Film is Truth 24 Times a Second

New Releases:

• The Curse of Blanchard Hill
• The Education of Charlie Banks
• Hana: The Tale of a Reluctant Samurai
• Morning Light
• 12 Rounds
• Two Lovers

New Releases (TV Series):

• Eastbound and Down: Season 1
• Entourage: Season 5
• Eureka: Season 3
• The IT Crowd: Season 2

New Arrivals:

• Michael Jackson: Number Ones

New Releases:

• Confessions of a Shopaholic
• History on My Arms with Dee Dee Ramone
• Inkheart
• Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine
• Our City Dreams
• Phoebe in Wonderland
• The Pink Panther 2
• Waltz in Bashir (also Blu-Ray)

New Arrivals:

• Dillinger (1973)
• High Hopes
• Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion)
• My Breakfast with BlassieMy Dinner with Andre (Criterion)
• Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection

New Releases:

• Bergman Island
• Cherry Blossoms
• Inside Guantanamo
• Let Freedom Sing
• Madea Goes to Jail
• Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
• XXY

New Releases (TV Series):

• Burn Notice: Season 2
• Family Guy: Volume 7
• Flying: Complete Series
• Saving Grace: Season 2
• Spies: Complete Series

New Arrivals:

• Katharine Hepburn Collection: Morning Glory / Undercurrent / Sylvia Scarlett / Without Love / Dragon Seed / The Corn Is Green
• Last Holiday (1950/Alec Guinness)
  
• Playing by Heart
• The Strange One

I have finally been released, for the time being (okay, for just shy of four months) from that demanding mistress we call academia. Since I have been cruelly cut off from accessing the print shop in the art department, here is what I have been/will be up to (cinematically speaking) in order to avoid those harmful UV rays:

Ghost Town: I just saw this one, and while the saccharine charm of the romantic comedy is more often than not lost on me, Ricky Gervais does a stand up job of portraying a socially awkward dentist tasked with tying up some loose ends from beyond the grave (graves of others that is) so that a mob of whiny ghosts will leave him in peace. I think part of the brilliance of this is that Gervais executes the role with an awkwardness that is not at all self-conscious, and believes he is being suave and charming throughout an attempt to win the heart of the leading lady, adding to the hilarity of the flick.

Tess of the D’Ubervilles: a 200-minute + BBC film/series/saga? based on the book by Thomas Hardy, this on is so affecting and tragic that I think I might have had to run to the bathroom to cry like four times at school the day after watching it. From a feminist standpoint, it is a fascinating commentary, as well as being infuriating. It is beautifully shot, and if you have some spare time and desperately need to use up a pallet of kleenex (excuse me, monogrammed handkerchiefs).

Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: A television show akin to a serial with Bruce Campbell playing swashbuckling cowboy bounty hunter. Maybe taking 19 credits last quarter melted my brain…but I am getting really into this, there are even some clever modern art references (most notably when two characters paint a set on some train tracks to create a crash and facilitate a robbery). Does the fact that I am fessing up to watching this rob me of my street cred faster than a bandit takes a stagecoach? Reckon so. Do I care? Well shoot…

Coming up, since apparently all I am interested in lately is cowboys, will be a top ten list from yours truly about the best westerns EVER. So stayed tuned pardner.

New Releases:

• Gran Torino (also Blu-ray)
• The International (also Blu-ray)
• Nicotina
• The Singing Revolution
• Were the World Mine

New Releases (TV Series):

• Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose
• The Shield: Season 7

New Arrivals:

• The Jack Lemmon Film Collection (Phffft! / Operation Mad Ball / The Notorious Landlady / Under the Yum Yum Tree / Good Neighbor Sam)
• My Dog Skip
• A Perfect World
• Rob Roy

New Releases:

• The Fox and the Child
• Defiance
• He’s Just Not That Into You
• Hippie Masala
• Revolutionary Road
• Spring Breakdown

New Releases (TV Series):

• Wallander: Series 1
• Weeds: Series 4

New Arrivals:

• It Could Happen to You
• The Jaundiced Eye

What were you watching last month? Here are May’s best-renting movies at Film is Truth!

1. Milk
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
4. The Wrestler
5. Doubt
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Burn After Reading
8. Frost/Nixon
9. The Reader
10. Quantum of Solace

New Releases:

• Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest
• A Film is a Burning Place: Works by Enid Baxter Blader
• Inside Outside: Vandalism, Art, and Vandalism as Art
• Intimidad
• Marie and Bruce
• New in Town
• The Princess of Nebraska
• A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

New Releases (TV Series):

• Mistresses: Volume 1
• 24: Season 7

New Arrivals:

• Chicago Cab (aka Hellcab)
• Cuttlefish: Kings of Camoflage
• L’Ennui
• The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk
• Lesbian Nation: A Short Film Collection
• M Butterfly
• My Bloody Valentine (1981) / April Fool’s Day (Double Feature)
• My Girl
• Nenette & Boni
• Philippe Garrel X2: I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar / Emergency Kisses (Double Feature)
• Under One Roof
• Zabriskie Point

New Releases:

• Crips and Bloods: Made in America
• Fanboys
• Keillers Park
• Kept and Dreamless
• Mississippi Chicken
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop
• Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind
• Russell Brand in New York City
• Valkyrie
• We Feed the World
• Wholphin No. 8

New Releases (TV Series):

• Friday Night Lights: Season 3
• True Blood: Season 1

New Arrivals:

• El Dorado
• Friday Night Lights: Season 1
• Friday Night Lights: Season 2
• The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Criterion)
• Indochine
• The Insect Woman (Shohei Imamura Collection)
• Intentions of Murder (Shohei Imamura Collection)
• Iron Will
• Joan of Arc
• Juice
• Pigs and Battleships (Shohei Imamura Collection)
• 3 Seconds Before Explosion
• Vibes

New Releases:

• Happily Ever After
• Of Time and the City
• S. Darko
• Taken
• Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

New Releases (TV Series):

• Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Season 6

New Arrivals:

• The Dana Carvey Show
• A Kiss Before Dying
• Kiss of Death
• Krush Groove
• Lovejoy: Season 5
• Nickelodeon / The Last Picture Show (Director’s Cut Double Feature)
• The Postman
• The Private Life of Don Juan (Alexander Korda Collection)
• The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda Collection)
• Red Dwarf: Series 5
• Red Dwarf: Series 6
• Red Dwarf: Series 7
• Red Dwarf: Series 8
• Rembrandt (Alexander Korda Collection)
• The Rise of Catherine the Great (Alexander Korda Collection)
• Sabrina (1995)
• Wise Blood (Criterion)