News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Some new DVDs for November include the Kenneth Branagh adaptation of the ‘Thor’ legend; the controversial Facebook documentary ‘Catfish’; the glossy adaptation of Sara Gruen’s bestselling period novel ‘Water for elephants’; and Season two of the critically acclaimed UK comedy ‘Miranda’….

Catfish.
“The slipperiness of truth and lies on the Internet gets played out in unexpected ways in the documentary Catfish. When Nev Schulman receives a painting based on a photograph of his from an 8-year-old girl named Abby in Michigan, he doesn’t realize this is going to lead to a long-distance romance with Abby’s older sister Megan… and that this romance, conducted over the phone and the Internet, will lead to something far more troubling. It would be unfair to reveal more details of Catfish, as the process of discovery is one of its pleasures–but even if you do know the sequence of events, the movie’s ultimate reward is not the revelation of secrets but the surprising and very human interactions of the movie’s last third…” (Description from Amazon.com)

Thor.
“Blending elements from the celebrated comic arcs…the story follows the headstrong Thunder God (Chris Hemsworth) as he is banished to Earth and stripped of his powers by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) after inadvertently starting a war with a planet of ticked-off Frost Giants. As his traitorous brother Loki (the terrific Tom Hiddleston) schemes in the wings, Thor must redeem himself and save the universe, with the aid of a beautiful scientist (Natalie Portman). Although director Kenneth Branagh certainly doesn’t skimp on the in-jokes…his film distinguishes itself by adopting a larger-than-life cosmic Shakespearean air that sets itself apart from both the cerebral, grounded style made fashionable by The Dark Knight and the loose-limbed Rat Packish vibe of the Iron Man series…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk review)

Miranda. Series 2.
”It doesn’t matter what Miranda attempts in life, whether it’s dating or simply dealing with her overbearing mother, she always seems to fall flat, quite literally. Since Gary left for Hong Kong, and her chance at a relationship with him has gone, Miranda has been watching telly all day in her pyjamas with a packet of biscuits for company. She is eventually persuaded, by Stevie, to stop wallowing and move on, starting a new regime and become the new her. She will get fit, lose weight and become the type of woman her boarding school nemesis Tilly, and hard to please mother, Penny, would be proud of…or will she? Full of fun and frolics, Miranda is back, better and funnier than ever…” (From Amazon.co.uk description)

Parenthood. Season 1.
”Follows four grown siblings of the far-from-perfect Braverman clan as they try to balance kids and careers, dreams and commitments, and romance or a total lack thereof. Join some of the best actors on television for a genuinely funny and heartwarming journey through the most challenging and rewarding role of a lifetime – being a parent”. (Syndetics Summary)

The conspirator.
“In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President and others. Against the ominous backdrop of post-Civil War Washington, war hero Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) reluctantly agrees to defend the lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), before a military tribunal. As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life”. (Syndetics Summary)

Dog pound.
”Dog Pound is Scum for the 21st Century, a tough and brutal film set in a young offenders institute for teenage boys that the system doesn’t know what to do with. The long-term inmates have built a rigid power structure based on fear and the guards use the prisoners to let out their own frustrations. Butch, Davis and Angel are new arrivals. They have never met before but they soon realize that the odds are stacked against them and that their only hope for getting through their sentences is if they watch each others’ backs. But friendship will only get them so far when their endurance is stretched to the limit…” (From Amazon.co.uk description)

Water for elephants.
Sara Gruen’s bestselling novel comes to glossy life in this period romance. A sparkle-free Robert Pattinson plays Jacob Jankowski, who studies veterinary medicine during the Great Depression. After a family tragedy, he loses everything… so he hops a train, where he finds himself part of the struggling Benzini Brothers Circus. Ringleader August (Christoph Waltz) has doubts about the softhearted lad, but..Jacob becomes the company vet, which leads him to platinum-blonde equestrian Marlena (Reese Witherspoon), August’s wife. The two make eyes at each other, but an affair would surely end badly, so they concentrate on their work. When Marlena’s prize steed falls ill, August purchases an elephant, hoping Rosie will turn their fortunes around, and enlists Jacob to train her…(Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Here are some new DVDs to hit the shelves at Wellington City Libraries, including Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s new Sci-Fi comedy, ‘Paul’; the acclaimed new Mike Leigh film; an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated novel ‘Never Let Me Go’; and a modern update of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ with Emma Stone’s ‘Easy A’…

Carlos the jackal.
” For two decades, Carlos was the most wanted terrorist on earth. In various disguises and under numerous pseudonyms he headed a worldwide organization responsible for ruthless killings, hijackings and bombings. Professional revolutionary, playboy, dandy and assassin, he left a trail of destruction and broken hearts in his wake as he went about his lethal travels across the world. This is the story of Carlos the Jackal. This stunning trilogy explores the life of this enigmatic and intriguing figure in compelling detail, following Carlos, the ultimate anti-hero, across three decades of crime, controversy and scandal…” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

Another year.
The phrase ‘national treasure’ is, inevitably, an overused one. But Mike Leigh, arguably Britain’s most consistently strong film director of the past 20 years, surely warrants the tag. His latest film, Another Year, is one of his finest, as Leigh once more draws sensational performances from his cast. The cast features Lesley Manville, Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen, and the premise of the film follows a married couple in the later years of their lives. We meet them across the four seasons of one year, and Another Year calmly explores the unhappiness, events and people that surround them during that time…And while Another Year may not, ultimately, be one of 2010’s most upbeat movies, it’s undoubtedly one of its very best…(Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Easy A.
”Easy A is a frothy, fizzy, and funny romantic comedy for teens–and adults will love it too. Not since Clueless has a high-school heroine been able to delight both audiences, and Easy A’s Olive (the sparkling Emma Stone) is a stellar young star…Olive is a smart girl happy to stay in the shadows of high school, until her good friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), who’s gay, begs her to pretend to have sex with him so the rest of the school will stop picking on him. She obliges, but soon she picks up not one but two reputations–as the girl who sleeps around, and, on the down-low, as the girl who’ll pretend to sleep with a guy so he won’t be branded a virgin. Soon Easy A’s complications pile up higher than the entrance of Olive’s high school, and her two story lines, neither of which reflects the real Olive, take on lives of their own…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Paul
”The premise Pegg and Frost have laid out for themselves as likable, sci-fi fanatic supernerds is a dream vacation starting at Comic Con, then continuing through the American Southwest in an RV visiting historic UFO sites like Area 51, the Black Mailbox, and Roswell, and finishing up at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, the iconic centerpiece from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After their inauspicious start, they happen upon an escaped alien who is 4 feet tall, and has the big head, classic diamond eyes, and features we’ve come to recognize as both the benevolent and evil kinds of space aliens from movies and TV. Paul crash-landed in the late 1940s and has been held prisoner by the government’s men in black…Now Paul wants to go home, and he’s found the perfect getaway with the want-to-believe team of Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost), who take him to his rendezvous (at Devil’s Tower, of course)…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Mademoiselle Chambon.
”A love story that has bewitched audiences and critics worldwide, Mademoiselle Chambon is an ‘exquisite chamber piece’ (LA Times) that delicately captures the initial stirrings of romance. Vincent Lindon plays Jean, a burly and happily married housing contractor. One fateful afternoon, he picks up his son (Arthur Le Houérou) from school and meets the teacher, a willowy beauty named Mademoiselle Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain). Their flirtation slowly builds over lingering glances and an impromptu violin solo in Chambon’s apartment…Jean soon comes to a crossroads, having to choose between the intensity of his bond with Chambon or the responsibility and care he feels for his wife (Aure Atika) and child…” (Adapted from Amazon.com description)

