Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Week of April 30th

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Off Balance


Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress this year for her performance in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook, about Pat (Bradley Cooper), released by his family from an institution... against doctor's orders. Staying with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) and working to reconnect with his estranged wife-- and cope with the incident that led her to file a restraining order-- Pat meets Tiffany (Lawrence), also putting her life back together after losing her husband. Because Pat's only thoughts are of his wife, he's drawn to Tiffany because she's the only person who'll disregard the restraining order and deliver a letter for him, but Tiffany wants something from Pat in return. Soon, most of his days are spent practicing with Tiffany for a dance competition, but his obsession with reconnecting with a woman who refuses to see him could be blinding Pat to who's right in front of him. With Chris Tucker. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Documentary

Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Admiral Peary's Arctic Expedition, two men document their 2009 journey to the North Pole in Into the Cold. Because of the shrinking polar ice caps, the adventurers filmed their trek to the North Pole concerned that the polar ice simply wouldn't exist on Peary's bicentennial anniversary, photographing the rare beauty of the arctic journey while it can still be taken.

An overview of Chinese activist Ai Weiwei, the documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry explores the painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and writings of the artist whose work so fearlessly criticizes the Chinese government, it led to his arrest in 2011. Following Ai through a history of subversive art, the film chronicles him establishing a new studio and re-engaging with the creative world after his previous space was destroyed by the government.

There are not many board members who say "I am an expert in string theory," or "I am an expert in gravitational theory, and I will talk to you about that," but they'll sure talk to you about evolution, and that is a mixture of ignorance and arrogance... which is a flammable mixture.
Ron Wetherington,
Professor of Anthropology
The story of the 2012 Texas Board of Education elections, and how Texas education influences textbooks nationwide, The Revisionaries records the arguments the inclusion of creationism in science textbooks. Because of the size and population of the state, the curriculum Texas agrees upon becomes the standard of school books throughout the United States, and the choices of the Texas Board of Education, their elections and committees, are presented as far-reaching decisions on a national level.
Writer/Actor/Comedian Stephen Fry goes on a European pilgrimage, visiting the important sights of a composer he dearly loves in Wagner & Me. Though he's absolutely giddy about visiting the places Richard Wagner wrote, composed, and conducted, Fry, who lost family to the Holocaust, also tries to reconcile his love of Wagner's music with the composer's notorious anti-Semitism and relationship with Adolph Hitler.
Taking a satellite's-eye view of our world, Nova's Earth from Space provides a sweeping, large-scale perspective of the patterns that ripple across the globe. Providing detailed, high-definition footage of the world in motion, the film offers sights like Saharan sandstorms as they affect weather in North America, simply observes the planet as it is, in action. On DVD and Blu Ray.


Disgraced ex-cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is a struggling private eye in Allen Hughes' Broken City when New York's mayor (Russell Crowe) offers him a job. Since the mayor helped Taggart in the incident that ended his police career-- but didn't land him in jail-- the two men have an understanding, and it's a simple case to follow the mayor's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) to uncover a secret affair. When Taggart's investigation has far-reaching consequences, he finds himself in the crossfire of the police commissioner (Jeffrey Wright), an unscrupulous land developer (Griffin Dunne), a mayoral candidate (Barry Pepper) desperate to prove the incumbent mayor's corruption, and a murder that isn't what it seems. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen) is a brilliant chemist but a lackluster salesman in The Guilt Trip, about to drive cross country, selling his natural, non-toxic cleaning product to corporate buyers. When his widowed mother (Barbra Streisand) reveals a secret from her past, Andy concocts a secret plan of his own... one that requires her to join him on an odd-couple, mismatched road trip. Though he's not usually very tolerant of his mother, their road trip together gives him a new appreciation of her... even if his sales meetings don't go well and his plan has unexpected consequences. With Brett Cullen and Adam Scott. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Jeff (Tobey Maguire) is an uptight doctor in buttoned-down suburbia whose obsession with his lawn (and the raccoons ruining it) trigger a series of escalating catastrophes in the black comedy The Details. His relationship with his wife (Elizabeth Banks) has been passionless for months, a fling with his friend (Kerry Washington) puts him in the path of her vengeful husband (Ray Liotta), and his home improvement complicates matters with his crazy neighbor (Laura Linney). As his life spirals out of control, his guilt pushes him to help a down-on-his-luck friend (Dennis Haysbert), but even his charitable acts are doomed to create negative results. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Douglas (John Magaro) is inspired by the Rolling Stones and The Beatles and wants to start his own band in Not Fade Away. Beginning in the mid-60s, Douglas begins as the drummer in a little New Jersey band, playing popular songs under the band-leadership of the popular local guitarist/singer (Jack Huston), but Douglas is actually the better singer, and his urge to write original songs and his voice pushes the band further, winning him his highschool crush (Bella Heathcote). As the 60s evolve, the band faces internal and external struggles, drugs and girls, and the pressures of their time, to become their own story but never become famous. With James Gandolfini. On DVD and Blu Ray.

A new adaptation of the classic Bronte novel, runaway Heathcliff is adopted into a Yorkshire home in Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights. Abandoning the period drama pageantry for rainy, muddy, struggling farmsteads, Heathcliff's adopted family and his relationship with Cathy (Kaya Scodelario) eventually alienate him... but Heathcliff's return to Wuthering Heights allows him to pay back all that had come to him in his youth.

Young Charlie (Chandler Canterbury) is moved by the destruction in Florida and collects donations in his wagon for victims of Hurricane Charlie in Little Red Wagon. Based on a true story, the film portrays Charlie's urge to help, with the support of his mother (Anna Gunn) and sister, growing so popular that he has to graduate from walking the streets with his wagon to founding the Little Red Wagon Foundation, a non-profit organization that allows him to seek the help of powerful companies and contributors.

Young Rebecca and Tommy form an indelible connection before she leaves for Japan with her family in the contemplative, science-fiction Womb, a bond so strong that when she returns as a grown woman to the seaside locale of their shared past, Tommy (Matt Smith) recognizes her immediately. Rebecca's (Eva Green) and Tommy only have a few days together before he dies in an accident. Against his mother's wishes (Lesley Manville), Rebecca clones her lost love, carrying the baby, and giving birth to an infant Tommy... but has to raise him in a society prejudiced against clones, and acting as a mother to the love of her life until he finally grows up to be the Tommy she remembers. On DVD and Blu Ray.

New this week in our TV New Releases:
Lego:
Star Wars
Ninjago
The new additions to our TV section are three animated Lego videos: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out, Ninjago: Rise of the Green Ninja, and Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu.

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