Confirmed cynic Orson Welles reportedly said of Make Way for Tomorrow, “It could make a stone cry”—and this bittersweet, sharply observed, utterly heartbreaking 1937 picture will almost certainly move you as well.
Check It Out Category: Picks by John
John’s Pick: Asterios Polyp
David Mazzucchelli’s outstanding graphic novel Asterios Polyp isn’t notable just for its satisfying story – about an arrogant architect who learns to see the world in a new way – but for the way that story is told: elegant visual devices abound in this thematically rich work.
John’s Pick: Juliet, Naked
John of Fiction/AV/Teen Services recommends Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby:
Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby’s latest novel, is a return to the elements that made his debut novel High Fidelity a hit: music, romance and arrested development. It tells the tale of a reclusive singer-songwriter who hasn’t recorded in years, the unexpected release of an acoustic version of his most popular album, and a trans-Atlantic correspondence with the increasingly disgruntled girlfriend of his biggest fan…which leads to something more. As always, Hornby’s witty characterization runs side-by-side with his sharp observations of how the way we consume popular culture shapes our lives.
John’s Pick: A Matter of Life and Death
Featured in the Films of Michael Powell collection, A Matter of Life and Death stars David Niven as an aviator placed on trial for his life in Heaven after accidentally surviving a parachute-less jump. Graceful storytelling and visual sumptuousness are on display in this charming 1946 film.
John’s Pick: Spaced
Before director Edgar Wright and writer-star Simon Pegg turned to the film world with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, they perfected a combination of frantic pop-cultural allusions, whiplash editing and surprisingly sweet characterization with Spaced: The Complete Series, a Britcom about disaffected twenty-somethings sharing a London flat.