From time to time.
”Based on Lucy M Boston s best selling novel The Chimneys of Green Knowe and directed by Oscar Winner & Writer of Gosford Park and Downton Abbey Julian Fellowes…In times of war two centuries apart, two distinct worlds are linked by a single family and the house in which they live. It is 1944 and thirteen year-old Tolly Oldknow (Alex Etel, Cranford) is sent to spend Christmas with his grandmother (Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey), whilst his mother searches for news of his father in wartime London. Spending his days exploring the sprawling ancestral estate, he begins to uncover family secrets and ghosts from the past as he becomes a witness to events during the Napoleonic wars and finds himself slowly drawn into participating in the drama…(Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Never let me go.
” In adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated novel, director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and screenwriter Alex Garland (Sunshine) transform dystopian fiction into period drama by presenting an alternate past in which people routinely live beyond 100–at a cost to those who make it possible. In the 1970s, Kathy (Isobel Meikle-Small) and Ruth (Ella Purnell) attend Hailsham, a British boarding school where Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling) holds sway…By the 1980s, Kathy (a poignant Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) live in the country until they’re ready to fulfill their purpose. With Ruth and Tommy an item, Kathy becomes a carer, a sort of social worker. Over the years, the three go their separate ways until the 1990s, by which point their time will run out unless they can arrange for a deferral…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Brighton Rock.
“It was always going to be a brave move to bring another version of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock to the big screen. Yet there’s enough of an identity within director Rowan Joffe’s take on the material to give the film a distinction of its own. Joffe recruits Sam Riley, Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andrea Riseborough for the film, and steers a path that’s slightly different from the book. Nonetheless, the end result remains a solid thriller, with lots of little reasons to commend it…On the plus side, it’s always an interesting film to look at. The negative? Well, there’s an argument that said stylings do get in the way just a little. But then you get some strong performances, that swing things in Brighton Rock’s favour anyway…(Adapted from Amazon.co.uk description)

Many of our staff are avid cinephiles – here are their latest film and TV recommendations…

The Lincoln lawyer.
After a series of forgettable rom-com’s and pseudo-action movies Matthew McConaughey finally finds a decent role in this adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel, playing Mickey Haller, a lawyer who operates his practice out of a chauffeured Lincoln town car. When he lands the case of a rich real estate heir (Ryan Phillippe) accused of brutally assaulting an escort, he thinks he’s finally hit the money jackpot. In previous roles McConaughey’s charisma usually comes across as glib & facile but in the slightly soiled Haller character he finds a perfect fit for his smooth shtick, as he hustles clients, cuts deals, & manipulates opposing counsel. What follows is an old fashioned legal thriller, full of twists and turns as McConaughey begins to realize that his client is not all he seems to be and that he may be the one being manipulated. Full marks go to all the supporting cast (which includes Marisa Tomei as his ex-wife and fellow lawyer, & William H. Macy as his investigator) all of whom invest their characters with a real vitality. (Mark)

John Cassavetes: the collection.
John Cassavetes’ first and all improvised movie, Shadows, was made in the same year (1959) Jean-Luc Godard shot Breathless. Both films were equally fresh, bold and ahead of their time. While Godart became one of the biggest names in the movie history, Cassavetes remained an indie iconoclast. However, despite being largely ignored by Hollywood, Cassavetes was undoubtedly a most influential American filmmaker. In Cassavetes’ movies, characters are so real. They talk and move just as they feel, and sometimes even go out of the screen or get too close to the camera (becoming out of focus) – as if the rectangular frame is nonexistent. Cassavetes directed spontaneously in a cinéma vérité style to capture the real feelings of people, and his movies are made up of a sequence of live moments, not of planned and composed scenes. His influences are now mostly seen outside America, and two outstanding Romanian films, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days are great examples. He had a little commercial success (‘Gloria’ is the most notable one) in his later career, but the films in this collection, which he made while facing huge financial difficulties, are treasures that enlarged movies’ horizons. (Shinji)

Inside job.
Directed by Charles Ferguson, and narrated by Matt Damon, ‘Inside Job’ is a fascinating breakdown of the chaos surrounding the global financial crisis. Beginning with the collapse of Iceland’s banks, Ferguson & Damon trace the history of vigorously pursued financial deregulation, the rise of derivatives trading, and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, all of which led ultimately to the collapse of several major US financial institutions in 2008, and an unparalleled economic crisis. A lot of complicated financial dealing is explained clearly, and the film has a definite bipartisan feel, as both the Republican & Democratic parties are taken to task for contributing to the deregulation of Wall Street. The film also looks at the impacts on America and the unrealized flow-on effects the crisis would have on the rest of the world, apportions blame to several major Wall Street firms who made huge amounts of money while fuelling the crisis, and examines the overlooked relationship between big business & financial economists. Highly recommended viewing. (Mark)

The almighty Johnsons.
Life can be tough when your mother is a tree! This is the life of the Johnson Brothers, part Kiwi blokes, part Norse Gods. They have some supernatural powers, but to regain the rest they start a quest to find “The One”. The characters are funny, rude, sad, hopeful, weird and, at times, hopeless. This is a fabulous series and I’m looking forward to series two. (Liz)

Unknown .
Based on the fairly obscure short novel Out of my head by French writer Didier van Cauwelaert, ‘Unknown’ stars current B-Movie go-to guy Liam Neeson. Neeson plays Martin Harris, a botanist in Berlin with his wife (Mad Men’s January Jones) to present a paper at a conference. Realising he has left an important bag at the airport he quickly grabs a cab to retrieve it, only to be involved in a traffic accident that leaves him waking from a coma three days later. Attempting to return to his hotel & his wife he finds that not only does his wife claim not to recognise him, but there is another man with her who states that it is he who is in fact ‘Martin Harris’, her husband….The film’s central premise is nothing really original, reminiscent of a lot of the stories of 1940’s pulp fiction writer Cornell Woolrich not to mention the ‘identity/What is really real’ themes of numerous Philip K. Dick short stories & novels; however that doesn’t necessarily mean that the film isn’t enjoyable. Director, Jaume Collet-Serra, is clearly aiming for a slick Euro-thriller take on the 1950s Hollywood films of Alfred Hitchcock, with Neeson in the Jimmy Stewart ‘everyman role’, and he almost pulls it off. Diane Kruger offers some good support as the Gypsy cab driver who helps Neeson out and there are quite a few deft moments that see it rise above the usual thrillers. Neeson is always excellent, but if you’re expecting another variation on Taken the movie is definitely more suspense than action. Overall, better than expected. (Mark)

Honey .
This is a magical little gem. Set in a beautiful mountain forest in Turkey, it is a story about a young boy, Yusuf, focusing on the relationship with his beloved beekeeper father. Surrounded by magnificent nature, the movie unfolds Yusuf’s rural life quietly and intimately. There are enough dramas in the story, but the film gives the impression that nothing much will happen, because it is depicted in a very subtle way without any frills (and no music as well). Every scene is shot meticulously and with great delicacy. It reminds me of the beautiful European movies I saw in the ’80s such as ‘The Tree of Wooden Clogs’ or ‘Hohenfeuer’. The budding director Semih Kaplanoglu has only 5 movies under his belt so far but has already collected more than 40 awards, and this exquisite movie won the Golden Bear (Best Film) of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2010. It was well-deserved. (Shinji)

Bored to death. The complete first season.
Jason Schwartzman plays a very nebbish New York magazine writer/novelist who is stuck on his 2nd novel. Depressed after his girlfriend (Olivia Thirlby) leaves him – because he spends too much time smoking pot & drinking wine – he comes across an old copy of Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely. After immersing himself in the book he decides to place an add on Craigslist advertising himself as an unlicensed Private Investigator, as a way of getting over his doldrums. Soon he’s taking on cases that range from unfaithful boyfriends, to blackmail & missing skateboards, aided by his best friend Ray (Zach Galifianakis) – a cartoonist henpecked by his demanding girlfriend – and his boss George (Ted Danson) – the marijuana obsessed editor of an ‘Esquire’ like magazine. It’s one of those ‘love it or hate it’ shows, as the kind of humour that follows is probably not to everyone’s taste, a kind of sly take on male self-absorption filtered through Raymond Chandler pastiches, but there are some very funny moments and Ted Danson is hilarious… (Mark)

The limits of control.
Jim Jarmusch has a great sense of music. His choices of music for his movies are always intriguing – Tom Waits for Down by Law, Neil Young for ‘Dead Man’, and Broken Flowers made the Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke an unexpected star – and for this film, he used Japanese noise-oriented rock band Boris and Sunn 0))). With their dark, ominous sound, a mystery hit-man (Isaach de Bankolé) embarks on a mysterious mission. His mission is never explained to the viewer, only that he needs to use his imagination to accomplish it. He travels in Spain, from Madrid to Seville to Almeria, and meets odd messengers, played by unique actors including Tilda Swinton and John Hurt, one after another. This repetition is musical, I thought. Every character plays variations of the motif, like Ravel’s ‘Bolero’. A beautiful cinema photography by Christopher Doyle is worthy of special mention. Doyle often works with Wong Kar-wai (another filmmaker who has great sense of music) and contributed marvellously for In the Mood for Love and 2046. In the end, the mission is accomplished abruptly (because he used his imagination) and it may puzzle you, but viewers must use their imagination too. For me this is a movie of variations, and Jarmusch shows that artistic expression can be limitless. It’s very Jim Jarmusch after all. (Shinji)

