New Arrivals: Let's Get Literary

Here are the latest titles to hit Amazon Prime, most of which aren't available on Netflix (although a couple of them, The Polar Express and Sherrybaby, used to be).

9 Full Moons (2014) PRIME ONLY
Belle Epine (2010) PRIME ONLY
Hitler's Children (2011)
Personal Effects (2009) PRIME ONLY
The Polar Express (2004) PRIME ONLY
Sherrybaby (2006) PRIME ONLY
Sieze the Day (1986)* PRIME ONLY
Winnebago Man (2010)
Who Am I This Time? (1982) PRIME ONLY
With Friends Like These (1998) PRIME ONLY

Women In Trouble (2009) PRIME ONLY

I've long been an admirer of the short film, Who Am I This Time?. A charming slice of Americana directed by Jonathan Demme for PBS's American Playhouse in 1982, it stars Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon as small-town actors who learn to see each other through their roles in an amateur production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Walken is especially effective as a shy introvert who transforms into a god-like Stanley Kowalski when he hits the stage.

Based on a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Who Am I This Time? is one of a number of Monterey Media arrivals that include most of The American Short Story Collection—low-budget TV films based on the works of famous American authors, produced for PBS in the late 1970s and early 1980s (many of which found their way into high school English classes). Their quality varies, but aside from their literary value they're also of interest for featuring stars like Tommy Lee Jones, Ron Howard, and Samuel L. Jackson in early roles, as well as a roster of directors that included Randa Haines, Ralph Rosenblum, Jan Kadar, and Joan Micklin Silver (whose Bernice Bobs Her Hair, starring Shelley Duvall, is unfortunately not yet available).

Other titles from The American Short Story Collection (all of which are PRIME ONLY) include:

Almos' a Man (1976) - by Richard Wright, starring LeVar Burton
Barn Burning (1980) - by William Faulkner, starring Tommy Lee Jones
The Blue Hotel (1977) - by Stephen Crane, starring David Warner
The Displaced Person (1977) - by Flannery O'Connor, starring John Houseman and Samuel L. Jackson
The Greatest Man in the World (1980) - by James Thurber, starring Brad Davis and Carol Kane
I'm a Fool (1977) - by Sherwood Anderson, starring Ron Howard and Amy Irving
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (1980) - by Katherine Anne Porter, starring Geraldine Fitzgerald
Pigeon Feathers (1988) - by John Updike
Rappaccini's Daughter (1980) - by Nathaniel Hawthorne, starring Kathleen Beller
Soldier's Home (1977) - by Ernest Hemingway

*I'm pretty sure this is a recent arrival. If someone knows differently, please let me know.