Frozen river.
Gripping thriller which was nominated for 2 Academy Awards: Best Screenplay & Best Actress. Melissa Leo (best known for her role in Homicide: Life on the Streets) plays a part-time discount store clerk with two kids who is struggling to make ends meet. When her gambling addict husband disappears just before Christmas with the money she has set aside for the deposit on a new double-wide trailer, she tracks his car down to a Bingo Parlour on an Indian Reservation & encounters a young Indian woman (Misty Upham) who has been using it. Learning the young woman has a history of smuggling, they form an uneasy alliance to traffic illegal aliens across the Canada/US border via a frozen river on Reservation land. It’s all a case of pragmatic economics as this gripping low-key thriller that avoids any easy heavy-handed moralizing, while shining a light on the grim realities of blue-collar poverty. Leo is outstanding in the lead role, as is Upham, as the two different women begin to form a relationship of mutual respect based on their similar motivations. Recommended if you enjoyed Winter’s Bone. (Mark)

The avengers.
Went to movie, was better than ‘The Dark Knight’! (Yu)

Bored to death. The complete third season.
More crazy hijinks occur in the third (and unfortunately last) series of ‘Bored To Death’, the loose pastiche of the ‘Private Eye’ genre from writer Jonathan Ames. George (Ted Dansen) opens an organic restaurant, falls for his singing teacher, & tries to stop his estranged daughter marrying a man as old as he is; Ray (Zach Galifianakis) breast feeds his son with whisky, proposes marriage, and experiences ‘Elder love’; while Jonathan is framed for murder, appears on the Dick Cavett Show & tries to find his biological father….Sure it’s all very silly, but it never ceases to be funny it its continuing send up of Raymond Chandler via nebbish self-absorbed New Yorkers. (Mark)

Arrietty.
(Yu)

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure.

The friends of Eddie Coyle.
Faithful adaptation of the George V. Higgins novel sees a weary Robert Mitchum give one of his best performances as Eddie ‘Fingers’ Coyle, a small time player in Boston’s seedy criminal underworld, caught in a nexus of bank robbers & gun runners, all the while facing down the looming pressure of an upcoming prison stretch. English director Peter Yates 70’s crime flick was a clear influence on shows like The Sopranos, and later directors like Michael Mann & Quentin Tarantino, and its gritty & atmospheric portrayal of criminal low-life’s is far more believable than recent Hollywood efforts such as The Departed or The Town. While there is hardly any ‘action’ in the film as such, its focus is more on the interactions & betrayals of the characters, and is full of great supporting roles & dialogue. The lovely Criterion Edition features an essay on the film, and a colourful Rolling Stone interview with Mitchum from the set of the film. (Mark)

This is not a film.
In March 2010, Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Crimson Gold) was arrested by the Iranian authorities. He was released later but banned from filmmaking, leaving the country and contacting the media for twenty years. Under house arrest, ‘This is not a Film’ was secretly filmed to document a day in his life in his Tehran apartment. With the help of his friend and co-director Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (later arrested), and shot by digital camera and iPhone, the film depicts Panahi’s daily life, and inevitably his frustration is revealed. However, despite the limited conditions, the film is engaging and has plenty of originality and ingenuity, and a lot of humour as well. This was shot on the day of the Persian New Year and the noise from the city and the fireworks sound ominous, making us wonder if they imply what will happen to him in the future. This film was smuggled from Iran to France on a USB drive inside a cake, and premiered at Cannes in 2011. This strong statement from this extraordinary filmmaker shows that he would be true to his artistic nature in any circumstances. This should not be his swansong. (Shinji)

Impostor.
Adaptations of Philip K Dick novels & short stories tend to be a mixed bag. At the top tier rests faithful & iconic adaptations such as Blade Runner or A Scanner Darkly. The next level are solid action-oriented efforts such as Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, or Total Recall, that expand on the original stories to good effect; while the bottom tier sees titles like Paycheck or Next, diverging too far afield from the source material with diminishing results. ‘Imposter’ slides in somewhere near the top. Gary Sinise plays a Government weapons designer in a future where Earth is at war with an alien race that uses cleverly designed Android clones as bombs. Accused of being a clone himself, Sinise goes on the run to prove his innocence. The film is fairly faithful to Dick’s short story, which plays around with his favourite themes of What is really real? & What does it mean to be human? With a much lower budget than bigger star-vehicles like ‘Minority Report’, ‘Imposter’ seems a bit of a poor cousin, but it’s a solidly entertaining entry into the field of PKD adaptations. (Mark)

We need to talk about Kevin.
Scottish director Lynne Ramsay’s last feature was 2002’s excellent Morvern Callar and her latest work, ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’, she directed and co-wrote the screenplay for from Lionel Shriver’s award winning novel. This is a genuinely disturbing tale given extra depth from her thoughtful and intelligent directing. It is a story of deep dysfunction – but exactly who’s is deliberately portrayed as ambiguous and open to debate. Tilda Swinton plays Eva Khatchadourian, the mother, exceptionally well, while the soundtrack, which includes songs by Buddy Holly and Lonnie Donegan, offers an almost surreal edge to this compelling film. (John)

The Eagle: a crime odyssey . Volume one.
Charismatic half-Icelandic/Danish Police Inspector Helgrim Helgrimson (nicknamed ‘The Eagle’ by his colleagues) is asked to head up a Scandinavian cross-border crime unit. Initially he refuses but when he is called in to defuse a supposed terrorist incident unfolding at an airport, he crosses paths with a mysterious ex-KGB agent. Failing to capture him, Helgrimson accepts the new posting as a way of tracking down his adversary who has his own mysterious long-term agenda. More solid crime from the Danes, ‘The Eagle’ ran from 2004-2006 in Denmark, picking up an Emmy along the way for ‘Best International Drama. Has a cool theme song too. Recommended if you enjoyed The Killing or The Protectors. (Mark).

