Week of February 18th

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Long-Form

After the Siege of Blackwater, Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) takes charge of his grandson-king Joffrey and the kingdom, pushing aside Cersei (Lena Headey) and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) in the third season of Game of Thrones, while his prodigal son (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is in the hands of the Starks. Though Robb Stark is winning every battle against the Lannisters, his armies are troubled and his family is scattered: no one knows that Arya is alive, the Lannisters have Sansa, Jon has infiltrated the wildlings north of the wall, his younger brothers are assumed dead, and only his mother (Michelle Fairley) remains with him. As the Starks and Lannisters clash, Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons gather power and gain support to overtake everyone who would claim her family's throne. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Out of rehab and putting her life back together, Jackie (Edie Falco) is trying to keep connections to her daughters and estranged husband in season 5 of Nurse Jackie. She still keeps the hospital on its feet, letting Dr. O'hara (Eve Best) do her work, but her home life is a complicated web of meetings, divorce complications, and her new roommate Zoey (Merritt Wever).

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Smaller Budgets

Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) lives a comfortable life in a nice neighborhood, but she's unhappy and detached from everything in Afternoon Delight. She doesn't pay enough attention to her little boy, and she constantly deflects her husband's (Josh Radnor) advances, but her visit to a strip club introduces her to McKenna (Juno Temple), a free-spitted "full-service sex worker." Rachel invites McKenna to live in their unused maid's room and work as a nanny, but Rachel's invitation to have a wild young woman live in her home is a symptom of all the problems her therapist (Jane Lynch) has been warning her about.

"You're in here for some gluttony,
pretty constant mas... um, just all
sorts of stuff, but nothing serious."
"I'm a woman and you're a
Catholic. Everything I do is a sin."

The Augustine Interfaith Order of Hellbound Saints serve a specific purpose in the service of God in Hellbenders-- to sin and be tainted enough to take on demons. Led by hedonistic Lutheran priest Angus (Clancy Brown), the black sheep of the religious community include Presbyterian anti-authoritarian alcoholic Larry (Clifton Collins Jr), Roman Catholic minor rule-breaker Stephen (Andre Royo), foul mouthed Unitarian Elizabeth (Robyn Rikoon), Southern Baptist deviant Macon (Macon Blair), and Polish Catholic pothead Erik (Dan Fogler), tarnished clergy sent in to perform exorcisms and do battle with the forces of evil. With the choosing of a new Pope, their order is on the verge of being shut down by a bureaucrat (Stephen Gevedon) just as a Scandinavian demon called Surtr is loosed on the world. With Surtr destroying every soul it touches and planning to wage war on God and all the angels in Heaven, the Hellbound Saints are the only ones who can stop him.

Constructed like an early 80s documentary, Computer Chess captures an annual convention where early computer programmers pit their chess programs against one another. Filmed with the kind of vintage, black and white video cameras that would have been used to record an event at the time, programming teams from companies, universities, and independent start-ups compete to prove whose chess-logic program is more effective, but one of the team's computers won't play against other programs... as if it just doesn't want to. With Wiley Wiggins.

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Documentaries

City planners discuss the changing nature of the world's urban areas in The Human Scale. As the world develops and cities grow, along with citizens buying more cars, the flow of automotive, bicycle, and foot traffic changes, and cities like New York or Beijing have to adapt the way their citizens move through them and their growing number of inhabitants.

Spending time in three different restaurants, the documentary Spinning Plates explores what it takes to keep a restaurant in business in the world today. Focusing on a 150-year-old country diner in Iowa, a roadside Mexican restaurant in Arizona, and a high class Chicago restaurant with a 3-star Michelin rating, the film explores different styles of cooking, business, and dining, that informs the life of each eatery.

