****new release list no.304

THE GIRL WHO KICKED A HORNETS NEST is technically the final segment in the high-octane trilogy based on the award-winning novels by Stieg Larsson. Watch as Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist lurch toward the satisfying conclusion of the incredibly complex and psychologically demented story that has captivated many nations. I say “technically” b/c I read this weekend that there is actually a fourth novel in this series that has not yet been published. Wow, right? It turns out that when Larsson died, at the far too young age of 50 in 2004, he left behind a messy estate, and a computer filled with at least three quarters or more of a manuscript for the next book in the series. In fact, it is generally thought that he was planning up to 10 books starring Salander! Wow, a veritable goldmine! So where is this fourth book? Well, that is the messy part. It is in possession of his girlfriend and life partner for many years, Eva Gabrielsso, who legally had no right to anything in his estate (and as a result has not profited from the book sales or movie-deals). In fact, his family, who Eva claims had little contact or relationship with him, has done all of the profiting, and you can bet they’d love to take a little look-see at that computer she’s got. Maybe they should hire Lisbeth to hack into it and find out what’s really there! You know Ms. Salander would be up to the job. Anyway, enjoy this movie, and get prepared, because the entire trilogy is already being filmed for the English-language remake treatment, with the first film (starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig) tentatively scheduled to be released in December of this very year! I tell you, it is a goldmine. By the way, Larsson died of a somewhat suspect heart attack. Could it have been murder? At this point, we don’t know.

Also out this week is NOWHERE BOY, the fictobiopic about the early years of John Lennon. Focused on the conflict within his family – the free-spirit mother who couldn’t be bothered to raise him and the strict but loving Aunt who did the best she could – the story is mostly about the pain of youth, desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, revelation, in temptation, isolation, desolation. You just listen to the song MOTHER by John Lennon and you can pretty much understand the pain he felt. Just listen to the wails on those final refrains of “Mother don’t go. Daddy come home”. It kind of makes you really wonder…I mean, on the one hand, give that kid a hug and some love; on the other hand, the pain fomented into – the Beatles! Life is unfair, and that’s clearly not always bad.

That reminds me of a story a great friend told us this weekend. Their wealthy friends’ child was complaining about something not being fair and one of the parents had just had enough. You know what? He shouted. You’re beautiful – that’s not fair! And you have lots of clothes, that’s not fair either! And you have a pretty decent amount of money, how fair is that? You know what? He continued. You should get on your knees and pray that things don’t get fair, b/c your life is pretty amazing as it is.

Pretty powerful thought, right? I think so.

Other big titles this week, RED starring Bruce Willis and a million other huge names. This action comedy is about a bunch of dangerous retired ex-agents who reunite to shoot their guns a bunch together once more. SECRETARIAT: A woman a horse, a triple crown; Secretariat. (Try it backwards, it’s a palindrome! Also, if you like weird psychological foreign films, you should watch DOGTOOTH, which looks like an all-time tweaker to me. In other news, Ryan Reynolds is BURIED in Iraq. Gerard Depardieu stars in Claude Chabrol’s final film INSPECTOR BELLAMY. And a bunch of powerful documentaries have been released on DVD and offered at Four Star Video – scroll down for details.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

p.s. Are you a fan of Bernal Heights Outdoor Cinema? You should be! Here is the latest news from this awesome local festival, including some off season screenings and a call for entries for the 2011 festival! Read more here.

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

BURIED.
Suspense/Thriller/Mystery.
Ryan Reynolds.
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes.
* Paul Conroy (Reynolds), a contractor working in Iraq, wakes up to find himself in a coffin seemingly buried in the ground with nothing but a zippo and a blackberry to keep himself company. He vaguely remembers being attacked, but is confused as to the rest of it. The phone works, and soon he is contacting family and government to help him escape before the sand leaking into his coffin completes the job of burying him alive.

