Just a few days left to enter our Oscar contest!
Stop by the store, fill out a ballot, and whoever predicts/guesses the highest number of correct winners, gets 20 free rentals!!
(Oscar broadcast is this Sunday evening on ABC.)

This week Due Date, the latest from director Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover), gets its DVD release. The mismatched buddy road trip comedy stars Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. But it's Galifianakis who steals our blog's spotlight for this post...

Galifianakis has recently become an unlikely Hollywood star, being featured in high grossing comedies as well as indie films. In addition to Due Date, the last year has seen the DVD releases of It's Kind of a Funny Story, Dinner For Schmucks, Operation: Endgame, Frenemy, Youth in Revolt, Visioneers, Up in the Air, and the HBO series Bored to Death. (He's also managed to appear regularly on The Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as well as guest star on American Dad and Funny or Die Presents... during that time.) Busy guy!

Here, for your amusement and bewilderment, are a few random clips of other Galifianakis appearances, beginning with an episode of his own "talkshow," Between Two Ferns:

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Michael Cera from Between Two Ferns

This is an honest-to-goodness real ad (albeit for Swedish television) that Zach made with his frequent cohorts, Tim & Eric:




Here's a video he made with Will Oldham for Kayne West's Can't Tell Me Nothing:




And finally, here's one of my favorite clips from one of his stand-up acts:




Also new to our shelves this week:
(click on the titles for more information)

Fish Tank

Director Andrea Arnold follows up her unconventional, unsettling thriller – the excellent Red Road – with an equally blistering and captivating character portrait. Newcomer Katie Jarvis impresses as the brash and impulsive 15 year old Mia, struggling to find balance and make sense of her inchoate rage, fly-girl aspirations, and burgeoning sexuality. Mired in the trappings of her low class environs, she attempts to navigate (not always successfully) the tensions and conflicts of life in general and teenager-dom in particular. Many scenes/sequences are difficult to watch, unnervingly fraught with potential disaster, but there is an assured restraint to the direction (as well as writing and performances) that consistently keep the proceedings from descending into unremitting bleakness or generic formula. The result is powerful and highly recommended.

Get Low

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Nurse Jackie - 2nd Season

Weeds - 6th Season

Doc Martin - 2nd Season

The Bird Can't Fly

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Sword of War

Summer Wars

Leaving

Room in Rome

Change of Plans

Purple Sea

Carmo: Hit the Road

Red Mercury

The Good Earth

Red Dwarf - Season 2


New Docs:

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
Check out our THEME shelf for other documentaries, films, and cinematic experiments starring or inspired by the complicated and influential Beat/Punk icon.

Mugabe and the White African

Last Train Home

Two in the Wave

Kings of Pastry and
Pressure Cooker
Be sure to check out our FOOD shelf for other culinary-inspired films and documentaries. Mmmmmm.....

Until the Light Takes Us


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Is Our Children Learning?

This week sees the release of Davis Guggenheim's recent documentary, Waiting for "Superman" - an exploration into some of the issues surrounding America's failing educational system and a look at some possible solutions. We thought we'd offer a few other films dealing with the trials and tribulations of teachers and schools...

The First Year
A 2001 documentary, also by Guggenheim, that follows 5 teachers through-out their first years.

The Lottery
Another 2010 documentary about our educational crisis, this one focusing on the high stakes lottery system that allows a small number of children to enter Charter Schools.

The Wire - 4th Season
One of television's most acclaimed series turned its attention on Baltimore schools in their excellent fourth season.

The Ron Clark Story
Matthew Perry stars in this factually-based story of a smalltown teacher who relocates to the big city and faces the challenges of urban education. See also: Blackboard Jungle, Stand and Deliver, Lean On Me, Dangerous Minds, Teachers, & Half Nelson.

The Class, Skirt Day, & Games of Love and Chance
Three French films showing that these issues aren't endemic to America...

What are some of your favorite films about teachers and teaching?


