the NMH Library Blog

NEW DVD Twilight

Twilight  (check title for availability)
2008
122 Minutes

From Amazon.com

The big-screen adaptation of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer's bestselling vampire romance, is aimed squarely at its key demographic: teen girls whose idea of Prince Charming is a brooding, pale, undead teen who could kill you instantly at any moment. Such a prince is more fascinating than frightening to new girl Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), who moves to the rainy-gray town of Forks, Wash., to live with her dad (Billy Burke), the local sheriff who's puzzled by a series of "animal attacks." On her first day at school, Bella appears to (visibly) nauseate her lab partner, Edward (Robert Pattinson). Turns out the scent of her blood is this vampire's "brand of heroin," and his struggle not to kill her causes an irresistible pull toward her. Whether he's attracted for the normal reasons or because she smells especially sweet to him is vague in the book and even less clear on-screen; nonetheless, Bella falls hopelessly in love with Edward, which sets her on a dangerous path when a few nomad vampires show up in town, one particularly keen on tracking the human. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen), Twilight is full of funny moments--not all of which are intentional--and the casting, from Stewart to Bella's self-absorbed friend Jessica (Anna Kendrick) is spot-on. The weakest link, unfortunately, is Pattinson. While he certainly looks the part, his Edward could have used an extra injection of testosterone (Pattinson, who is British, used James Dean as a model for his American accent). In scenes where he growls about the temptation to kill those who would harm Bella, or flitting around a forest warning her how dangerous he is, he comes off more like a whimpering puppy than a debonair monster. The good news is, his chemistry with Stewart (particularly in their big kissing scene) is palpable, which, let's face it, is really what matters to Twilight fans most. --Ellen A. Kim

NEW DVD Arrested Development: Complete Series - Seasons 1, 2, & 3

  

Arrested Development: Complete Series - Seasons 1, 2, & 3
(check titles for availability)
2006
8 Discs

From Amazon.com
Season One: Winner of the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy its first year out, Arrested Development is the kind of sitcom that gives you hope for television. A mockumentary-style exploration of the beleaguered Bluth family, it's one of those idiosyncratic shows that doesn't rely on a laugh track or a studio audience; it's shot more like a TV drama, albeit with an omniscient narrator (executive producer Ron Howard) overseeing the proceedings. Holding the Bluths together just barely is son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the only normal guy in a family that's chock full of nuts. Hardworking and sensible, Michael's certain he's going to be given control of his family's Enron-style corporation upon the retirement of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). The fact that he's passed over instead for his mother (Jessica Walter) is only a blip when compared to his father's immediate arrest for dubious accounting practices, and the resulting freeze on the family's previously limitless wealth.

NEW DVD Slumdog Millionaire

 
Slumdog Millionaire  (check title for availability)
2009
120 Minutes 

From Amazon.com
Danny Boyle (Sunshine) directed this wildly energetic, Dickensian drama about the desultory life and times of an Indian boy whose bleak, formative experiences lead to an appearance on his country's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Jamal (played as a young man by Dev Patel) and his brother are orphaned as children, raising themselves in various slums and crime-ridden neighorhoods and falling in, for a while, with a monstrous gang exploiting children as beggars and prostitutes. Driven by his love for Latika (Freida Pinto), Jamal, while a teen, later goes on a journey to rescue her from the gang's clutches, only to lose her again to another oppressive fate as the lover of a notorious gangster.

NEW DVD Seven Pounds

 Seven Pounds  (check title for availability)
 2009
 123 Minutes 

 From Amazon.com
The mysteriously titled Seven Pounds stars Will Smith as Ben Thomas, who flashes his badge as an IRS agent to gain entrance into the lives of seven strangers in need. To each, he offers something that will reverse their troubles, seeking to atone for a haunting past mistake. But when Ben starts falling in love with a young woman with heart trouble (Rosario Dawson), his carefully laid plans threaten to collapse. To reveal more of the story would diminish it. Smith is an engaging, charismatic presence, but the impact of Seven Pounds comes from Dawson--she has the kind of emotional transparency that shimmers off the screen. Which is crucial, because Seven Pounds requires considerable suspension of disbelief; some scenes push and pull at plausibility, and you may question a few plot turns after the movie is over. But as the story unfolds, the performances can carry you over these bumps. If you surrender to its gently circling rhythms and its luminous images (including the glowing undulations of a poisonous jellyfish), Seven Pounds will pack an emotional wallop, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Also featuring Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan), Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell), and Woody Harrelson. --Bret Fetzer

NEW NEW NEW!!!

Check out (literally and figuratively) recently acquired material at the Schauffler Library. 