DOGTOOTH.
Comedy/Drama/Horror/Foreign (Greek).
Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos.
* Whoa, this super freaky psychological flick is about a family living in isolation who are being demented by their completely unscrewed parents who are teaching them an alternative vocabulary as well as tremendously handicapping their development. The only visitor they have is a woman who is brought in to have sex with the oldest child, the teenage son, to “relieve him of his sexual urges”. When she gets involved with the teenage daughters, the dam collapses, and the family rebels against the insanity. This film got nominated for an Academy Award this morning!

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST.****BD****
Action/Mystery.
Noomi Rapace/Michel Nyqvist/Lena Endre.
Directed by Daniel Alfredson.
* More like, The girl who stomped the hornets’ nest…Most people now know about Lisbeth Salander, the uber-damaged, asocial, computer-hacking, purveyor of her own special brand of justice. She has been brutalized and done her own brutalizing through two previous films, as the mystery of her past has slowly unraveled. This is the brilliant, terrifying and vicious conclusion to the trilogy adapted from the novels written by Stieg Larrson.

INSPECTOR BELLAMY.
Crime/Horror.
Gerard Depardieu.
Directed by Claude Chabrol.
* Chabrol’s last feature film was this 2009 mystery about Parisian Inspector Paul Bellamy, a tired Chief, who is trying to enjoy his vacation only to have it spoiled by his useless brother-in-law and a mysterious investigation. Perhaps not Chabrols best film, still, it is his last, and also his only time working with French cinema giant, Gerard Depardieu.

LIKE DANDELION DUST.
Drama.
Mira Sorvino/Barry Pepper.
Directed by Jon Gunn.
* A heartfelt tale of a child torn between his adopted family and his biological family. Won 16 festival awards around the country.

NOWHERE BOY.****BD****
Drama/Fictobiopic.
Aaron Johnson/Kristin Scott Thomas/Anne-Marie Duff.
Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood.
* This John Lennon fictobiopic chronicles his early years, being brought up in a strict household by his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas). When his mother re-enters his life, she stirs up a lot of emotion (as most parents who abandon their children do) and John turns to music to help him process his feeling. And thank god for that, right?

OPEN SEASON 3.****BD****
Comedy/Animation/Family.
Crispin Glover/Fred Stoller.
Directed by Cody Cameron .
* Somehow, Boog now works for a Russian traveling circus, and his friends must find a way to bring him home.

RED.****BD****
Action/Comedy.
Bruce Willis/Morgan Freeman/Mary-Louise Parker/Hellen Mirren/John Malkovich/John C. Reilly/Richard Dreyfuss/Ernest Borgnine.
Directed by Robert Schwentke.
* This farcical comedy is mostly about retired senior citizens, but if that’s all they were, the film would be called RSC. You see, there actually designation is Retired Extremely Dangerous, senior citizens. Thus, RED. Frank Moses (Willis) is thoroughly bored with retirement, and when danger threatens to return him to work, he heeds the call joyfully. In fact, he calls on the whole old gang to join him in a little gunplay, something these geezers seem to greatly relish.

REFLECTIONS.
Action/Suspense.
Timothy Hutton.
Directed by Bryan Goeres.
* Thriller about an agent tracking a serial killer into Spain.

SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER.
Horror.
Tobin Bell.
Directed by David Hackl.

SECRETARIAT.****BD****
Drama/Sports.
Diane Lane/Scott Glenn.
Directed by Randall Wallace.
* Secretariat was a horse who (cuz horses are people, too) won the Triple Crown in 1973. This is the cinematic telling of his improbable story and of the woman who owned him.

............//DOCUMENTARY/............

CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER.
Documentary.
Directed by Alex Gibney.
* Spitzer himself sat for interviews with the director for this insider look at his rapid political rise and even faster descent. Somehow he has risen again as a television commentator. Celebrity is beautiful.

INSIDE THE MILKY WAY. ****BD****
Documentary/Nature/Science.
* I love me a milky way.

LAND OF CONFUSION.
Documentary/War.
* The director of this film was one of a group of people in the Pennsylvania National Guard making the transition from citizen to soldier in 2004. He documented this transition as they were sent to Iraq with the goal of finding WMD’s which history has told us were not actually there. This is a very up close exploration of the emotions and training this group went through.