Strike back.
Based on the novel by Chris Ryan, Strike Back begins on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq with an SAS Hostage Rescue unit led by Sergeant John Porter (Richard Armitage from Spooks) and Hugh Collinson (Andrew Lincoln from ‘The Walking Dead’) sent to rescue a kidnapped British businessman. During the mission Porter disarms (instead of kills) an Iranian boy wearing a suicide bomb vest, but as the mission ends two of his team are shot and killed, and one is left in a coma. The boy is believed to be the killer, and in the ensuing investigation Porter is blamed and receives a dishonorable discharge. Seven years later, Porter – now estranged from his family – is working as a Security Guard, when the kidnapping of a British journalist gives him an unexpected chance to return to Iraq and discover what really happened 7 years ago. The Six episodes are edited into 3 separate ‘missions’, the Iraq story followed by a mission in Zimbabwe, to break an ex-soldier out of prison after he attempts to assassinate President Mugabe; & the last in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where a computer hacker is responsible for the deaths of American troops by altering missile guidance control systems. High production values (filmed in South Africa) and solid acting from the leads Armitage and Collinson compensate for the sometimes wooden dialogue. More action-focused, with less character development than similar shows such as 24 or Spooks, it nonetheless fills the gap for action fans until the nest season of ‘Spooks’ airs. (Mark)

Here are some new DVDs to hit the shelves at Wellington City Library: Hilary Swank & Jim Carey helm movies based on real events in ‘Conviction’ & ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’; Robert Duvall teams up with Bill Murry in the funereal ‘Get Low’; Philip Seymour Hoffman make his Directorial debut with the romantic comedy ‘Jack Goes Boating; and the Winchester Brothers are back fighting the Devil himself in the latest season of ‘Supernatural’….

Conviction.
” Hilary Swank gives another tremendous performance–steely, determined, vulnerable–in the courtroom/family drama Conviction. The film is based on a real case, of Betty Anne Waters (Swank), who as a last resort puts herself through law school to take on the case of her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell, also outstanding). Kenny is convicted of murder, despite a weak prosecution case, but Betty Anne can’t get any lawyer to explore a retrial or appeal. Director Tony Goldwyn (Dexter, Damages) keeps the action moving along crisply and believably, even during the almost interminable stretches of Kenny’s imprisonment…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

I love you Phillip Morris.
”Based on a true story, I Love You, Phillip Morris follows Steven Russell (Carrey) from his beginnings as a cop who abuses his position to learn his birth mother’s identity to a spectacular con man who embezzles enormous sums of money from a food-service corporation. During one of his bouts in prison, Russell meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge!), a soft-spoken fellow prisoner who becomes the love of Russell’s life–but who can’t take Russell’s free-wheeling, anything to break free and live life to the criminal fullest approach…The flow of the story feels much like a Coen Bros. movie (Fargo or Raising Arizona) with its vivid, quirky characters and unpredictable plot…”(Adapted from Amazon.com)

Get low.
After losing the love of his life 40 years before, Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) has lived like a hermit ever since. With death on the horizon and guilt weighing him down, the “crazy ol’ nutter” decides to go out with a party. As he tells funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray in top form), “Time for me to get low.”.. Before he leaves this mortal coil, Felix longs to hear the tall tales the town folk have been spreading about him. While preparing for the big day, he reconnects with Charlie (Bill Cobbs), a preacher, and Mattie (Sissy Spacek), an old flame who returned to the county after her husband’s death. Their encounters, which have a gentle sweetness, encourage Felix to share the truth he’s kept bottled up inside for decades…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Rabbit hole.
“What happens after the unthinkable happens? Rabbit Hole, based on the Tony-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire and deftly directed by John Cameron Mitchell, slowly reveals the answer: something else unthinkable. Rabbit Hole is a moving, dark character study of what happens to a happily married couple, Becca and Howie (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart), who suddenly lose the love of their life, their 4-year-old son. As in real life, the grief portrayed in Rabbit Hole takes peculiar twists and turns, and the deep sorrow and tragedy of the story is leavened by dark humor…Rabbit Hole is one of the most moving dramas and one of the saddest films a viewer will feel gratified to embrace…’’ (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Supernatural. The complete fifth season.
“How’s this for a story arc: the Gates of Hell are opened, unleashing both Lucifer himself and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and bringing to an end civilization as we know it…This is fantasy storytelling for television at its best–broad in scope and heavy with special effects, but never forgetting that the core of the show is the relationship between Sam and Dean and their joint quest to rid the world of evil. Both are well represented here in a season that brings the show’s main story line to its fitting and satisfying conclusion…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Jack goes boating.
“Philip Seymour Hoffman plunders social awkwardness for comic effect in Jack Goes Boating. At first, the movie seems like a sad-sack love story: Jack (Hoffman, Academy Award winner for Capote), a limo driver who likes reggae music for its positivity, gets set up with Connie (Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone), a trouble-magnet telemarketer, by their mutual friends Clyde (John Ortiz, Fast & Furious) and Lucy (Daphne Rubin-Vega, Wild Things). But as Jack and Connie take tentative, sometimes clumsy steps toward love, Clyde and Lucy’s relationship threatens to collapse from betrayal and jealousy….” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Doctor Who [2005]. Series 6, Part 1.
“The Doctor returns, alongside newlyweds Amy and Rory, to face monsters and mysteries and adventures across all time and space. Together they find themselves in Sixties America, battling the invasion the world forgot, then journey on the high seas of 1696 aboard a pirate ship, to solve the mystery of Siren. In a bubble universe at the very edge of reality, the Doctor meets an old friend with a new face, and in a monastery on a remote island in the near future, an industrial accident takes on a terrible human shape. And waiting for them, at the end of all this, is the battle of Demon’s Run, and the Doctor’s darkest hour. Can even the truth about River Song save the Time Lord’s soul? Only two things are certain. Silence will fall. And a good man is going to die” (Syndetics Summary)

Limitless.
”Limitless isn’t exactly a morality tale, but the made-up drug that turns Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) from a scuzzy loser into a master of the universe does become a metaphor for ambition, menace, devastation, and ultimate success. Eddie is a writer who can’t write, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) just dumped him, and his squalid lifestyle has driven him to the breaking point. After a chance meeting with his mysterious ex-brother-in-law, he’s offered change in the form of a little transparent button, a pill code-named NZT that allows the user to access 100 percent of their brain. After he pops it, Eddie is transformed. Everything he’s ever heard, seen, glanced at, or passed by becomes neatly ordered in his mind. He has total recall, total access to knowledge both known and unknown, and he understands exactly what to do….” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Many of our staff are avid cinephiles – here are their latest film and TV recommendations…

The American
George Clooney gives a nuanced performance as the titular character in this adaptation by Anton Corbijn of the novel ‘A very private gentleman’ by Martin Booth. He plays a hit-man who hides out in an Italian town after an attempt on his life, spending his time customizing a gun for another colleague. His boss advises him to lay low, but he gradually begins to fall for a local prostitute he begins seeing. Slow moving with great visuals, it’s definitely not an ‘action’ film, as the movie has a distinctly European feel – almost at times verging on a parody. The motivations of other characters – such as who & why someone is trying to kill Clooney’s character – are only obliquely hinted at, and the whole film seems more of a mood piece/character study. However, it still manages to sustain a palpable degree of tension until it unravels in the third act – which becomes a bit predictable, as Corbijn goes for the ‘anti-Hollywood’ ending, which in itself has become a bit of a cliché. Still, it’s enjoyable enough if you’re after something a bit different. (Mark)

Bhowani junction
It is a wonder that the classic films of the forties and fifties have not been adopted as a tool for ‘Social Improvement’ by the political right. After watching this movie you will never again watch a DVD in your pyjamas – lounging or otherwise – and will never let war or revolution see you anything less than immaculately groomed and clad in a crisp white shirt and classic skirt or trousers. Women will not let the cat see them without full make-up, nor men without a close shave and heavily Brycreemed hair. The strict dress and social codes are the complete antithesis of grunge and “anything goes” attitudes of today. It is all rather refreshing. Although this film is very dated it does deal with an interesting time in history – that of imminent Indian Independence – and interesting social issues such as the plight of the Anglo-Indians and the difficulty of cross-cultural relationships. Ava Gardner is captivating as Victoria Jones, a young woman searching for identity in the new India and Stewart Granger equally so as Captain Rodney Savage searching for his. There is plenty of action, light and colour and plenty of glorious India. All in all a good watch and warmly recommended. (Sue)