For New Books click here

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New Music

 

New Reference

NEW DVDs From Netflix

NEW DVD Secrecy

 Secrecy  (check title for availability)
 2008
 80 Minutes

 From Bullfrog Films
 In a single recent year the U.S. classified about five times the number of pages added to the Library of Congress. We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge dwarfs the production of open knowledge. Depending on whom you ask, government secrecy is either the key to victory in our struggle against terrorism, or our Achilles heel. But is so much secrecy a bad thing?

Secrecy saves: counter-terrorist intelligence officers recall with fury how a newspaper article describing National Security Agency abilities directly led to the loss of information that could have avoided the terrorist killing of 241 soldiers in Beirut late in October 1983. Secrecy guards against wanton nuclear proliferation, against the spread of biological and chemical weapons. Secrecy is central to our ability to wage an effective war against terrorism.

Secrecy corrupts. From extraordinary rendition to warrantless wiretaps and Abu Ghraib, we have learned that, under the veil of classification, even our leaders can give in to dangerous impulses. Secrecy increasingly hides national policy, impedes coordination among agencies, bloats budgets and obscures foreign accords; secrecy throws into the dark our system of justice and derails the balance of power between the executive branch and the rest of government.

This film is about the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. By focusing on classified secrets, the government's ability to put information out of sight if it would harm national security, Secrecy explores the tensions between our safety as a nation, and our ability to function as a democracy

NEW DVD In Search of History: Spies Among Us

In Search of History: Spies Among Us  (check title for availability)
1998
50 Minutes

From Amazon.com
The era of McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Cold War is often dismissed as fascist demagoguery. Now shocking evidence gleaned from declassified secret Russian cables and newly opened KGB files shows that Soviet penetration indeed ran deep; even the Congressman who set up HUAC was on the KGB payroll!

NEW DVD Standing in the Shadows of Motown

  Standing in the Shadows of Motown  (check title for availabilty)
  2002
  116 Minutes

 From Amazon.com
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a must-see film for any fan of the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, or any other classic Motown stars. This swinging documentary celebrates the Funk Brothers--the team of studio musicians who powered dozens and dozens of hit Motown songs--by combining reminiscences, reenactments, and clips from a recent concert put on by the Funk Brothers, featuring singers like Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, and Joan Osborne on classic tunes like "What's Going On," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," and "Heatwave." This crafty gang of elderly musicians will charm your pants off with a slew of entertaining anecdotes. Though it seems that there's a lot of dirt they're declining to dish, the movie deftly outlines the history of Motown, surely the most significant music label in American history--the label that turned segregated "race music" into chart-topping success. A soulful delight. --Bret Fetzer

 

NEW DVD A Hard Day's Night

  A Hard Day's Night  (check title for availability)
  2002
  87 Minutes

  From Amazon.com essential video
The Fab Four from Liverpool--John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr--in their first movie. Nobody expected A Hard Day's Night to be much more than a quick exploitation of a passing musical fad, but when the film opened it immediately seduced the world--even the stuffiest critics fell over themselves in praise (highbrow Dwight Macdonald called it "not only a gay, spontaneous, inventive comedy but it is also as good cinema as I have seen for a long time"). Wisely, screenwriter Alun Owen based his script on the Beatles' actual celebrity at the time, catching them in the delirious early rush of Beatlemania: eluding rampaging fans, killing time on trains and in hotels, appearing on a TV broadcast. American director Richard Lester, influenced by the freestyle French New Wave and British Goon Show humor, whips up a delightfully upbeat circus of perpetual motion. From the opening scene of the mop tops rushing through a train station mobbed by fans, the movie rarely stops for air. Some of the songs are straightforwardly presented, but others ("Can't Buy Me Love," set to the foursome gamboling around an empty field) soar with ingenuity. Above all, the Beatles express their irresistible personalities: droll, deadpan, infectiously cheeky. Better examples of pure cinematic joy are few and far between. --Robert Horton

NEW DVD Cloverfield

 Cloverfield  (check title for availability)
 2008
 84 Minutes

From Amazon.com
One of the first things a viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of friends, Cloverfield begins like a primetime television soap opera about young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings over old footage of Rob’s ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot during happy times in that now-defunct relationship. Naturally, Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, bumming Rob out completely. Just before one's eyes glaze over from all this heartbreaking stuff (captured by Hud, who's something of a doofus, in laughably shaky camerawork), the unexpected happens: New Yorkis suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster stomping through midtown and destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and company hit the streets, but rather than run with other evacuees, they head toward the center of the storm so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth. There are casualties along the way, but the journey into fear is fascinating and immediate if emotionally remote--a consequence of seeing these proceedings through the singular, subjective perspective of a camcorder and of a story that intentionally leaves major questions unanswered: Who or what is this monster? Where did it come from? The lack of a backstory, and spare views of the marauding creature, are clever ways by producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves to keep an audience focused exclusively on what’s on the screen. But it also makes Cloverfield curiously uninvolving. Ultimately, Cloverfield, with its spectacular effects brilliantly woven into a home-video look, is a celebration of infinite possibilities in this age of accessible, digital media. --Tom Keogh

