Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Week of January 14th

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Actual Events

Inspired by a true story, Lee Daniels' The Butler tells the story of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) during his time as a butler at the White House through the decades. Though he grew up on a cotton plantation, Cecil learned how to be a dutiful and nonconfrontational servant, a skill that gets him hired by the White House maitre d' (Coleman Domingo). Dedicated to his job, Cecil alienates his wife (Oprah Winfrey) by paying more attention to the President's home than their own, and his oldest son (David Oyelowo), who becomes an activist during the racially charged 60s and 70s, doesn't respect Cecil's servant career. As Cecil tends to presidents from Eisenhower (Robin Williams) to Reagan (Alan Rickman), he finds himself on hand as the most important civil rights decisions in the country are made, and his silent exposure to the people who make history deeply affects his personal life. With Elijah Kelley and Cuba Gooding Jr. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The story of the women that have sung the choruses from the girl groups of the 60s up through the rock records of the 70s and 80s, the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom spotlights the performers that are seldom actually in the spotlight: background singers. Though they seldom received credit, the rock and soul singers have been heard on records by Ray Charles, Phil Spector, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Sting (just to name a few), but have complicated relationships with taking center stage and reaching for stardom under their own names. On DVD and Blu Ray.

The super-8 home movies shot during the Nixon administration by Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Chapin-- people with direct access to the president during his controversial tenure-- offer new information in the documentary Our Nixon. Releasing the films after their seizure and storage by the FBI, the footage from within Richard Nixon's inner circle provide a detailed perspective of life within the Nixon White House.

Dramatizing the events leading up to the tragic shooting at an Oakland BART station on January 1, 2009, Fruitvale Station stars Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant as he tries to get his life together for the new year. With rent coming due, on the verge of losing his job, Oscar's doing everything he can to give his mother (Octavia Spencer) a great birthday party, and he's still not sure he has enough money to propose to the mother of his child (Melonie Diaz). In the middle of his struggles to care for his friends and family, the film paints a detailed portrait of Oscar as he prepares to go out on New Year's Eve. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Inspired by the story of the 2002 Beltway shootings, Blue Caprice stars Isaiah Washington as John Muhammad as he grows increasingly hostile to the world around him. With a restraining order against him and no way to reach out to his ex-wife and children, he forms a paternal bond with Lee Boyd Malvo (Tequan Richmond), a young man lost after his mother leaves him, but their relationship is built on a destructive urge to strike back at the world. Staying with John's gun-enthusiast friend (Tim Blake Nelson), John decides to start a mass murder spree, picking random, untraceable targets, and trains Lee to be his sniper. With Joey Lauren Adams.

Bloodshed


Carrie
Now & Then
Raised in a repressed, religious household, Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz) is tormented by the girls other girls at school in Kimberly Peirce's Carrie. Their gym teacher (Judy Greer) punishes the class, driving queen bee Chris (Portia Doubleday) to rebel and get herself banned from the prom, while her best friend Sue (Gabriella Wilde) tries to make amends by helping Carrie. Though Sue wants to undo Carrie's outsider status and set her up with a prom date, Carrie's overbearing mother (Julianne Moore) forbids socializing with boys, and Chris is obsessed with revenge. As these elements crash headlong into one another, Carrie has begun to embrace her own power... and making an enemy of her will have bloody consequences no one could have imagined. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Riddick (Vin Diesel) is betrayed by his Necromonger commanders (Karl Urban) and left for dead on a barren, hostile planet in David Twohy's Riddick. Forced to be a survivalist, Riddick can adapt to his new environment, but with a deadly storm coming, he needs to find a way off-world. Still a wanted man, two groups of mercenaries arrive to collect the bounty on Riddick: a rag-tag group of headhunters led by Jordi Molla and a slick professional crew led by Matt Nable, but neither group is prepared to face a world where Riddick lurks in the shadows, picking them off one-by-one. With Katee Sackhoff. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Crispian (AJ Bowden) takes his girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson) to his wealthy family's remote vacation home only to find the house under attack in You're Next. Crispian, his parents (Barbara Crampton and Rob Moran), two brothers, and little sister (Amy Seimetz) are assaulted by invaders armed with crossbows and machetes, and as the numbers in the house dwindle, the remaining family and guests have to find a way to fight back against attackers they don't understand.

David (Rhys Wakefield) alienates his girlfriend Jill (Ashley Hinshaw), but catches up to her at a party in Plus One. As an unexplained time disturbance ripples through the house, David finds himself in the unique position to talk to a version of Jill who hasn't had a relationship-ending fight with him yet, and will do anything to make things right with her time-shifted double... but as the gap between the original party-goers and their out-of-time counterparts shrink, the entire crowd begins to see their doppelgangers as an unknown threat that can only be destroyed.

Trouble with Growing Up

Grace (Brie Larson) and her long-term boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr) are supervisors at a foster care facility for at-risk teenagers in Short Term 12. Though fairly young, Grace is a strong authority figure among the kids, able to both relate to her charges and keep them in line. A new arrival (Kaitlyn Dever) stirs up the trouble in Grace's past and the uncertainty of her future, causing cracks in her well-put-together exterior. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Sutter (Miles Teller) is an extroverted high school senior who has his ego shaken when his girlfriend (Brie Larson) dumps him in The Spectacular Now. Deprived of his partying partner-in-crime, Sutter falls in with slightly nerdy Aimee (Shailene Woodley). As the two spend time together, Sutter and Aimee begin to form a real connection, though they couldn't be more different: she has an education and career path planned for her future, he's an underachiever with terrible grades and no ambition beyond the next party. Their relationship deepening, Sutter teaches Aimee to stand up for herself and take the future she wants, but Sutter's own problems aren't so easily solved. With Jennifer Jason Leigh. On DVD and Blu Ray

After the death of her father, Davey (Willa Holland) and her family leave New Jersey for the New Mexico desert in Tiger Eyes. Adapted from the Judy Bloom coming-of-age novel, Davey doesn't understand a world removed from the friends, parties, and social status that made up her New Jersey life, but when she meets a Native American climber (Tatanka Means), he helps Davey come to terms with who she really is. With Amy Jo Johnson.

The Comedy of Complicated Families

Divorcee Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is introduced by her friends to rumpled single dad Albert (James Gandolfini) in Enough Said, and the two have an easy chemistry and instant comfortable rapport. Though the two get along famously, they're both old enough to have long stories and complicated histories behind them, and Eva is mortified to discover that her newest client (Catherine Keener) is also Albert's ex-wife. On DVD and Blu Ray

Carter (Adam Scott) tries to keep up his successful, well adjusted life in A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce), but his world starts to fall apart when his little brother (Clark Duke) announces he's getting married. Carter had always been the mediator between his parents (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O'Hara), who can't even be in the same room without ridiculous fights breaking out, and now he has to find a way to get both of them to attend the same wedding. Worse, meddling in his parents affairs agitates all of Carter's neuroses around their divorce, a subject of great interest to his former therapist (Jane Lynch). With Amy Poehler. On DVD and Blu Ray.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Copper
Season 2
In the five-points neighborhood of 1860s New York, Irish cop Corky Cochran walks the sometimes blurry lines of the law in a dark and dangerous city, solving murders during a turbulent time in New York's history.

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