Win Win is a winner and Paul Giamatti is a master. Win Win, directed by Tom McCarthy of The Station Agent and The Visitor fame, does not hurry along. Instead you are given time to get to know the characters. Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, an average man who finds himself struggling economically with a failing legal practice. Trying to keep his head about water, he takes on the difficult task of coaching the local high school wrestling team. He is trying his best, but neither the team nor his finances are getting better. Unethically, he takes on the guardianship of an elderly, but rich client, Leo, in order to receive a monthly stipend. Without family to care for Leo, Giamatti sells this idea to the judge. Enters Kyle, Leo’s grandson, and everything changes. Alex Schaffer as Kyle is new to acting but there is great promise. He exudes Eminem broodiness. An actual high-school wrestling champ in real life, he is convincing as a disillusioned and troubled 16 year old running away for his abusive mother. Everyone loves a winner and everyone loves Kyle once they know what he can do. The ensemble cast of Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, and Bobby Carnavale lend spunk, empathy and humour to the film.

In the world of Hollywood glitz and glamour, how can a short, double chinned, pudgy man with slopping shoulders be so appealing? Giamatti has talent and skill to make you love him.

This movie could be about how loss makes you do things you cannot defend and ultimately regret, but to me it was just about average people, living average lives trying to do the best they can. Yes, you can find fault with this film, but somehow it just draws you in and you stay there. I found myself smiling all the way to the car. See it or borrow it from the library when it’s on DVD.

WHAT A MESSAGE! The only good things about Limitless: 1. it was not limitless, (running time 1h.45m), and 2. Bradley Cooper’s electric blue eyes. In this sci-fi thriller, Cooper plays a naive writer living on the fringe in NYC dealing with sever writer's block. He falls for the pitch that taking a mind expanding drug will solve all his problems. It did! But created many more. Over more than a year you see Eddie Morra move from the grimy streets of Chinatown, to the slick money-hungry world of high finance, to the halls of the Senate with the potential of becoming a presidential candidate. The film, directed by Neil Burger, based on a novel by Alan Glynn, uses every possible trick including Russian gangsters, corporate mergers and moguls, murder, lost time, addiction and withdrawal along with some interesting visual effects to keep the audience trapped. Robert DeNiro turns in a cool performance as Carl Van Loon and has the best dialogue and message in the entire film. Reviewers have given it a B+ but I say skip it. If you must see it, borrow it from the library and save your money for a good film like Win Win.

The new April list of DVDs is out.

127 Hours James Franco, Amber Tamblyn. Aron Ralston has a passion for all things outdoors. When a falling boulder traps him in a remote Utah canyon, a thrill-seekers adventure becomes the challenge of a lifetime. Based on the autobiography "Between a rock and a hard place" by Aron Ralston.

Catfish In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

Cool It Climate catastrophe? The end of civilization as we know it? COOL IT is based upon the book of the same name and lectures by Bjorn Lomborg.

Inside Job Through exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry that nearly resulted in a global financial collapse.

Last Train Home Changhua Zhan, Suqin Chen, Qin Zhang. Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as an astonishing 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the largest human migration on the planet. Working over several years in classic verite, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades.

Love and Other Drugs Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway Free-spirited Maggie meets her match in a charming Viagra salesman named Jamie. Maggie and Jamie leap into a no-strings-attached affair, but no matter how hard they try to keep things 'casual,' they can't help falling under the influence of the ultimate drug: love!

The Maiden Heist Marcia Gay Harden, Morgan Freeman. Charles, Roger, and George are museum security guards who take their jobs very seriously. But when they learn their favorite artworks are being sent to another museum, they concoct a plan to switch the real masterpieces with fakes.

Morning Glory Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton. For Becky, running a TV show in New York City was the big break she dreamed of, until star co-anchors Mike and Colleen declare an all-out, on-air war. Making the show work with its cast of eccentric characters and outrageous story angles will take a major miracle, but Becky is ready to rise and outshine.

New Tricks: season 3 Amanda Redman, Dennis Waterman, Alun Armstrong, James Bolam. Superintendent Sandra Pullman leads the unsolved crimes unit of the Metropolitan Police. Her team includes three aging former detectives lured out of retirement. Can a curmudgeonly trio of crime busters learn new tricks to crack tough crimes? Or are old-fashioned hunches and footwork still best?

The Next Three Days Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, Liam Neeson. Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison.

The Switch Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston. An unmarried 40-year-old becomes pregnant from a sperm bank. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own. An unmarried 40-year-old woman turns to a turkey baster in order to become pregnant. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own.