NEW DVD Bigger, Stronger, Faster

  Bigger, Stronger, Faster  (check title for availabilty)
  2008
  107 Minutes

 From Amazon.com
Pop culture junkies tend to think of Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as entertainment figures. In Poughkeepsie, NY, back in the 1980s, filmmaker Christopher Bell and his brothers viewed them as heroes and became bodybuilders.Like the Hulkster, Mike and Mark Belleven turned to professional wrestling. Chris, a former staffer at Venice's famous Gold's Gym, doesn't use anabolic steroids--he did try them once--but his heroes have and his brothers do, leading him to look deeper at this increasingly common practice. While Bellexplores the health costs of juicing, he's mostly concerned with the moral consequences involved in the use of performance-enhancing substances. Though he refrains from judgment, he stopped taking steroids because it felt dishonest. Naturally, his burly brothers feel otherwise. Aside from his family, Bellspeaks with doctors, lawyers, congressmen, gym rats, and professional athletes, like Olympic sprinters Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and Tour de France cyclist Floyd Landis. He also includes footage of José Canseco, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire testifying during the federal grand jury and congressional hearings on steroid use in the major leagues (prompted by the publication of Canseco's Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big). For the most part, Bell doesn't leave any stone unturned and the personal nature of his entertaining and enlightening inquiry elevates Bigger, Stronger, Faster, i.e. The Side Effects of Being American, above your average exposé. Recommended to athletes, sports fans, health nuts, and of course, pop culture junkies. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

New March Netflix Movies

NEW DVD The Great Debaters

  The Great Debaters   (check title for availability)
  2007
  124 Minutes

From Amazon.com

Inspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earnhardt Story), anchors the story with the team’s measurable progress, but the film is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh

NEW DVD Absolute Zero

  NOVA: Absolute Zero  (check title for availability)
  2008
  112 Minutes

From Amazon.com
Our mastery of cold is something we take for granted, whether it s air conditioning and frozen food or the liquefied gases and superconductivity at the heart of cutting-edge technology. But what is cold? How do you achieve it, and how cold can it get? This two-part NOVA special brings the history of this frosty fascination to life with brilliant dramatic recreations of high moments in low-temperature research and the quest for ever-lower notches on the thermometer. 

The first hour, The Conquest of Cold, opens in the 1600s when the nature of cold and heat was a complete mystery. Were they different aspects of the same phenomenon? The experiments that settled these questions helped stoke the Industrial Revolution. In the second hour, The Race For Absolute Zero dramatizes the titanic rivalry between Scottish researcher James Dewar and Dutch physicist Heike Onnes, who plunged cold science to the forbidding realm at which oxygen and then nitrogen turn into liquids. The race continues today as scientists pioneer super-fast computing near absolute zero the ultimate chill of -459.67° F where atoms slow to a virtual standstill.

 

NEW DVD Seducing Dr. Lewis

                                       
Seducing Dr. Lewis  (check title for availability)
2005
109 Minutes

From Amazon.com

Seducing Dr. Lewis makes a pleasant addition to the quirky subgenre of what might be called "village comedies"--movies in which the oddball residents of a small village must work together to perpetrate some mild scam or bit of mischief (examples abound, from Waking Ned Devine to Saving Grace to Local Hero). The isolated Canadian community of St.-Marie-La-Mauderne desperately needs a new industry, but the factory they're trying to win requires a resident doctor. When a young doctor from Montreal(David Boutin) gets blackmailed into spending a month in the village, the prickly inhabitants go overboard to woo him--they learn to cook Beef Stroganoff, form a cricket team, and tap his phone. It's all a bit preposterous, but that's part of the charm; this kind of movie thrives on being just a tiny bit over the top. The daffy doings keep one foot on the ground thanks to a combination of skilled character actors (like Raymond Bouchard, who plays the town's struggling mayor) and mysterious girls (like Lucie Laurier, the beautiful postmistress). Fans of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain will find much to enjoy here. --Bret Fetzer

NEW DVD Skin Deep: The Business of Beauty

                                              
 Skin Deep  (check title for availability)
 2008
 300 Minutes on 3 Discs

From Amazon.com
Today's youth obsessed culture has spawned an estimated 50 billion dollar a year cosmetic industry and half a billion cosmetic surgeries are performed every year in this country alone. But this fervor to be ever-young started long ago with Ponce de Leon's search for the elusive Fountain of Youth. The recent dark spotlight on the baby beauty queen pageants (Jon Benet Ramsey) and conversely, Hollywood's humorous take on the same (Little Miss Sunshine) are flip sides of the beginnings of this world---where beauty and youth are idolized above all else. Five episodes.

