1. The Girl in the Café (Dir. David Yates)

Why Did You Pick That?

Two reasons: It's been in my queue for over a year. 2. Bill Nighy.

2. My Blueberry Nights (Dir. Kar Wai Wong)

Why Did You Pick That?

The preview and the cast sold me.

3. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud / Marjane Satrapi)

Why Did You Pick That?

I'll watch any animated film that challenges Pixar at the Academy Awards. And  I've been wanting to see more different animation styles.

Don't know what to watch?  Have no fear!  West Palm Beach Public Library has a huge collection of DVDs, including many selections from the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies,"  which includes the best of the best across all genres.  You can take them home for seven days, and there's no cost!

Want something lighthearted and musical?  Pick up Singin' in the Rain (#5), The Wizard of Oz (#10), or Some Like It Hot (#22).

Perhaps you're in the mood for an epic.  Lawrence of Arabia (#7), Spartacus (#81), and Ben-Hur (#100) all made the list.

Maybe you'd like to pull the blinds, turn off the lights, and watch something scary.  Try Vertigo (#9), Psycho (#14), Rear Window (#48), Jaws (#56), The Silence of the Lambs (#74), or The Sixth Sense (#89).

Dramas like Citizen Kane (#1), The Godfather (#2), Casablanca (#3), Apocalypse Now (#30), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (#33), make up a large portion of the list, but several comedies are included, such as Annie Hall (#35), Tootsie (#69), and Toy Story (#99).

Science fiction fans might want to check out Star Wars (#13), 2001: A Space Odyssey (#15), E. T. The Extraterrestrial (#24), or Blade Runner (#97).

Some of my personal favorites from the list are All About Eve (#28), Cabaret (#63), Raiders of the Lost Ark (#66), The Shawshank Redemption (#72), Forrest Gump (#76), and Sophie's Choice (#91).

Still not sure what to watch?  Check out another "best of" list, then either search our online catalog, or ask a reference librarian if we have it in our collection.

• The Internet Movie Database's (IMDb) Top 250 Movies
• Best of Rotten Tomatoes
• The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made - The New York Times
• The Best 100 Movies Ever Made - Movieline Magazine
• The Best Reviewed Movies of 2000-2007 - Metacritic
• The Complete List: All-time 100 Movies - Time Magazine
• The Official Academy Awards Database

Do you have a favorite movie that helps you forget about the heat?  Let us know what it is.  If we don't have it in our collection, tell us why we should consider purchasing it.

If you want to get out of the house for a free movie, join us for iCINEMA: Independent and International Films @ Your Library, on July 20 and August 17, from 2 to 3:30 PM.

**Britta**

There are some movies you watch about drinking that make you feel like *you've* been drinking (The Lost Weekend, Barfly) even when you haven't. Watching that Oliver Stone movie The Doors always makes me feel a little bit like I've been doing drugs. Even though I would *never* do that. (Anymore.) Kramer Vs. Kramer made me feel like I needed to get a divorce. Because they make divorce look so pretty: If I played my cards right, I could abandon my children, jeopardize my husband's career, and find myself a better job that pays more than the ex-hubby makes. And then get my kids back, or not. That would be totally up to me. Truth be told, I just don't know if I could sacrifice my Amex or Bloomingdale's credit cards like Joanna Kramer did though. Sigh, I might as well stay married. You're safe this time, Jim.

We've reached another milestone. Kramer Vs. Kramer is, as of 2008, the sixteenth and, so far, final movie set in New York City to win the best picture award (mostly--NYC has a brief cameo in Terms of Endearment and a bit part in Forrest Gump). Wow. It's pretty amazing when you think that the Academy was averaging about three New York pictures per decade. But if they we're going to stop giving out best picture awards to New York movies maybe they should have let Annie Hall be the coda. Because Kramer Vs. Kramer is not that great of a movie. And it certainly doesn't hold up very well. At all. It is the quintessential "me decade" movie. In 1979 Apocalypse Now wasn't considered the masterpiece it is now so in my head I know the best picture should have gone there . But my heart says it should have gone to Bob Fosse's brilliant and dazzling All That Jazz. Roy Scheider was robbed too.

