New In The USA: TRAILER PARK BOYS - Seasons 1-7
If you have not had the pleasure of discovering the low-ambition adventures of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles in an East Coast Canadian Trailer Park, you've been missing out on one of the gems of Canuck TV in the past decade. They try to keep on the good side of their girlfriends, the angry drunk who runs the Sunnyvale Trailer Park, and hatch a myriad of pot-fueled schemes with the unique collection of denizens who make their homes in double-wide Northlanders.
New In Canada: ACE IN THE HOLE
My personal favourite Billy Wilder film is perhaps the most savage film ever made on how the media cover a sensational story and its satire is as sharp today as it was prescient in 1951. Kirk Douglas plays a cynical, disgraced reporter who stumbles upon a story that might revitalize his career, but only if he milks and massages it to the frenzied, literal circus it becomes. Morality is of course thrown out the window and Wilder and his writers savage America and its values to full effect with big, beautiful (and quite clever) black and white cinematography. This is dark and funny stuff, kids.
New In The UK: ANTIVIRAL
That the rotting apple doesn't fall too far from the tree is evidenced by Brandon Cronenberg's film debut on the subject of trafficking of celebrity viruses for fetishistic pleasure. There is icky body horror intersecting with technology and media in ways that certainly echo Videodrome and eXistenZ. While not a perfect film by any stretch, there is a harsh hermetically sealed vibe going on here that makes it work a look, and face and expressions of lead actor Caleb Landry Jones are always compelling to watch.
New In Ireland: SLAP SHOT
While baseball gets all the glory for good representation on film, Hockey has a few good ones as well. The best of these being the Paul Newman starring tale of minor league losers, Charlestown Chiefs. Bringing in violence (and indicative of the above Hanson Triplets) and other gimmicks to keep the team afloat financially (when the mysterious owner wants to simply fold the team as a tax write-off), eventually there is an attempt to rally for one last game where they play honest, real hockey. The plot may seem overly simple, even cliche, but the devil here is in the details. From a goalie trying to explain what 'Icing' to a local TV station, to on-ice razzing, to the machinations and schemes of Newman's Captain/Coach, to the stripped down finale. This is a classic sports movie in every sense of the word. Afterwards, check out its modern progeny, Goon
New In Brazil: BEGINNERS
Mike Mills' follow up to to 2005's Sundance darling, Thumbsucker is a much more mature and nuanced piece of filmmaking without sacrificing any quirk. It tells the story of Oliver (Ewan McGregor), a man reflecting on the life and impending death of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer), while trying to forge a new romantic relationship with a woman. That his father has embraced his decades of closeted homosexuality and taken on a young male lover further complicates things. Anyone who has watched a younger Plummer in something like The Sound of Music knows just how damn much resemblance McGregor has to the man, and this is merely one of many sharp observational details that the film gets right. And the film is autobiographical of Mills' own father coming out of the closet a few years before dying.
New In Mexico: STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 1-7
For Canadian and US netflix customers, all of the Star Trek stuff available has been a draw of the service for many. The entire Patrick Stewart led USS Enterprise crew is now offered to Mexico, and I could happily pontificate on all the richness and excellence that is contained in these hundreds of hours of quality television, but you are probably better off reading ScreenAnarchy Columnist Matt Brown who has been reviewing each and every episode for some time now over here.