 

           

NEW DVDThe Power of Forgiveness

   The Power of Forgiveness  ( check title for availability)
   2007
   78 Minutes

 From Amazon.com
To forgive somone can be simple. But this simple act can have powerul consequences - and may lead to a personal and spiritual transformation. Recently, the study of forgiveness has come into its own. Researchers are examining the psychological and physical effects of forgiveness under an amazingly wide variety of conditions, ranging from petty insults to sexual assault to 9/11. Clinicians now help guide people to forgive transgressions and get on with their lives. From Ground Zero to Northern Ireland to the Amish countryside, THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS explores this important concept, and reveals how forgiveness can transform your life.

NEW DVD The Google Boys

    The Google Boys  ( check title for availability)
    2006
    50 Minutes

From A& E

A university research project that bloomed into a worldwide corporate empire, maxed-out credit cards that seeded a $154 billion company, two grade-school friends using a Boeing 767 Widebody as a private plane: this is the stuff of fantasy. But it is also the real life of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two Stanford Ph.D. candidates who founded Google.

These two young men - a Russian immigrant and a public school student from Michigan- perfectly evoke the American entrepreneurial ideal. Their backgrounds are as interesting as their incredible rise up the Forbes World's Richest People list. BIOGRAPHY® chronicles the amazing careers of THE GOOGLE BOYS, while also exploring the workings of the world's most popular - and most profitable - search engine.

In an industry unheard of a decade ago, THE GOOGLE BOYS have conquered the world, all the while promoting an unusual philosophy and corporate culture founded on statements like, "You can make money without doing evil." This is the definitive look at their astonishing lives.

NEW DVD February Netflix Movies

NEW DVD Becoming Jane

  Becoming Jane (check title for availability)
 2008
 120 Minutes

From Amazon.com

Like Molière, which was released in theaters around the same time, Becoming Jane isn't a conventional biopic. Instead, Julian Jarrold (White Teeth) expands on events from Jane Austen's life that may have shaped her fiction. To his credit, he doesn't stray too far from the facts. In 1795, 20-year-old Jane (Anne Hathaway with believable British accent) is an aspiring author. Her parents (Julie Walters and James Cromwell) married for love, and money is tight. They hope to see their youngest daughter make a more lucrative match, and there's a besotted local, Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox, son of actor James Fox), who would be happy to oblige. Unfortunately, Jane isn't interested. Then, she meets brash law student Tom (The Last King of Scotland's James McAvoy), while he's staying with relatives in rural Hampshire. As in many Austen novels, it isn't love at first sight--but rather irritation. Just as affection begins to bloom, Tom has to return to London, and Wisley, whose financial prospects are superior, proposes. To complicate matters, Tom's uncle (Ian Richardson in his final performance) disapproves of the outspoken young lady just as much as Wisley's aunt (Maggie Smith, lending the proceedings some subtle humor). Had Austen penned the script, Tom and Wisley would be combined into one person, but life doesn't work that way--and nor does Becoming Jane. Though Jarrold's effort may not be as swoon-worthy as Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice, it remains true to the spirit of the author's work. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

NEW DVD Michael Clayton

  Michael Clayton  (check title for availability)
  2008
  119 Minutes

 From Amazon.com
 George Clooney's performance drives this tense corporate thriller from Bourne trilogy screenwriter James Gilroy, who makes his directorial debut here. Clooney is the eponymous "hero," a burnt-out lawyer who cleans up legal messes created by the clients of a large law firm. When a crisis materializes in the form of the firm's top shark (Tom Wilkinson) suffering an apparent meltdown while defending a shady chemical company from lawsuits, Clayton discovers not only a cover-up to deny payments to farmers injured by the company's products, but a chance to find some purpose in the face of his life's downward. Clooney (who also co-produced the film) brings soul and quiet determination to his beleaguered character, and there's excellent support from Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack (also a co-producer), and Michael O'Keefe; Gilroy's script also does a solid job of stacking the deck against Clayton as he attempts to ferret out the truth behind the cover-up. Unfortunately, the film settles for a pat conclusion that, while emotionally satisfying, feels forced and delivers an overly simplistic message (corporations can be bad; morally questionable work can make one feel dirty). And Tilda Swinton is wasted in a thankless role as the chemical company's nerve-wracked and unsympathetic legal counsel. Still, Clooney fans will appreciate this fine addition to his growing roster of flawed heroes. -- Paul Gaita

