KPL Movies Blog
Staff-recommended viewing from the KPL catalog.
Many movies are easily forgotten. But some, such as The Lives of Others (originally released in German as Das Leben der Anderen), leave me in a state of quiet astonishment that lingers for a long time. I saw this award-winning work one year ago when it was presented by the Kalamazoo Film Society and I still can’t forget it. Yes, it's that good.
Set in Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Lives of Others concerns a playwright and his actor girlfriend and the Stasi agent assigned to conduct surveillance of the couple. You couldn’t find two men more different than these: the passionate artist who has managed to live a full life within the constraints of the Communist system, and the Stasi agent who has no life of his own.
This will be no typical surveillance assignment. As the agent listens in on the playwright and his girlfriend, his life begins to change, a sort of familiarity-bred contempt in reverse that affects the agent’s life and his allegiances and that eventually propels everyone past a point of no return.
A beautiful story that is superbly acted and directed, The Lives of Others is a movie you won't forget.
Movie
The Lives of Others
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http://www.catalog.kpl.gov/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=The+Lives+of+Others%7bTI%7d&library=BRANCHES&language=ANY&format=VM&item_type=ANY&location=ANY&match_on=KEYWORD&item_1cat=ANY&item_2cat=ANY&sort_by=-PBYR
As if I needed any reasons to watch any of Italian director Sergio Leone's classic westerns again, KPL's recent acquisition of 2-disc collector's editions of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More gives me more. Once again, I find myself wandering the hallways whistling themes from these films' soundtracks, scored by Ennio Morricone early on in his legendary career. In a decade when uses for the electric guitar were stretched beyond previously known boundaries, the composer's use of it expanded its cinematic appeal - only "James Bond Theme" composer John Barry might have made a greater impact on contemporary film with his use of the instrument. Though there are many reasons for film fans - even those who think they hate westerns - to see these classics, it's the music they hear that will echo in their heads long after the movies are over.
Movie
A Fistful of Dollars
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"I know everyone's really itching for a book about Bertolt Brecht this holiday season," Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) says sarcastically to her brother John (Philip Seymour Hoffman) midway through The Savages. He's trying to use a deadline for his book on the famed playwright as an excuse to dodge responsibility for his aging father, long estranged from his children until signs of his increasing dementia return him to their care.
While these family members' emotional distance from each other finds a parallel in Brecht's "distancing effect", the film does not, though writer-director Tamara Jenkins certainly picks up on Brecht's suggestion of using "dark comedy" to address serious issues. The film's deft mix of humor and drama dares you to laugh at the most uncomfortable moments (a nursing home showing of The Jazz Singer is squirm-inducing on many levels). Of course, the actors' part in making the story work is huge - everyone is well cast, and Linney's and Hoffman's performances are pitch-perfect.
Obviously, a movie referencing Brecht is no popcorn film, but you really don't have to know anything about him to understand - and be engaged by - the basic family drama at the heart of The Savages.
Movie
The Savages
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Tonight at midnight the Rave Theater will be showing the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman reprise their roles from the 2005 release Batman Begins directed by Christopher Nolan. Not only is this one of the most anticipated movies for fans of the DC Comics superhero, but it is one of the last movies starring Heath Ledger before he died in January of this year. Early reviews predict it will shatter the record for highest earning superhero movie, a record previously held by Spider-Man. I know I am going to see it tonight since Batman Begins is one of my personal favorites!
Movie
Batman Begins
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Mad Men is my newest television pleasure. Written and directed by a former Sopranos contributor, Mad Men’s depiction of a bustling New York advertising agency in 1960 is just as stylish and focused on probing the mythologies and contradictions of American consumer culture as Tony and his “made” buddies yet without the ubiquitous violence and criminal activity. Swinging back and forth between the bruising chauvinism of the male-dominated work place and the pre-Feminine Mystique suburbia, the characters of Mad Men are consumed with angst-filled feelings of inadequacy and personal demons yet smile through such inconvenient truths in order to conform to the social and cultural norms of the day.
