Big Fan

DVD ($26.99)



A diehard New York Giants fan finds his world crashing down around him after an encounter with one of his football heroes takes a violent turn. Patton Oswalt (from TV’s “King of Queens”) is a standout in this slice-of-life drama, which sympathetically depicts a sports nut whose all-consuming obsession—and his loyalty—puts him between a rock and hard place with his family, his favorite team and his fellow fans. (Rated R)

—Neil Pond, American Profile





The Secret Life of a Snowflake

By Kenneth Libbrecht

Hardcover, 48 pages ($17)



Depending on where you live, you may have already seen a lot of snow this winter. But you’ve probably never seen it like this. The author, a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, presents super-close-up photos of snowflakes, taken under a microscope, for a crystal-clear look at one of nature’s most delicate, dazzling displays. There’s also a bounty of factoids, including how many cloud droplets it takes to make a single flake (100,000!), why they always have six sides and the proper way to make one out of paper.

—Neil Pond, American Profile





Extract

DVD ($39.99)



Jason Bateman stars in this clever grown-up comedy as the owner of a flavoring extract company who tries to lure his wife (Kristin Wiig) into cheating on him so he’ll be justified in cheating on her. Needless to say, complications ensue when the shapely new factory worker who catches his eye (Mila Kunis) turns out to have her eyes on something else entirely. Ben Affleck is hilarious as a bartender who dispenses more than just bad advice, and the always-solid J.K. Simmons gets off some of the script’s best punch lines as the factory’s old-faithful second-in-command. (Rated R)

—Neil Pond, American Profile