 

NEW DVDs January Netflix Movies

NEW DVD The Namesake

   The Namesake  (check title for availability)
   2007
   122 Minutues

From Amazon.com

Adapted by screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala from the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, director Mira Nair's The Nameksake is populated by well-drawn characters and filled with memorable shots and engaging scenes. But in the larger sense, the film is a provocative look at the two sides of immigration: the adjustments faced by a couple who move here from a distant land, and the struggles of their offspring to reconcile their parents' traditional culture with their own distinctly American outlook. The tale begins in the late '70s, when aspiring engineer Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan Khan) and his new wife Ashima (the radiant Tabu) move to New York

from Calcutta. Life in Americais strange, in ways both good (the gas in their apartment stays on 24 hours a day! You can drink water straight from the tap!) and not-so-hot ( New York's winters). But for their children, first son Gogol (a standout performance by Kal Penn, heretofore best known for the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), nicknamed for his father's favorite author, the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, and then daughter Sonia (Sahira Nair), "the American way" is at odds with their folks' more conservative mores. Gogol (who later adopts his more formal first name, Nikhil) smokes dope, calls his parents "you guys," goes to Yale, and hooks up with a preppie white girl (Jacinda Barrett); for her part, Sonia complains that she wants to "go home" when the family returns to Indiafor a visit. Only when tragedy strikes suddenly does the young man realize how totally alienated from his family he has become, prompting some major changes. There's nothing especially original about any of this, and even those who haven't read the book may sense that some of Lahiri's material has been lost on the way to the screen (the treatment of Gogol's marriage to a beautiful Bengali-American girl, played by Zuleikha Robinson, seems oddly truncated). But even while dealing with life's Big Issues (birth and death, marriage and separation, joy and misery), Nair has created a winning, intimate film that reminds us of the strength of family ties and effortlessly persuades us to care. --Sam Graham

    

NEW DVD Mississippi Burning

           Mississippi Burning  (check title for availability)
   1989
   128 Minutes

 From Amazon.com

Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe star in this well-intentioned and largely successful civil rights-era thriller. Mississippi Burning, using the real-life 1964 disappearance of three civil rights workers as its inspiration, tells the story of two FBI men (Hackman and Dafoe, entertainingly called "Hoover Boys" by the locals) who come in to try to solve the crime. Hackman is a former small-town Mississippi sheriff himself, while Dafoe is a by-the-numbers young hotshot. Yes, there is some tension between the two. The movie has an interesting fatalism, as all the FBI's best efforts incite more and more violence, which becomes disturbing--the film's message, perhaps inadvertently, seems to be that vigilantism is the only real way to get things done. The brilliant Frances McDormand, here early in her career, is not given enough to do but still does it well enough to have racked up an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actress. (Hackman also received a nomination for Best Actor, and the film won an Academy Award for Cinematography). The story line of Mississippi Burning is ultimately unsatisfying--it is, after all, the story of white men coming in to rescue poor blacks--but it is beautifully shot and very watchable and features a terrific cast playing at the top of their games. --Ali Davis

NEW DVD Young & Restless in China

Young & Restless in China  (check title for availability)
2008
120 Minutes

From Amazon.com

A riveting and poignant journey, Young & Restless in China

tracks the lives of nine ambitious young Chinese professionals who are struggling to make it in this very tumultuous and rapidly changing society, as it prepares to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Whether it's defying Eastern cultural traditions in pursuit of more Western values, struggling through the (often erratic) government protocols to start a new business, or fighting to preserve the environment, this new generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings is caught between the bonds of their nation's history and their own quest for a very different future. Narrated by ER star Ming Wen, Young & Restless in China captures the coming-of-age of China's most dynamic generation in ways as intimately familiar as they are decidedly new.

NEW DVD Chalk

 Chalk  (check title for availability)
 2007
 85 Minutes 

 From Amazon.com
Using his high school teaching experience as impetus, director Mike Akel made Chalk to encourage school reform through enlightening viewers to the challenges teachers face. This comedic mockumentary capitalizes on four teachers' frustrations during the course of their school semester, by interviewing them individually as well as placing them together in scenes depicting faculty meetings, school spelling bees, and happy hours at a local bar.

