Under the Kanopy: Two with Michel Piccoli
By Craig J. Clark
Reviews: Ex Libris & After Midnight
by Craig J. Clark
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman, 2017)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game...
Both the American League and National Leauge Championship Series start October 10th. Whether you're disappointed your favorite team is no longer in contention for the World Series or you just can't get enough of October baseball, these films are for you!
Field of Dreams "If you build it, he will come." An Iowa corn farmer Ray Kinsella hears this voice in his field one day and interprets it to mean he should build a baseball field on his farm. Once built, the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other 1919 Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the World Series appear. He continues to hear voices, each time leading Ray to a different era of baseball and one step closer to his estranged father.
42 This is the story of Jackie Robinson, recruited from the Negro Leagues to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 and his historic 1947 rookie season where he broke the race barrier in Major League Baseball.
The Sandlot This coming of age movie is about Scotty Smalls a new kid in the neighborhood and struggling to make friends. After embarrassing himself in an improvised game of baseball, Scotty turns to his stepfather to teach him how to play, goes back to the sandlot to show his new skill, is befriended by the team and goes on a series of adventures with them.
Angels in the Outfield Roger wants two things from life: to live with a real family instead of in a foster home and for the California Angels to finally win the pennant even though they are the worst team in the division. One day some angels appear at a game to help Roger make this happen-but only Roger can see them and believes in them! Will the Angels win the pennant? Ya gotta believe!
Moneyball The true story of Oakland A's manager Billy Beane's sucessful attempt to build a winning baseball team by using computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
A League of their Own This is a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Set during World War II when a shortage of men threatens to shut down major league baseball, one major league owner convinces others to finance a woman's league.
Rookie of the Year After his broken arm heals in an unexpected fashion, 12 year old little leaguer Henry finds that he now has the ability to pitch with incredible force. Signed by the Cubs and heading to the National League Championship game, Henry faces many challenges as a kid playing in the majors and playing alongside his heroes.
The Bad News Bears A down on his luck ex-Major Leaguer agrees to coach a ragtag little league team, whips them into shape, and takes on their nemisis in a super competitive Californian little leauge.
Major League The Cleveland Indian's new owner wants to move the team but the only way out of the stadium contract is poor attendence. She assembles the worst baseball players and hopes for a losing season, but when the players catch wind of her plan they start winning just to spite her.
Bull Durham Minor Leaguer "Crash" Davis is sent to the Durham Bulls to help train up coming pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh in the way of baseball and life. The situation is even more complicated when Annie gets thrown into the mix. Annie and Crash each help to shape Nuke into a major league pitcher.
The Quiet Man
John Wayne is one of the most famous and beloved actors of all time. He had an acting style that was uniquely his own. While he is best known for his westerns and war films, my favorite John Wayne film, The Quiet Man, falls in neither category. John Wayne plays boxer Sean Thornton returning to his Irish boyhood home from America after retiring from the ring and from fighting altogether after one of his opponents dies from the blows he suffered in their fight. His desire is to return to the simple life he knew as a boy and the town he grew up in. It doesn’t take long before he finds love with Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’hara), but it is this love that is going to make his life far from simple.
The Raid 2
If you are looking for an action-packed, extremely violent, two-and-a-half hour movie filled with lots of amazing martial arts acrobatics and weapons used in ways that you would never wish on your worst enemy, you should try this out (in either the provided English dubbed or subtitled Indonesian versions). I wouldn't ever recommend watching a sequel before the original, but you don't really have to see the first one (which is almost half as long, but just as good); This one basically starts over where it left off.
The Majestic
Set during the McCarthy hearings of the late 50’s The Majestic tells the story of a blacklisted screen writer named Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) who, after freeing himself from a car wreck, finds himself in a small town devoid of his memory. He encounters an older man who mistakenly believes Peter is his long lost son. Peter, having no reason to doubt the man, believes this must be who he is and so settles himself down in the town
Joan Rivers 1933 - 2014
Joan Rivers passed away Thursday September 4, 2014 after suffering complications from surgery. Rivers was perhaps best known for her standup comedy and somewhat caustic wit. In addition to her standup work she has been featured in a number of movies and authored a number of books. The link below will produce a list of the many items in the MCPL collection that highlight her accomplishments
Noises Off
I’ve always liked films and plays that are about films and plays themselves. Maybe it’s because there is still a part of me that would have like to have been “an actor.” (Said term must be pronounced with the air of exaggerated sophistication that implies the lack of same.) Noises Off is one of my favorites. It has an all-star comedy cast featuring Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliott, Julie Hagerty, Marilu Henner, John Ritter, and Christopher Reeve. The story is about a group of actors in a touring company performing a comedic play that they hope will head to the big time. In this case the action behind the scenes is as funny, or funnier, than what is taking place on stage. The film gives us a chance to the see the action from both sides. From the front we see the play “Nothing On,” from the back we see the interactions among the actors. There are affairs, personality conflicts, and drinking to the point of drunkenness. The term “noises off” comes from the direction that backstage sounds are to cease, something that doesn’t exactly happen backstage in the movie.
Noises Off is a comedy based on the play by Michael Frayn. It is a fast paced and driven movie that reminds me quite a bit of some of the best skits from the Carol Burnett Show. In most plays backstage is an area of controlled chaos. In the case of the backstage action in Noises Off remove the word controlled. If you like a good, semi intelligent comedy mixed with slapstick and outrageous personalities you should give Noises Off a try.
Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals is great music documentary about the "special sound" that came out of the studio recordings of this small town in Alabama that includes names like Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and The Allman Brothers (among others). Interviews with the studio musicians, the engineers, and some of the more famous people involved on the bands listed above help tell the story of this great place to make music. I was particularly interested in the story of the session musicians from that town, named "The Swampers" that played behind the varied kinds of musicians that came to record over the years.
Harvey
“Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.”
Elwood P. Dowd.
Jimmy Stewart once said that his role as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey was one of his favorites. It is perhaps his most famous movie role beside that of George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Harvey is a laid back and enjoyable film about a man who has left the work-a-day world and apparently entered into a life of unreality.