In honor of Arcade Fire's recent Grammy win, here's a Spike Jonze directed video for a track off their latest:





New to our shelves:
(click on the title for more information)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Life As We Know It

You Again

Tamara Drewe

The Romantics

For Colored Girls

Middle Men

Paranormal Activity 2

I Spit On Your Grave (2010)

My Soul to Take

Unstoppable

Glorious 39

Wild Target

Hideaway

Still Walking

Unmade Beds

A French Gigolo

Welcome

High Lane

Ong Bak 3

Kites (The Remix)

The Storm Warriors

A Time for Drunken Horses

Against the Current

See You in September

Animal Collective: Oddsac

Project Runway - 8th Season

Top Chef: New York - 5th Season

MI-5 - 6th Season

Other recent arrivals:

Santa Sangre

WUSA

Riot

Chicago Cab

Defense of the Realm

In Old Chicago

The Black Swan (1942)

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Oscar Contest!
Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, we've begun our annual Oscar contest. Stop by the store to fill out a ballot, and the customer with the most correct predictions (guesses?) will win 20 free rentals!


In local performance news, The Vermont Stage Company's production of Oliver Twist is currently up and running - it continues through this week and next. Heavily stylized and drawing upon a great many Victorian-era theatrical traditions and conventions, the show also features a cast of mostly local actors and excellent music by Burlington's David Symons. (You can read the Free Press review here.)

In honor of the show, we've put up a shelf of Twist adaptations in the store -- turns out we've got a few! In addition to David Lean's classic take from 1948 featuring Alec Guinness as Fagin, the Oscar-winning musical version Oliver! from 1968, and Roman Polanski's recent 2005 version, we also have adaptations from 1922, 1933, 1985, 1997, and 2007, as well as several films that offer looser takes on the story such as Disney's Oliver & Company, the queer-oriented Twisted, and the contemporized urban take, A Boy Called Twist.





New to our shelves:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The third and final film in the series based on Stieg Larsson's wildly popular books. Now you can see all the original Swedish adaptations before the upcoming, David Fincher directed American versions are released.

Let Me In
Speaking of American versions, this Hollywood remake of the Swedish vampire thriller Let the Right One In has garnered almost as much acclaim as the original.

Red
Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and John Malkovich lead the charge in this cheeky action film. Also featuring Brian Cox, Mary Louise-Parker, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Dogtooth
Topping John Waters' best of list for 2010, this "perfectly perverse" Greek film about an overly sheltered family was also just nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Secretariat
Diane Lane and John Malkovich star in this horse biopic (equinopic?) about the famed racer.

Nowhere Boy
A portrait of a young John Lennon in the formative pre-Beatles years.

Enter the Void
Gaspar Noe (I Stand Alone; Irreversible) latest offering is a drug-frenzied night out.

Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) adaptation of the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day; The Saddest Music in the World) stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, and Charlotte Rampling.

Welcome to the Rileys
James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo play a couple who develop a surrogate paternal relationship with a young stripper, played by Kristen Stewart.

A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop
Zhang Yimou (Hero; Not One Less; To Live) remakes the Coen Brothers' debut film Blood Simple.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Alex Gibney (Enron: Smartest Men in the Room; Taxi to the Dark Side; Gonzo; Casino Jack & the United States of Money; Freakonomics) continues his hot doc streak with this look into the scandal and political shenanigans surrounding the former New York governor.

The Tillman Story
A compelling story of a family's quest to reveal the truth behind their son's death in Afghanistan and the subsequent military and government cover-up.

The Lottery
A documentary about charter schools and a good companion piece to Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for "Superman."

Conviction
Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell star in the fact-based story of a sibling's struggle to overturn a false conviction.

Skin
Set during the Apartheid era, this film follows the story of a young black woman (Sophie Okonedo from Hotel Rwanda) born of two white parents.

Night Catches Us
Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington star in this 70's-set story of a couple struggling to find their place and identity in a racially and politically fractured society.

An Englishman in New York
John Hurt reprises the role of gay icon and activitst Quentin Crisp (having portrayed him 35 years earlier in the adaptation of Crisp's autobiography, The Naked Civil Servant).