NEW DVD Frontline: Growing Up Online

                                    
Frontline: Growing Up Online  (check title for availability)
2008
60 Minutes

From Amazon.com

MySpace. YouTube. Facebook. Friendster. Nearly every teen in America is on the Internet every day, socializing with friends and strangers alike, "trying on" identities, and building a virtual profile of themselves - one that many kids insist is a more honest depiction of who they really are than the person they portray at home or in school.

Growing Up Online peers inside the world of this cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides of a new digital divide. A generation with a radically different notion of privacy and personal space, today's adolescents are grappling with issues their parents never had to deal iwth: from cyber bullying to instant "Internet fame," to the specter of online sexual predators.

Frontline investigates the risks, realities, and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web.

NEW DVD LOL

   LOL  (check title for availability)
   2006
   81 Minutes

From Amazon.com
From acclaimed auteur Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Kissing on the Mouth), the SXSW Film Festival favorite LOL is a raw, witty and painfully intimate look at modern sexuality and the technology that either helps us click or turns us off.

Struggling to balance their online obsessions with the demands of real life, Alex (Kevin Bewersdorf), Chris (C. Mason Wells) and Tim (Swanberg) are, like many young men, unable to decipher the mixed messages that everyday tools of communication offer. Does e-mail help them connect, or are they alienating their chances for love by viewing women through the dimensions of a computer screen and the lens of a cameraphone?

Filmed with documentary-like realism and a nonprofessional cast, and featuring a brilliantly eclectic soundtrack by Bewersdorf, LOL's defiantly un-Hollywood approach pulls no punches in its up-to-the-second relevance and honesty about the new male paradigm.

NEW DVD The Magic Flute

   The Magic Flute  (Check title for availability)
  1989
  160 Minutes

  From Amazon.com
Mozart's The Magic Flute is part fantasy, part parable, part comedy and all heart. The tale of Prince Tamino s quest for love, truth and beauty is set in a mysterious forest and features wild, exotic beasts. Radiant performances from the outstanding cast enhance the magic of Mozart s lyrical score....the most believable and simply beautiful production of The Magic Flute you are likely to see anywhere. The Melbourne Herald 
Featuring: Yvonne Kenny, Gran Wilson, John Fulford, Christa Leahmann, Donald Shannks The Australian Opera Chorus, The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra

Conductor: Richard Bonynge

Director: Göran Järvefelt

NEW DVD Flatland

  Flatland  (Check title for availability)
  2007
  36 Minutes 

  From Amazon.com
The only OFFICIAL version of FLATLAND: THE MOVIE. The movie features the voices of Martin Sheen, Michael York and Kristen Bell. FLATLAND is an exciting half-hour animated film adapted from Edwin Abbott's classic novel, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimension. The movie stars the voices of Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale, Michael York, and Joe Estevez.

NEW DVD He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not  (check title for availability)
2002
92 Minutes

From Amazon.com

That adorable Audrey Tautou from Amélie plays the central role in this deceptive story of a rather unusual romance. It would spoil the film's clever design to reveal what happens halfway through He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, so let's just say that Tautou plays a winsome girl in the sunny town of Bordeaux, whose relationship with a married doctor has more layers than first it seems. Samuel LeBihan, from Brotherhood of the Wolf, plays the doctor, but it's the casting of cutie-pie Tautou that sets up the movie's gradually sinister undertow. Director Laetitia Colombani's inventive structure plays a satisfyingly tricky game with the audience, and may have some viewers going back to the beginning to make sure they saw what they thought they saw. Just don't go in expecting Amélie part deux, and you should find this an ingenious little number. --Robert Horton

NEW DVD New November Netflix Movies

NEW DVD The Story of Stuff

      The Story of Stuff  (check title for availability)
    21 Minutes
    
    
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our   lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled DVD that looks at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

   

NEW DVD Primary

  Primary (check title for availability)
  2003
  53 Minutes

  From Amazon.com
A bygone era of political campaigning is the subject of Primary, a fascinating cinema verité portrait of a crucial step on John F. Kennedy's path to the White House. Using the most portable sound and film equipment available in 1960, pioneering documentarian Robert Drew and a crew of innovative, important filmmakers in their own right (including verité legends D.A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, and Albert Maysles) were given a week of round-the-clock access to Kennedy as he toured the cities and towns of Wisconsin, campaigning against rival front-runner Hubert Humphrey in the state's pivotal primary election. With minimal narration and ground-breaking, no-frills technique heretofore unseen in TV news reporting (this film originally aired as an ABC news special), Drew gives equal time to Humphrey, but it's obvious that JFK's charisma, and the quiet campaign-trail grace of his wife Jacqueline, would carry them to eventual victory. The intimacy of these images is astonishing, captured just before television would come to dominate the political process. With a "cliffhanger" ending, Primary was inducted into the Library of Congress' prestigious National Film Registry in 1990, and it's an essential companion to Drew's 1963 film Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment. --Jeff Shannon

