In This Issue:

June 2010

What's New on DVD

35 Shots of Rum (2009)

Drama/Foreign. Intense/Moving.
Color. 100 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Claire Denis. Starring Alex Descas, Grégoire Colin and Mati Diop.
Spare in dialogue but teeming with feeling, French filmmaker Claire Denis spikes every shot in 35 Shots of Rum with a sensuous twist. Lionel and Josephine's father-daughter relationship carries an ... Read More >
 

A Woman in Berlin (2008)

Drama/Foreign/War/Westerns. Intense/Moving/Spine-tingling.
Color. 131 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Max Farberbock. Starring Yevgeny Sidikhin and Nina Hoss.
Based on the real-life memoirs of an anonymous Nazi journalist, Farberbock's "Woman" dramatizes a little-seen facet of World War II, in which the Red Army raped and pillaged its way through Berlin ... Read More >
 

Big Fan (2009)

Comedy. Offbeat/Witty.
Color. 86 mins. Rated R. Directed By Robert Siegel. Starring Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Kevin Corrigan and Jonathan Hamm.
Lovable losers populate all sorts of Hollywood comedies, but none quite stick in the memory like Patton Oswalt's Paul, a shlubby, emotionally stunted Staten Islander who lives at home with his mom ... Read More >
 

Husbands (1970)

Comedy/Drama. Brainy/Moving/Witty.
Color. 137 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By John Cassavetes. Starring Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes.
The godfather and patron saint of American independent filmmaking, John Cassavetes made uncompromising, deeply personal movies, and "Husbands" is no exception. Created in close collaboration with his ... Read More >
 

In the Loop (2008)

Comedy. Farr-cical/Fast-paced.
Color. 108 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Armando Iannucci. Starring James Gandolfini, Peter Capaldi and Mimi Kennedy.
Based on a popular British TV series, Iannucci's "In the Loop" is a fast and furiously funny satire of Whitehall and White House political culture in the run-up to the Iraq war, packing more bilious ... Read More >
 

Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes: 3 Films by Shohei Imamura (1964)

Drama/Foreign/Longer Films/Film Series/Collections. Intense/Offbeat.
Black & White. 384 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Shohei Imamura. Starring Hiroyuki Nagato, Sachiko Hidari and Masumi Harukawa.
There are few filmmakers as celebrated as Japanese provocateur Shohei Imamura, who, despite his almost prurient interest in the lower rungs of society (and women), emerged in the postwar era as a ... Read More >
 

Summer Hours (2009)

Drama/Foreign. Moving/Scenic.
Color. 103 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Olivier Assayas. Starring Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier and Juliette Binoche.
In this pitch-perfect elegy of life, legacy, and passing time, French master Olivier Assayas presents an emotionally complex scenario that moves beyond good or bad, right or wrong. Summer Hours is ... Read More >
 

You, the Living (2009)

Comedy/Foreign. Offbeat/Witty.
Color. 95 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Roy Andersson. Starring Björn Englund, Jessika Lundberg and Elisabeth Helander.
Except for Andersson's previous absurdist stew, Songs from the Second Floor, there's simply nothing else like You, the Living. It veers from bleak realism to buoyant musical, and from existential ... Read More >
 

Theme of the Month: New York in the Movies

According to the Wall Street Journal, New York City tourism has increased 11 percent after two years of declining numbers. June is one of the Big Apple's busiest months with tourists arriving from all over the globe to take in the sites. This month we've selected movies that feature some of New York's favorite landmarks: Grand Central Station, Empire State Bulding, Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Tiffany's, Macy's, Wall Street and Central Park, all play important roles in these films. So, if you can't get to the City, relax in your chair and see all the sites without the crowds.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Romance/Comedy. Witty/Moving.
Color. 115 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Blake Edwards. Starring George Peppard and Audrey Hepburn.
Adapted from Truman Capote's novella, Edwards's fleet-footed romantic comedy would not be the cultural touchstone it is without the effervescent presence of Hepburn. As Holly Golightly, a small-town ... Read More >
 