Welcome.
A 17-year-old Kurdish boy attempts to journey from Iraq across Europe to London. This may remind you of Michael Winterbottom’s poignant, almost documentary film In This World. French filmmaker Philippe Lioret’s ‘Welcome’ is a more intimate, modest drama yet it is hard not to become gripped. Set mostly in Calais, the closest French city to Britain, the film centres on the friendship between Kurdish boy Bilal and his swimming instructor Simon (played by excellent Vincent Lindon). Bilal, who has travelled for three months on foot from Iraq, desperately wants to reunite with his girlfriend who has immigrated in London, but the only way he can think of to get there is by swimming across the English Channel. Simon has just divorced and seems to have no interest in life in general, but gradually gets involved in Bilal’s perilous attempt and gives him support. However, helping illegal immigrants is against the law and Simon puts himself in a difficult position. The director Lioret carefully avoids over-emotional melodrama and Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon)’s subtle, nuanced performance contributes immensely to achieve it. Apparently this movie was a big hit in France and provoked a national discussion about the immigration policy, but not surprisingly, wasn’t welcomed by the Immigration minister. (Shinji)

Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Genuinely creepy movie about a young girl (played by the youngest Olsen sister) who manages to escape a rigid commune-like cult, and its charismatic leader. Reconnecting with her sister & her new husband the film focuses on her difficulties re-integrate into normal ‘life’ after her 3 year disappearance, her fractured relationship with her older sister, and her haunting memories of her time as a prisoner in the controlling environment of the cult. As her sanity starts to slowly slip, her paranoia worsens and reality, fantasy & memory all begin to blur. Eschewing conventional narrative, this ambiguous slow moving psychological drama isn’t for everyone, but anchored by Olsen’s strong performance it’s a compelling yet unsettling watch. (Mark)

The killing. The complete series one.
I watched this first season (20 episodes) over the course of a week. It was so well acted and the plot raced along with many red herrings scattered along the way. Each week I changed my mind about who the killer was! Highly addictive – be warned! (Sandy)

Anything for her.
Ordinary teacher Julien (Vincent Lindon) seems to have it made with a happy home life with his 11 year old son, and beautiful wife Lisa (the lovely Diane Kruger). However when Lisa is suddenly arrested for the murder of her boss it all falls apart. Tried & sentenced with a weight of circumstantial evidence, Julien exhausts all his savings on appeals, as his wife cracks under the strain of a 20 year prison term. When the last appeal fails, and discovering that his wife will soon be transferred to another prison far from him, convinced of her innocence he decides there is only one option left: To break her out of jail…If the plot of ‘Pour Elle’ or ‘Anything for her’ sounds familiar it is because it was remade recently as the Russell Crowe vehicle The Next Three Days. However, as in most cases, the original is the superior film, and the suspense lies in the juxtaposition of a seemingly ordinary man with limited financial resources attempting a seemingly impossible task armed with only his strength of will…Recommended. (Mark)

A dangerous method.
David Cronenberg’s movies are all, pretty much without exception, thought provoking, engaging and exceptionally well crafted. He has explored the darker edges of the human psyche in previous films including Existenz, ‘Spider’, ‘Crash’ and Eastern Promises, and the stories he tells are, more often than not, morally ambiguous – kind of like real life. With ‘A Dangerous Method’ he gets to the core of the human psyche in his first period drama which relates the true story of Russian woman, Sabina Spielrein, played by Kiera Knightly, and her relationship with the Viennese fathers of psycho-analysis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. This is a fascinating story set within an important phase of development in the history of humankind’s attempts to understand the mind and the forces that drive us. (John)

The Sandbaggers. The complete series.
A piece in the New York Times described 70s TV ‘The Sandbaggers’ as the greatest spy series ever made, and it’s easy to see why it has such a reputation. Roy Marsden plays Neil Burnside the head of D-Ops, a section of the British Intelligence Service. His small team of elite Intelligence agents (called ‘Sandbaggers’) undertake select & dangerous missions, such as busting out defectors from behind the iron curtain, political assassinations, & covert espionage work. However the show is not action oriented per see, rather events play out as a series of tense conversations, phone calls & encounters, culminating occasionally in a burst of short & brutal violence. There’s nothing glamorous about the world of the Sandbaggers & Burnside soon finds out that the greatest threat comes from the inside with budget & manpower cuts, incompetent superiors, & political manoeuvrings. It takes a while to get a feel for the pace & tone of the show, as its acting style & camera work date it somewhat, but after a couple of episodes its easy to become caught up in the tightly written, suspenseful stories, the central plots of which still hold up despite the shift in political context since the 70s. Alas only 3 seasons were completed as the shows creator & main writer (a formal British Naval Officer) was presumed dead after the plane he was on mysteriously disappeared. Recommended. (Mark)

L’appartement.
Extremely clever Hitchcock/De Palma homage sees Vincent Cassel as Max, a rising young executive who has just returned from New York with a new fiancée. However when he is sure he overhears his ex-girlfriend Lisa (Monica Bellucci) in a telephone booth, he becomes obsessed with tracking her down again & re-igniting their passionate relationship. To achieve this he pretends to travel out of town on business, and enlists the help old friend Lucien, who has just begun a romance with a mysterious actress called Alice. What follows is a complex tangle of lost love & romantic obsession told via time shifts & flashbacks. Cassel & Bellucci have a definite chemistry together (they would later marry) & Romane Bohringer who plays Alice is also excellent. Stylish & entertaining, it won the 1998 BAFTA for best Non-English movie, & was remade in the US in 2004 as Wicker Park. Recommended (Mark)