For dinner we traveled back to The Silver Palate cookbook for some recipes. The Silver Palate store and subsequent cookbook were around the same time as Kramer Vs. Kramer. And it's very yuppified, just like the Kramer's. But it's a great cookbook. Especially if you love pesto. And I do. Even though we didn't have pesto. But we had basil.

Pasta Seafood Salad--adapted from The Silver Palate

• 1 lb medium raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1 lb rinsed
• 1/2 lb small shell pasta (or another interesting shape such as twists)
• 1 cup snow peas chopped on a diagonal boiled for 1 minute and then plunged into an ice bath (the original recipe calls for peas. I still hate peas._
• 1/2 cup diced sweet red pepper
• 1/2 cup purple onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup fresh basil leaf
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup Greek olive

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, drop in the shrimp and scallops, cook for one minute, and drain immediately. Bring another large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta as directed on the package, until tender but not mushy. Drain. Toss the cooked pasta and seafood in a large bowl (make sure they are both well drained). Add the peas, red pepper, and onion, and toss.
2. Place dressing ingredients (olive oil, basil leaves, lemon juice, salt, and pepper) in a food processor bowl fitted with a metal blade. Process until basil is very fine. Pour over the pasta/seafood mixture and mix well. Taste and add salt, pepper, and/or lemon juice as necessary.
3. Place the salad in a serving bowl or mound it on a platter. Scatter with greek olives.
4. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate. Salad tastes better when at room temperature, so if refrigerating until later, be sure to take it out of the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

For dessert we had chocolate chip ice cream. Just like Billy Kramer did. Only we didn't get into trouble.

The City Academy saw off competition from 83 other schools nationwide, including finalists from London, Manchester and Nottingham.

Judges recognised the progress made by students along with the improvement made by ethnic minorities children.

Principal Dr Ray Priest said: "This recognises the magnificent progress made by Bristol's first academy."

The Outstanding Academy award was presented at the Education Business Awards ceremony, held annually at Westminster Abbey.

The academy made news earlier this year when it was announced it was to scan students' fingerprints to allow them to get their lunch.

The academy opened in 2003 and has more than 1,100 pupils aged between 11 and 18.

Among its visitors has been David Beckham, who turned up in March to teach youngsters soccer skills.
]]> http://countrysbestjobert.wordpress.com/?p=152 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:53:16 +0000 littleman00 http://countrysbestjobert.wordpress.com/?p=152

Chalk up another one for the Disney/Pixar team. WALL-E is not only the best animated movie of the year, it's also one of the best animated movies ever made.  Relying primarily on visual narrative, WALL-E transcends most animated, and even traditional film, by doing what film does best: show emotions rather than telling them.

The movie takes place 700 years in the future.  The giant megacorporation Wal-mart...I mean Buy 'N' Large pretty much controls everythig, from the gas to the supermarkets to the transportation and living arrangements.  This comes at a price as the Earth is now covered in trash; it's gotten so bad that humans have decided to leave for awhile and let these trash robots, WALL-E's, to take care of the mess.  They're useful robots that can take piles of trash and turn them into cubes for easy stacking.  One day, when all the trash is taken care of, the humans will return and re-colonize Earth.  That however, was hundreds of years previous from the start of the movie.

Our title hero is the last of his kind left on the planet.  The other units have long since worn out, leaving WALL-E alone to finish the job.  WALL-E is lonely, as you can see from the trailers; his only friend a cockroach that acts much like a pet dog.  He has his own 'house', which used to house all the WALL-E's and now serves to hold all the junk our WALL-E doesn't want to throw away.  He's fascinated by the simplest of things, like light bulbs, television, clothing, and even old showtunes.  He watches musicals every night and longs for the day when he can meet someone else and share in all the emotions that he sees in the old recordings.  We are then introduced to EVE, a probing robot sent from the human resort ship Axiom.  Every once in awhile, the Axiom would send probes back to Earth to see how the cleanup is going.  Once they find evidence that the planet can again sustain life, the ship will turn around and bring all the humans back home.

