Bwog’s Film Rental Guide returns! Film correspondent Mark Hay rolls with the new mood.

At first it seemed just a series of fleeting, disparaging, sensationalized headlines. Wall Street crash. $700 billion bailout. Bailout failure. Soon enough the crisis broke upon us and here we are, bemoaning our current financial affairs and preaching gloom and doom. And it’s hard not to get just a little concerned about the situation, but then I realize that life could be so much worse. So, to take the edge off, some schaudenfreude for the weekend.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984): An unfortunately overlooked film for a frighteningly overlooked specter, Nausicaa offers a sample of the style of writer/illustrator/filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) before he discovered the art of subtlety. Miyazaki envisions a world a millennium after the destruction wrought by giant, industrial bio-weapons of the ancients, known as the God Warriors. In this world, only small pockets of humanity remain, isolated by necessity as only small alcoves shielded from the winds can sustain life. The winds carry spores from the toxic Sea of Decay, a poisonous jungle spreading over the rest of the earth, and the spores spell instant death for all men.

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Bwog’s guide to Movie Rentals has returned! We’re not sure where you’re going to actually rent these films (Butler?), but we hear the Internet has a nice selection for downloading. Film correspondent Mark Hay reports.

Every time I launch Firefox, I cannot escape the face persistently plastered all over my homepage. Sarah. Palin. Palin, Palin, Palin. She’s inescapable. So, in light of the media’s constant attention to the good Governor and her life: Three Movies Sarah Palin Might Want to Ban from Your Video Store (or, a list to get yourself on the bad side of every College Republican).

Limbo (1999): Welcome to rural Alaska, home in our minds to stunning vistas, independent living, and Governor Sarah Palin. Oh boy! A movie about small-town Alaskan life! How folksy; how rugged; how American spirit-esque! Except that’s not the picture Director/Writer John Sayles creates in this unexpected saga of intertwining lives, stagnation and tragedy.

Sayles uses the blossoming romance between Joe (David Strathairn), a local boy ground down by a harsh life leading nowhere, and Donna (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a struggling singer hitting rock bottom, to reveal a grim Alaska of flailing industry hidden from tourists behind the thin veil of trees left by the lumber giants. And then all romance and commentary grind to a halt with the arrival of Joe’s brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko).

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Happy Olympics, Columbia! It’s that time again for (undangerous) nationalism and spectacle and sport. To help get you in the spirit, Weekend Rental correspondent Brandon Hammer has suggested three Olympics films. GO USA!

Chariots of Fire (1981): [Cue the theme music.] Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Chariots of Fire is perhaps the epitome of the classic Olympics movie. It’s based on the true story of two British runners who competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), both of whom attempt to use running in order for some greater purpose. On the one hand, Abrahams, the son of a Jewish immigrant, wants to do well in order to spite society’s prevalent anti-Semitism. Liddell, on the other hand, as an ardent Christian and Scot, wants to compete because he feels it is necessary to fulfill God’s will. Even, according to Roger Ebert, if you don’t like running movies, it’s still a very inspiring film.

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As I was without an Internet connection for the past week, I ended up watching a lot of television news. And while hearing about Barack Obama’s every move and every analyst’s baseless prediction of the day is fun for… well, really not all that long, here are some movies about the news are much more entertaining than trying to figure who among Olbermann, O’Reilly, and Lou Dobbs needs to shut up first.  

Broadcast News (1987): Nominated for seven Academy Awards, Broadcast News takes a look at the evolution of television journalism and its shift of focus from quality reporting to getting ratings. The vehicle through which writer/director/producer James L. Brooks presents this shift is a love triangle between Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), a passionate producer who cares deeply about the quality of her reporting; Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), another devoted reporter who wants to be recognized for his hard work; and Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a good-looking new guy who is able to work his way up the ladder of promotion, despite his total lack of knowledge or journalistic skill. As significant changes happen at the network, the relationships between the three reach a climax, allowing the film to shed light on the way news media has shifted today. 