New DVDs at Wellington City Libraries in August include the adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s bestselling novel ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’; the Royal Shakespeare Company’s version of ‘Hamlet’ featuring David Tennant; the Ken Follett mini-series ‘The pillars of the Earth’; a new documentary on Woody Allen; and the acclaimed HBO series ‘In Treatment’ with Gabriel Byrne…

We need to talk about Kevin.
“A suspenseful and gripping psychological thriller, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin explores the fractious relationship between a mother and her evil son. Tilda Swinton, in a bracing, tour-de-force performance, plays the mother, Eva, as she contends for 15 years with the increasing malevolence of her first-born child, Kevin (Ezra Miller). Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, We Need To Talk About Kevin explores nature vs. nurture on a whole new level as Eva’s own culpability is measured against Kevin’s innate evilness. Ramsay’s masterful storytelling simultaneously combines a provocative moral ambiguity with a satisfying and compelling narrative, which builds to a chilling, unforgettable climax.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Hamlet.
“It’s to director Gregory Doran’s incredible credit that his staging of that most familiar of English-language plays, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, should be completely reinvigorated by a modern interpretation of the tragedy as a true psychological thriller. This Hamlet, filmed in 2009, presents the inner torment of the Danish prince Hamlet as a believable, relatable controlled explosion of emotions, each more unmanageable than the last. Besides the director, the casting is also brilliant, including the Scottish actor David Tennant (Doctor Who) as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Hamlet’s uncle Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet’s father–who, Hamlet becomes convinced, was killed by Claudius. The direction is brisk, and the acting is first rate. Tennant plays a heartbreaking Hamlet, whose paranoia and weird inner reflections are given a modern spin by the lush, shiny mirrorlike surfaces in the palace, as well as by small but excellent details, like a closed-circuit camera system. And Stewart is menacing but completely collected as Claudius, and unnerving as his brother’s ghost…The impact is unforgettable; this Hamlet is a terrific achievement.” – (adapted from Amazon.com review)

Like crazy.
“Like Crazy beautifully illustrates how your first real love is as thrilling and blissful as it is fragile. When a British college student falls for her American classmate, they embark on a passionate and life-changing journey–only to be separated by circumstances beyond their control. … Like Crazy explores how a couple faces the real challenges of being together and of being apart.” – (adapted from Syndetics summary)

The pillars of the Earth.
“Ken Follett’s massive page-turner offers all the scheming and plotting of royal potboilers like Elizabeth and Showtime’s The Tudors. The story takes place in the 12th century, when King Henry I loses his son at sea. After Henry’s death, his nephew, Stephen (Tony Curran), assumes the throne, against the wishes of the Earl of Bartholomew (Donald Sutherland, star of Follett’s Eye of the Needle) and Henry’s daughter, Maud (Alison Pill, convincing as a Brit), which pits them against Bishop Waleran (Deadwood’s Ian McShane) and Lady Hamleigh (Sarah Parish) and her bloodthirsty son, William (David Oakes). Tom (Rufus Sewell), a mason, and his apprentice, Jack (Savage Grace’s Eddie Redmayne), enter the fray when they offer to construct a cathedral for Prior Philip (Matthew Macfadyen). In the decades to come, Philip and the earl’s children, Aliena (Hayley Atwell) and Richard (Sam Claflin), battle the bishop and the Hamleighs to complete Kingsbridge Cathedral and restore their family name. As fortunes rise and fall, there’s rape, incest, and executions, resulting in nudity, profanity, and splashes of blood… but the multi-character story line is involving, and the principal cast, particularly Sewell, is up to the task.” – (adapted from Amazon.com review)

Weekend.
“This sensual, remarkably observed, beautifully acted wonder is the breakout feature from British writer-director-editor Andrew Haigh (Greek Pete). Rarely has a film been as honest about sexuality—in both depiction and discussion—as this tale of a one-night-stand that develops into a weekend-long idyll for two very different young men (exciting newcomers Tom Cullen and Chris New) in Midlands England. It’s an emotionally naked film that’s both an invaluable snapshot of the complexities of contemporary gay living and a universally identifiable portrait of a love affair.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