The killer inside me.
Flawed but interesting stab at adapting crime writer Jim Thompson’s seminal novel ‘The Killer Inside Me’ by Michael Winterbottom. Set in small town American South circa the 1950’s, Casey Affleck takes the lead role of Lou Ford, a seemingly polite well adjusted Deputy Sheriff engaged to a local schoolteacher (Kate Hudson). However, a meeting with a prostitute (Jessica Alba) that he is supposed to run out of town provides a catalyst for his re-emerging pathology, and he gradually begins to orchestrate a murderous scheme to gain revenge on a local businessman that he blames for the death of his step-brother. The novel, like a lot of Thompson’s work, is a first person narrative in which the reader gradually becomes aware that the likeable narrator is not all he/she appears to be – and is often completely unhinged – but by then the character has engendered enough sympathy or empathy that you keep reading, no matter how weird & disturbing things get. Thompson’s novels were controversial for their time, and violent, but being published in the 1950’s the majority of the violence and general depravity was implied. Winterbottom, however, decides to push the violence to the forefront of the story, to the extent that it feels exploitative, and specifically during the lengthy drawn out beating of Alba’s character, truly repellent. None of which adds to the viewer’s engagement with the lead character. Affleck also seems too physically slight for the role, his accent off, lacking any of the ‘good old boy’ southern charm of the book’s narrator. But that seems like what Winterbottom was after, a bunch of choices that defy whatever conventional wisdom exists in the making of a ‘post-modern’ neo-noir such as this The overall result is that while some of it works, some of it doesn’t, and it tends to end up in the ‘fascinating but repellent’ category of films. Worth watching if you’re a Thompson fan, or just intrigued, but be warned, the sadomasochistic violence is pretty extreme in parts. (Mark)

Somewhere.
A celebrity director makes a movie about a celebrity’s life. This probably makes your expectation high but Sophia Coppola is not a usual director. A bit like ‘Lost in Translation’ it’s a story about a big movie star, who appears to have everything but in fact has nothing, and restores himself after spending a chunk of time with his daughter for the first time. However, in this movie, there is no drama or structure which mainstream movies usually offer. It is subtle and slow-going, and driven by the mood rather than the storyline. This has created some criticism such as ‘nothing happens’, but being stereotypical is the last thing you can expect from Sophia Coppola. She is obviously visual focused and true to her cinematic instinct. She knows what she wants, and that’s why she employed the cinematographer Harris Savides who is known for his works on Gus Van Sant’s ‘Elephant’ and ‘Last Days’. With his camera, she just lets the movie go as if it’s floating clouds in the sky. So, this is a unique, let-it-be movie. Chill out and enjoy. (Shinji)

Primer.
‘Primer’ caused a stir when it first came out, winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Made for only $7000, the film focus on 2 young entrepreneurial inventors who work out of a garage. When an experiment goes awry they discover that its side effect has given them the ability to travel back in time several hours, and begin to experiment with their new found technology, initially using it to make a fortune on the stock market. What follows is literally impossible to explain, let alone understand, as ‘Primer’ makes David Lynch seem linear by comparison. But that’s part of its low budget charm. As the inventors discover how to extend the length of time they can travel back to, various future/alternate ‘versions’ of themselves begin doing things that seem to have no explanation…or do they. It’s all completely mind-bending, but fascinating to watch unfold. Recommended if you’re a fan of films like ‘Lost Highway’, ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘Memento’, or ‘Moon’. (Mark)

Matariki.
“Contains violence, drug use and offensive language” …not an appealing intro I thought into a movie titled ‘Matariki’ that is, as I know it to be. An abandoned car, a brutally beaten Rugby League star, a dysfunctional couple having a baby, a loner and his beloved dog, and two runaway teenagers. A chain of events and lives although apart are stories moving together to reach a common goal or means to an end. Saying goodbye and starting again. ‘Matariki is when the Maori New Year starts. Planting begins for the new season, a new beginning. It’s a very special time of the year. The film brings together these characters, all looking for a way forward. With new beginnings there has to be goodbyes. We have the Pakeha wife of the beaten Rugby League star who fears his Maori family, Maori custom and protocol will over rule her wishes as his wife. How can there be a compromise and a way forward? The runaways, what are they looking for, where are they going to? And the dysfunctional couple after having their baby, what future does ‘Matariki’ (as she is beautifully named) have? ‘The violence in the film I found very hard to watch, and then there were the heart felt scenes, the most affecting ’saying goodbye to a brother, a son, a nephew, a cousin, a friend, a husband’. Getting past the violence, drug use and offensive language, I thought this was another well made, on a shoe string budget ‘only in New Zealand’ movie. Lastly a few words from the co-writer/director Michael Bennett which pretty much sums up the substance of the film “You can chose to look down at the concrete under your feet, or you can chose to look up at the stars!” (Ethel)

Tangled.
Rapunzel with attitude! This will appeal to children and adults alike. The animation is stunning. All the characters have personality to burn and Maximus the horse alone would be worth watching. (Liz)

Parks and recreation. Season one.
Quirky comedy from the creators of ‘The Office’ (the US version). Saturday Night Live comedienne Amy Poehler (‘Baby Mama’) stars as a Leslie Knope, a naïve small town Government employee determined to turn a giant ‘pit’ into a new public park. The ‘mockumentary’ style makes it seem a bit derivative at first, but over the course of the season it develops its own style & characters and gets better as it goes along. The supporting characters are all pretty funny, especially Aziz Ansari, as her slack colleague, and Nick Offerman as her deadpan boss, who doesn’t believe in ‘government’ of any kind. (Mark)

Let me in.
Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) take the two leading roles in this remake of the Swedish film ‘Let the right one in’. Helmed by Matt Reeves (‘Cloverfield’) ‘Let Me In’ relocates the action to middle-America in the 80’s, essentially structuring the story of the lonely & bullied Owen (who thinks he has found a friend in his mysterious new neighbour Abby, only to discover she is a vampire frozen in time as a 12 year old girl) essentially same way as the original Swedish movie. Remakes tend to suck as a rule, and it’s hard not to compare the two, but taken on its own merit it’s a pretty good movie – probably more enjoyable if you haven’t seen the original. It’s the small touches that differentiate it from the Swedish film: the unnecessary use of CGI when Abby transforms into a vampire, the less naturalistic leads, the heavier score, more of a focus on the ‘police procedural’ aspect). So while some things don’t work as well, others do work (such as the way the camera never quite focuses on Owen’s mother) and the US version has some nice touches. All in all it lacks the subtlety of the Swedish movie, but that was probably to be expected, and at the end of the day it retains the emotional heart of the original: a belief that friendship can sometime be more important than anything else. (Mark).

The insatiable moon.
This is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Mike Riddell about real people and events. Arthur, (Rawiri Paratene) of Whale rider fame, who believes he is the second son of God, and his mentally challenged loyal friends live in a boarding house in posh Ponsonby, managed by Bob (Greg Johnson), who although foul-mouthed and gruff, genuinely loves and cares for them. With threats to close the boarding house down Arthur puts his heavenly credentials into action, only to have his own personal decline into madness realized, and is soon admitted into the psychiatric ward. The film is light-hearted and funny, another New Zealand film made on a shoestring budget with a brilliant cast of NZ talent, kudos to the men who play the ‘undesirable, mentally challenged’ boarders, and Ian Mune as the street bum alcoholic Norm. It’s about people with mental health problems, the discrimination they often face, and what is acceptable to/in society. With strong messages told with great compassion, humanity and humour, there are powerful and thought provoking scenes and performances throughout the movie. A line from the film I found endearing: Norm is asked “What does he think of Arthur?” …his reply “He’s the second Son of God, …or as mad as a chook!” The soundtrack’s heavenly as well. (Ethel)