Week of February 11th

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A Fight for Survival

Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) is recruited into a military academy by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) to join Earth's elite force to fight alien enemies in the science fiction Ender's Game. Succeeding in the academy where his older brother and sister (Jimmy Pinchak and Abigail Breslin) couldn't, the school's administration (including Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley) sees Ender as a natural leader, and the best hope for Earth's fight against an alien force. As he trains, Ender has to prove himself in a series of tests and games, earning the trust and respect of his fellow cadets, and proving that he's the one to lead their epic space battles... though the fight may be coming sooner than he suspects. With Hailee Steinfeld. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) leaves New York to stay with her British cousins in How I Live Now, but their lives are thrown into chaos when a nuclear bomb is detonated in London. As she grows closer to her cousin Eddie (George MacKay), the tragedy threatens to tear them apart when the United States begins evacuating its citizens from England. Separated from her family, Daisy has to find the strength and courage to reunite them all, survive the coming troubles, and defend her new home. With Corey Johnson and Anna Chancelor. On DVD and Blu Ray.

When Mariah Mundy's parents mysteriously vanish in 19th century London, he's thrust into an adventure in the care of dashing hero Will Charity (Michael Sheen) in Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box. The Mundys and Charity are secret agents in the service of the Bureau of Antiquities, and their disappearance is linked to a magic box that can turn anything into gold. Their quest to find the box and rescue Mariah's parents puts them in opposition to the nefarious Otto Luger (Sam Neill) and his henchwoman Monica (Lena Headey) who will stop at nothing to acquire the Midas Box.

Lost at sea, adrift in the Indian Ocean, Robert Redford struggles to survive in All Is Lost. Alone on his boat somewhere between Indonesia and Madagascar, he's unable to reach anyone on radio, and as his ordeal stretches through the days, his isolation and inability to save himself begin to take their toll. In order to survive, he must weather storms, ration food, somehow find fresh water, but even more threatening is the solitude and creeping despair he must overcome if he's to keep fighting for his life. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Michael Fassbender is a lawyer defending the residents of the moral gray area along the Texas/Mexico border in Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, the film follows the compromised counselor-- who's spent years making easy money defending corrupt and powerful clients-- as he joins a venture set up by a group of flashy, high-power criminals (Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, and Cameron Diaz). The deal, too good to be true, goes sour, putting the counselor and his finance (Penelope Cruz) in mortal danger, as they are forced to contend with the base realities of the loftier ideals surrounding human nature and "the evil that men do." With Bruno Ganz. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Love and the Real World

Obsessed with Mr. Darcy, from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Jane Hayes (Keri Russell) finds her ideal fantasy vacation in Austenland. Run by Jane Seymour, the Austenland theme resort is designed just for people like Ms. Hayes: she's taken from her lonely New York apartment, planted in the English countryside, adorned in period costume, and set to interact with a staff in character as Mr. Nobley (JJ Feild), Colonel Andrews, or Mr. Darcy... but can she really find romance among actors selling fantasy to Americans like herself and New Orleans socialite Elizabeth (Jennifer Coolidge)? With Bret McKenzie. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Rejoining the ensemble from 1999's The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday stars Monica Calhoun and Morris Chestnut as Mia and Lance, successful and happily married since the events of the first movie, but Mia misses her old friends and arranges a get-together for the holidays. Reuniting with best man Harper (Taye Diggs), now a best-selling novelist, and his pregnant wife Robyn (Sanaa Lathan), a successful chef, they get the whole gang back together and learn how the past fifteen years has shaped their faith, loves, and lives. With Terrence Howard and Melissa De Sousa.

An imagining of the post-separation romantic life of the Princess of Wales, Diana stars Naomi Watts as she meets Pakistani heart surgeon Hansat Khan (Naveen Andrews), and the two begin a clandestine romance. With Diana plagued by tabloid journalists and paparazzi, the two have to take precautions as their affair develops, and Kahn becomes the last great love of Princess Diana's life. With Cas Anvar.