In treatment. The complete first season.
“Adapted from a popular and award-winning Israeli series…each episode eavesdrops on a weekly therapist-patient session. “The magic happens”—as one observer sarcastically remarks—in the home office of Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne in his Golden Globe Award-winning role). Monday’s patient is Laura (Melissa George), a doctor who reveals in a harrowing “about last night” monologue in the first episode that she is in love with Paul (”You’ve become the center of my life”). Tuesdays bring Alex (Blair Underwood), a cocky fighter pilot whose last mission over Iraq went horrifyingly awry, earning him the media tag, “The Madrassa Murderer.” Wednesday’s child, Sophie (Mia Wasikowska in a breakout performance) is a teenage Olympic hopeful in need of an evaluation following a near-fatal bicycle “accident.” On Thursdays, Paul meets with Amy (Embeth Davidtz) and Jake (Josh Charles), whose rocky marriage is further shaken as they wrestle over whether or not she should get an abortion. Fearing he is “losing patience with my patients,” Paul turns to his former mentor, Gina (Dianne Wiest in an Emmy-winning performance), with whom he had a falling out years before, to talk out his own troubles. The therapist whose own personal life is unraveling could have either been bad sitcom or static and stagey talking heads. But with its insightful writing, powerful performances, and deft, unobtrusive direction, In Treatment avoids the pitfalls to become an intensely gripping drama.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Extremely loud & incredibly close.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close touches the viewer to the very core. In the way that Titanic and The Sweet Hereafter depicted tragedy by pulling back at the pivotal moment, only increasing the heartache portrayed, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close shows the massive losses experienced in New York on September 11, 2001, through the lens of one young boy. Thomas Horn plays Oskar, a boy devoted to his dad (played by Tom Hanks, in flashbacks), who is lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center. The devastation of that day shudders through Oskar’s family, including his mother, Linda (Sandra Bullock, in a subdued and affecting turn). Young Oskar is lost in the broken new world, but suddenly finds a purpose: a key left by his father. As Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close progresses, Oskar focuses on the key as a way to connect to his lost father–but finds, instead, connections in the unlikeliest of places…Based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-selling novel, which was able to depict a bit more wry humor to leaven the heartbreak and history lessons, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close nonetheless faces human tragedy straight on, and shows how a broken family can be rebuilt, one small key, one subway ride, one awkward hug at a time.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Footnote.
“Though it’s packed with subtextual meaning on any number of levels, the title of this Israeli import and 2011 foreign language Oscar nominee is also a reference to the only claim to fame of Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba). The cranky, crotchety, and exceptionally old-fashioned professor of Talmudic studies at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University has all but perished after not having published despite his relentless examination of obscure texts as a fanatical philologist… Yet he clings to his old-school approach to intellectual investigation with greater gusto as his final years tick by. His rival in scholarly pursuit is his son Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), an equally serious man who also teaches at the university, but whose flashy, more populous approach to Talmudic study has earned him wide acclaim….When a mix-up occurs over which Shkolnik is to be awarded a prestigious academic prize, father and son exchange more cerebral bites, provoking barks of laughter from the audience as the mistake complicates itself so unpredictably. Writer-director Joseph Cedar navigates the sea of intellectual and family discord with a genuinely droll touch that’s as smart and stinging as it is funny…Footnote is a satire of intellect and domestic friction that cuts deep with dramatic tension and the insight of its often magical realist sense of high farce.” – (adapted from Amazon.com review)

The decoy bride.
“David Tennant, Kelly MacDonald and Alice Eve star in this romantic comedy set in rural Scotland. When Katie (MacDonald) is jilted at the altar, she returns broken-hearted to her remote Scottish island home. But little does she know that Hollwood superstar Lara Tyler (Eve) has chosen the island as the secret venue for her wedding to her fiance James (Tennant). When the paparazzi gets wind of the location, Lara runs away in exasperation. Her management team decides to stage a fake wedding, hoping the paparazzi will fall for the deception and leave the island, and Katie is asked to don a white dress and walk down the aisle as a ‘decoy’ for the absent Lara. However, the path of true love is further complicated when attraction begins to grow between James and his decoy bride.” – (adapted from Amazon.co.uk summary)

The big year.
“Never get between a birder and a Pink-footed Goose. As we learn from The Big Year, the intensity of birders (the term birdwatcher is dismissed here as insufficiently committed) is not to be taken lightly, and their quest of rare species creates the gentle comedy of this film, which is based on a real phenomenon. In the world of birders, there’s a goal set each calendar year, and based on the honor system: who can spot the most varieties of our feathered friends? All-time champ Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson) is a legendary name in the birding game, and this year he’s trying to beat his own record–but retired CEO Stu Preissler (Steve Martin) and slovenly upstart Brad Harris (Jack Black) are determined to topple the colorful and ruthless Bostick from his, er, perch. The movie’s at its best when charting the movements of these obsessed enthusiasts in the wild, as they scramble from Alaska to Arizona to New Jersey in pursuit of their goal; it’s less successful at trying to create human interest in the home lives of these guys.” – (adapted from Amazon.com summary)

Woody Allen: a documentary.
“Beginning with Allen s childhood, ‘Woody Allen; A Documentary’ chronicles the trajectory and longevity of Allen s career, from his work as a TV scribe, standup comedian and frequent TV talk show guest, to a writer-director averaging one film-per-year for more than 40 years. Director Weide covers Allen s earliest film work in Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Sleeper, and Love and Death; frequent Oscar® favorites such as Annie Hall, Manhattan, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, Purple Rose of Cairo, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Husbands & Wives, Bullets Over Broadway, and Mighty Aphrodite; and his recent globetrotting phase with Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and the recent success Midnight in Paris. Features interviews with: actors Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Penelope Cruz, John Cusack, Larry David, Mariel Hemingway, Scarlett Johansson, Julie Kavner, Diane Keaton, Martin Landau, Louise Lasser, Sean Penn, Tony Roberts, Chris Rock, Mira Sorvino, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest and Owen Wilson.” – (adapted from
Amazon.com summary)

(This is the second part of our picks for July/August — and yes, we know, we do watch many many DVDs…)

There are a lot of keen film-watchers at Wellington City Libraries and there are also a lot of great films, docos and TV series lining our shelves. So here’s a selection of the best, recent and not-so-recent DVDs taken home and watched by librarians, compiled for your viewing pleasure.