Here are some more new DVDs to hit the shelves at Wellington City Libraries. Included are Charles Ferguson’s fascinating documentary, ‘Inside Job’, which examines the causes of the global financial crisis; the acclaimed drama ‘Blue Valentine’ with Michelle Williams & Ryan Gosling, as a couple trying to reignite their fading marriage; the tense thriller ‘The Next Three Days’ helmed by Russell Crow; Matt Damon’s Sci-Fi romance ‘The Adjustment Bureau’; and the new period drama sensation ‘Downtown Abbey’…

Inside job.
”As he did with the occupation of Iraq in No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson shines a light on the global financial crisis in Inside Job. Accompanied by narration from Matt Damon…he looks at the spectacular rise and cataclysmic fall of deregulation in the United States. Unlike Alex Gibney’s fiscal films, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Casino Jack, Ferguson builds his narrative around dozens of players…but the number of those who declined to comment, like Alan Greenspan, is even larger. Though the director isn’t as combative as Michael Moore, he asks tough questions and elicits squirms from several participants… If Ferguson takes Reagan and Bush to task for tax cuts that benefit the wealthy, he criticizes Clinton for encouraging derivatives and Obama for failing to deliver on the promise of reform…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Blue valentine.
”Love blooms and dies at the same time in the delicate dance between Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). Married with a daughter, they live in rural Pennsylvania. Heavy drinker Dean’s looks are fading, while Cindy still turns heads. In his elegantly constructed second feature, writer-director Derek Cianfrance pirouettes between past and present, with each scene commenting on the next (set to the bittersweet tones of Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear). Later, when the family dog goes missing, the cracks in their marriage intensify, so Dean arranges for a night of romance, which plays out like a negative image of their first date…’ (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Burlesque.
“Ali is a small-town girl with a big voice who escapes hardship to follow her dreams to LA. After stumbling upon The Burlesque Lounge, a majestic but ailing theater that is home to an inspired musical revue, Ali lands a job as a cocktail waitress from Tess, the club’s proprietor and headliner. After Ali finally makes her way from the bar to the stage, things take a dramatic turn when her larger than life voice causes a charismatic entrepreneur to make an enticing proposal…” (Syndetics Summary)

Welcome to the Rileys.
“Doug and Lois Riley (James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo) have a home in Indianapolis, a set of engraved headstones already waiting for them in the local cemetery, and a marriage that’s been crumbling since their daughter died in a car crash at age 15… On a business trip to New Orleans, he wanders into a strip club and meets Mallory (Kristen Stewart), a broke, foul-mouthed stripper-cum-prostitute who takes his carnal intentions for granted. But there aren’t any–Doug wants a daughter, not a whore, and in a credibility-defying sequence of events, he immediately moves into her squalid apartment (paying her a hundred bucks a day for the privilege), decides to sell his plumbing supply business, and phones his wife to tell her he’s not coming home “for a while.” Lois’s reaction? She piles into Doug’s Cadillac and tools down to N’Awlins, informing her hubby that if he’s living with Mallory (or Allison, or whatever her name is), then she will too…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Downton Abbey. Season one.
“An addictive blend of suds and social commentary, ITV’s Downton Abbey brings a microcosm of Edwardian society together under one roof. Lord Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and his family live a life of leisure, while a fleet of servants, including butler Carson (Jim Carter), attend to their every need, but two events conspire to shake things up: the sinking of the Titanic, which claims Crawley’s heirs, and the return of his valet, Bates (Brendan Coyle). Since Crawley and Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) have three daughters, his distant solicitor cousin, Matthew (Dan Stevens), becomes heir to the estate. With that, the scheming begins…Though it takes awhile to warm up to the tightest-wound characters, most everyone reveals their more vulnerable side before the first season comes to an end, and a new small-screen classic is born…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

The next three days.
“The powerful presence of Russell Crowe and the skillful writing and directing of Paul Haggis (Crash) give The Next Three Days an emotional heft to match its taut suspense. Schoolteacher John Brennan (Crowe) is stunned when his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks, W.) is sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. As he watches her emotional decline behind bars, he becomes determined to break her out of prison–and The Next Three Days tracks his meticulous efforts, including wrong turns that threaten to capsize everything. The movie is most compelling in how it follows Brennan’s wrenching emotional changes. He’s not some cold, focused secret agent–he’s torn between his painful devotion to his wife and the frightening possibility of what could go wrong, including the possible cost to their son…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

The Adjustment.
“Based on a novelette by science-fiction icon Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Bureau exposes a cadre of people who are either superhuman or nonhumans and control the world by magically influencing the fate of every single person in it. Damon plays David Norris, an aspiring politician who rose from working-class roots in Brooklyn…to wealth and the likely promise of high office. Unfortunately, David takes some liberties with his fate that don’t correspond with the narrative laid out by “the Chairman,” the entity in charge of the Adjustment Bureau…Emily Blunt is the equally appealing presence who screws up the Chairman’s plan in concert with Norris. They fall for each other hard again and again, constantly thwarting and confounding the bureau’s best-laid adjusting tricks at every turn. Though it is often simplistic in its plot contrivances, the movie is nifty, clever, nimbly paced, and filled with ingenious special effects…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Here are some new DVDs to hit the shelves at Wellington City Libraries. From the true story of a runaway train in Pennsylvania, and that of hiker Aron Ralston, there is also a Coen Brothers remake of a classic John Wayne western, the second season of the classy legal thriller ‘Damages’, and a new spin on the classic tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…

Unstoppable
“With the caboose of Tony Scott’s Taking of Pelham 123 barely in the distance, the filmmaker turned to Unstoppable, a train-chase picture loosely inspired by a true story. At a Pennsylvania rail yard, some clueless workers let an unmanned train get loose, and the thing is soon hurtling across the countryside. Did we mention that it’s pulling a few cars’ worth of highly toxic material? Meanwhile, old-time engineer Denzel Washington and new conductor Chris Pine are making a routine run nearby. This odd couple is the only hope for stopping the runaway, while upper management dithers and an operations-room dispatcher (Rosario Dawson) spends most of the movie talking into her headset. Scott is an unabashed manipulator, and he yanks all the strings at his disposal for this whipped-up pageant: song cues, hype-filled reaction shots, stunts aplenty. But the pulse does quicken, if you can turn your mind off for a while…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

127 hours
“Aron Ralston (played by James Franco) is traipsing alone through Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, when an errant step drops him into a crevasse. That in itself wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t managed to get his right hand stuck between a heavy boulder and the side of the cavern. Danny Boyle’s film of this real-life 2003 incident builds up to what we all know is going to happen: Ralston must sever his arm between his elbow and wrist, after a few long, lonely days of avoiding the idea. Boyle deploys flashbacks and fantasies to fill up the screen, plus he gets some mileage out of Ralston’s video camera. The cumulative effect is overbearing, but Franco’s performance is spirited and endearing…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

The big c. The complete first season.
“Laura Linney is so radiant as the terminally (and secretly) cancer-stricken Cathy in The Big C that the viewer briefly is reminded of Love Story, in which Ali McGraw, also terminally ill, became more and more radiant as her not-quite-believable death approached. But there the similarity ends. Linney’s performance as Cathy is utterly believable, and charming, even if Cathy’s actions aren’t always respectable. Linney is diagnosed early in the season with terminal melanoma that’s spread through her body, and she keeps her diagnosis from her husband (Oliver Platt, never better) and her son, Adam (Gabriel Basso). The idea for The Big C haunts the viewer throughout the episodes–what would you do if you knew you were only going to live a short while longer? How would you approach your relationships–and would you keep them? What kinds of risks would you take? Linney’s Cathy, until now a responsible schoolteacher, begins to question her life of “staying within the lines,” and begins to take chances that baffle her family…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Sherlock. Series one .
“In the wake of Guy Ritchie’s re-imagining, the BBC puts its own stamp on Arthur Conan Doyle’s sleuth–and sets him in a London filled with cell phones and laptops. In the pilot, director Paul McGuigan (a keen visual stylist) introduces Sherlock Holmes (Atonement’s Benedict Cumberbatch) as a “high-functioning sociopath” and Dr. John Watson (The Office’s Martin Freeman) as an army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. Through a mutual friend, the two become flatmates at 221B Baker Street (Una Stubbs plays their landlady). Holmes, who consults with Scotland Yard inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) on his trickier cases, drafts Watson to assist him…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Damages. The complete second season .
“With the second season of the legal thriller Damages, the creators, writers, cast, and crew have accomplished a minor miracle by producing 13 episodes that match–and, at times, surpass–the level of nail-biting drama and suspense that made the show’s freshman season one of the best in 21st-century television. The core cast is back for this round–which is something of a surprise, given that novice lawyer Rose Byrne is convinced that her legal-eagle boss (Glenn Close) is responsible for the murder of her fiancé. The story neatly weaves together a murder mystery involving an old flame (William Hurt) of Close’s, Byrne’s collaboration with federal agents and Hurt’s involvement in an environmental scandal that implicates a major corporation. The threads come together in impressive fashion, and the quality of the writing and direction is matched at every turn by the cast…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

