This time of year is madness, dominated by “holidays” that are too fierce to mention by name. While the final weeks of the year are filled with (hopefully) good food and good people, they too often become causes of stress, anxiety and intra/inter-family strife. Just say no! Winter’s beautiful light is a precious commodity, so get it while you can—take a walk, marvel at the beauty that is this city, and be happy just to be.
There is plenty of good entertainment coming into the store this week, old (BRIEF ENCOUNTER, SOY CUBA, KILLER OF SHEEP) and new (BEYOND THE GATES, DAY NIGHT/DAY NIGHT, HOT ROD, THE NAMESAKE,PAPRIKA, VITUS, WAITRESS), if you need to get away from it all.
See you at the shop,
Ken and Amy
............//NEW TITLES//............
I AM CUBA (SOY CUBA).
Drama/Foreign (Cuba/Soviet Union).
Sergio Corrieri/Salvador Wood/Luz Maria Collazo.
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.
* Marxist take on Cuba in 1964, told in 4 vignettes.
BEYOND THE GATES (aka SHOOTING DOGS).
Drama/History/Foreign (UK-Germany).
John Hurt/Hugh Dancy.
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones.
* A Catholic Priest and an idealistic school teacher try to protect thousands of Tutsi refugees during the first days of the Rwandan genocide.
BRATZ.
Comedy/Family.
* Four best friends rise above petty, high school cliques and become their own gang. Bratz. “High school is about to get a make-over.”
BREIF ENCOUNTER.
Criterion Collection Release.
Drama/Romance.
Celia Johnson/Trevor Howard.
Directed by David Lean.
* Masterful tale of forbidden love between a housewife and the doctor she meets at a railway station. They meet regularly until they decide never to see each other again. Set during WWII.
DAY NIGHT/DAY NIGHT.
Thriller/Drama/Crime.
Luisa Williams/Josh Phillip Weinstein.
Directed by Julia Loktev.
* A 19 year old woman prepares to be a suicide bomber in Times Square. Her place of origin, reasons, causes are unknown and remain in their most abstracted form as the viewer is plunged into the details of her preparations.
FIRST SNOW.
Drama/Thriller.
Guy Pearce/Piper Perabo.
Directed by Mark Fergus.
* Sassy salesman sent into a mental tailspin when soothsayer says that his last day will be the first snow. Tense and cold.
KILLER OF SHEEP.
Drama/Life.
Henry Sanders/Kaycee Moore/James Miles.
Directed by Charles Burnett.
* The rediscovered 1973 film of a UCLA student. Set in the Watts projects in LA during the 70’s, Told through the eyes of a slaughterhouse worked, this is an enigmatic portrayal of life—at times bleak, at times stunningly beautiful.
HOT ROD.
Comedy.
Andy Samberg/Jorma Taccone.
Directed by Akiva Schaffer.
* SNL peeps, a cameo by Sissy Spacek and motorcycle stunts. Pure fun. Especially after the Chronic- (what?) -cles of Narnia.
I KNOW WHO KILLED ME.
Drama/Suspense.
Lindsay Lohan.
Directed by Chris Sivertson.
* Lohan’s character is abducted and tortured by a sadistic murderer. She manages to escape and is found in the woods two weeks later. She has forgotten her identity, taking on the characters she wrote about in high school. She insists the person everyone says she is remains in mortal danger. You go, girl.
MR BEAN’S HOLIDAY.
Comedy/Type A.
Rowan Atkinson.
Directed by Robin Driscoll/Hannish McColl.
* Mr. Bean in Cannes! Watch out, French Riviera, “Je vais a la plage!”
THE NAMESAKE.
Drama.
Kal Penn/Irfan Kahn/Gabriel Byrne/Glenne Headly.
Directed by Mira Nair.
* Based upon the wonderful Jhumpa Lahiri novel by the same name, it follows the growth, into adulthood, of Gogol Ganguli, American born son of Indian immigrants.
PAPRIKA.
Animation/Sci-Fi/Foreign (Japan).
(voices of) Megumi Hayshibara/Toru Emori/Katsunosuke Hori.
Directed by Satoshi Kon.
* Anime extravaganza about technology’s final frontier—the human dream.
VITUS.
Drama/Music/Foreign (Switzerland).
Fabrizio Borsani/Teo Gheorghiu/Julika Jenkins/Urs Jucker.
Directed by Fredi M. Murer.
* Vitus is a musically gifted child and his parents want him to become a pianist. One day the boy decides that he does not want to go along with his parents plans and has dreams of his own.
WAITRESS.
Comedy/Romance.
Keri Russell/Cheryl Hines.
Directed by Adrienne Shelly.
* Small town waitress makes amazing pies that earn her the admiration of everyone as she plots her escape. Her unplanned pregnancy only affirms her ambitions and unexpectedly leads her to love.
............//TELEVISION//............
DEMETRI MARTIN. PERSON.
Comedy/Music.
Demetri Martin.
Directed by Jay Karas.
* Demetri Martin’s Comedy Central Special
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
A VILLAGE ROMANCE.
Documentary/Foreign (Hungary).
Directed by Bodis Kristza.
* Two women from a small Hungarian villages fall in love. And their love endures, for as long as it takes for them to be together.
WHY WE SING.
Documentary.
Narrated by Gavin Newsom.
Directed by Lawrence B. Dillon.
* Local filmmaker’s exploration of the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Chorus movement, documented at the GALA Chorus’s International Festival.
............//FAMILY//............
LAND BEFORE TIME: THE WISDOM OF FRIENDS.
Family/Pink Dinosaurs.
* Word up to my prehistoric brothers, yo.
............//RECENT ACQUISITIONS//............
ALL OF ME.
Comedy/80’s.
Steve Martin/Lily Tomlin.
Directed by Carl Reiner.
* Now we have this classic story of the dying heiress who has her soul inadvertently transferred into a lawyer’s body (which he hasn’t left) on DVD.
ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS.
Comedy/Classic.
Carey Elwes/Richard Lewis.
Directed by Mel Brooks.
* With obligatory cameos by Dom DeLuise, Tracey Ullman, Dick van Patten. Apparently you can order this DVD and it comes with a barbeque book. First DVD copy.
SHIP OF FOOLS.
Drama.
Vivian Leigh/Simone Signoret/Oskar Werner.
Directed by Stanley Cramer.
* Based on Katherine Anne Porter novel. Passengers on a cruise from Mexico to Europe in the 30’s, the Nazis are coming to power and Europe is changing. First DVD copy.
SPICE WORLD—SPECIAL EDITION.
Musical.
Geri Halliwell/Melanie Brown/Victoria Adams/Melanie Chisholm/Emma Bunton.
Directed by Bob Spiers.
* Lets make a movie, girls. Lets make it spicy and LETS SING! 10 year anniversary special edition!! You have got to swing it, shake it, move it, make it. Who do you think you are? First DVD copy.
ULEE’S GOLD.
Drama.
Peter Fonda/Patricia Richardson/Jessica Biel.
Directed by Victor Nunez.
* Reclusive beekeeper tries to save his own family from their version of colony collapse disorder. First DVD copy.
WIZARD OF OZ—SPECIAL EDITION.
Musical.
Judy Garland/Ray Bolger/Burt Lahr.
Directed by Victor Flemming.
* New DVD copy.
****
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