50/50.
When you think cancer, you don’t tend to think comedy movie but ‘50/50’, which is based on the experiences of screenwriter Will Reiser, managers to navigate the subject with a deft mix of humour and drama. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a clean living 27 year old with a steady job in Radio; however his life changes when he contracts a rare form of cancer on his spinal column. While Adam tries to make the best of the debilitations of chemotherapy & his 50/50 survival rate, his mother (Anjelica Huston) over-worries & smothers him, his best friend (Seth Rogan) uses it as a way to pick up women, his aloof girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) finds supporting him difficult, and his cancer therapist (Anna Kendrick) is only on her 3rd patient. A poignant mix of comedy, personal drama, & the nature of friendship, that never panders to sentimentality, with Gordon-Levitt excellent in the lead. Recommended. (Mark)

The killing. The complete series two.
More quality television from the Danes with the second season of the superior Crime series ‘The Killing’. After the events of the first season Detective Sarah Lund is exiled to checking passports on the Danish border, but when the ritualistic murder of a lawyer occurs near a Military Memorial her former boss Brix brings her back into the fold. Meanwhile the new inexperienced Justice Minister is charged by the PM with passing the new joint-party Terror package, which becomes more complicated as further murders occur, with terrorists as the suspects – all linked to an elite Danish Military Squad & a botched mission in Afghanistan. Once again there are multiple characters & plot strands at play, but thankfully this series is honed down to 10 episodes, so avoids a lot of the double-backs & red-herrings that weighed down the later episodes of the first season. (Mark)

Bill Cunningham New York.
New York gets a lot of bad press these days, representing to many the heart of the Western financial world. So it is good to watch a doco that looks at the city from the perspective of someone like Bill Cunningham, a fashion photographer in his eighties who since the ‘60s has photographed people on the street. Bill is an endearing character who still rides his pushbike everywhere, sleeps on the floor of his tiny ‘studio’ and has never done anything in his entire life for money. This is an inspiring film that allows us to witness someone who is driven by nothing but the love of what they do…..and there are some great clothes featured as well. (John)

Point blank.
A safecracker ends up shot & in hospital after a botched job. When his assailants try to finish him off a night shift nurse saves him just in time. However when the nurse returns home to his pregnant wife he is knocked unconscious & she is kidnapped. The kidnapper’s demand? He has to break the safecracker out of hospital & deliver him to a warehouse or his wife dies… But is the safecracker really the bad guy, or is something more sinister at play? Solid French thriller that takes the standard premise of an ordinary guy thrust into extreme circumstances and works it to the max, with plenty of twists, & stylish action. (Mark)

Treme. The complete second season.
Season Two of this standout HBO series, set in post Katrina New Orleans, maintains the high standards set in Season One. The music, if anything, is even better, the plot slowly but surely grows in complexity and the characters are gradually fleshed out. Part of the appeal of this series is the pace that it moves at – the relaxed way the story unfolds suits the culture of the American Deep South perfectly. The DVD extras feature discussions with the series’ creators which serve to add more context for keen viewers. (John)

The driver.
Classic Walter Hill 1978 action movie, sees a blank Ryan O’Neal play ‘The Driver’ an ace getaway man, who is pursued by ‘The Detective’ (Bruce Dern). His contact for jobs is ‘The Connection’ & his newly acquired alibi for his latest job is ‘The Player’ (Isabelle Adjani). Hill’s screenplay is a study in minimalism. None of the characters have names, & O’Neal only has around 300 lines in the entire movie. Instead it’s all about the driving, O’Neal’s blank face is a study in calm as he shifts through one precision move after another, never losing his cool in any situation. Bruce Dern is also great as the dodgy cop prepared to go to any length to catch The Driver. A clear influence on later directors such as Michael Mann & Tarantino, not to mention certain Playstation games, as well as being the key influence on the James Sallis novel Drive (with the lead character a stuntman/Getaway driver also just known as ‘Driver’) & thus the Ryan Gosling movie adapted from the novel. Best scene: When a group of criminals question his skill The Driver uses a series of concrete pillars in a parking garage to destroy a car piece by piece… (Mark)

Let’s get lost: starring Chet Baker.
Classic documentary on Jazz trumpet player Baker, one of the most iconic figures in Jazz. Director/photographer Bruce Weber likes broken & damaged things, and he paints Baker as a washed up junkie with a sycophantic entourage, focusing on his raspy singing, which had seen much better days. Baker, for his part, is happy to take the money, & be whatever Weber wants him to be. What follows is a sepia toned sift through Baker’s often sordid past, beginning in the 50’s West Coast scene with his moody James Dean looks & melodic trumpet playing eventually giving way to years of heroin addiction & nomadic travelling around Europe. Beautifully shot, with plenty of archival shots & lots of frank interviews with Bakers estranged family & others, who paint him in a pretty unflattering light. While it never addresses the central dichotomy at the heart of Baker’s myth it’s still a fascinating watch. Most of the techniques Weber used in the film would go on to become staples of the New York advertising world; months after filming Baker would debunk his portrayal in the doco, go on methadone to tour Japan, & record the ‘Live in Tokyo’ album – one of the best jazz live albums ever made, full of amazingly fluid playing & phrasing – before drugs would finally catch up with him again a year later. (Mark)

The incredible human journey.
In this BBC documentary, the lovely and very likeable anthropologist, Dr Alice Roberts, one of the new breed of young funky scientists, travels the globe to discover the incredible story of how humans left Africa to colonise the world. She spins a fascinating and engrossing story, approaching her adventure like a detective searching for vital clues, as the viewer follows her retracing the steps of our distant ancestors. DNA evidence and climate change software are used to give the viewer access to a startling perspective of an ever changing environment and a tenacious and highly adaptive species. An astonishing five part series that firmly establishes the common origins of humankind and, whether her findings are the whole story or not, this is a definite must see for those whose curiosity extends beyond the day to day. (John)

