http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blogs-1-1-1-9.html Director Billy Wilder's sophisticated sense of humor illuminated a dark view of humanity. Seldom were the results funnier—and sadder—than his Oscar-winning 1960 film <em>The Apartment</em>. The new Blu-ray reissue affords another opportunity to recall his brilliant satire of American corporate life. A young Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, a clerk in a gigantic insurance company. Eager to climb the ladder to the executi]]> Confession: I've never seen the work of South Korean director Kim Ki-duk, which despite his acclaim on the international film festival circuit has seldom been screened in Milwaukee. I'm intrigued, however, after reading the critical analysis in Hye Seung Chung's compact study, <em>Kim Ki-duk</em> (published by University of Illinois Press). Unlike altogether too many academic film scholars, Hye writes lucidly and beauti]]> <p> Strange tiles, bearing a cryptic message, were found embedded in the asphalt of highways in many U.S. cities (and even in Latin America) since the early 1980s: “Toynbee Idea-In Kubrick's 2001-Resurrect Dead-On Plant Jupiter” they read. The “Toynbee Tiles” became the subject of fervid speculation among hundreds of enthusiasts who found each other online as they tried to link the message with UFOs, the book o]]> The resonant voice of James Earl Jones recites the children's story “Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears,” the titular animated short on the new DVD from the Scholastic Storybook Treasures series. Verna Aardema's African-set tale concerns an owl that refused to wake up the sun one morning with her hooting. The night grew long. She withdraws from her responsibility through depression, despondent over the death of her ch]]> <p> The Doors compressed more creativity into four years than most rock bands can manage in four decades. Of course, theirs was an unusually fertile cultural period and not everything they recorded ranks with greatness. Still, the best of their music continues to intrigue and the dangerous image of Jim Morrison took the precedent set earlier by Elvis—and even the Rolling Stones—to the point where he faced prison time in Florida]]> <em>The Big Year </em>packs together three of the funniest Hollywood stars in a mildly mirthful spoof of “competitive birding”—a strange contest between avid birdwatchers for spotting the greatest number of the winged creatures in a one-year period. Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson play miss-matched rivals whose shared obsession compels them to travel any length to spot the black-footed albatross or the great]]> <p> Andy Griffith's exuberant charm and native Blue Ridge drawl won him a long career playing Southerners. Usually he depicted benign figures, such as the sheriff of “Mayberry R.F.D.,” but he was also memorable as the sinister country singer with political ambitions in Elia Kazan's film <em>A Face in the Crowd</em>. Griffith was a still a nimble actor through his end game role in the popular 1986-1995 TV ]]> <p> If you were in a jam anytime between 1967 and 1975, you could have done worse than to seek the help of a private eye called Mannix. “Mannix: Season Five,” out on DVD, reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the detective genre from an era when detectives dominated prime time. Some episodes were shot from acute angles and others were visually prosaic. The basic plots were often sound, but some of the twists were downright &]]> <p> A prolific director from the 1940s through the '70s, Alberto Lattuada collaborated with Fellini and swam with the major currents of Italian cinema, yet was little known outside his own country. A pair of recently released film in handsome DVD packages should call attention to him among aficionados of mid-century European art house films. </p> <p><em>The Overcoat</em> (<em>Il Cappotto</em>), L]]> <p> <em>Chalet Girl</em> is a light British teen comedy poured into a feel-good Hollywood mold. Fresh faced Felicity Jones (<em>Northanger Abbey</em>) is game as Kim, a one-time U.K. skateboard star whose championship run ended in the post-traumatic shock of the car crash that killed her mum. Hoping to escape her dead end at the fast food counter, Kim lands a housekeeping job in the Austrian Alps for a wealthy intern]]> <p> Road movies have gotten to be the dullest thing going, but if you have British actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in the car, the journey will be worth the investment of two hours. In <em>The Trip</em>, by director Michael Winterbottom (<em>24 Hour Party People</em>), Coogan and Brydon play versions of themselves on assignment in England's north country for a London magazine. They are supposed to be writing]]> Good acting was the leaven that made the “Father Dowling Mysteries” rise above banality. The show's 1987 first season, out Feb. 7 on DVD, features the endearingly personable performances of veteran Tom Bosley (Mr. Cunningham from “Happy Days”) as the amiable Father Dowling and Tracy Nelson as his scrappy young sidekick, Sister Stephanie. The American network remake of a British series based on the novels of Ralph McIn]]> Richard Thompson is among the few musicians from the 1960s with his edge still intact—and maybe sharp as ever. is concert Blu-ray and DVD release, <em>Live at Celtic Connections</em>, reveals a powerful performer who relies on musicianship (with wry commentary between numbers) as he steadfastly fronts a mostly much younger band, tearing off terrific solos with no guitar hero theatrics. Recorded last year at Glasgow's Royal ]]> <p> The plot for last year's movie Cowboys &amp; Aliens (and the graphic novel from which it was adapted) didn't come from thin air. Stories of strange lights and airships in the sky over America proliferated during the 19th century, and the episode of A&amp;E's “Ancient Aliens” series called “Aliens and the Old West” overlooks some of the more interesting ones. </p> <p>Still, t]]> Spanish director Mateo Gil\'s <em>Blackthorn</em> (2011) is a sequel of sorts to the end-game western classic <em>Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid</em>, but unless you read the reviews before seeing the movie, the connection will dawn slowly. And that\'s not a bad thing. <em>Blackthorn</em> stars Sam Shepard in an understated performance as the onetime American outlaw Butch Cassidy, living quietly i]]> <p> Luis Bunuel's reputation as a director stands on a pair of Surrealist collaborations with Salvador Dali, <em>An Andalusian</em> <em>Dog</em> (1928) and <em>The Golden Age </em>(1930), and such later art house triumphs as <em>Belle de Jour</em> (1967) and <em>The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie</em> (1972). Many years elapsed in between, yet Bunuel was seldom inactive. T]]> <p> With the phenomenal success of <em>Sybil</em>, popular culture lurched into a weird twilight zone of repressed childhood memories replete with sadistic parents and Satanic daycare centers. The 1973 book and the 1976 made-for-TV movie, starring Sally Fields (who won an Emmy for her efforts), wasn't pop culture's first excursion into multiple personality or dissociative identity disorders. Like <em>Sybil</e]]> George, the protagonist of <em>The Art of Getting By</em>, is a Millennial Holden Caulfield. Like his mid-century precursor, George (Freddie Highmore) is acutely aware of everyone's phoniness, but his aggressive apathy and painful cluelessness seems even less directed. Writer-director Gavin Wiesen's film is slackly paced and shot in loosey-goosey indie fashion, yet includes many sweet and resonant coming-of-age moments as Ge]]> <p> Bits and pieces of Eva Braun's home movies have shown up in documentaries on the Third Reich, notably in Philippe Mora's recent Swastika, but Hitler's mistress wasn't the only German during the period with a camera. The existence of such amateur motion and still photography, even (and especially) when shot by Germans far from the center of power, provides the basis for Frances Guerin's <em>Through Amateur]]> <p> The new planet emerged from the night sky as a blue dot and, before science could answer any questions, swam closer to our world. Soon it grew larger than the moon in the morning sky and continued to swell in size. Unnatural and inescapable, it appeared to be the mirror image of our world—“Earth 2,” the media dubbed it. Its uncanny presence casts a shadow over the human drama of the Sundance award winning <em>Ano]]>