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Subtitled

10-year-old Wadjda doesn't want to fit into the strict rules of Saudi Arabian society in Wadjda, she wants to ride bikes, listen to rock 'n roll, and befriend whomever she likes. The first Saudi Arabian film directed by a woman, Wadjda unfolds from the little girl's perspective as she contends with the only world she knows, even as she refuses to be controlled by it.

Elderly sculptor Marc Cros (Jean Rochefort) takes in a Spanish political refuge during World War II in The Artist and the Model, with the understanding that she will pose for him. Working in an idyllic village in the south of France, the young woman reignites Marc's passion for art and the female form as she becomes his muse, bringing new acclaim and attention to the artist's work. With Claudia Cardinale.

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Sporting Documentary

Examining the controversy around disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie opens with Armstrong's confession and explores his evolving legacy. Widely known as a seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, Armstrong spent years steadfastly denying any charges of doping or drug use. Given unprecedented access, the documentary tackles the athlete's history, championships, and bans preventing him from future competition, and the culture of doping in sports.

Filming the boxing champion's autobiographical memoir, Spike Lee directs Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, a one-man show where Tyson tells his story. Recounting his troubled childhood, early days learning to box, ascent to stardom, and the troubles that followed, Mike Tyson tells the story of his life and his journey to, and from, the top.

Blending documentary footage and dramatic recreation, The Summit tells the story of a 24-man group's 2008 quest to scale K2 that went terribly wrong. Considered by some to be more dangerous than Mt. Everest, the group's successful climb turned tragic when they learned the descent would be even more dangerous than their initial climb, a discovery that would claim 11 of the mountaineers' lives.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Sherlock Season 3		Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) is mourning the death of his friend, but Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) not only isn't dead, but he's about to bring Watson back into his twisted and dangerous crime-solving world.		The Americans Season 1		Elizabeth and Philip (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) seem like an ordinary married couple in Cold War America, but they have to hide their true identities as KGB sleeper agents.
	The League of Super Evil Season 1		Supervillains like Voltar and Doktor Frogg plan to take over Metrotown and eventually the world... but their evil schemes never seem to help them take over much of anything		The Returned Season 1		The residents of a secluded French mountain town are surprised when their dead loved ones suddenly reappear. Though apparently healthy and normal, their return from the grave is the first of a series of inexplicable mysteries to befall the town.
	Legends of Chima The Lion, the Crocodile, and the Power of Chi		A small but powerful group of heroes seek to bring down Chima and restore their kingdom to the paradise it once was.		Sofia The First Once upon a Princess Ready to be a Princess		Princess Sofia is the newest student at the Royal Preparatory Academy, where she has to break the spell of a clumsy sorcerer before it ruins school for everyone.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Week of January 7th

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Stepping into the Trap

Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) tries paying his Princeton tuition by betting big at online poker in Runner Runner, but the game is fixed, he loses everything, and his gambling gets him expelled. To set things right, he travels to Costa Rica to find the man who owns the fixed game: Ivan Block (Ben Affleck) made his fortune running online gambling websites, an entrepreneur impressed with Richie's ability to find weaknesses in his empire. Soon, Richie is living the high life, putting his skills to work for Block and making more money than he ever imagined... but when an FBI agent (Anthony Mackie) pushes him to turn informant, Richie has to wonder about the moral gray areas in his new life, and the dangers of his place between criminals and the law. With Gemma Arterton. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Attorney Martin Rose (Eric Bana) is brought in to defend a suspected terrorist in the British Closed Circuit, following the suicide of the previous defense attorney. With the case considered a matter of national security, centered on a bombing that killed over 100 people, Martin is hired by the Attorney General (Jim Broadbent) to handle the public trial, but the "closed trial," sheltered from the public, will be tried by Claudia Simmons-How (Rebecca Hall). Martin and Claudia are to have no contact with one another, but even though they're working with different evidence, they each begin to suspect the their case is not what it seems. Though they're forbidden to talk to one another, working together may be the only way to survive a case that's already claimed the life of at least one defense attorney. With Ciaran Hinds. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Documentaries