 

 

NEW DVD John Adams

  John Adams  (check title for availability)
  501 Minutes on 3 Discs
  2008

 From Amazon.com
Based on David McCullough's bestselling biography, the HBO miniseries John Adams is the furthest thing from a starry-eyed look at America's founding fathers and the brutal path to independence. Adams (Paul Giamatti), second president of the United States, is portrayed as a skilled orator and principled attorney whose preference for justice over anti-English passions earns enemies. But he also gains the esteem of the first national government of the United States, i.e., the Continental Congress, which seeks non-firebrands capable of making a reasoned if powerful case for America's break from England's monarchy. The first thing one notices about John Adams' dramatizations of congress' proceedings, and the fervent pro-independence violence in the streets of Boston and elsewhere, is that America's roots don't look pretty or idealized here.

NEW DVD Paris Je T'aime

 Paris Je T'aime  (check title for availability)
  110 Minutes
  (2006)

From Amazon.com
Even with the impressive talent involved, Paris, je t'aime could've ended up like a fallen soufflé. Though all 18 films aren't equally successful, they hit the mark more often than not. Romantics anticipating happy love stories set amongst the City of Lightsn may be disappointed to find that many are quite sad and that some parts of Paris are less inviting than others (each takes place in a different district). Further, the shorts aren't all en Français, since the actors and directors hail from around the world, but their outsider perspectives lend the project depth. The strongest entries are provided by Gurinder Chadha (Quais De Seine), Gus Van Sant (Le Marais), Oliver Schmitz (Place des Fêtes), and Alexander Payne (14ème Arrondissement), but all find interesting ways to explore cultural misunderstandings.

NEW DVD The Band's Visit

  The Band's Visit  (check title for availability)
   87 Minutes
   2008

From Amazon.com 
Can movies change the world? In a word, no. But Israeli writer and director Eran Kolirin's utterly charming and engaging The Band's Visit suggests that if we could somehow put aside the politics and the religion, stifle the governments and the rhetoric, and mix in a little Gershwin, maybe even people with a history of cross-cultural suspicion and hostility really can get along. Not that the film has such pretensions--far from it. This is a simple tale involving a group of Egyptian musicians, the Alexandria Police Ceremonial Orchestra, who arrive in Israel for a concert. Things don't go well; there's no one to meet them at the airport, and they mistakenly end up in a small, drab desert town called Bet Hatikva, a place whose own residents refer to it as "bloody nowhere." But the people, especially café owner Dina (a marvelous performance by Ronit Elkabetz), are friendly and welcoming, and when they urge the band members to stay overnight before heading to their proper destination the next day, strait-laced leader Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai) finally relents.

NEW DVD I Got the Feelin' James Brown in the '60s

 
I Got the Feelin' James Brown in the'60s  (check title for availability)
410 Minutes on 3 Discs
2008

From Amazon.com

I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s is the definitive look at JB's on-stage prowess, including an acclaimed documentary, two previously unreleased concerts, and more. With full-length versions of many classics, including"I Feel Good," "Out Of Sight," "Cold Sweat," "Try Me," "I Got The Feelin'," "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," "Bewildered," and "Please, Please, Please," I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s is an essential part of any music lover's collection.

NEW DVD What Do You Believe?

  What Do You Believe?  (Check title for availability)
  (2004)
  49 Minutes

  In this award-winning documentary featured on PBS, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Native American, and Jewish Teens share their most personal struggles and beliefs about faith, morality, suffering and death, prayer, the purpose of life and the divine. Without a hint of dogma they candidly discuss everything from hormones to heaven, deflate misperceptions and stereotypes at every turn, and make a strong case for a more tolerant

America

.

 

NEW DVD Living Broke in Boom Times

   Living Broke in Boom Times  (check title for availability)
  (2007)
  114 Minutes

From "It is a wonderful documentary, heart-rending in its depiction of homelessness and desperation, yet inspiring in what it shows about the magnificence of people fighting back, organizing, refusing to accept their situation, trying to build a national movement. I found the close-ups of these people, their voices, their down-home eloquence very moving. I do hope this will be widely seen. I think it can play an important role in arousing people to action."
–Howard Zinn
Professor, Historian, Political Scientist

NEW DVD Catherine the Great

                                            Catherine the Great  (check title for availability)
  DVD (2006)
  120 Minutes

  From PBS.org
 Catherine the Great is a colorful, true story about a young girl, who transforms herself from an obscure German Princess into Russia's most powerful regent. As Tsarina, she is influenced by Western Democratic ideas and does much to strengthen Russia's standing in Europe. She has an astute intellect and is able to survive court intrigue to retain her crown.