King Kong (1933)

Action/Adventure/Family. Blood-curdling/Intense.
Black & White. 100 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Merian C. Cooper. Starring Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot and Fay Wray.
Warner Home Entertainment has surpassed itself with this painstaking restoration of the 1933 adventure/horror classic. The movie has not looked this good in my lifetime, which only reinforces how ... Read More >
 

Manhattan (1979)

Comedy/Romance. Scenic/Moving/Witty.
Black & White. 96 mins. Rated R. Directed By Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.
A follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Annie Hall," Woody Allen's "Manhattan" is the writer-director's most overt, visually poetic paean to the city of his birth. While ... Read More >
 

Marathon Man (1976)

Mystery/Suspense. Spine-tingling/Intense.
Color. 125 mins. Rated R. Directed By John Schlesinger. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.
Dustin Hoffman re-grouped with "Midnight Cowboy" director Schlesinger for this nerve-jangling thriller based on screenwriter William Goldman's novel. Olivier, who won a Best Supporting ... Read More >
 

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Family. Moving/Wholesome.
Black & White. 97 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By George Seaton. Starring John Payne and Natalie Wood.
Was there ever a better big-screen Santa than Oscar winner Edmund Gwenn? This timeless Christmas fable about an elderly retiree who sets New York a-twitter with his claim to be the sleigh-riding ... Read More >
 

Moonstruck (1987)

Romance. Moving/Witty.
Color. 102 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Norman Jewison. Starring Nicolas Cage and Cher.
Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and winning statuettes for co-stars Cher and Dukakis, this movie overflows with off-kilter charm and humor. Cher hits all the right notes as the bewildered ... Read More >
 

North by Northwest (1959)

Action/Adventure/Cornerstone Titles/Family/Mystery/Suspense. Fast-paced/Spine-tingling.
Color. 136 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.
Fifty years after release, "Northwest" provides gripping, colorful entertainment for the whole family, full of the Master's trademark twists and turns. Only Cary could undertake such a rugged and ... Read More >
 

On the Town (1949)

Musicals. Tuneful.
Color. 98 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Stanley Donen. Starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen.
This exhilarating musical comedy, featuring (respectively) the fancy footwork and infectious crooning of GIs Kelly and Sinatra, perfectly captures the optimistic spirit that held sway in the ... Read More >
 

Wall Street (1987)

Drama. Intense.
Color. 125 mins. Rated R. Directed By Oliver Stone. Starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen.
Oliver Stone's poisonous ode to the "the go, go "80s" hinges on Michael Douglas's bravura, Oscar-winning portrayal of Gekko, seemingly a composite of Michael Milken and Ivan ... Read More >
 

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Romance. Moving/Witty.
Color. 96 mins. Rated R. Directed By Rob Reiner. Starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.
One of the enduring romantic comedies of the 1980s, Rob Reiner's warm, often hilarious movie examines the blurry line between friendship and romance in male-female relations. Crystal and Ryan ... Read More >
 

Spotlight

Best Movies By Farr announces The "Sex and the City 2: Mad As Hell" Contest!


John Farr often laments how insultingly bad so much mainstream Hollywood movie fare has become, and surely this boring, vapid, over-hyped mess proves it. So- to register with the suits in La-La Land that intelligent viewers are "mad as hell", we're launching a contest. Pretend you're a reviewer- how would you describe this film in a single sound bite? John will publish the ten best blurbs in his next Huffington Post piece, and the author of the cleverest entry will win a DVD of "The Women"(1939), the "Sex and the City" of its day. Just post your submissions on Facebook or send to john@bestmoviesbyfarr.com before midnight on Friday, June 4th. Resiults will be posted in John's HuffPo piece appearing Sunday late afternoon.

Good Luck!