Movie
Mad Men
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I took my daughters to see WALL-E on Monday and I must say it was not only the best Pixar movie I have ever seen, but also one of the best films this year. The animation was amazing and the storyline was accessible to all ages.
What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? Wall-E, spends every day doing what he was made for. But soon, he will discover what he was meant for, as he adventures across the galaxy chasing his dream. - Yahoo! Movies
This got me thinking about my top five favorite movies from Pixar, other than WALL-E.
Here's the list.
- Incredibles (2005)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- Ratatouille (2007)
- Cars (2006)
- Finding Nemo (2003)
Movie
Incredibles
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A couple of months ago, KPL started to circulate Blu-ray DVDs. Since then many patrons who do not own a Blu-ray player have checked one out on accident. I understand how this can be confusing since a standard DVD and Blu-ray DVD look exactly alike! The trick is to look at the case. A Blu-ray case is smaller, usually labeled with the Blu-ray logo, and is the color blue. We will be getting more Blu-ray DVDs each month in both the Hot Picks and circulating collections. For more info on Blu-ray visit - http://www.blu-ray.com/.
Movie
Juno
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I try not to learn anything about film thrillers before I see them – I don’t want any identities to be revealed, motives to be assumed, surprises to be ruined. To avoid learning anything about No Country for Old Men, which I finally saw half a year after its initial theatrical release, was especially challenging – the film won much critical praise, plenty of awards (including 4 AMPAS statuettes), and was the subject of much heated discussion among friends, coworkers, and citizens of the blogosphere over its bleak tone, intense violence, and – for some - baffling ending.
Considering the plot (following Cormac McCarthy's novel) - in which Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones take turns pursuing each other when $2 million goes missing after a drug deal gone wrong - viewers should expect violence. Coen brothers fans familiar with Fargo and Blood Simple may not flinch, but will notice the filmmakers have upped the carnage quotient. While some have pegged the film as just another psycho-killer riff, there’s more than one killer in the film (though Bardem makes the biggest impression). All the damage inflicted by these killers is in service, or response, to the booming, criminal drug trade (in cahoots with big business and corrupt government officials). Getting the money at any cost is the new breed’s credo – which may be nothing new, even when corrupt government and big business are implicated and innocent people are affected. In this sense, No Country for Old Men works as a meditation on greed akin to Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, and may be a more effective look at the drug trade than Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic.
It’s fine if you ignore the social commentary, though – as panoramic and tense as an Anthony Mann western, No Country for Old Men will hold those viewers, who can handle its brutality, pessimism, and lack of easy outs, spellbound.
Movie
No Country for Old Men
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My family saw this movie at the Rave when it was first released and I must admit the reviews almost scared me away. Being a HUGE fan of Dustin Hoffman I decided to give in to the pleas of my daughters and give it a try. Was it a great movie? No. Was it a fun movie for the entire family? Most definitely. The performances of Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Jason Bateman vary from adequate to fabulous in this tale of a magical toy store that becomes depressed. Both children and adults will dig the thousands of different toys that come to life. My gut feeling is that Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium will actually age better than many of the other family oriented movies being released in the past few years.
Movie
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
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I have learned to know a Vietnamese family who own a small business here in Kalamazoo. Both husband and wife fled South Vietnam when they were children, following the 1975 fall of Saigon. He left his family at 12 and escaped by boat, spent one year alone in a refugee camp in Thailand and then was sponsored by a church in Orange County, CA. She was three years old when she escaped with her family. They also spent a year in Thailand and made their way to Orange County. Recently the couple recommended a DVD, Journey from the Fall, a wrenching film based on true stories of Vietnamese refugees who fled the country seeking freedom and Vietnamese loyalists who stayed behind. The family depicted in the film is separated---the wife and children escape by boat, while the husband stays to face imprisonment in a Communist re-education camp. My friend said, "this could have been my family's story. My father was assigned to a re-education camp, but one week before he was to report, an uncle arranged our secret escape." Knowing this courageous and caring couple, who are raising their three children in our community, gave this film special meaning to me. But even if you don't know anyone who has "been there," the film is significant for its documentation of events linked to US history that we should never forget. Vietnamese language with English subtitles.
Movie
Jorney From The Fall
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