SINS OF MY FATHER.
Documentary/Sociology.
Directed by Nicolas Entel.
* Sebastian Escobar is the son of the late Pablo Escobar, the former boss of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel who was directly responsible for hundreds of deaths and much pain and misery as well as untold millions of dollar gained in illegal drug trade. This film tells Escobar’s story through the words and eyes of his son and his widow. Also being told in this film is the story of a few of the more prominent men whose deaths were ordered by the Medellin cartel. In the film, two of the sons of these men are united with Sebastian Escobar as he tries to atone for his father’s terrible actions. This film won awards on the festival circuit and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year in the World Cinema – Documentary category.

WHICH WAY HOME.
Documentary.
Directed by Rebecca Cammisa.
* This well-formed and Oscar-nominated documentary follows unaccompanied minors (as in 9 and 10 year old children) as they try to cross the border into the United States. Some are looking for work, others are looking for their parents, still others are just looking to survive. The director received a Fulbright Scholar Grant to Mexico to make this film

............//TELEVISION/............

THE AGATHA CHRISTIE HOUR: SET 2.
Television/Mystery.
* Season two from the 1982 mystery series featuring some of Christie’s lesser known characters.

GLEE: SEASON TWO: VOLUME ONE.
Television/Musical.
* The first half of season two of the extremely popular show has arrived!

DOC MARTIN: SERIES ONE.
Television/Comedy/Drama.
* This is the first season of a British show that has been out for some time. If you guys are into it, we’ll keep buying it. It is about a socially-challenged doctor who has relocated from London to a general practice by the sea.

THE SHADOW OF THE TOWER.
Mini-Series/Drama/History/BBC.
* James Maxwell (not the local Bernal realtor) plays King Henry the Seventh in this 1972 saga chronicling the founding of the Tudor dynasty.

SKINS: VOLUME FOUR.
Television/Drama.
* Season four of the British series about a bunch of teenagers living fast without much supervision.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

THE COLOR PURPLE.
* Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey starred in this Steven Spielberg adaptation of a brilliant Alice Walker book.

............//FAMILY/KIDS/............

LEAPFROG: NUMBERS AHOY.

SHAUN THE SHEEP: SPRING SHENA-A-ANAGINS.

****

****new release list no.303

Has anyone noticed the lack of good Republicans in this town? Right? I mean, you go to any self-respecting city in America, and there is some good Teabagging Republican action to be had, but here? Here, it’s just a bunch of leftie hippie communists, stirring the pot and arguing about who’s lefter than who, and how big’s your carbon footprint. Hey, my carbon footprint is huge! And that is why I wear huge carbon socks, fitted with gasoline powered toe-warmers. Yeah, they cost a lot of energy, but my little piggly wiggly’s are always warm. And that is what counts. That and no more ring around the collar.

Have you noticed I am in NORMAL MODE in the hair department recently? Where’s my freak flag? What is up with my salty-brown short republican hair-do? Well, maybe I am just trying to spice up the political landscape – did you ever figure that? How boring is it if I just have a multi-colored rainbow on my head? How drab a spiked black Mohawk? How cliché a bright pink moptop? I am risking overexposure here, people. It is much more earth shattering neighborhood news that I have a mousey haircut with my ears exposed.

Did you watch the Golden Globes this weekend? I hear that Ricky Gervais has been blacklisted for his “mean-spirited” but nasty funny comments. I didn’t see the show, but I read this article, and it made me wish I had. THE SOCIAL NETWORK took home some serious hardware…I am looking forward to seeing some of the other big movies of the year as they come out in the next month. None of those have likely come out this week, with JACK GOES BOATING, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut, being the biggest title. Hoffman plays an introverted guy named Jack who is seeking love with Connie, another highly introverted person. Good luck, Connie and Jack!

Also out this week is PAPER MAN, starring Jeff Daniels and Emma Stone as a couple of people struggling on the perimeter who provide a bit of sympathy and support to each other.

Also of note is FREAKANOMICS, a new documentary explore the weird and hidden side of life. This film is based on a novel of the same name.