Traveling to Indonesia to find the men who were part of the Northern Sumatra death squads in the 1960s, The Act of Killing finds the former gangsters as prominent leaders of government and military organizations. When asked about their violent past, the now-established and powerful men happily describe the events of their past, and are even willing to recreate scenes for the cameras. What begins with the former criminals, gangsters, and murderers re-imagining their pasts in the styles of their favorite films continues into filming staged recreations of their nightmares... and while some of them realize the killings were wrong, others simply worry that boasting about genocide is bad for their public image. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Following the financial crisis and the rise of the Occupy movement, the documentary Inequality for All cleanly details the rise and expansion of the gap between the richest Americans and those just struggling to get by. As described by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the dwindling middle and working class are explored as the casualties of a trend that could still be reversed.

The story of Asian-American basketball star Jeremy Lin, Linsanity recounts Lin's against-all-odds rise to fame in the NBA. Though usually marginalized and discounted because of his height and his race, Jeremy Lin continues to persevere amidst prejudices with determination and faith, he became not just a professional player, but a legitimate sports star.

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Comedies

Mixing a sex-addiction drama with romantic comedy, Thanks for Sharing centers on Adam (Mark Ruffalo) as he tries to fully commit to a 12-step program. He considers himself a sex-addict, and follows the strict rules of his guru (Tim Robbins), a man who has been sex- and masurbation-free for five years, but his self-denial complicates the growing relationship with his new girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow). Adam isn't supposed to have sex until he's conquered his issues, but he also has trouble explaining why he always says "no." With Josh Gad. On DVD and Blu Ray.

Something goes wrong with an airliner's landing gear in Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited, and though the only landing the airplane can possibly make is a crash-landing, the crew tries to make the flight as easy as possible on the passengers. The trio of flamboyant flight attendants drug the passengers in coach, then do their best to entertain the few passengers in first-class-- including a dominatrix (Cecilia Roth) and a clairvoyant (Lola Duenas)-- with every wacky stunt they can imagine. On DVD and Blu Ray.

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Monstrous Acts

We Are What We Are
Now & Then

Young Julia and Ambyr (Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner) have to take over their mother's duties after she fails to return from town in We Are What We Are. As they prepare to honor the traditions laid out by their stern, puritanical father (Bill Sage), the girls have to deal with the reality of their family's beliefs-- their mother had been in charge of handling and preparing people for the family's cannibalistic meals. While the girls begin to question their father's teachings, the town doctor (Michael Parks) suspects there might be something strange about the reclusive family in the woods. On DVD and Blu Ray.


British foley artist Gilderoy (Toby Jones) takes a job in Italy to work on a film about horses in Berberian Sound Studio, but when he arrives, nothing is what he expected-- the director never seems to tell him the truth, the producer (Cosimo Fusco) is abusive, and the movie is actually a gruesome horror film called The Equestrian Vortex. Gilderoy is a gentle pacifist, and as he creates sounds for a blood-drenched film, the crunches, snaps, and screams he records slowly start to overtake his life.

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New this week in our TV New Releases:

	Archer Season 4	Sterling Archer vanishes after his mother's wedding, leaving the oddball crew of Isis' spies and super-scientists without their unreliable, egotistical, alcoholic lead agent.		House of Lies Season 2	Marty (Don Cheadle) and his team of management consultants provide a charming mix of exaggeration, lies, and magic to close their corporate deals, but they're no more honest in their personal lives.
	Doc Martin Series 6	Doc is still chafing against his charming Cornish home, but he's finally beginning to settle in... marrying Louisa and starting a family, but still being the grumpy bugger he always was.		The Following Season 1	Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) led the FBI team that caught serial killer Joe Carroll, but after the killer's escape, the bureau asks Hardy to come in and help catch the killer and stop his cult-like followers.