This is where WALL-E begins to show its brilliance.  With barely any dialogue at all, we see the personalities of both WALL-E and EVE, one is a shy, goofy, yet caring robot; the other is like the equivalent to the 'career woman', someone who is focused solely on her job, and nothing else.  WALL-E tries desparately to get EVE to notice him, even by showing her his personal collection of junk.  She finds him amusing and slowly warms up to WALL-E when he shows her a discovery he made the other day: a tiny plant growing inside a long-abandoned referidgerator.  This sets off EVE's primary directive, and she takes the plant and signals for a ship to come and pick her up so she can bring it to the Axiom's captain.  Thinking she's being kidnapped, WALL-E stows away to save his new-found love.

The rest of the story is pretty straightforward, but what's impressive about it is how everything is done with barely a dozen or so pages of dialogue.  It's all action and visual cues.  Normally, in Hollywood screenwriting, the more white on the page, the better.  Action description must be kept to a minimum and dialogue is very important; however, the old saying in Hollywood, when it comes to acting or writing, is to show and not tell.  Don't tell the audience you're mad, show it.  In WALL-E, the whole film is showing us something.  We are shown WALL-E's kindness, his curiosity, and more importantly, his love for EVE.

WALL-E is also packed with the trademark Pixar humor.  The funniest moments come from WALL-E just picking up the trash and looking at different objects.  He has no idea what they do, but they fascinate him.  A bra is something you wear on your head, fire extinguishers are scary, and a small cooler is something to keep your belongings in.  When we finally get to the Axiom, watching WALL-E interact with other robots is quite amusing.  Also, watching him finally interact with other humans is comedic gold.  The humans, by the way, have all become bed-ridden overweight potatoes.  Through too much mass-market consumption and consumerism, plus bodily issues when traveling in space, humans have basically become slobs, relying entirely on automated service to live.

Visually, WALL-E is a standout, even among computer-generated films.  Rumor has it that Academy award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins was a technical adivsor to the film, helping cultivate its unique look.  What I found interesting, in the beginning, was the film's use of camera angles, long lenses, and depth of field.  It was like watching a documentary, or some kind of nature program where a hidden camera captures all of WALL-E's actions.  Later on, however, the camera becomes more traditional, when the movie turns into a rescue mission and not a National Geographic special.

The sound is amazing as well.  Sound designer Ben Burtt deserves another Oscar for his work here.  Technically he plays the voice of WALL-E and M-O, a smaller cleaning robot.  What he's done was used different digitized sound effects to create WALL-E's 'voice' and other sounds.  Ben Burtt is quite possibly the best in his field, having worked as sound designer on all 6 Star Wars films (he created the voice of R2-D2, and the familiar hum of the lightsaber) as well as editor for the Star Wars prequels, and a slew of projects for Steven Spielberg.  The other actors play their limited roles nicely, with a cameo by John Ratzenberger, who has voiced many characters over Pixar's short history, and a live-action performance (the first ever for a Pixar film) by Fred Willard as the 'global CEO' of BNL (Buy 'N ' Large).  Also, the music by Finding Nemo composer Thomas Newman, is fantastic, some of the best compositions I've heard all year.

I remember nearly crying on several occasions throughout WALL-E, not necassarily because it's sad (and there are a few sad parts), but because of the wealth of emotions that WALL-E displays.  There's a scene where WALL-E's in space with EVE, and I'm not going to give anything away, but it's just magical and I really felt happy for our heroes.  Even though this is still a children's movie, I suspect that many of these nuances will be lost on them.  They will find WALL-E cute, the movie funny, and will have experienced a great adventure.  Adults, however, may just enjoy this film more.  WALL-E is like a child living in an adult body; he experiences emotions and tries to show them much like a human would, with small, nearly unnoticeables actions that display this, and that is something younger viewers may miss.