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Saw: The Final Chapter
We'll see.

Chain Letter

Monsters

Mean Girls 2

Adventures of Power

Gary Wilson: You Think You Really Know Me

Open Season 3

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2

Shaun the Sheep: Spring Shen-a-anigans

Glee - 2.1st Season



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First, dear readers, a giant mea culpa for the delinquency with these blog entries...
and a resolution to return to our regular frequency.

So while tardy, this does happen to be the first posting of the new year. And what better time to talk about annual "best of..." lists. Personally, I've always found it difficult to participate in the compiling and sharing of those types of lists because it always seems to take well into the following year (at least!) to actually get around to seeing all the buzzed-about films -- not to mention the hidden gems and off-the-radar wonders. This is due in part to pure logistics: many films (especially year-end award favorites) often take a while to reach our local theaters; and many films never do arrive, leaving us waiting for the eventual DVD releases. And of course, it's also due in part to time... and the lack of it. Who among us has actually got the time to watch all of the movies we wish we could?

That being said, we'd still like to hear what everyone's favorite films of last year were. Everyone reading this is cordially invited and strongly encouraged to share their lists in the comments section of this blog post. However, we here at Waterfront aren't really sticklers for restrictions, so the parameters of your list are entirely up to you... Perhaps it's a list of the best films of 2010 you've seen so far; or maybe it's the best new DVD releases of 2010; or maybe it's simply the best films you happened to see last year (or even the best films of a certain genre or ilk)... the options are open!

To get the ball rolling, I'll humbly offer my list. (A list of new "Seth Suggests" movies.) These are 21 of the most rewarding films I saw during the course of 2010, very loosely ranked:

The Devil's Playground: American Surrealism (Unseen Cinema, Vol. 4, 1894-1941)
Next Floor (Denis Velleneuve, 2008)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Bansky, 2010)
Citizen Dog (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2004)
Last Holiday (Henry Cass, 1950)
Roma (Federico Fellini, 1972)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009)
Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010)
Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, 2009)
The Taste of Tea (Katsuhito Ishii, 2004)
Dementia (John J. Parker, 1953)
I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, 2009)
Theater of War (John Walter, 2008)
Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque (Jacques Richard, 2004)
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
When the Wind Blows (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1986)
Boy A (John Crowley, 2007)
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
Look Both Ways (Sarah Watt, 2005)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel, 1950)

Well, that's me. How about you?




New to our shelves this month:

The Social Network
The film that has landed on nearly every single major critic's year end list and is currently sweeping through the awards season comes to DVD in a special 2-disc release with nearly 8 hours of extras. Aaron Sorkin's "facebook movie," directed by David Fincher, scored (excellently) by Trent Reznor, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake, may not be quite the revolutionary masterpiece it is being hyperbolically hailed as, but it's an engaging, highly enjoyable film that is well worth seeing.

Howl
James Franco plays Allen Ginsburg in this dramatization of the censorship struggle the poet faced concerning the titular work. Jon Hamm, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Bob Balaban, Treat Williams, and Alessandro Nivola also star; Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (the duo behind The Times of Harvey Milk and The Celluloid Closet) direct.

Jack Goes Boating
Philip Seymour Hoffmann's directorial debut, starring himself and Amy Ryan, centers around two working class New York couples.

Stone
Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton square off in this prison-set drama.

Dinner For Schmucks
Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd star in this remake of the 1998 French comedy, Le Diner de Cons (euphemistically translated as The Dinner Game). The remake also features Jermaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis, and Kristen Schaal.

Paper Man
A down on his luck writer and a teenager form an unlikely friendship in this indie comedy starring Jeff Daniels, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Kieran Culkin, and Lisa Kudrow.

Animal Kingdom
A tense Australian offering about dangerous familial bonds and the grip of violence.

Machete
Robert Rodriguez turns his Grindhouse trailer into a feature-length revenge flick, starring Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin, and even Lindsay Lohan.