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This past Monday, francophiles and French citizens celebrated Bastille Day. And since gossiping about President Sarkozy and his wife is no way to celebrate the holiday — and Film Forum is no longer featuring its wonderful series on Godard — here are a few suggestions for some French films worth renting.

The Rules of the Game (1939):

Directed by Jean Renoir, the son of the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste and a man regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, the film is an incendiary satire of the self-absorption within France’s bourgeoisie on the eve of World War II. The film only slowly reaches the point at which the viewer sees that the nation’s elite are feuding with each other over sex while their country faces imminent war. The movie was so powerful that a man set fire to a newspaper at its premiere in an attempt to burn down the theater, while the French government (and later the occupying Nazi regime) banned the film. The Rules of the Game survived and remains both a cinematic achievement ad well as a relevant social critique.

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In honor of the Yankee Stadium’s final season, this year’s MLB all-star game will take place in the Bronx on Tuesday. To remember some of baseball’s most interesting historical moments, Bwog Film Rental Analyst Brandon Hammer suggests you check out one (or two or three) of the following movies. 

The Pride of the Yankees (1942):  

Those who yearn for the glory days of the Bronx Bombers will find comfort in this 1942 film. Starring Gary Cooper in the lead role, The Pride of the Yankees is a beautiful biopic about Columbia’s own Lou Gehrig, whose endurance to last 2,130 consecutive games (the equivalent of more than 13 baseball seasons) brought him the nickname the “Iron Horse.” Cooper’s performance is powerful; he captures the essence of a man who was known for his kindness and humility, a man who, though his life and career were cut short by a terrible disease, considered himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The film also features and intriguing performance by Babe Ruth as himself, as well as a reenactment of Gehrig’s famous speech of July 4, 1939. 

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Though this weekend many of your fellow Americans will be doing such celebratory things as eating hamburgers in an outdoors setting and watching fireworks, we know that 1. it is hot out, 2. many of you are vegetarians, and 3. there’s an argument to be made that if you’ve seen one firework, you’ve seen ‘em all. With that in mind, here’s an alternative Movie Rental Guide to the Weekend that is both indoors and firework-free. And as always, feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

For the History Buffs: John Adams (2008) 

If your perfect Fourth of July includes journeying back to the time when our founding fathers debated and eventually decided to declare independence from Great Britain, HBO’s miniseries John Adams, which aired earlier this year and is now available on DVD, is for you. Starring Paul Giamatti as the title character and Laura Linney as Abigail, the miniseries is a very serious look at one of the most important, but largely unknown, founding fathers. The series begins with the Massachusetts native’s decision to represent the British soldiers who were tried for their involvement in the Boston Massacre and spans all the way to his death on the Fourth of July, 1826. With in-depth scenes that delve into the issues that faced Adams and other early American leaders, John Adams explores how this day became a holiday in the first place.

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Other than the economy and the presidential candidates and of course, IvyGate’s triumphant return, the big news story of the week was the Supreme Court, which handed down a number of controversial decisions, from issues concerning the death penalty to the Second Amendment. For those of you want more of a judiciary fix, here are some weekend rentals from Film Rental Correspondent Brandon Hammer to satisfy your palate.  

The History Buffs: Inherit the Wind (1960) 

Based on the play of the same title, Inherit the Wind is the dramatized story of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, in which John Thomas Scopes was put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution. The case created such hype that it drew two of the most famous lawyers of the time, three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Though all of the names are changed (Bryan becomes Matthew Harrison Brady while Darrow is changed to Drummond), the story is nonetheless an interesting examination of the conflict between those who have very different views of the governing principles of the United States. Moreover, despite the film’s age, its subject matter — from what it is acceptable to teach in school, to how two friends can maintain their relationship amid social and political competition, to the battle between urban and rural — is still quite relevant.

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