True grit.
“A 14-year-old girl needs a man with “true grit” to help her bring in the fugitive who killed her father. That she settles on Rooster Cogburn–a one-eyed, booze-soaked, potbellied U.S. marshal on the downward curve of his career in law enforcement–is the glorious springboard for all versions of True Grit: the Charles Portis novel, the 1969 western that won an Oscar for John Wayne, and the 2010 Coen brothers adaptation. The Coen’s have some mighty shoes to fill in their version, and their choice for the eye-patch is Jeff Bridges, who growls his way through an understated take on Rooster. Matt Damon plays LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger who joins the hunt; Josh Brolin is the scurvy killer; and Barry Pepper is the leader of the outlaw gang. Working as usual with cinematographer Roger Deakins, the Coens exhibit their clear, crisp view of western places, thrillingly creating new takes on recognizable vistas such as the frontier town, the snowy forest, and the isolated cabin at night. While True Grit doesn’t have the heft of the best films in the Coens’ arsenal (there’s something very formal and even a wee bit academic about their stroll through this familiar text), they do create a pleasant sense of a good yarn, retold around the campfire for the umpteenth time…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

Here are some new DVDs at Wellington City Libraries this month, including: action movie ‘Red’, which has it’s tongue very firmly in cheek, as the great cast including Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman & John Malkovich ham it up as retired CIA agents back for one final guns blazing mission; the final entry in Steig Larssons’ Millennium Trilogy, ‘The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest’, which wraps things up with a less kinetic, but still fascinating legal trial & investigation; Mark Wahlberg, with a great turn as boxer Micky Ward in the Biographical movie ‘The Fighter’; and ‘Treme’, the latest project from ‘Wire’ creator David Simon, focusing on the struggles of a group of post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans residents…

Red
‘Frank, played by Bruce Willis, simply wants to live his simple life with his government pension. But when a troop of black-ops guys descends on his house one night and blows it to smithereens, Frank realizes he needs to get a few of his old colleagues together and find out what’s what. Because Frank’s old posse includes kicky roles for Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and a tea-pouring, hot-lead-spraying Helen Mirren, the movie boasts a certain appeal. Actually, the rest of the cast is pretty sweet as well: Mary-Louise Parker steals much of the film as Frank’s unsuspecting civilian date; Brian Cox hams it up as Frank’s former Soviet adversary; and Karl Urban (Star Trek) supplies brawn and brains as the current CIA agent in charge of bringing the hammer down on Frank.’ (description from Amazon.com)

The fighter.
‘Completely convincing as a boxer, Mark Wahlberg plays welterweight Micky Ward, who grew up in working-class Massachusetts. Ward’s half-brother, Dicky Eklund (a gaunt, crazy-eyed Christian Bale), turned to boxing first; Dicky, once known as “The Pride of Lowell,” traded his promising pugilistic career for a crack pipe (Sugar Ray Leonard cameos as his best-known opponent). As David O. Russell’s film begins, the smothering Alice (Frozen River’s Melissa Leo) manages Micky’s career, while the unpredictable Dicky attempts to train him. Despite his talent in the ring, though, Micky can’t catch a break until he meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a spitfire of a bartender who encourages him to stand up for himself. When Dicky ends up in prison, and Micky takes on a more experienced manager, his fortunes start to improve, but it isn’t in his nature to abandon the people who raised him…’ (description from Amazon.com)

The king’s speech
‘Kings rarely have a choice. Such was the case for Prince Albert, known by family members as Bertie (Colin Firth), whose stutter made public speaking difficult. Upon the death of his father, George V (Michael Gambon, making the most of a small part), the crown went to Bertie’s brother, Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), who abdicated to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson. All the while, Bertie and his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter, excellent), try to find a solution to his stammer. Nothing works until they meet Australian émigré Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a failed actor operating out of a threadbare office. He believes Bertie’s problem stems from emotional rather than physiological issues, leading to a clash of wills that allows the Oscar®-winning Rush (Shine) and the Oscar-nominated Firth (A Single Man) to do some of their best work…’ (description from Amazon.com)

Made in Dagenham.
‘Rita O’Grady (Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky) finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the limelight when she becomes the leader of a strike by the women who sew the upholstery for a Ford factory in Dagenham, England–a strike that, thanks largely to the efforts of management and unions alike to dismiss it, turns into a struggle over equal pay for women. But because of a smart and subtle screenplay, understated direction, and above all outstanding performances by the entire cast–also featuring Rosamund Pike (An Education), Miranda Richardson (The Crying Game), and Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)–Made in Dagenham never stops being about people, even as its political scope widens. The movie skillfully balances issues of class and gender equality and makes you care deeply about them–and about these people struggling for basic fairness…’ (descrition from Amazon.com)

Morning glory
‘Rachel McAdams is excellent as an ambitious TV producer who vows to turn around a sinking morning TV news show by bringing in a heavyweight anchor (Harrison Ford) to pair with the lighthearted, deft DianeKeaton. But Ford wants none of the “news lite” that morning shows need to surface, so sparks fly between the bickering co-anchors almost immediately. Happily, Ford is easier in his skin in Morning Glory than he has been in some of his past romantic efforts (Six Days Seven Nights), so he and Keaton play off each other easily and believably. In a parallel story, McAdams’s Becky is pursued by Wilson’s Adam, which takes Ms. Focused Career Girl by surprise….’ (description from Amazon.com)

The girl who kicked the hornets’ nest
‘The saga of one of the more fascinating characters put on the page or the screen in recent years comes to a satisfying conclusion with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, the last installment of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s so-called Millennium Trilogy. When we last saw her, Lisbeth was trying to kill her father, a Russian defector and abusive monster; in the process, the girl was seriously wounded by her half-brother, a hulking freak with a strange condition that renders him impervious to physical pain. As the new film opens, all three are still alive, and she’s being taken to a hospital to recover while waiting to stand trial for attempted murder. Meanwhile, her champion and erstwhile lover, journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), sets about uncovering the full extent of the conspiracy & leads to “the Section,” a thoroughly repellent bunch of aging liars, killers, thieves, and perverts with a great many secrets they’d like to keep…’ (description from Amazon.com)

The kids are all right
‘In The Kids Are All Right Lisa Cholodenko takes on a suburban Los Angeles family with two teens, Joni and the unfortunately named Laser, and two mothers, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (an atypically relaxed Julianne Moore), who conceived via artificial insemination. Now that she’s heading off to college, Laser urges 18-year-old Joni to seek out their birth father, who lives in the area. Though she hits it off with Paul (Mark Ruffalo, effortlessly charming), a motorcycle-riding restaurant owner, Laser has his doubts. After they introduce Paul to their parents, allegiances start to shift. As with Laurel Canyon, Cholodenko doesn’t just create fully rounded characters, but entire communities. In the end, Kids isn’t about children vs. adults as much as the family unit vs. the singular outsider…’ (Amazon.com)

Treme. The complete first season
‘As Treme opens, a group of New Orleans residents are celebrating their first “second-line parade” since Hurricane Katrina blew through the city and across the Gulf Coast just three months earlier. But there’s darkness just below this shiny surface, and anyone familiar with The Wire, cocreator-writer David Simon’s last show, won’t be a bit surprised to find that he and fellow Treme writer-producer Eric Overmyer aren’t shy about going there. The New Orleans we see is a city barely starting to recover from what one character calls “a man-made catastrophe… of epic proportions and decades in the making.” Many people’s homes are gone, and insurance payments are a rumor. Treme has a lot of characters and their stories to keep up with. You might not like all of them. Not all get through the series unscathed, or even alive. But that’s part of the deal. The show feels authentic, the utter lack of gloss and glamour–this is no Chamber of Commerce travelogue…’ (description from Amazon.com)

Winter’s bone.
‘Day-to-day life is tough in the economically depressed, unforgiving harsh rural landscape that’s home to the extended Dolly clan, but it’s made much tougher thanks to their history of cooking crank and deep involvement in the local drug culture. Seventeen-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) has been caring for her mentally ill mother and her two younger siblings while her father runs from the law. Ree has been managing OK, but when the sheriff shows up with news that her father has put the house up as bond collateral and is unlikely to show for his court date, things get desperate. Ree is well aware of the family code of silence, but desperation forces her to confront her relatives in search of her father, regardless of the personal consequences…’ (description from Amazon.com)

Here are some new DVD arrivals on the shelves of Wellington City Libraries: Zach Galifianakis reunites with ‘The Hangover’ director Todd Phillips & Robert Downey Jr., for a re-working of the Steve Martin/John Candy classic ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’; Roman Polanski weighs in with the clever thriller ‘The Ghost Writer’, based on the novel “The ghost” by Robert Harris; and the mind-bending cult Sci-Fi movie ‘Primer’ – a kind of ‘thinking-man’s’ ‘Donnie Darko’ – proves that you don’t need a huge Hollywood budget to make an intriguing slice of Science-Fiction.