NEW DVD Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series

Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series  (check title for availability)
(1999)
1080 Minutes on 6 Discs

From Amazon.com

The comedy/drama Freaks and Geeks limped through its sole season on NBC in 1999 before being expelled by the network--but not before earning critical acclaim and a devoted fan base that fought valiantly to keep it on the air. Now all 18 episodes have been released in this long-awaited boxed set, which allows longtime fans and first-timers alike to enjoy one of television's most poignant and funny programs about high school.

NEW DVD Life After People

Life After People  (check title for availability)
(2008)
94 Minutes

From Amazon.com

The very notion is deliciously ghoulish: What happens to earth if--or when--people suddenly vanished? The History Channel presents a dramatic, fascinating what-if scenario, part science fiction and part true natural science. "Welcome to Earth, Population: 0" is the catchy tagline, Life After People's 94 minutes are so gripping you nearly forget while you watch that you, yourself, will be gone too. It turns out that earth can go along very nicely without us. The hardest part of the special is probably in the first 15 minutes, when pet owners confront what likely will happen to their dogs (thankfully, the show follows those dogs who break out of their houses, and the prognosis for them to survive as scavengers is good).

NEW DVD Viva Cuba

 
Viva Cuba  (check title for availability)
DVD (2007)
80 Minutes

From Amazon.com
In a tale akin to 'Romeo and Juliet,' the friendship between two children is threatened by their parents' differences. Malú is from an upper-class family and her single mother does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito's mother a poor socialist proud of her family's social standing, places similar restrictions on her son. What neither woman recognizes is the immense strength of the bond between Malú and Jorgito. When the children learn that Malú's mother is planning to leave Cuba, they decide to travel to the other side of the island to find Malú's father and persuade him against signing the forms that would allow it.

NEW DVD Compassion in Exile

Compassion in Exile  (check title for availability)
 DVD (2005)
 62 Minutes

From Amazon.com

Compassion In Exile is an intimate portrait of Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Inherent in the life story of this Nobel Peace Prize laureate is the saga of the suffering of the Tibetan people under Chinese occupation.

For over forty years the Dalai Lama has waged a non-violent struggle in exile to bring attention to the plight of his people and save their unique culture and religion. He is the embodiment of the ideal of his Buddhist heritage and practice, and his life story is an inspiring lesson in compassion and peace.

New Netflix Movies

NEW DVD Into the Wild

Into the Wild  (check title for availability)
2007
148 Minutes

From Amazon.com
A superb cast and an even-handed treatment of a true story buoy Into the Wild, Sean Penn's screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestselling book. Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless, scion of a prosperous but troubled family who, after graduating from Atlanta's Emory University in the early 1990s, decides to chuck it all and become a self-styled "aesthetic voyager" in search of "ultimate freedom." He certainly doesn't do it halfway: after donating his substantial savings account to charity and literally torching the rest of his cash, McCandless changes his name (to "Alexander Supertramp"), abandons his family (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his bickering, clueless parents and Jena Malone as his baffled but loving sister, who relates much of the backstory in voice-over), and hits the road, bound for the Alaskan bush and determined not to be found.

NEW DVD The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour  (check title for availability)
2007
92 Minutes

From Amazon.com
Comparisons to Al Gore's Oscar-winning slide show will be inevitable, but there's a key difference between the two documentaries. An Inconvenient Truth was aimed at the PBS set, while Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour combines a traditional structure with a more MTV-friendly pace. Of course, neither was made by these public figures. Davis Guggenheim directed the former, while Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen are behind the latter. DiCaprio serves as producer, co-writer, and narrator (the three previously worked on the short films Global Warming and Water Planet). Their first feature combines a diverse array of interviews with a dizzying variety of images, both soothing and alarming (droughts and hurricanes vs. serene sunsets and playful polar bears).

NEW DVD No End in Sight

No End in Sight  (Check title for availability)
2007
102 Minutes

From Amazon.com
A staggering portrait of arrogance and incompetence, the documentary No End in Sight avoids the question of why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, choosing instead to focus on the war's aftermath--and meticulously examine the chain of decisions that led Iraq into a grotesque state of lawlessness and civil war. Drawing from interviews with top generals, administration officials, journalists, and soldiers who were in the thick of the war itself, No End in Sight lays out a gripping story, as suspenseful as any Hollywood movie, accompanied by terrifying footage of firefights and explosions more vivid than any special effects.