Films featuring Libraries and Librarians

 In honor of National Library Week, check out a movie about libraries!  Below are some famous movies featuring libraries and librarians:

The Time Traveler's Wife (2010):  Based off the Audrey Niffenegger weeper, this movie follows the tortured but passionate romance of artist Claire and librarian Henry.  Personally, I'd recommend reading the book over watching this movie, but Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana do look fantastic!
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The Hollywood Librarian (2009):  This documentary looks that different images of librarians and libraries in American movies.
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The Station Agent (2004):  The so-hot-right-now Peter Dinklage made his big break in this indie sleeper.  Michelle Williams plays his love interest, a local librarian who is unhappily pregnant by her good-for-nothing boyfriend.
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Miranda (2003):   John Simms (from the British miniseries State of Play) plays a librarian who falls for a mysterious but comely library patron (Christina Ricci). 
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The Mummy (1999):  In this action thriller,  Rachel Weisz plays a beautiful but clumsy librarian at the library of Alexandra.
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Wings of Desire (1987):  This Wim Wenders masterpiece features one of the most famous library scenes ever in  the Berlin State Libary (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). For the angels in the film, who can hear humans' thoughts, the library is one of the loudest places in the city.  This is a spectacularly beautiful film, highly recommended!
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Breakfast Club (1985):  What's a fate worth than death for a high school student?  Having to spend Saturday in the school library!  Check out this John Hughes classic and have Simple Minds stuck in your head all day.
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Ghostbusters (1984):  This classic 80s sci-fi comedy has lots of great scenes in the New York Public Library, including a librarian ghost who mysteriously stacks books!
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The Music Man (1962):  Featuring Marian the Librarian, queen of all librarian stereotypes.  She shushes, wears her hair up in a bun, and has spiffy glasses.  But when she takes down her hair, she's a total babe!
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Desk Set (1957):  Watch the sparks fly between Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in this romance set in television reference library!
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It's a Wonderful Life (1956):  Without George Bailey around, Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) is forced to live her life as a librarian.  The horror!  The horror!
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For further celebration, check out some fiction and non-fiction books featuring libraries and librarians!

Happy Groundhog Day!

"This is the one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather."- Phil Connors (Bill Murray) from Groundhog Day (1993). 

It's time again for everyone's favorite holiday this side of Flag Day!  There really isn't too much you can do to celebrate, beside humming the Pennsylvania Polka to yourself or driving down to Woodstock- if you are feeling really festive.  However, it is a great excuse to watch the classic Bill Murray movie again, arguably the best thing about the holiday!  As for the actual weather predictions, it looks like there are conflicting reports: Punxsutawney Phil says six more weeks of winter and Woodstock Willie is more optimistic.

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Guilty Pleasure Pick: Holiday Movies, part 3: Scrooged

 Frank Cross: I get it. You're here to show me my past, and I'm supposed to get all dully-eyed and mushy. Well, forget it, pal, you got the wrong guy!
Ghost of Christmas Past: That's exactly what Attila the Hun said. But when he saw his mother... Niagara Falls! 

Scrooged (1988).
Call No.: DVD COMEDY SCROOGED
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Outside of the Christmas B-Horror realm of the Gingerdead Man (2005) and Santa Claws (1996), Scrooged has to be one of the darkest Christmas movies around.  A loose adaptation of Dicken's oft remade Christmas Carol,  Scrooged follows around cynical, selfish and occasionally mean dude, Francis Xavier Cross (think proto-Jack Donaghy).  Cross is a TV exec, who in a meta twist, is in the midst of making a made-for-TV adaptation of the Christmas Carol.  He's such a grouch that he doesn't blink an eye at stapling antlers on a mouse, or stealing a taxi cab from an elderly lady.  Like Ebenezer Scrooge, Cross is financially successful but at a great cost to his personal life.  He chose his career over his one true love Claire (Karen Allen), and only his brother James (John Murray) still reaches out to him.

The movie and Bill Murray at their best when Cross is behaving badly.  Once Cross goes soft, the movie loses its bite and Murray's final speech seems too maudlin and preachy to be delivered by Cross (even reformed).  Also, Scrooged dates back to the 80s, so the pop culture and political references are more than a little dated. Still, if you ignore the feel good ending, it's a nice alternative to some of the more treacly and sentimental Christmas fare out there.  Below are my top five favorite things about Scrooged:

5).  David Johansen as the Ghost of Christmas Past.  Glam rocker David Johansen portrays the Ghost of Christmas Past as a hard-bitten New York cabbie, complete with a thick Brooklyn accent.  Johansen lays the sarcasm on thick and his attitude is so tough that even Cross even lets him call him "Frankie Angel." 