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

ANIMAL KINGDOM.
Drama/Crime.
Guy Pearce.
Directed by David Michod.
* A seventeen year old seeks a home with his Melbourne based crime family after his mother dies of an OD. This film won a fair amount of world wide awards including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in the World Cinema – Dramatic category.

ARMY OF CRIME.
Drama/History/War/Foreign (French and German).
Directed by Robert Guediguian.
* This intense tale tells the story of a young poet, Missak Manouchian, leading a small group of misfits in a resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

CAIRO TIME.
Drama/Romance.
Patricia Clarkson.
Directed by Ruba Nadda.
* Clarkson plays a married woman on her own in Cairo who hooks up with a local.

DEATH RACE 2.****BD****
Action.
Luke Goss/Danny Trejo/Ving Rhames
Directed by Roel Reine.
* It’s a prequel! There are very serious races. Dangerous, fast races. Barely survivable races. Death races. And women.

DOWN TERRACE.
Comedy.
Bob Hill/Robin Hill.
Directed by Ben Wheatley.
* This crime comedy follows the misadventures of a crime family trying to determine who is the snitch in their midst.

JACK GOES BOATING.****BD****
Action.
Philip Seymour Hoffman/Amy Ryan/John Ortiz.
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
* But not for most of the movie…For most of the film, Jack is struggling to connect with his new girlfriend Connie, who his good friends have set him up with. Jack and Connie are both very introverted people who live on societies edges, averting their eyes, and mingling little with the other creatures passing by. Jack wears skanky blond dreads and listens to his positive vibe Reggae music in his walkman (that he must have bought on Ebay, cuz where else would you get one of those things?). He talks in a mumble and dreams of doing something for himself. His best friends, a married couple, continually remind him of the potential miseries and pitfalls of coupled life. Yet, he persists in his desire for it and other new experiences, and eventually, Jack does indeed go boating.

LEBANON.
Drama/History/War/Foreign (Hebrew/Arabic/French/English).
Directed by Samuel Maoz.
* This claustrophobic tale of a tank and its crew during the 1982 Lebanon war was based on the director’s brutal experience as a soldier in that war. The story takes place almost exclusively inside the tank, with its young occupants scared shitless.

PAPER MAN.
Drama/Indie.
Jeff Daniels/Lisa Kudrow/Emma Stone/Kieran Culkin/Ryan Reynolds.
Directed by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney.
* Daniels plays a washed-up writer with a successful doctor wife (Kudrow, seeming to get better and better with each role she plays). He is somewhat banished to a small town in order to get writing on his next novel, which he cannot do. He has a secret buddy that he’s had since he was a kid named Captain Excellent (Reynolds – actually, this is what he looks like when he is NOT acting). The good Captain at this stage is just worried about his shlumpy buddy. Emma Stone plays a damaged teenager, with a secret buddy of her own (Culkin, in another charismatic performance). Although this movie has some dialog struggles, and maybe could have used my brother-in-laws superior editing, it still manages to retain a sweetness and an internal struggle that should be relatable by many of us.

STONE.
Drama/Action.
Robert De Niro/Edward Norton/Milla Jovovich.
Directed by John Curran.
* Stone (Norton) seeks to get out of jail, and Jack (De Niro) is his hard-ass parole officer. Lucetta (Jovovich) is Stone’s super hot wife who Stone suggests Jack get to know better in a misguided attempt for a get-out-of-jail free card.

SUMMER IN LA GOULETTE.
Comedy/Foreign (French/Arabic/Italian).
Directed by Ferid Boughedir.
* Three seventeen year old girls are determined to lose their virginity in 1967 at the beaches of Tunisi.

TAKERS.
Action/Crime/Thriller.
Matt Dillon.
Directed by.
* Think there’s a connection between all these bank robbery movies and today’s economy? Not sure, but in this one, a seasoned gang of robbers is tracked relentlessly by a rogue cop played by Matt Dillon.

............//DOCUMENTARY/............