Due date.
“Due Date is such a broad comedy, it needs the width of the whole United States in which to play out. Director Todd Phillips (The Hangover) lets the gross-out comedic charms of his frequent star Zach Galifianakis run wild, which is exactly what Galifianakis fans want. And Robert Downey Jr. reminds viewers of his appealing straight-man comic talents, too. Due Date is like Planes, Trains and Automobiles meets Nine Months with a little of The Odd Couple thrown in. The writing of Due Date is uneven–perhaps a result of its having had a minimum of six screenwriters working on it. And run time, at only 100 or so minutes, seems much longer. But Due Date gets its energy and charge from its two stars and from Phillips’s slaphappy direction. Galifianakis plays Ethan, who’s a version of every character Galifianakis has played to date–slovenly, irresponsible, and uncensored. Downey is Peter, a straitlaced new father-to-be, who through an improbable series of unfortunate events can find no other way to get across the country for the birth of his first child than to hitch a ride with Ethan. If the situation is somewhat predictable, the comedic moments are not–though by halfway though the trip, viewers may wonder if Peter will be able to resist strangling Ethan with his own scarf, or worse. Viewers who love Phillips’s and Galifianakis’s trademark slapstick shtick will find plenty to laugh about on this long, strange trip. (Amazon.com)

Father of my children.
Grégoire Canvel has it all – a wife and three delightful daughters he adores and a stimulating job that he’s devoted to; he’s a film producer. Discovering new talent and developing projects is what drives and fulfills him. On the surface Grégoire seems invincible, maintaining humour and charm as he juggles the never-ending demands of his company with his domestic responsibilities. But passion can also lead to obstinacy, and when Grégoire’s reserves – financial and emotional – reach a dramatic tipping point, his beautiful wife Sylvia and their children share in the repercussions. (Container).

Killers.
“He’s tall, dark and handsome with a hint of mystery. What more does Jen (Katherine Heigl) need to know about Spencer (Ashton Kutcher), the man who’s just swept her off her feet down in the French Riviera? Well, maybe that he’s a professional spy whose special talent is assassination. But no matter, neither bullets nor bombs nor bad guys with big guns can keep these two from living happily ever after–if they can get through the day alive” (Container).

The ghost writer.
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanksi (The Pianist) teams up with author-screenwriter Robert Harris (Enigma) for this twisty political thriller. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed ghostwriter who signs on to pen the memoirs of former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). The money is good, but there’s a catch: the ghost’s predecessor perished under mysterious circumstances (his body washed up on the shore in an apparent suicide). Being the adventurous sort, the ghost puts that information aside and travels to Lang’s austere compound on Martha’s Vineyard, where he meets Lang’s efficient personal secretary, Amelia (Kim Cattrall, good but for an inconsistent accent), and acerbic wife, Ruth (An Education’s Olivia Williams). Just as he’s wading through Lang’s dull text, the PM’s ex-cabinet minister accuses him of handing over suspected terrorists to the CIA, fully aware that torture would be on the agenda. The next thing the ghost knows, he’s working for a possible war criminal, and the deeper he digs, the more convinced he becomes that Lang is lying about his past. After exchanging a few words with a sharp-eyed old man (Eli Wallach) and a tight-lipped professor (Tom Wilkinson), he realizes his life may also be at risk. If the conclusion feels a little glib, Polanksi tightens the screws with skill, McGregor enjoys his best role in years, and Williams proves she’s fully prepared to carry a movie of her own. (Amazon.com)

Primer.
“Primer is set in the industrial park/suburban tract-home fringes of an unnamed contemporary city where two young engineers, Abe and Aaron, are members of a small group of men who work by day for a large corporation while conducting extracurricular experiments on their own time in a garage. While tweaking their current project, a device that reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking gravitational pull, they accidentally discover that it has some highly unexpected capabilities – ones that could enable them to do and to have seemingly anything they want. Taking advantage of the unique opportunity is the first challenge they face. Dealing with the consequences is the next” (Container).
Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and has drawn repeat viewers eager to crack writer-director-star Shane Carruth’s puzzler of a time-travel drama. Carruth, an engineer by training, plays inventor Aaron, whose entrepreneurial partnership with fellow brainiac Abe (David Sullivan) unexpectedly results in a process for traveling back several hours in time. The men initially use these rewind sessions to succeed in the stock market. But a dark consequence of their daily journeys eventually complicates matters. If this sounds like a very commercial, science fiction thriller, Primer is anything but that. Shot on 16mm for $7,000, the film has a tantalizing, sealed-in logic, akin to Memento, that forces viewers to see the fantastic with a certain dispassion. One may be tempted to sit through Primer again to more fully understand its paradoxes and ethical quandaries. (Catalogue summary)

Human target. The complete first season.
Check your disbelief at the door and prepare to thoroughly enjoy Human Target, a Fox TV series combining drama, humor, and action–lots of action. At center stage in this DC Comics adaptation is Christopher Chance (Mark Valley, in a very different role from his familiar turn on Boston Legal), an erstwhile assassin who turned from killing people to protecting them after a life-changing encounter a few years earlier (detailed in a semi-prequel that is the season’s last episode). Now, joined by ex-cop Winston (Chi McBride) and wiseacre-genius-jack-of-all-trades Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley), Chance takes on a variety of clients, partly for the money but mostly for the fun. Whether it’s in the service of a fellow who has “the skeleton key to the Internet” (which could spell “the end of information security as we know it” if it falls into the wrong hands), a district attorney with a tracking device planted in her body by the criminal gang that wants to kill her, or even the Princess of Wales (whose affair with a commoner has made her the target of an assassination plot hatched by evil dudes in the palace inner circle), Chance has some serious skills, from speaking fluent Japanese and citing obscure legal precedents to passing as a professional boxer and flying a 747–upside down. The stories are preposterous and the presentation lighthearted and amusing (watching the Princess, disguised as a hooker, throwing back shots in a bar and using her fencing skills to fight off the bad guys is a hoot), but what really distinguishes Human Target are the action and fight set pieces in every episode. These are pulled off mostly with stunts instead of computer tricks, and the results are as good as or better than anything on television and almost in the same league as, say, those in a Bourne film. (Amazon.com)

Black comedies, offbeat comedies, romantic comedies, thrillers, dramas and documentary films. Films set in the present day and in the past. Here’s what’s new in our DVD collection for April:

The messenger
“Partnered with hard-line officer Tony Stone, Sgt. Will Montgomery is a battle-scarred war hero home from Iraq and newly assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. He faces this formidable mission while seeking comfort and healing back on the home front when he falls for the wife of a fallen soldier.” (Library Catalogue)

Joan Rivers : a piece of work
“The cameras follow trailblazing comic, Joan Rivers, for a year and cover her entire career from her break on the Carson show, to her heartbreak over the suicide of her husband, and her role on Celebrity Apprentice. Rivers reveals her relentless desire to keep working with humor and empathy. Wickedly funny and surprisingly moving, Rivers is once again returned to the spotlight she so richly deserves and cements her reputation as one of stand-up’s towering figures.” (Library Catalogue)

Cyrus
“A quirky, hilarious story about love, family and cutting the cord. Not-so-recently divorced John thinks he’s finally found the perfect woman when he meets the sweet and sexy Molly. There’s just one problem, Molly’s son Cyrus clings to his mom like lint on a T-shirt, and he’s not about to let another man come between them. It’s one hysterically awkward moment after another as John and Cyrus fight for the right to be Molly’s #1 man.” (Library Catalogue)

