Latest DVDs, CDs, books: March 20
A look at some of the DVDs, CDs and books hitting stores this week.
DVDS
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (R): Stieg Larsson’s blockbuster novel goes Hollywood, and kicks butt, thanks to “The Social Network” director David Fincher, as haunted title hacker Lisbeth Salander (Oscar-nominated Rooney Mara) helps an embattled reporter (Daniel Craig) investigate decades-old slayings.
“The Muppets” (PG), meanwhile, won an Academy Award for “Man or Muppet,” just one of the tunes featured as Kermit & Co. reunite to save their old studio from a greedy tycoon. Continuing the Oscar connection, Gary Oldman earned an at-long-last best actor nomination for the Cold War thriller “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (R), playing a veteran British agent trying to ferret out a suspected Soviet mole. Oscar winners Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz, meanwhile, team up with Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski for the dark comedy “Carnage” (R).
“Moneyball” Oscar nominee Jonah Hill headlines “The Sitter” (R), playing a suspended college student who experiences a wild-and-crazy night when he agrees to keep an eye on the kids next door. And just in time for Easter: last year’s live-action/animation hit “Hop” (PG), in which the Easter Bunny’s teenage son (voiced by Russell Brand) runs away to L.A. and encounters an unemployed slacker (James Marsden).
CDS
Odd Future, “The Of Tape Vol. 2”: A controversial hip-hop troupe?
Now there’s something you’ve never heard before, right?
Well, actually, you probably never have heard a controversial hip-hop troupe quite like Odd Future.
The 11-member collective has annoyed plenty with its churlish behavior at some live gigs, but still, its eccentric, unbounded, free-range rapping does sound like the future.
An odd one.
Also in stores: Anti-Flag, “The General Strike”; Birdy, “Birdy”; Melanie Fiona, “The MF Life”; Casey James, “Casey James”; Brad Mehldau Trio, “Ode”; Daniel Rossen, “Silent Hour/Golden Mile”; The Shins, “Port of Morrow”; Paul van Dyk, “Evolution”; and Various Artists, “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond.”
BOOKS
“Stay Close” by Harlan Coben: A mysterious disappearance 17 years in the past disrupts the lives of three people hiding old secrets, while another disappearance hints that there may be more victims.
On the nonfiction front, Jonah Lehrer takes a look at creativity and the brain in “Imagine.”
Also hitting shelves: “The Barefoot Bandit: The True Tale of Colton Harris-Moore, New American Outlaw” by Bob Friel; “Big Nate Goes for Broke” by Lincoln Peirce; “Born to Darkness” by Suzanne Brockmann; “The Divide” by L.J. Smith; “Fall from Grace” by Richard North Patterson; “Force of Nature” by C.J. Box; “The Good Father” by Noah Hawley; “Mudwoman” by Joyce Carol Oates; “That’s How I Roll” by Andrew Vachss; “Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good” by Kevin Smith; and “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed.