21 Jump Street.
Jonah Hill & Channing Tatum play opposites in High-School who become friends at Police Academy to help each other pass their training. But when their first bust goes awry they are re-assigned to go back undercover at High School as brothers, to infiltrate the dealers of a potent new drug, and catch the supplier. However when Channing forgets which brother he is supposed to be, their roles get reversed – with the beefy Channing placed in Chemistry class with the nerds & the geeky Hill on the Track team & the Drama club with the cool kids. Remakes of 80’s TV shows don’t tend to fare too well (‘The Dukes of Hazard’, ‘The A-Team’) but the 21 Jump Street remake is somewhat different in that it knows it’s a remake – with a speech by their foul mouthed new boss (Ice Cube) bemoaning the lack of creativity of his Police superiors by ‘reactivating an 80’s undercover unit’. It’s all very Meta, as ‘Jump Street’ takes the p**s out of action movies, buddy-cop movies, high-school movies, movies where people learn ‘valuable lessons’ about life & friendship, and just about everything else it can. Both Hill & particularly Channing are hilarious & sure it’s ridiculous, silly, low-brow & foul-mouthed, but it’s very funny. Also has a great cameo from Johnny Depp. (Mark)

Spooks. 9.
After a lengthy delay due to distribution issues the 9th season of Spooks finally gets released locally. One of those shows that always seems to reinvent the wheel – in that the writers always seem to come up with new & exciting stories when you think all the possible ‘threats to British soil’ plots had been played out. This season sees plenty of solid individual stories, with some new characters introduced (Sophia Myles as Beth, gets a good feature episode as her previous work as a mercenary threatens her new role in MI5); and while the overarching plot that sees Lucas North’s (Richard Armitage) mysterious past surface suffered from some ropey plotting it was still an interesting, if different, take on the fate ‘Spooks’ tends to deal out to its main characters. (Mark)

Safe house.
For those of us who were disappointed with the lack of car chase scenes in Drive, this movie makes up for it in spades. Ryan Reynolds, minus his Green Lantern outfit, manages to fight his way out of some pretty hairy situations, as he tries to keep Denzel Washington’s character from getting away. Denzel plays Tobin Frost, ex CIA and now traitor, who finds himself in a life threatening situation which can only be avoided by his surrendering to the US Embassy. He is moved to a safe house where Matt Weston (Reynolds) has been sitting around for the past year feeling very neglected. When a group of mercenaries attack the safe house and kill the team interrogating Frost, he is forced to go on the run to keep them both alive. Frost is a master manipulator and tries to get into Weston’s head, shaking his morality and idealism in his job. Together they have to fight to stay alive until they expose the person who is trying to kill them. (Raewyn)

Headhunters.
Highly entertaining adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s pulpy novel – a stand alone effort from his usual ‘Harry Hole’ Norwegian crime thrillers. Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is a top man in the field of Recruitment for high level business positions, with a beautiful house, a statuesque blonde wife, a needy mistress, and expensive taste’s. However this lifestyle requires a lot of money, which is why Roger steals rare art with the help of his dodgy partner at a Security firm. When he makes the acquaintance of Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) he thinks he has hit pay-dirt. Greve is just right for the new CEO position Roger is recruiting for and he also supposedly owns a rare lost Rubens painting. But when Roger burgles Greve’s house he finds a lot more than he was bargaining on…To say anymore would give away the hilarious plot twists that follow, as Roger finds himself in one crazy situation after another never sure just what exactly is going on & who he can trust. Exciting Norwegian thriller mines a bit of a Cohen brothers Fargo vibe in with some darkly humorous violence & colourful characters. Recommended. (Mark)

Cleanskin.
Taut UK thriller sees Sean Bean play an undercover Security Services agent ‘keeping an eye on’ a package of Semtex explosives. When they are stolen in a daring shoot-out & used by home-grown Islamic radicals to start a bombing campaign in London, Bean is tasked by his icy controller (Charlotte Rampling) to go off-book, track the terrorists down & dispatch them before more bombings take place. However ‘Cleanskin’ is far from just another vigilante action movie, as the film spends just as much time on the main Muslim character, with a series of lengthy flashbacks to his college years, his love for an English girl, & his path to radicalization. More intelligent & even-handed than you would assume from the cover, with only a few Bourne-like fight scenes as it builds the tension to the film’s climax, when the two characters intersect. Recommended if you’re a ‘Spooks’ fan. (Mark)

Our staff are keen DVD watchers, here are some of the favourites they’ve picked out and enjoyed from the last few months …

Moneyball.
Interesting adaptation of the Michael Lewis book about the rise of statistics in the business of baseball, which on the surface sounds extremely dull. However, Aaron Sorkin has a hand in the screenplay & Brad Pitt takes the lead as Oakland General Manager Billy Beane who realises that he can no longer compete with the heavy money other Major League teams use to recruit players. Instead he takes a revolutionary approach & hires a nerdish Yale Graduate (Jonah Hill) to crunch statistics, coming up with an unlikely line-up of statistically undervalued players who were seen to have little worth on the field… An odd combination of sports movie & a quiet character study of personal risk, as Pitt excels as Beane. Not your usual sports movie, intelligently scripted, and well worth a watch. (Mark)

Norwegian wood.
Japanese writer Haruki Murukami’s 1987 novel, ‘Norwegian Wood‘ is a nostalgic tale of love, pain and loss. However, the lightness of touch with which both Murukami and French Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng (‘Scent of the Green Papaya’) handle the subject matter allows the story to breathe with a delicate poignancy rather than become a typical Hollywood ten hanky weep fest. Tokyo, in the turbulent 60’s, is the setting for the story of a young student Toru Watanabe, who develops relationships with two very different women — the beautiful yet emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing, lively Midori. Moody, lush and visually alluring, the cinematography is complemented well by a lovely score from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. (John)