FREAKANOMICS. ****BD****
Documentary/Economy.
Directed by Alex Gibney and Morgan Spurlock and more.
* You’re gonna need to take some freakazoloft to get your mind to stop spinning after you watch some of the great documentarians of our time tackle the bizarre underside of our reality. Adapted from a book of the same name.

............//TELEVISION/............

JUSTIFIED: SEASON ONE.
Television/Drama/Westerny.
Timothy Olyphant.
* Raylan Givens is a U.S. Marshal. He’s a throwback to another century, super tough, with a quiet manner, sort of like Clint Eastwood. His brand of justice, borderline outlaw-style, has gotten him reassigned to Eastern Kentucky, where he grew up.

............//FAMILY/KIDS/............

BEN 10: ULTIMATE ALIEN VOLUME 1.

LEAPFROG: AMAZING ALPHABET AMUSEMENT PARK.

............//THE REPLACEMENTS/............

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE.
* This was the fourth of the series, and we needed a few new copies, so we snagged them...

****

****new release list no.302

Questions I have been wondering.

How is your social network doing? Are you staying connected with everyone you love? Do you have a phone list taped to the wall next to the home telephone? Do you still have a home telephone? Do you have an address book on paper? Is everything you need coded in little 1’s and 0’s inside your super computer in your pocket? Do you have a smart phone? Is it smart to rely on a phone for everything? How would you find your way around a strange city without a GPS device? What would you do while waiting for the plane without your phone? Can you add two three digit numbers in your head?

Does Google love me?

I would ask Mark Zuckerberg, but after watching THE SOCIAL NETWORK, I’m afraid he would give me some cryptic answer while staring out a window. Mark, Mark! Fund me! I’ll change the name of the store to Facebook Video! (Cool it, Kennyboy). Oops, sorry folks.

Actually, I went into the experience of watching the film about the founders of Facebook with a very skeptical feeling. I am nagged with irritation at that website, though as you all must know, I use it frequently. I have a Four Star Video page, and a Succulence page, and my band The Dont’s has a page, and I have a personal page, too. It is a smart tool for many reasons, yet…sometimes I am just deeply concerned about my peeps that seem to post every little moment of their lives on their pages. Hey everyone – I “checked in” to the bathroom! However, I must admit, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a great film, and it makes for a very compelling watch. The performances are terrific, and Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg is particularly wonderful.

Two days ago, tomorrow was 1/11/11! But today, that was yesterday, and tomorrow it will be the distant past. What does it mean! Tell me what it means!

I’m fine with it meaning nothing. Actually, I hear this is the year of the corduroy. And I also hear 11/11/11 is like the biggest date in Corduroy history! But 1/11/11 has got to be not far behind. I am (was) wearing corduroy right now, actually, but I think I’ll wear it tomorrow (I did) as well, as a statement of love. You should, too.

Speaking of love, and our endless need for it, I don’t know about you, but I was pretty devastated about the shooting in Arizona this weekend. I would make a bunch of statements about how polarized we are right now as a nation; and I would point out how horribly wrong the violent rhetoric of the Right Wing commentators and pundits is, and how it riles people up and seems regularly to condone violence; and I would point out that Arizona itself is now a hotbed of hate and disagreement between neighbors; and I even suggest that this environment is what brought the young killer down the path that led him to commit this act of terrorism…But it seems like the kid is just mentally ill and not really politically motivated. I saw today that Palin is blaming journalists for pushing a violent agenda on society. When I read this quote of hers - “There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged, apparently apolitical criminal. And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated? Back in those 'calm days' when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols?" – I couldn’t help thinking about the numerous current political figures who would probably be happy to settle their differences with her with dueling pistols.

Hey Sarah, in the immortal words of my buddy, John, “Let’s try to be good to each other, OK?”

Hey other than THE SOCIAL NETWORK (which by the way, is very good and probably will get a bit of attention from the Academy), also out on DVD this week is PIRANHA, some DOCTOR WHO specials, an animated film called ALPHA AND OMEGA and an HBO comedy show called FUNNY OR DIE PRESENTS… There are also some interesting looking indie films, and a couple of newly released titles starring Robert De Niro on Blu-ray (RAGING BULL, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA). There’s more; scroll down.

