The Studio

There are 11 films screening at the Library throughout the month of June. Mark your calendars for some great cinema!

All screenings are held in the Petty Auditorium. Admission is free, but seating is provided on a first come first served basis. If you can’t make the film, click the lin

Monday, June 1st at 6:30 PM: Our World Film Fest continues with Mike Leigh’s latest family drama, Happy-Go-Lucky. Sally Hawkins (winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actress – Comedy) stars as Poppy, a young schoolteacher with an incurable case of optimism. Rated R for language. (watch the trailer)

Friday, June 5th at 1:30 PM: Frank Langella and Michael Sheen square off in the Oscar-nominated drama Frost/Nixon. See how “lightweight” talk show host David Frost gave Richard Nixon the interview of a lifetime. We also have the original interviews on DVD. Rated R for language. (view the trailer)

Friday, June 5th at 7:00 PM: What more can be said about Twilight? Just your typical girl falls in love with vegetarian vampire story. If you haven’t experienced it yet, come see what’s made it a worldwide sensation! Rated PG-13 for violence and sensuality. (view the trailer)

Tuesday, June 9th at 1:30 PM: Sparks fly between Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in the classic romantic comedy Designing Woman. When an easygoing West Coast sportswriter and a refined fashion designer fall into each other’s arms, will their love be enough to resolve the differences between them? (view the trailer)

Friday, June 12th at 1:30 PM: Renee Zellweger stars in the fish-out-of-water comedy New in Town. Zellweger stars as a Miami businesswoman who agrees to a transfer in the hopes of getting a big promotion. Little does she know that it’s to tiny, frozen New Ulm, Minnesota. Do hijinks ensue? You bet. (view the trailer)

Friday, June 12th at 7:00 PM: Bring the whole family for Hotel for Dogs, based on the classic children’s book by Lois Duncan. Foster children Andi and Bruce discover an abandoned hotel, and begin to use it as a shelter for stray pooches. Stars Emma Roberts, Don Cheadle, and Lisa Kudrow. (view the trailer)

Monday, June 15th at 12:15 PM: My Grandfather’s House is the first of two YIVO films screening in June. Eileen Douglas discovers letters that send her to Kovno, Lithuania, in search of lost family history. Mostly English with some subtitled Yiddish.

Wednesday, June 17th at 12:15 PM: The second YIVO film of the month, Ha-Ashkenazim is a documentary about Young Israelis joining an “Ashkenazi Identity Movement” to explore their roots. Mostly Hebrew with some Yiddish, and English subtitles throughout.

Friday, June 19th at 7:00 PM: More family fun with the surprise box office smash Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Kevin James is the titular security guard, ever vigilant astride his Segway in his efforts to stop shoplifters and (maybe) win over the shopgirl of his dreams. Rated PG for violence, language, and mild suggestive humor. (view the trailer)

Friday, June 26th at 1:30: Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber lead a rescue mission in Nazi-occupied Poland in Defiance. Rated R for violence and language. (view the trailer)

Tuesday, June 30th at 1:30: We close out the month with Jimmy Stewart in Frank Capra’s classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. What better way to get ready for the July 4th holiday than with this testament to the political power of the common man. (view the trailer)

This week’s new releases run the gamut from fluffy romantic comedy to serious domestic drama to a thrilling true story from World War II-era Poland.

Watch the trailers below, and click on any link to place a hold via the Library catalog.

Defiance (Blu-ray | Soundtrack | read the book!)

He’s Just Not That Into You (Soundtrack | read the book!)

Revolutionary Road (Blu-ray | Soundtrack | read the book!)

There’s a pair of fish-out-of-water romantic comedies appearing this week in our collection. Watch Renee Zellweger brave the harsh climate of rural Minnesota in New in Town, which is also playing at the Library on June 12th at 1:30. Or if you’d prefer something with a more international bent, you can watch Brittany Murphy find herself in Japan as The Ramen Girl.

You want trailers? We’ve got them below. Click the links to reserve your copy.

New in Town

The Ramen Girl

[Cross-posted from the Radar]

If you’re like me and you grew up watching the Transformers (the old school cartoon, not the recent live-action movie) and staging endless battles between the Autobots and Decepticons with friends, you’ll be happy to know that you can now pre-order your very own Ravage USB drive (via Gizmodo). It’s pricey and I don’t really use USB drives as much as I used to, but I really want one!

Are you a Transformers fan? What do you think of the live-action movies? Okay, now back to my adult life…

We’re jumping all over the genre map with this week’s crop of new titles on DVD. From teen slasher films to slapstick comedy to an intense (and eyepatch-clad) WWII thriller, there’s a little something for every taste.

And what better way to whet your appetite than with trailers? Click on the links below to place your holds in the catalog.

Valkyrie (showing at the Library on May 22nd at 1:30PM; also on Blu-ray)

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (showing at the Library on June 19th at 7:00 PM)

My Bloody Valentine

You’ve read our blog, you’ve also checked out our annotations database. But you may have thought, “hmmm, these are nice, but they lack a certain … audio-visualness.”

Enter our latest effort: Quick Takes. We’ll be rolling out more of these bite-sized videos over the next few weeks. You can find the master index for them on our Vimeo page. Take a look:

http://www.vimeo.com/4630919

Furthermore, we’d like to hear your Quick Takes. Send us an email, let us know what you’d like to review, and we’ll give you your 60-90 seconds of glory.  They don’t have to just be for movies, either. If you’ve got a book, album, or video game you’d like to share, let us know!

Which actor do you like as Hercule Poirot?

In June, catch David Suchet on Masterpiece Mystery! in two new Poirot episodes.

Albert Finney

Alfred Molina

David Suchet

Peter Ustinov

A couple of biggies this week. You’ve got Liam Neeson in the revenge thriller (and surprise hit of the year) Taken, and the third volume in the Underworld saga, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Place your holds by clicking on the relevant links.

Trailers? You know them, you love them:

Taken

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (read the novelization)

Attention Masterpiece Mystery! fans. Did you catch the first installment of the three-part series, Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh as the troubled Swedish detective? Any comments?

FYI, these are based on the popular books by Henning Mankell. The first episode, Sidetracked, aired locally on PBS this past Sunday night. It is being re-run Tuesday, May 12th at 2:30am. The next episode is Firewall. It airs Sunday, May 17 at 8:00pm and again Wednesday, May 20th at 2:30am. The third episode, One Step Behind, is scheduled for Sunday, May 31st at 8:00pm. The Library has orderd the DVD. If you missed out, reserve it now.

I am loving Grooveshark and I think you will as well.

The Grooveshark website allows you to listen to music through the internet. I stumbled upon this site while preparing to teach Listening to Music Online (click here to see the slides from that presentation).

Grooveshark’s greatness stems from you being enabled  to pick particular songs and even particular albums to listen to (I am currently listening most of  Leonard Cohen’s works).  Similar music search websites such as the very cool Songza will enable you to find one song but not stream an entire album.

Grooveshark even has a recommendation system.  For example, if you like the Pixies you may also like the Breeders, Modest Mouse, etc.  This is not an unusual feature for this type of site but really isn’t its strong point.

Give Grooveshark a shot.