Catfish
Intriguing documentary that caused a splash at Sundance last year, raising questions about truth, ethics, new media, and gullibility.

Piranha
Alexandre Aja (High Tension; The Hills Have Eyes) directs this remake of the 1978 Roger Corman/Joe Dante flick about mutated killer fish. A highly enjoyable B-movie that truly delivers in the gore department.

Case 39
Renee Zellweger plays a social worker who realizes she's in a more dangerous situation than she expected in this horror thriller that also features Ian McShane and Bradley Cooper.

The Last Exorcism

And Soon the Darkness

The Army of Crime

Lebanon

Eichmann

The Lena Baker Story

$5 a Day

Louis C.K.: Hilarious

Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart

The Ricky Gervais Show - 1st Season

Glee - 2.1st Season

The Closer - 4th Season

Big Love - 4th Season

Happy New Year!!!

Plenty of movies are set on or around New Year's Eve, but few have attained classic status.
Two of the best are both at least 50 years old:

The Apartment, Billy Wilder's excellent comic drama about a passive office drone (Jack Lemmon) and fellow lowly patsy (Shirley MacLaine) who both find themselves on the short end of the stick -- but at least they're there together.

After the Thin Man, the follow-up to the Christmas-set The Thin Man, finds Nick and Nora solving crimes amidst New Year's cheer in this witty mystery that also features a great turn by an oh-so-young Jimmy Stewart.

Nick Charles: Have you made any New Year's resolutions?
Nora Charles: Not yet. Any complaints or suggestions?
Nick Charles: A few.
Nora Charles: Which?
Nick Charles: Complaints.
Nora Charles: All right shoot.
Nick Charles: Well, you don't scold, you don't nag, and you look far too pretty in the mornings.
Nora Charles: All right, I'll remember: must scold, must nag, musn't be too pretty in the mornings.

What are some recent New Year's set films you've enjoyed? Or other older classics I've missed?
Do tell...



New to our shelves this week:

The American
George Clooney stars as the titular American in this Euro-vibed and set espionage thriller, directed by Anton Corbijn (Control).

Resident Evil: Afterlife
Milla's back in this fourth installment, just to prove that Angelina isn't the only female action star around.

Handsome Harry
A crime thriller involving Vietnam veterans, starring Jamey Sheridan, Steve Buscemi, Bill Sage, Campbell Scott, John Savage, and Aidan Quinn.

Twelve
Joel Schumacher directs some hot young things in this drug-addled drama.

Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement
A documentary chronicling a 42-year relationship.

The United States of Tara - 2nd Season

Archer - 1st Season
The new series by the twisted (brilliant) minds behind Frisky Dingo.


Next week's blog:
We're going to be talking Best of...
Best new movies of 2010 as well as the best new DVD releases.
We'll include some of our thoughts about what these "best" films are, but we'd love to hear your thoughts, too. So start thinking about your lists now and then next week, we'll devote our comments section exclusively to a discussion of everybody's best (and possibly worst) of the year that's just passed us by!


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Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Here's a special Christmas Card greeting from Terry Gilliam
(from Do Not Adjust Your Set, 1968)

New to our shelves this week:

Easy A
This winning contemporization of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter stars a charismatic Emma Stone and features of host of strong supporting players, with Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson giving especially hilarious turns.

Salt
Angelina Jolie stepped into a role originally intended for Tom Cruise, and again proves herself a bad-ass extraordinaire in this engaging, well-constructed actioner by Phillip Noyce.

Soul Kitchen
Fatih Akin (Head On, Crossing the Bridge, The Edge of Heaven) directs this comic lark about food and music - staples of the soul.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Oliver Stone attempts to recreate the Zeitgeist-capturing allure of his 1987 film, this time setting the story during the recent credit crisis and financial meltdown.

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo

Beautiful Kate

Let It Rain

Skirt Day

Angel
Francois Ozon (Swimming Pool, Under the Sand, 8 Women) directs his first English-language film, a period piece based on a novel by Elizabeth Taylor.