The girl with the dragon tattoo.
Another remake of a foreign movie sees David Fincher adapt the first movie in Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. Remaking the film with English actors but opting to retain the Swedish setting seems an odd move, and the actors either go for Swedish accented English or – like Craig – don’t even bother. Much was made of the casting, but Craig is far buffer than the scruffily charming Michael Nyqvist from the Swedish original, and while Rooney Mara is a fine actress, she plays Salander with a machine like precision and doesn’t seem able to capture the fragility or underlying humanity that Noomi Rapace brought to the role. While it’s more faithful to the book in some respects, other details diverge for no apparent reason & the ending seems rushed & muddled. Still the dark heart of the story remains, there are some exciting scenes & the film’s cinematography is beautiful, but in the end some of the subtext of the original story & characters feels missing in translation. Still an interesting watch to compare with the original. (Mark)

Essential killing.
Polish genius director Jerzy Skolimowski stopped making films in the early 1990s to spend his time painting (his painting was used in his long-time-friend Roman Polanski’s ‘The Ghost Writer’) but in 2008, he broke his silence with the new film ‘Four Nights with Anna’. This slightly odd but compelling drama followed in 2010, and proved that his unique talent had no sign of let-up. The plot of this movie is very simple. Afghan-terrorist-like main character (Vincent Gallo) is captured by what appears to be American troops and taken to the snowy mountains as a hostage, but he somehow escapes. From there, unusual wordless hunting/ surviving suspense unfolds. Gallo just keeps running away in the stunningly beautiful scenery to survive. That’s basically what this movie is all about. You may feel political undertones but explanations are intentionally avoided, and narrative depiction is done without words. Gallo never says any words (but this film would be remembered as his best performance) and the woman who gives some help to Gallo (played by Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner) is a mute. It’s a fable after all but its simplicity makes this film unlike any other. (Shinji)

The ides of March.
George Clooney & Ryan Gosling helm this cynical take on politics based on the play ‘Farragut North’ by Beau Willimon. Clooney is a Pennsylvania Governor making a run for President, with Gosling his idealistic press secretary, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman & Paul Giamatti are weary opposing Campaign Managers. It’s a tight race for the Ohio Democratic Primary & it looks like Clooney’s liberal minded Governor has the edge. Gosling believes in his bosses integrity, but as the race heats up, political maneuvering & hidden secrets lead to a series of shifting alliances & betrayals… A great cast helm this intelligent film, which doesn’t really break any new ground per se, but is none-the-less a rewarding movie on the disillusionment within the political machine. Recommended. (Mark)

Billy T: te movie.
Not to be confused with TVNZ’s feature Billy released at the same time. From the small screen biopic, ‘Billy’, to the big screen ‘Billy T: te movie’, here I am again singing Billy T’s praises. ‘Te Movie’, is a tribute to Billy T. James directed by Ian Mune 20 years after his death. If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re probably thinking what’s in it that I haven’t already seen before?..It doesn’t matter, it’s without question worth a see ‘again!’. Interviews with work colleagues, family friends, and acquaintances, and a very special reunion with one of Billy’s birth brothers. There are pics. from his early touring days with the Maori Volcanics, digitally re-mastered footage from his live shows and TV shows. His live shows were sell-outs! (no pun intended); he’d been accused of being a ‘sell out’, but he just liked to make people laugh, and for us to laugh at ourselves, and we certainly did that. The controversy/conflict around ‘te great tug-o-war’ over Billy’s body however was definitely no laughing matter, and have to say that the most poignant scene in this movie is in fact the tangi/burial tribute, it was heartfelt and moving to tears. The expressions on the faces of his friends, colleagues and family said it all when recalling the time of his death. Billy was laid to rest next to his mother Ruby, with his Ancestors on Waikato/Tainui’s sacred mountain ‘Taupiri’. How can we ever forget that famous black singlet, the iconic yellow towel, and most of all that lovable chuckle, from where did they originate?. He was a great Comedian, Entertainer, Singer, Musician, Actor, an incredible Artist/drawer, and he could ‘imi’ ‘ima’ “copy” any accent perfectly. He made us laugh to our hearts content. This movie is a laugh, a cry, a celebration, a walk down memory lane. “You fullas are looking for trouble, well you’ve come to the right place!” The soundtrack is good too ‘Billy T: te soundtrack’. Also, news flash, ‘Billy T: te movie’ – is ‘Te first’ NZ Movie to be released on Blu-ray, see Nov, 2011 issue of Onfilm magazine. (Ethel)

The killing [US]. The complete first season.
The US remake shifts the action to an always raining Seattle in this update of the popular Danish crime series. A solid effort, with some good casting (Mireille Enos as the female lead, Billy Campbell as the local politician who becomes a suspect, Michelle Forbes as the grieving mother) yet it lacks a certain something that made the Danish series so engrossing. It gets better as it goes along, but some of the secondary characters aren’t as well drawn, the writing in some areas is a bit more ropey, & it takes a few different twists that don’t always necessarily advance the plot. Controversial when it screened in the US for continuing the storyline through to a 2nd Season, instead of wrapping it up at the end. Still it’s worth a watch if you are a fan of the Danish series – just to see the differences – and if you haven’t seen the Danish one first, you will no doubt enjoy it more. (Mark)