WALL-E is a film that can be enjoyed by all ages, and regardless of culture.  Director Andrew Stanton (who helmed Pixar's sea-faring hit Finding Nemo) has possibly surpassed Brad Bird as the premiere animation director of this generation.  His attention to detail and actions is phenomenal.  Stanton gives us a truly believable character in an unbelievably rich world, regardless of the length of dialogue.  Andrew Stanton and the geniuses at Pixar have given a film that goes beyond other animated efforts, and even some live-action ones, on so many different levels.  This is a beautiful film on all accounts: the characters, the writing, the visuals; but one thing it does so well is the emotion.  We fall in love as WALL-E falls in love.  We become sad when he does.  Pixar has created the most lovable robot since R2-D2.  With his large, puppy-dog-like eyes,  WALL-E seems like a most unusual hero.  In the end, WALL-E is absolutely brilliant.

10/10

(images from Yahoo!)

With the release of the incredibly-well-reviewed WALL-E, the creators of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles are poised to continue their proud tradition of earning massive amounts of cash with quality films. And there's another important tradition they're continuing: Presto, a new original short, will play before the beginning of the feature.

Tacking shorts onto the beginning of a feature film is an antiquated notion, something from the days of newsreels -- but Pixar has a long, proud and Oscar-winning history of doing this, and Presto -- the story of a rabbit who gets revenge against his magician -- looks likely to be another classic of the short-form genre. It isn't available online yet, but hopefully it will be soon. Because Pixar's shorts play beautifully as web content -- even though that's not how they were intended.

The first Pixar short Luxo Jr. (from which Pixar derives its iconic logo) was created by now-Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter to show at the 1986 SIGGRAPH conference, basically as proof that computer animation could be just as creative and exciting as 2-D. Since then, Pixar has stayed in the habit of creating these shorts -- using them as a way to test out not only new animation techniques (Geri's Game was developed "to take human and cloth animation to new heights") but also give below-the-line staff a chance to prove themselves. (Sound designer Gary Rydstrom, who directed the 2007 short Lifted, is now directing the 2011 Pixar film newt.)

But these aren't just proofs-of-concept -- the "story first" approach to animation that's made Pixar such a success over the past 13 years applies to the short films as well. Each takes a simple concept and uses it to create characters and scenarios that delight in the same time it takes the Chinese Backstreet Boys to perform one of their odes. They're also, with the exception of Boundin', completely dialogue-free -- and if you've ever tried to tell a story through images alone, then you know what an achievement that is.

There's something to be said for the perfect little sliver of film, a short that takes advantage of every second it's got to reach you in some way. It really just comes down to the fundamentals -- a good story is a good story. No matter why it was created, or where you watch it.

Twenty-five outfits worn by James Gandolfini in HBO's The Sopranos were sold at a Christie's charity auction yesterday which raised $187,750 for Wounded Warrior Project, a non-profit that helps wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. James Gandolfini attended the auction (which may have helped encourage the bidding) and vouched the outfits were genuine. What took the top bid? The ensemble Tony Soprano wore when he was shot by Uncle Junior went for a cool $43,750. (Cynopsis 6/26)

MTV's season two debut of Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew on June 19 (10p) delivered a 2.3 P12-34 rating and averaged more than 2.3 million total viewers. (Cynopsis 6/26)

VH1's "Critics' Choice Awards" show has been scheduled for Jan. 8 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in California. The annual event typically is seen as the first indication of how the Academy Awards field will shape up in the new year. (TVWeek.com 6/25)

While younger audiences drive growth in digital and mobile media, consumers over the age of 50 continue to devote "significant attention" to the more traditional formats, says a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The growing 50+ population will "help sustain" traditional media. (http://blogs.mediapost.com/research_brief/?p=1737 6/25)

Serious-face-Tom Cruise snoozer Valkyrie has been attracting negative press and rumours-aplenty since its conception. It was originally set for an August 8 release date before being fast-forwarded to June 27. The release date was then moved back to October 3 2008, to avoid competition from WALL-E (surely these polar-opposites, a Pixar robot flick and a Nazi genocide biopic, can share screen time?) and the delayed Wanted, and to increase the film's chances of awards success. Finally, the release date was pushed back to February 13, 2009, with the studio citing the early fall schedule as "too crowded with Academy Award prospects".

So, wait; first, United Artists wanted to attract awards attention, then got scared off by more Oscar-worthy prospects?