4).  Ads for the Holiday Line-up.  The film starts out with commercials for some of IBC's (Cross's network) terrible holiday line-up.  Shows include:

• The Night the Reindeer Died.  Lee Majors must defend the North Pole from intruders.
• Bob Goulet's Cajun Christmas.  America's favorite lounge singer covers Christmas carols like "Silver Bells" while riding in a gondola in a swamp.
• Scrooge:  Starring Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim.  Not only does she walk without her crutches, she does back flips!

3)."Put a Little Love in Your Heart" Sing-a-long. While I'm not a fan of Cross's misty-eyed on camera break down speech, I do love the sing-a-long ending.  Particularly, when the trapped souls in the Ghost of Christmas Future's ribcage join in. 

2).  Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present.  Kane plays the Ghost of Christmas Present as kind of a Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl.  Dressed as a fairy, she's full of energy and seems to enjoy every minute of her visit, but she also uses violence when necessary (or unnecessary) with Cross- like smacking him with a toaster.

1).  Bill Murray is in it.  And seriously, isn't he usually the best thing about every movie he's ever made?

Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg plays Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg in the hotly anticipated new David Fincher film The Social Network, which is coming to theaters this Friday.  I've been a fan of Eisenberg since 2002's Roger Dodger, where he played the young, naive nephew of Campbell Scott's Don Draperian advertising copywriter.  Since then, Eisenberg has turned in winning performances in films like Noah Baumbach's excellent family dramedy, The Squid and the Whale (2005), and the sweetly nostalgic but hilarious Adventureland (2009).  That is not to say that Eisenberg's career has been completely free of missteps; he appeared in M. Night Shyamalan's much maligned film The Village (2004) and the cult horror movie Cursed (2005).

Eisenberg has often been compared to Superbad star Michael Cera, most likely because both actors frequently play sensitive, slightly neurotic young men with hipster tendencies.  Cera may be the more famous of the two, but Eisenberg favors characters with a darker edge and has larger breadth in his roles.

Fun fact:  Eisenberg created the super addictive world play website OneUpMe.com where users compete to make the most amusing/ profound simile.

Check out Eisenberg in one of the DVDs we have at the library:

Zombieland (2009). *
DVD COMEDY ZOMBIELAND
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The best zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead (2004).  It has a very cool cameo by everyone's favorite Chicagoan, Bill Murray.

Adventureland (2009).*
DVD COMEDY ADVENTURELAND
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My favorite film of last year.  It has an excellent supporting performance by Media Corner favorite Martin Starr too!

The Education of Charlie Banks (2007).
DVD FICTION EDUCTION
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Happy Birthday, Bill Murray!

"Tito Puente's gonna be dead, and you're gonna say, 'Oh, I've been listening to him for years, and I think he's fabulous.'"
- Bill Murray, Stripes (1981)

Tuesday, September 21st, beloved actor/comedian Bill Murray turned 60. The Chicago native has been redefining comedy in his own image since the late 1970s, from his work with the esteemed Second City improv troupe, his hugely popular tenure on Saturday Night Live, subsequent box-office success with Harold Ramis and other Second City alums, and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch. His Oscar nominated performance in 2003's Lost in Translation is indicative of a progression toward more complex, nuanced performances. Murray's continued late-career renaissance is a wonderful thing to see, and I, for one, hope it never ends.

Cinematic Aphrodisiacs: A Guide to Good Date Movies

Choosing the perfect movie for a date can be a delicate art, especially if you and your date have mismatched taste.  You don't want to bring a Guy Maddin film to a date with a person whose all time favorite movie is Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous or the Scorpion King (though you might question why you are going out with them in the first place).  You also want something that sets the mood properly-  light, fun, slightly offbeat, and romantic but not setting the bar too high.  Compiled below are movies that I would proudly take to a date. Not all titles will appeal to everyone, but would you really want to date someone who didn't like The Apartment?  I'm just doing you a favor! 

All the Real Girls (2003).  It's risky to watch a movie that is, in part, about love gone wrong.  But All the Real Girls also shows the fun of falling in love.  And it stars two of cinemas most crush worthy actors: Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel.  Plus you'll get major indie cred for a choosing a movie directed by David Gordon Greene. Oh, and the love scenes are pretty hot too. 
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Annie Hall (1977). If you and your date are just the slight bit neurotic or bookish, odds are you will relate immensely to this movie.  This is Woody Allen at his most charming; you almost understand why the ditsy but beautiful Annie (Diane Keaton) would fall for him.  Annie Hall is full of relationship foibles, but still optimistic and funny.
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The Apartment (1960).  You can't really go wrong with Billy Wilder and this is my favorite of his films.  A romantic comedy about poor lovelorn C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemon), who lets the higher ups in his office use his apartment to carry out their extramarital affairs. This helps him get ahead at work, but he starts to question the morality of his actions when he sees how infidelity affects the elevator operator of his dreams (Shirley MacLaine).
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