The first grader.
This is a wonderful story of overcoming the odds and the rights of everyone to an education. When the Kenyan government announce that everyone is entitled to free education, an 84 year old villager and ex freedom-fighter Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge, decides that this includes him. He turns up at the gates of the school, after walking for miles, only to be told that the government only meant children could have free education. And besides he didn’t have the right clothes on – shorts, jersey, shoes and socks. He gets kitted out at the local second hand shop and goes back the next day. Again Maruge is rejected but finally the head teacher allows him to join her class. His case is heralded by the papers, a Mau Mau fighter who was imprisoned and tortured by the British during the uprising in 1953, now wanting the education he could never afford. But some of the parents of the local children are not so happy and Maruge is told that he must go to the adult school in the city instead. Here he is faced with violence and the indifference of young adults who don’t want to learn and he heads back to the primary school. Based on a true story. (Raewyn)

Sherlock Homes.
There’s nothing subtle about Guy Ritchie’s enjoyably flashy second film in the new Sherlock Holmes franchise. But subtlety isn’t his aim here. Bigger & louder than the previous outing with Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law, ‘Game Of Shadows’ is all about kinetic action pieces, the buddy chemistry, & the special effects, and less about the ‘Art of Detection’ that’s central to the Holmes character. Interesting comparisons abound with Sherlock the current TV version with Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman, which though updated to modern times, is actually more faithful to the Doyle cannon than Ritchie’s movies. Both the finale of the second season of the TV series & Ritchie’s movie both have Holmes facing off with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and it’s interesting to see the different takes on the same story, & the character of Moriarty: Ritchie’s flashy ‘steam-punk’ outing where Moriarty is out to start an actual war; or the slower, more cerebral TV show, where he is out to destroy Holmes & his reputation in a psychological war. While the TV show is obviously a superior choice, Ritchie’s movie is an enjoyable time waster. (Mark)

The vow.
Don’t dismiss this movie as just a “Chick Flick” because it is not. The main character, Paige, is in a car accident and after she recovers physically the husband realises that she has no recollection of him and the years they had together. It is funny at times and very sad at others. This is based on a true story – will it be a happy ending? Watch it and see. (Liz)

Tinker tailor soldier spy.
The original version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness as John le Carré’s aging spy George Smiley – brought back from retirement to sniff out a mole in the Secret Service – was such an iconic piece of atmospheric TV that any update, especially condensing the story to a movie length, struggles to live up to such a high standard. This remake, helmed by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson (‘Let The Right One In’), is solid enough. Everyone in the cast makes a valiant effort, and Alfredson’s period re-creation of 70s London is vivid, but its ultimately let down by the screenplay: key scenes from the original are altered & new scenes added – such as the Christmas party – for no real purpose, and in the end it’s hard to get a feel for the main characters so the final denouncement feels a bit flat. Still, worth a watch if you’re a fan of the original, and Garry Oldman is good as Smiley. (Mark)

The descendants.
Alexander Payne’s previous films, ‘About Schmidt’ and ‘Sideways’, were both wonderfully dry, humorous yet compassionate observations of men in crisis. His latest ‘The Descendants’ continues this theme and features George Clooney as a father who is plunged into a family drama after his wife suffers an accident. Payne is a confident director with a distinct vision who playfully teases out the humour and humanity that exist in everyday situations while avoiding making fun of the characters. The acting is excellent with George Clooney and Shailene Woodley, who plays the eldest daughter, giving great performances, and the cinematography of Hawaii is lovely to see. (John)

The shadow line.
Detective Inspector Jonah Gabriel (Chiwetel Ejiofor) returns to the force after being shot in the head in an incident that left his partner dead & a gaping hole in his memory. His first case is the execution murder of drug king-pin Harvey Wratten who has just been released from jail after a mysterious pardon. Joseph Bede (Christopher Eccleston) has just spent 2 years in the background setting up the perfect front for Wratten’s criminal activity, & is now forced to take over Wratten’s complex drug operation. Meanwhile Gabriel has discovered a mysterious suitcase hidden in his house and begins to wonder just what happened the night he was shot…Dodgy criminals and even dodgier cops abound in this gripping BBC TV drama. Earned some comparisons to ‘The Wire’, and while it’s not at quite that level it definitely works a solid James Ellroy/David Peace vibe. Recommended. (Mark)

Parks and recreation. Season two.
Season One of Parks & Recreation was good – smart, funny and satirical. However, the team have lifted their game still further for Season Two which is excellent. The actors are obviously more comfortable with their characters and, apparently, a certain amount of improvisation makes it to the final cut. The deleted scenes are lengthy for each episode so it seems the editing team had lots of material to work with from a group of actors who were obviously enjoying their work. It shows, as this series is side splitting and very smart. An interesting aside is that the character Ron Swanson – a libertarian who is a team leader for local government – has given birth to a fan-base not seen since Happy Days and ‘the Fonz’. (John)

Mission: Impossible. Ghost protocol.
The Cruise-meister returns as Ethan Hunt, in the latest installment in the Mission Impossible franchise. Love him or hate him, the role of charismatic MI Agent Ethan Hunt is one of Tom Cruise’s best, and he steps up to the plate again in this engaging pure action-fest. After a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin goes awry the IMF team are disavowed and have to go dark to apprehend the true villain (Sweden’s Michael Nyqvist), a nutty Scientist intent on acquiring a nuclear detonator. But it’s not really about the plot, it’s all about the action, and animation director Brad Bird (‘The Incredibles’) brings a fresh take to the genre which seems to re-invigorate Cruise; and the supporting cast (which includes Simon Pegg, Paula Patton & Jeremy Renner) all seem be having great fun with their roles. The movie shifts from Moscow to Dubai to Mumbai, with fantastic sequences in each city that culminate in an exciting finale in an automated multi-level parking garage. Good dumb fun. (Mark)