This constant date-changing and blatant avoidance of any stiff competition does not bode well for the film, which has already been besieged with location problems and opposition from the German Ministry of Defense, who apparently (and understandably) didn't want to be associated with Scientologist Cruise. Valkyrie will instead premiere during President's Day weekend, after The Wolf Man and The Pink Panther Deux were moved from this date.

If The Pink Panther Deux is considered competition then Hollywood is truly in for a spectacularly awful show.

A movie that portrays a WW2 assassination plot against Adolf Hitler isn't going to be to everyone's tastes, obviously, but the car crash doesn't stop there...

The theatrical trailer for Valkyrie, which shows Tom Cruise portraying Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg with an American accent (is he really that poor an actor?!), has received a very mixed reception; not to mention that the attempted takeover of United Artists means that Valkyrie (and Cruise) is under serious pressure to perform following lackluster 'talkie' flop Lions for Lambs.

Even Meryl Streep couldn't save that one.

Valkyrie is so doomed that people are now referring to other ill-fated, problem-plagued pictures as 'Valkyries'.

He's Just Not That Into You

The jury is still out on HJNTIY, which is based on a self-help book (hey, at least it's an original concept) and boasts heaps of talent, such as Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connolly, Jennifer Aniston, two Ed cast members and, erm, guaranteed Box Office gold, Ben Affleck.

Early buzz is very divided, however; being called everything from "sweet" and "funny" to "pathetic" and "so chick flicky that nobody with a penis will enjoy it".

From IMDB:

I still haven't finished the script yet. It's terrible. Seems like every other line is, "when is he going to call me?" I'm not kidding. Every other line. And it's one of those multi-character vignette type movies that usually don't make much money because it's hard to get a good read on what it's about. And if you don't like some of the stories, you're bored while you're waiting for those stories to end so you can resume the ones you like. It reminds me of Love Actually, though not nearly as good. And this from someone that didn't like Love Actually.

This movie will bomb.

Another message-boarder cannily notes:

if you scroll way down to the recommendations of this IMDB page, you see it says, "If you enjoyed this title, our database also recommends:"

1. The Onion Movie
2. Gigli
3. Bubble Trubble
4. Crazy Mixed Up Pup
5. Troll

uhmmm...i honestly hope this is not a foreshadowing because i certainly do not want to pay 10 bucks for something like any of the listed movies above.

Much to the delight of the gossip mags, Jennifer Aniston was finally set to battle arch-nemesis Angelina Jolie at the Box Office on October 24th after HJNTIY was pushed back from August 1st. Angelina's new 20's drama, Changeling, is already gathering some Oscar buzz and evidently, Aniston suspected that she might be beat: her movie has just been pushed back to February 6th, 2009.

Barbarella

A remake of the brilliant, comic book-inspired, cult 1968 sci-fi movie Barbarella is in the works, to be penned by current James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade with Sin City director Robert Rodriguez directing for Universal Studios. Sounds brilliant, right? But casting throws a spanner in the works.

Blondies Erica Durance of Smallville semi-fame (wrong, wrong) and Sienna Miller (slightly less wrong) were apparently considered for Jane Fonda's title role but Rodriguez cast flame-haired fiancee and Planet Terror star Rose McGowan instead.

Rose is great - far kookier than Erica or Sienna - but let's be honest, she is best known for Charmed and Marilyn Manson, and her acting skills so far remain unproven, consisting largely of whiny protestation and smoldering gazes.

From Wikipedia:

According to the New York Observer, Universal Studios has backed out of funding the movie because of Rodriguez's insistence to cast McGowan in the title role. Executives reportedly do not think that she can carry a movie with a budget close to $100 million. Once Universal learned of Rodriguez's decision to cast McGowan they slashed the budget significantly. Rodriguez denies this, saying, "Universal had initially signed on for $60 million, but then when we were done with the script it wound up at closer to $82 million." The filmmaker is currently shopping the project around to other studios in the hopes of getting more money. He has cited the fact that most of the movie takes place in outer space as the reason for the rise in budget, and that "we don’t want the movie to look like the original."

For a $100 million budget, backers Universal would be better off with Amy Adams!