A couple other quick hits: today is the deadline for the call to artists for new art work on our library. Sorry for the last minute post, but if you are interested, click this link and fill out the site-Artist application can be found here. This is a very big deal in our little hood. Here’s an opportunity to be a part of it.

Also, many of you know my wife, Amy Shelf, is an estate planning attorney. She is also a super talented writer (and singer, musician, parent, artist, chef, pickler, partner, jam-maker, and she dresses well, too). Each year she begins the year by sending out a big hello to the world at large. Here is her 2011 entry.

Lastly, I discovered an amazing thing recently. My blog site has stats and tells me where the blog is being read (just by Country, not city and block) and it turns out we have readers in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Russia, France, The United Kingdom, Slovenia, Poland, Canada and Japan. That is so awesome! Welcome, international readers! I love you! Drop me a line and tell us how you stumbled across The Four Star Gazer!

Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

ALPHA AND OMEGA.
Family/Animation.
Justin Long/Hayden Pannettiere/Christina Ricci/Danny Glover/Dennis Hopper.
Directed by Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck.
* Two mismatched wolves find themselves relying on each other to get out of a difficult situation in this funny animated family film.

DAVID’S BIRTHDAY.
Drama/Foreign (Italian).
Directed by Marco Filiberti.
* Two long-time and long-term couples vacation together is fraught with tension and disturbance when one of their sons arrives from the US where he has been going to boarding school.

HAPPY EVER AFTERS.
Comedy/Romance.
Sally Hawkins/Tom Riley.
Directed by Stephen Burke.
* Two wedding, in Ireland, occur at the same hotel, mixing the guests and the participants in a comedy of errors.

PIRANHA.****BD****
Horrorish.
Richard Dreyfuss/Ving Rhames/Elizabeth Shue/Christopher Lloyd.
Directed by Alexandra Aja.
* A long list of familiar names may distract you from the truth which is that this is a schlocky remake of a schlocky horror film about piranha from the deep chewing up scantily clad (and unclad) ladies (and a couple of gentlemen) on spring break. It is what it is, and I am sure that it is entertaining in that respect.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK.****BD****
Drama.
Jesse Eisenberg/Justin Timberlake/Armie Hammer/Andrew Garfield/Rashida Jones.
Directed by David Fincher.
* Fincher (SE7EN, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON) is a part of a tremendous production team on this borderline fictobiopic about Mark Zuckerberg, one of the creators of the tremendously successful website Facebook (used literally by around 1/10 of the planet earth). Told in part in lawyer’s depositions mapping out the two major lawsuits against Zuckerberg, one by the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer in an awesome performance) who claim that he stole their idea and stonewalled them for 6 weeks while he built Facebook instead of their site that they had hired him to build, and the other by Eduardo Saverin (Garfield, also excellent) Zuckerberg’s one-time best friend and Facebook’s original CFO who is cut out of the business by signing a trick contract, and also told through flashbacks set to intense soundtrack music scored by Trent Reznor (NINE INCH NAILS) and Atticus Ross, the film tracks the insanely quick rise to value and use of this site in just a few short years. Reznor’s soundtrack drags you along the early portion of the development of the site relentlessly in a way that really suggests that scoring films may be a solid next act for the former Industrial Music maker. Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg is cold-blooded, extremely brilliant, and very young. One of the biggest things you walk away from this film thinking about is how young this guy is, and how his youth has both helped and hindered him. As Facebook is beginning its unstoppable climb, Zuckerberg meets Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the one-time founder of the early music-sharing site Napster. Parker becomes a bit of a guru for Mark, and convinces him to come to California, eventually connecting him to tremendous VC money and becoming an owner in the company that is valued today at somewhere between 25 and 50 billion dollars. Yipes! According to the film, Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history. I am not sure if this movie will win Academy awards, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see more than a few nominations. It is certainly tremendously well-made and pulls you along through the strange and jealousy-provoking tale of one man’s uber success. I would keep writing about this, but I have to go right now and make a status update on my Facebook page.

Click to “Like”.

............//DOCUMENTARY/............