Four lions
“It really shouldn’t work. A black comedy that’s basically about four terrorists, planning an atrocity on UK soil? That’s surely a film that’s designed to wind up tabloid newspapers? In the wrong hands, it certainly could have been. But under the diligent stewardship of Chris Morris, Four Lions emerges as one of the best films of the year. It’s a perfectly pitched, at times rightly uncomfortable comedy, that brings together a quartet of inept terrorists, who when we meet them, can’t even put a video together without it falling into farce. It’s an opening scene that sets up Four Lions perfectly. And led by the terrific Riz Ahmed and the scene-stealing Nigel Lindsay, the company of actors rise to the challenge that Chris Morris sets them. Four Lions isn’t a perfect film, though. The tone is a little uneven at times, and it’s very much one that’s going to feel more at home on a television than a cinema screen. But it’s still a daring, risky and at times extremely funny piece of work. And it’s one not afraid to pull the rug on you, either, never shielding itself away from the undercurrents of its subject matter. It’s the most ambitious comedy in a long, long time, and it’s a credit to all concerned that it works as well as it does.” (Amazon.co.uk)

Going the distance
“Going the Distance sparkles with wit and true romance–something of a rarity among mass-market romantic comedies. Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, who have been a couple in real life, use their personal chemistry to effective ends in the film. They play Erin and Garrett, geography-crossed lovers who, after a whirlwind romance of six weeks in New York (”Keep it light! Keep it light” they both say, futilely), try to see if they can keep the love fires burning when Erin must move to the West Coast. There are predictable pitfalls and speed bumps that populate any romantic comedy, as well as a sublime supporting cast of friends and siblings. Especially notable is Christina Applegate as Erin’s sister, Corinne, jaded and hilarious, and fiercely protective of her sister. But the charm of Going the Distance is in the winsomeness of its main stars. Barrymore and Long seem to be acting effortlessly, and their enjoyment of each other’s company lets the audience feel a part of the romance. First-time screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe is less focused on zingers that are hard to believe as dialogue, and more on the subtle ways people get to know each other, and enjoy each other–especially with humor. Director Nanette Burstein (documentaries including American Teen and The Kid Stays in the Picture) keeps the action moving deftly and lets the two stars shine–even as they long for one another across the miles. Erin and Garrett’s stab at phone sex is laugh-out-loud funny, yet their tender, tentative connection feels real and warm. Going the Distance lets its likable stars cross the finish line, and bring the audience along with them.” (Amazon.co.uk)

A prophet
“In his labyrinthine portrait of a convict turned kingpin, Jacques Audiard (A Self Made Hero) combines the grittiness of HBO’s Oz with the shifting loyalties of a Leone western. After assaulting a cop, Malik (riveting newcomer Tahar Rahim) earns a six-year prison bid. Though illiterate, the 19-year-old speaks French and Arabic. Instead of congregating with the Muslim inmates, he keeps to himself, providing a perfect target for Mob boss César (Niels Arestrup of Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped), who makes him a Godfather-like offer he can’t refuse: kill Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), an Arab set to testify against the Corsicans, or meet his maker. Malik decides he would prefer to live (in a surrealistic touch, Reyeb’s ghost will haunt him for the rest of the film). In return, Luciani offers him protection but stops short of treating him like an equal. When Malik isn’t serving coffee and making deliveries, he studies French and Corsu. With what he learns from the mobsters, he befriends two other loners, Ryad (Adel Bencherif) and Jordi the Gypsy (Reda Kateb), and starts a drug-smuggling operation. The years pass, and Malik takes advantage of his parole leaves to work both sides of the fence, and when the authorities transfer César’s crew to a different facility, the balance of power shifts from the aging master to the model student. At 149 minutes, A Prophet feels more like a miniseries than a movie, but there are no dead spots, no wasted moments, resulting in Audiard’s most fully realized vision to date.” (Amazon.com)

Cairo time
“Patricia Clarkson, who brightens just about any movie she’s in, is positively luminous in Cairo Time. The plot of the movie barely exists: Juliette Grant (Clarkson, The Station Agent, Pieces of April) goes to Cairo to meet with her husband, a U.N. diplomat held up in Israel. At loose ends, she wanders the city and spends time with a friend of her husband’s, Tareq (Alexander Siddig, Syriana, Deep Space Nine), with whom an understated but undeniable attraction forms. But Cairo Time isn’t about plot–it’s a wonderfully delicate examination of cultural differences and human connection across them. Both Clarkson and Siddig are superb; both are thoroughly grounded actors, and their firm grasp of their characters allows them to capture very quiet emotions that have a surprising impact. Director Ruba Nadda, who is a Canadian of Arab descent, has a skillful sense of rhythm and a keen eye for both human detail and magnificent landscapes. Cairo Time is a beautiful movie, romantic and melancholy, gentle and tart, subtle but deeply satisfying.” (Amazon.com)

Stone
“Edward Norton is always fascinating to watch–something slippery always lingers behind his eyes. In Stone, Norton plays a convicted arsonist nicknamed Stone who’s desperate to persuade his parole officer, Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro), to argue for his early release–so desperate that he asks his wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element), to seduce Mabry. But while these machinations play out, Stone starts having a spiritual awakening … or is this another attempt at manipulation? Director John Curran and Norton worked together previously on The Painted Veil, and they clearly have a rapport: Norton’s performance is fluid and sinuous, working its way into Mabry’s consciousness and, potentially, the audience’s. De Niro is, of course, solid, though he projects such a steely will that it’s difficult to accept him as a man who succumbs to base appetites. Writer Angus MacLachlan wrote the luminous Junebug; while Stone doesn’t manage the same rich humanity–despite the excellent acting by all involved, the story feels cramped and schematic–there are strong passages. But fundamentally, it’s Norton who makes the movie worth watching; even the scenes he’s not in feel like they’re about him, how his influence ripples out into the people around him.” (Amazon.com)

Adam resurrected
“Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, The Fly) as Adam Stein delivers one of the most powerful performances of his career in this compelling, unforgettably moving film. Tormented in a World War II concentration death camp by a high-ranking Nazi officer (Oscar® nominee* Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), Adam spends the next 15 years tucked away in a remote experimental insane asylum with fellow Holocaust victims. Clinging to the remains of his sanity, Adam uses his amazing magic and comic skills to entertain the residents and develops a relationship with an attractive nurse (Ayelet Zurer, Angels & Demons). But only when he reaches out to a mentally scarred young boy does he begin to confront his own pain and guilt and start to heal in this extraordinary testament to the fierce resilience of the human spirit. *Best Supporting Actor: Platoon, 1986; Shadow of the Vampire, 2000.” (Amazon.com)

Glorious 39
“In Glorious 39, acclaimed Writer/ Director Stephen Poliakoff has crafted a tense psychological thriller set against the idyllic British countryside during the glorious summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Anne, a budding young actress, stumbles across secret recordings of a sinister plot to appease the Nazis. As close friends die in suspicious circumstances, she finds herself swept into a web of dark secrets and in increasing danger from a powerful and menacing enemy. With her most precious certainties destroyed and unable to trust even those closest to her, she comes to realise the full extent of her own betrayal and vulnerability. Featuring a stellar ensemble cast of leading British actors: award-winning British actress Romola Garai (Atonement), alongside BAFTA – winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually), Academy Award® – winning actress Julie Christie (Finding Neverland), Eddie Redmayne (The Other Boleyn Girl), David Tennant (Dr. Who), Charlie Cox (Stardust), Jeremy Northam (Gosford Park), Juno Temple (Atonement) and the legendary Christopher Lee (Lord of The Rings). Glorious 39 “delivers intrigue and suspense with masterful control” (Psychologies magazine).” (Amazon.co.uk)

Amreeka
“Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card, and she moves with her teenage son to small town Illinois.” (Library Catalogue)

The switch
An offbeat comedy about Kassie a smart fun-loving single woman who, despite her slightly neurotic best friend Wallys objections, decides its time to have a baby even if it means doing it by herself with a little help from a charming sperm donor. But unbeknownst to her, Kassies plans go awry because of a last-minute switch, that isn’t discovered until seven years later when, Wally finally gets acquainted with Kassie’s precocious though slightly neurotic son.