Devil
Claustrophobia continues to be a prevalent theme this year with this horror piece devised by M. Night Shyamalan. (see also: Buried & 127 Hours)

The Heavy

Step Up 3

Family Guy: It's a Trap!

Futurama - Volume 5

This week, one of the year's most intriguing and entertaining movies, Exit Through the Gift Shop, gets its DVD release. Street artist Banksy directs with a knowing wink and, in the process of providing a genial and general recent history of the underground/graffiti-art movement, also offers plenty of food for thought concerning Art and the Art World.



There are several other films on the subject worth checking out, including another recent arrival, Next: A Primer on Urban Painting.

We also recommend:
PoPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Radiant Child

Beautiful Losers

Piece By Piece

Infamy

Style Wars




New to our shelves this week:
This was a huge week for new releases and new arrivals - so many choices!


Micmacs
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie; City of Lost Children; Delicatessen) returns with a tale of head injuries, homelessness, and corporate weapons manufacturers.

The A-Team
Joe Carnahan (Narc; Smokin' Aces) directs this big-budget take on the 80s television series.

The Other Guys

Despicable Me

Nanny McPhee Returns

Mother and Child

Cyrus

Frenemy

The Trotsky

Disengagement

The Sicilian Girl

Mademoiselle Chambon

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue
A look at America's relationship with the horror movie genre.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
A surprisingly compelling documentary about the comedienne which is by turns funny, insightful, and sad.

A Walk Into the Sea
A portrait of underground filmmaker Danny Williams and the time he spent with Andy Warhol's Factory before disappearing without a trace.

Gasland
Another documentary on the Academy's shortlist, Josh Fox's affable but provocative look at the repercussions and lack of discussions surrounding the mining and use of natural gas is sure to raise questions as well as righteous indignation.

Foodmatters

24 - 8th Season

Doc Martin - 1st Season

Inspector Lewis - 1st Season

Coming Out Friday:

The Town
Ben Affleck follows up his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, with another Boston-set crime caper, starring himself, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, Pete Postlethwaite, and Jon Hamm.

Legends of the Guardian

New Arrivals:

Devils on the Doorstep
This black comedy set during the Japanese occupation of China ran afoul of Chinese censors.

Yojimbo
Kurosawa's influential thriller in a Criterion release.

Stagecoach
John Ford's iconic western gets the Criterion treatment.

Fail-Safe
Sidney Lumet directs this cold war classic.

The Search
Montgomery Clift's first film, directed by Fred Zinneman.

Arizona Dream
Serbian director Emir Kusturica's only English-language film, this unpredictable, often hilarious offbeat gem stars Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, Vincent Gallo, and Lili Taylor. It includes a scene I consider to be quintessential Kusturica: Johnny Depp, wearing a white baptismal-type gown, hair messed-up, clucking like a chicken, squatting on a wheeled chair, comes rolling down the hallway to Taylor who’s standing in a doorway, beret askew, cigarette dangling from her lips, playing an accordion. When he reaches her, she puts out her foot and kicks his chair, sending him careening back down the hallway, into his bedroom, into the arms of Faye Dunaway, and the two proceed to have some hot sexy time. Afterwards, Depp smokes three cigarettes at once and looks out the window to see a fish swimming through the night rain. ... How can you resist?

A Song For Martin
Bille August's incisive story of a couple confronting alzheimer's.

The Phantom Tollbooth
Chuck Jones' adaptation of the classic children's tale.

Dusty & Sweets McGee
A slice of 70s drug-life in L.A.

None But the Lonely Heart
Clifford Odets wrote and directed this long unavailable film that features one of Cary Grant's best dramatic roles (and one of the only ones where he uses his original cockney accent) and co-stars the legendary Ethel Barrymore.

Dark Shadows - 1st Set
Check out the original series before the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp remake hits theaters.

Stone (1974)
The notorious Ozploitation film that is considered something of a precursor to Mad Max.

The Toy Box / Toys Are Not For Children