Mademoiselle Chambon V incent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain, Aure Atika, Jean-Marc Thibault. Arthur Le Houérou. Jean, his loving wife and son live a simple, happy life. At his son's homeroom teacher Madamoiselle Chambon's request, he volunteers as substitute teacher and starts to fall for her delicate and elegant charm.

Restrepo Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington. This documentary chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, Restrepo, named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make viewers feel as if they have just been through a 90-minute deployment.

The Wolfman Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt. Lured back to his family estate Lawrence must investigate the savage murder of his brother by a bloodthirsty beast and confront childhood demons, his estranged father, and his brother's grieving fiancée.

The Tillman Story Pat Tillman, Mary Tillman Pat Tillman chose to walk away from a multimillion-dollar football contract and join the military for no other reason than he felt it was the right thing to do. Documented are the facts surrounding the way the military manipulated his tragic death in the line of duty into a propaganda tool.

Recently, I saw a film that I consider intellegent with gifted actors, a wonderful script, and great staging. It is Barney's Vison. Finally a film without pyrotechniques. A film for adults. A powerful film that moves gently through a man's life, exploring his choices and his relationships. Leonard Cohen soundtrack is a perfect compliment. Based on Mordecai Richler's book of the same name, Canadian director, Robert Lantos spent 10 years trying to get it made, discarding script after script, including two by Richler, until it was just right. Barney Panofsky, played by Paul Giamatti, is a 65 year old, hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, foulmouthed, hockey fanatic and Montreal television producer, reflects on his life's successes and failures as his final years come sharply into focus. Gianatti won a best actor Golden Globe for his performaces. The film is not all about Giamatti, additional convincing performances are turned in by Dustin Hoffman, Rosemund Pike and Minnie Driver. If you missed it in the theaters, reserve the DVD by calling the library 860-673-9712.

I am so glad summer is over...the heat, the humidity...and most of it all, not many good films. Fall, in all its brilliant color is here, and at last, so are some decent films. Only two films I saw this summer are worth seeing: The Kids are All Right with Annette Benning, Julianna Moore and Mark Ruffalo and Salt with Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber. I liked both; one for its portrait of modern life and the other for its all out unrealistic action and suspense.

Kids was the most talked-about movie at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and the winner of the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. Directed by Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon) from an original screenplay that she wrote along with Stuart Blumberg (Keeping the Faith). The film is funny and poignant. A richly drawn portrait of a modern family and how bonds of trust and love can be tested.. Benning is outstanding.

Salt, an action adventure film cloaked in mystery and suspense, keeps you guessing nearly to the end. Salt, a victim of another type of family environment, is a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy . She uses all her skill and training to elude capture and prove her innocence. If you prefer realism this is not for you. If you like action films with implausible plots that only

Hollywood can produce, you'll love it. How could anyone except Jolie withstand such a beating and run away in the end?

If you you missed them in the theater, call in you reserve. I will add them to the collection as soon as they are released. I have seen several cant miss films in September and October which I will write about next time. Hopefully I will be able to post recommendations more regularly as we approach Academy Award season.

.......... ...................... READ IT ........................THEN ...................SEE IT ........................
A Very Private Gentleman, a 1990 cat-and-mouse thriller by British novelist Martin Booth, was recently released as The American starring George Clooney and Violante Placido. Alone among assassins, Jack is the best. When a job ends badly he vows his next assignment will be his last. In a small Italian village tucked away in the countryside, Jack relishes being away from death. He seeks out the friendship of a local priest and pursues romance with a local woman. Put when next assignment comes, he is soon back in the fray. By stepping out of the shadows, will he be tempting fate!


The Romantics based on the novel by Pankaj Mishra will soon be released starring Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin and Josh Duhamel. Seven close friends reunite for the wedding of two of their friends. Problems arise because the bride and the maid of honor have had a long rivalry over the groom. During the course of the raucous night before the wedding, friendships and alliances are tested and the love triangle comes to a head. A love story that examines the camaraderie of youth.

The Town is a film adaption of the prize-winning book by Chuck Hogan Prince of Thieves which won the 2005 Hammett Prize for excellence in crime writing. The film, starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner, will be in theaters soon. Men wearing masks with guns drawn make a bank manager open the vault. Their timing and execution is brilliant. It could be the perfect heist. But as the huge sum of cash is stolen, so is one man's heart, and that man is the Prince of Thieves, the brains behind the tough, tight-knit crew of thieves. The girl who has caught his heart has another admirer: FBI agent Adam Frawley, who is investigating the gang determined to bring them to justice.

Never Let Me Go this 2004 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro is adapted into a film starring Keire Knightly, Carey Mullligan and Andrew Garfield. The story is narrated by 31 year-old Kathy who reminisces about her childhood at the sheltered boarding school and her life after leaving the school. An idyllic life in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society as well. When two of her classmates come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory and the dark secret behind a nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood—and about their lives now. A tale of biomedical science fiction that asks the question "what makes us human."