DUKE ELLINGTON AND MORE STORIES.
Documentary/History.
* This DVD is part of a series by Scholastic Storybook Treasures celebrating African American history.

NFL’S GREATEST PLAYERS: TOP 100.
Documentary/Sports.
* Actually, when I bought this, I thought it was NFL’s 100 Greatest Plays, not Players. Ah well, for a football fan, I imagine this will be fun to watch.

............//TELEVISION/............

DR. WHO: DOMINATORS.
Television/Sci-Fi.

DR. WHO: MEGLOS.
Television/Sci-Fi.

FUNNY OR DIE PRESENTS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
Television/Comedy/HBO.
Will Ferrell/Don Cheadle/Zach Galifiniakis/Thomas Lennon.
* Created by some of the biggest names in comedy, this is a sketch comedy show currently on HBO. They also have a website where they post some really funny stuff…like Drunk History, and Between Two Ferns. If you like weird comedy, click these links and be prepared to spend some time.

............//FAMILY/KIDS/............

MAX AND RUBY: BUNNY TALES.

YO GABBA GABBA: LET’S VISIT THE DOCTOR.

............//NEW ON BLU/............

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA.
* This incredible Sergio Leone film stars Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern and many more and tells the story of the Jewish mafia from the 1930’s.

RAGING BULL: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
* A couple of Oscars were won in 1981 for this film telling the story of boxer, Jake LaMotta.

............//NEW ADDITIONS/............

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING.
* Richard Grant is genius in this parody of the advertising world. The final scene and monologue in this film is brilliant!

STRAPPED.
* This locally made film (including production work by a Four Star customer!) tells the story of a handsome male prostitute on a trick that keeps giving.

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****new release list no.301

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are, at the start of another year. Nothing but the calendar has changed, yet everything feels different. A year is now in the past, and we can label it with our words, and encapsulate it in our memories - any way we want to. Humorously, it will become harder and harder to remember anything all that specific from 2010 in just a few short years (Months? Minutes?), but right now it feels fresh and sharp. I have been reminding myself a bunch in the last several days about the awesome things that happened last year, just to prevent myself from condemning the entire catastrophic experience.

I don’t generally believe in New Year’s Resolutions, and this year is no different. However in Twenty Eleven, I will definitely do some things I have been meaning to do forever! I will most certainly purchase a flying car. I will also buy a jet pack. I will figure out how to redistribute material on the atomic scale so that I can 1) walk through walls, 2) get beamed places (both up and down), 3) scratch my back through my front. I also resolve to teleport, sunjump, market “brobots”, perfect nanotechnology, accelerate change, wear more silver, and fulfill the bigger promises of yoga. All in 2011!

But, not until I get back from New York, where I still am and where the snow is melting now and the city is a big living battery once again.

As we move into the 3rd year of the Worldwide Reorder, I also resolve to be less surprised at change, and to be more like the willows in the wind than ever. Swaying gently; rooted deeply.

To 2011, people! Here, here!

The first film related news that I have to relay is that Pete Postlethwaite died yesterday, January 2nd. Postlethwaite was only 64, sadly, and had been making movies since the 70’s. You may have seen him recently in THE TOWN or INCEPTION, but he’ll probably be best remembered for his role as Guissepe Conlon, Daniel Day-Lewis’s father in the 1993 film IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER about a young man and his family and friends implicated in a murderous IRA bombing. Postlethwaite was nominated for an Oscar for Best Support Actor (as was Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?), but ultimately lost to Tommy Lee Jones who was chasing Harrison Ford around in THE FUGITIVE. RIP Pete Postlethwaite and thanks for your work!

Big titles out this week include a comedy called DINNER WITH SCHMUCKS starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, a bloodfest by Robert Rodriguez called MACHETE starring Danny Trejo and may more. Some interesting television including BIG LOVE: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON and an animated something or other that you may be crazy hot for called BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 8: MOTION COMIC!

