by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Do you go out with your sweetheart to celebrate this holiday, or do you
avoid the crowds and stay in? Or are you
single and avoiding the holiday completely?
You can go out to the library first to stock up with DVDs to stay in for
the evening. A number of recent movies
we have in the collection might be the entertainment you’re looking for
tonight; these are all currently nominated for Oscars.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a funny sci-fi action
movie, the sequel to “Guardians of the Galaxy” from 2014. The team from the first movie, which includes
a talking raccoon and a tree-like creature, travels through space as they try
to find the identity of Peter Quill’s father.
I would say it doesn’t reach the level of inventive humor that the first
movie did, but it’s still entertaining. Marvel
movies rarely disappoint as long as you like superheroes.
Kong: Skull Island is another sci-fi action movie, but
with less humor, although it’s still fluff.
This is a King Kong origin story, featuring a team of explorers dropped
onto a remote island in the early ‘70s.
The monster-movie plot may be a little silly, but the cinematography is
quite beautiful. The cast is strong, as
well, with Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, and
John C. Reilly in the group.
Logan is another superhero film, but the polar opposite of Guardians of the Galaxy. Part of the
X-Men series, it’s very dark and serious.
If you’re looking for fun, this is not your superhero movie. If you’re looking for excellent writing and
acting, it is - as long as you don’t mind that it’s heavy. People say it’s really a Western, which is a
new spin on the superhero genre.
Dunkirk is one of
the big movies of the year, nominated for eight Oscars. Christopher Nolan, who is known for the Dark
Knight trilogy, Interstellar, and Inception, wrote and directed the film.
This one is about the evacuation of Allied troops from the French city of
Dunkirk during World War II. Because
it’s nonlinear and without dialogue for stretches of the movie, it’s not
everyone’s idea of a great war film, but it’s art.
Moving away from all the action movies, Victoria and Abdul is a gentle British movie. Judi Dench
stars as an elderly Queen Victoria, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with
a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. The
Queen is feeling restricted in her position, and the alliance the two of them
form allows the queen to see the world in a new way. The friendship apparently really happened,
but the movie seems to have taken some artistic license to tell a good
story.
An animated movie for adults, Loving Vincent is a
biography of Vincent van Gogh through his paintings. In this first feature-length film created
through oil-painted animation, a young man attempts to deliver van Gogh’s final
letter and ends up learning about the artist’s final days. The paintings and the characters that inhabit
them tell the stories.
I didn’t include any romances, did I? We have those at the library, too, but we’re
not really in an age of great romantic comedies or epic love stories, so you
may have to look for something older. To
be honest, my husband and I rarely watch romantic movies together; we just
look for something we both enjoy, like sci fi/fantasy or a funny TV
series.
While you’re at the library, take a chance on our Blind Date
with a Book display near the front desk.
Each gift-wrapped book has a very brief description on the label, but
you don’t see what you get until you check it out. I hope you’ll find a book or movie to love
this month!