The Social Network, a film starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake, is based on Ben Mezrich's nonfiction book The Accidental Billionaires which uncovers the true story behind the founding of Facebook. A high-energy tale about two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers who are trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex end up creating Facebook. Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends and clearly on the outside. Getting invited to join one of the Harvard's Finnl Clubs could be their ticket to social acceptance. Mark finds a way to stardom by hacking into the university's computer system, creating a database that rates all the female students on campus. At that moment, in his Harvard dorm room, the framework for Facebook was born revolutionizing the way hundreds of millions of people relate to each other.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final book in Stieg Larsson's millennium trilogy, follows The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire with this exhilarating conclusion. Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant computer hacker who was shot in the head at the end of Fire, is alive and the prime suspect in three murders in Stockholm. While she convalesces under armed guard, journalist Mikael Blomkvist works to unravel the decades-old coverup surrounding the man who shot Salander: her father, Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet intelligence defector and longtime secret asset to Sweden's security police. When able Salander will have to prove her innocence, denounce those in authority who allowed the attack on her life and seek revenge against the man who tried to kill her. Once a victim. now she's fighting back.

Check out what's on the August DVD list

According to Greta Hilary Duff, Evan Ross. A rebellious teen is sent to her grandparents for the summer. She soon begins a romance with a young cook who has a criminal past, confronts a tragic family secret, and just may discover the promising young woman hidden beneath her sarcastic shell.

Afghan Star In Afghanistan you risk your life to sing. After thirty years of war and five devastating years of Taliban rule, pop culture is beginning to return to the country.

Alice in Wonderland Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp. Alice, now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny.

Amreeka Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem. Muna Farah, a Palestinian single mom, struggles to maintain her optimistic spirit in the daily grind of intimidating West Bank checkpoints, the constant nagging of a controlling mother, and the haunting shadows of a failed marriage. Everything changes one day when she receives a letter informing her that her family has been granted a U.S. green card.

The Bounty Hunter Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston. Milo, a down-on-his-luck bounty hunter, gets his dream job when he is assigned to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, reporter Nicole.

The Boys are Back Clive Owen, Emma Booth. After the unexpected death of his wife, a sportswriter finds himself consumed with grief and completely unprepared to raise two boys. Determined to bring joy back into their lives, he takes a 'just say yes' approach to parenting and chaos ensues.

Brooklyn’s Finest Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke. After having endured extremely different career paths, the lives of three disheartened Brooklyn police officers will collide with destiny when they all wind up at the same fatal crime scene.

Disgrace John Malkovich, Jessica Haines. Professor David Lurie is a man whose world is shattered when he is fired for seducing a college student. He finds peace at his estranged daughter's modest farm in South Africa until a horrific incident of terror and violence forces Lurie to confront his beliefs and the disturbing racial complexities of the new South Africa.

Edge of Darkness Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone. After a bullet meant for him kills his daughter instead, Boston cop Thomas Craven's quest for revenge leads him into a shadowy world of political intrigue.

Flow: for the love of water or how did a handful of corporations steal our water? The documentary builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply and pose the question: Can anyone really own water?

Fourth Kind Milla Jovovich, Will Patton. Since the 1960s, Nome, Alaska, has seen a disproportionate number of its population being reported missing every year. Despite multiple FBI investigations of the region, the truth has never been discovered until a psychologist begins videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and unwittingly discovered some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.

The Good Guy Scott Porter, Alexis Bledel. Ambitious New Yorker Beth wants it all: a good job, good friends, and a good guy to share the city with. But when she falls hard for a handsome young Wall Street hotshot, she discovers that the last one is trickiest of all.

Green Zone Matt Damon, Amy Ryan. During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.

North Face Benno Fürmann, Johanna Wokalek. An adventure drama, based on a true story about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps, the north face of the Eiger.

Phoebe in Wonderland Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson. Phoebe is an imaginative but troubled girl with a desperate longing to be in her school's production of Alice in Wonderland. When she is cast in the lead role her parents believe her unusual behavior is due to her creativity, but soon realize that she is on the brink of falling through the looking glass herself.

The White Ribbon Christian Friedel, Ulrich Tukur, Leonie Benesch. In a north German village prior to the outbreak of World War I, strange events, accidents, and deaths are occurring. The village people are beside themselves with worry and can't figure out what to do. Trying to unravel this mystery, it is discovered that the children of the town may be guilty of the crimes and have formed a secret society with the local pastor's daughter the leader.