Another title which I encourage you to check out is HOWL starring the ubiquitous James Franco as Allen Ginsberg and was co-written and directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein (who won an Oscar for his amazing 1984 documentary THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK). Part documentary, part wild animation, part courtroom drama, it is the story of Ginsberg’s controversial and amazing poem “Howl” and how it was the subject of a famous obscenity trial in San Francisco. My brother-in-law Jake Pushinsky (A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS, CHOPS, THE SON OF NO ONE (not out yet)) is the film editor on this film, and I was lucky enough to see an advance version of the film. There were many things to like about it, and my favorite scenes are the ones where Franco does a reenactment of a smoky beat café reading of the poem. The poem itself is the true star of this film, and even after 55 years its passionate power is still at full strength: “O victory forget your underwear we’re free.”!
Alrighty, that’s all folks, hope to see you at the stores.

Love and Kisses,
Ken

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............//NEW RELEASES//............

CASE 39.
Horror/Suspense/Thriller.
Renee Zellwegger/Ian McShane/Bradley Cooper.
Directed by Christian Alvart.
* Zellwegger plays a social worker who gets more involved in a case then maybe she should have.

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS.****BD****
Comedy.
Paul Rudd/Steve Carell/Zach Galifianakis .
Directed by Jay Roach.
* Rudd brings schmuck Carell to the work dinner where the employees win a prize for bringing the most original personality.

DIRTY TRICKS.
Comedy/Drama.
Martin Clunes.
Directed by.
* British comedy from 2000.

DISENGAGEMENT.
Drama.
Juliette Binoche.
Directed by Amos Gitai.
* Binoche plays a French woman headed to the dangerous Gaza strip to find her daughter that she abandoned years ago.

THE LAST EXORCISM.****BD****
Horror.
Directed by Daniel Stamm.
* Until the next one.

MACHETE.****BD****
Action/Crime.
Danny Trejo/Jessica Alba/Michelle Rodriguez/Cheech Marin/Robert De Niro/Don Johnson/Lindsay Lohan.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis.
* A bloodfest about this crazy dude Machete (Trejo) who is out to avenge himself after being double crossed on a hit job gone bad. You know what is funny is reading the parents warning page on imdb about this film – the list of transgressions is amazing!

WHO LOVES THE SUN?
Comedy/Drama/Indie.

THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF .
Drama/Romance.
William Hurt/Kristen Stewart/Maria Bello.

............//DOCUMENTARY/............

CATFISH .
Documentary.
Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.
* This is yet another trippy doc that many people think is a fake (like I’M STILL HERE and EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP). Check it.

DOUBLE TAKE .
Documentary.
Directed by.
* Very cool looking take on Alfred Hitchcock…I think!

HOWL .
Documentary/Some Animation.
James Franco/Mary-Louise Parker/Jon Hamm/David Straitharn.
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.
Edited by Jake Pushinsky.
* Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl was the subject of an obscenity trial in San Francisco in the 1950’s. This documentary looks at the poem, examines it through animation, restages the famous reading of it at a coffee house in SF, and also restages the trial where we are schooled on the concept of obscenity and even more importantly, the concept of free speech. Everyone in this wacky documentary gives terrific performances, from Hamm (MAD MEN) as the defense attorney to Franco as the young Ginsberg.

INTO THE UNIVERSE WITH STEPHEN HAWKING .
Documentary/Nature/Philosophy/Science.

............//TELEVISION/............

BIG LOVE: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON.
Television/Americana.
Bill Paxton/Jeanne Tripplehorn/Chloe Sevigny/Amanda Seyfried/Ginnifer Goodwin.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 8: MOTION COMIC.****BR****
* !!!!

RICKY GERVAIS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON.
* Dude is super funny.

ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE: THE COMPLETE SERIES.
* This 18-disc set has 3670 minutes of epic social commentary from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

............//FAMILY/............

COOL DOG.
* I just got to point out, for all you EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS fans, that Michael Pare is in this film.

THE GARFIELD SHOW: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (AND PASTA).

SAMANTHA: AN AMERICAN GIRL HOLIDAY.

THOMAS & FRIENDS: WOBBLY WHEELS AND WHISTLES.

WOW WOW WUBBZY: WUBBZY BE MINE?

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