Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Masterpiece of Control
Who's in the mood for meatloaf with a side of existential dread? OK, I'm only so glib because writing about ...
Read More Il Sorpasso Criterion Collection Review: An Endearing, Incisive Road Movie
The comedy of Dino Risi's road movie Il Sorpasso hums along beautifully, just like the gorgeous Lancia Aurelia convertible one ...
Read More King of the Hill (1993) Criterion Collection Review: Soderbergh Goes Mainstream (Or Does He?)
For those who insist on dividing Steven Soderbergh's filmography into the reductive “one for me” and “one for them” categories, ...
Read More A Chorus Line Blu-ray Review: A Pale Imitation of the Stage Show … and of a Passable Movie
The Film A Chorus Line isn't merely a terrible adaptation; it's a downright awful movie regardless of its source material's ...
Read More La vie de bohème Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Aki Kaurismäki Does Tragedy and Comedy Equally Well
The Film Finnish great Aki Kaurismäki's take on Paris bohemian life, La vie de bohème, doesn't end well for its ...
Read More Carmen Jones Blu-ray Review: Dorothy Dandridge Sizzles Even if Otto Preminger Doesn’t
The Film The great, cantankerous, Austrian-American auteur Otto Preminger doesn't seem like the likeliest candidate to have helmed a film ...
Read More Grey Gardens (1976) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An S-T-A-U-N-C-H Classic
The Film A landmark in documentary filmmaking and possibly the most well known work from the school of direct cinema, ...
Read More 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: On the Verge of a New Cinematic World
The FilmsThough their collaborations were largely overshadowed by the scandal of their romance, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman proved to ...
Read More A Letter to Three Wives Blu-ray Review: A Bit of a Trifle, but an Enjoyable Trifle
The FilmA mildly clever conceit, a very capable cast and the sure-handed direction of Joseph L. Mankiewicz make A Letter ...
Read More Slacker Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Formally Fascinating, Warmly Hilarious Film
The FilmRichard Linklater's Slacker is a film that sounds like a doodle on paper, a fun little experiment from the ...
Read More Me and My Gal DVD Review: A Pre-Code Delight from Raoul Walsh
Oh boy, it's another mixed blessing from the burn-on-demand department, that simultaneous lifter and dasher of cinephile hopes and dreams. ...
Read More To the Wonder Blu-ray Review: Another Malick Masterwork
The Film Terrence Malick's second film in three years hasn't been met with quite as much enthusiasm as its predecessor, ...
Read More Niagara (1953) Blu-ray Review: A Decidedly Different Marilyn
The FilmIt sometimes seems like director Henry Hathaway wasn't sure if Niagara was a lugubrious melodrama or a white-knuckle thriller, ...
Read More The Life of Oharu Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Mizoguchi’s Breakthrough Masterpiece
The Film The film that made Kenji Mizoguchi an international sensation and the first in a string of masterpieces that ...
Read More Things to Come Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Overly Didactic Technical Marvel
The Film An impressive technical achievement, even if its didacticism threatens to overwhelm all other elements, H.G. Wells' Things to ...
Read More Masaki Kobayashi Against the System DVD Review: Angry and Elegant Political Films
Known for his exemplary samurai film Harakiri and three-part World War II humanist epic The Human Condition, Masaki Kobayashi wasn't ...
Read More Richard III Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Ravishing Technicolor Beauty
The Film The last of Laurence Olivier's three Shakespeare adaptations, Richard III is unquestionably one of the great Shakespeare films, ...
Read More The Kid with a Bike Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Another Major Work from the Dardennes
The Film It's time for yet another reminder to be grateful for the Dardennes, those Belgian masters of unmatched cinematic ...
Read More The Insider Blu-ray Review: An Engrossing, Troubling Thriller
The Film An exceptionally engrossing thriller and a chest-beating indictment of corporatization, Michael Mann's The Insider features the filmmaker firing ...
Read More Photographic Memory DVD Review: An Intriguing Essay on Images and Memory
Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee has built a well-regarded career on introspection, and it's no different with his latest, Photographic Memory, ...
Read More Pina Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Striking Elegy for an Artistic Giant
The Film Wim Wenders' gorgeous and touching tribute to modern dance pioneer Pina Bausch is a film birthed out of ...
Read More Cosmopolis Blu-ray Review: Cronenberg and DeLillo are a Perfect Match
The Film Another triumph for David Cronenberg, Cosmopolis sees the director further extending the definition of a “Cronenberg movie” with ...
Read More This is Not a Film Movie Review: Maybe Not a Film, But a Masterpiece Nonetheless
Jafar Panahi's defiant, playful, mundane, formally adventurous and consistently surprising This is Not a Film is one of the greatest ...
Read More Jackie Brown Movie Review: Yes, This is Quentin Tarantino’s Best Movie
A new Quentin Tarantino movie is generally a cause for excitement, even if the filmmaker is often his own worst ...
Read More Sound of My Voice Blu-ray Review: A Taut, Controlled Thriller
The Film An impressively controlled and thoroughly transfixing thriller, Sound of My Voice is a film where almost nothing is ...
Read More Quantum of Solace Movie Review: A Rebooted James Bond Takes Two Steps Backward
The second Daniel Craig Bond film is a good reminder that despite a new actor, new visual aesthetic, and new ...
Read More Eating Raoul Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Equal Parts High Camp and Urbane Comedy of Manners
The Film A delightful black comedy that's equal parts high camp and urbane comedy of manners, Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul ...
Read More Die Another Day Movie Review: The Epitome of 007’s Descent into Dumb Action Tropes
The final outing for Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, Die Another Day doesn't seem totally execrable -- but that might ...
Read More Holy Flying Circus Blu-ray Review: A Docudrama in the Style of Monty Python
The Film A wildly inconsistent but generally enjoyable docudrama about the controversy surrounding Monty Python's Life of Brian, Holy Flying ...
Read More Diplomatic Courier DVD Review: A Sturdy, if Unremarkable Cold War Thriller
It’s not particularly stylish and there’s little subtext to Henry Hathaway’s 1952 Cold War espionage drama Diplomatic Courier, but it ...
Read More Weekend (2011) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Moving, Deceptively Complex Film
The Film When I first saw Andrew Haigh’s Weekend last year during a blitz of awards-season catch-up, I appreciated its ...
Read More Glee: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Review: Lower Your Expectations and Enjoy
The Show Severely lowered expectations are a major boon to the third season of Glee, a show I’ve long given ...
Read More La Promesse Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Stunning Breakout from the Dardenne Brothers
The Film The cinematic worlds of Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are raw and unadorned, filled with broken people ...
Read More Kidnapped (1938) DVD Review: An Engaging if Forgettable Adventure Film
One of a plethora of film adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel of the same name, 1938’s Kidnapped is a ...
Read More Lisztomania DVD Review: An Outrageous Biopic from Ken Russell
One of the least conventional biopics ever made, Ken Russell’s delirious, hilarious, utterly batshit insane Lisztomania revels in excess like ...
Read More Way of a Gaucho DVD Review: An Atmospheric, Unconventional Western that Deserves Better
Studio made-on-demand programs like the Warner Archive and MGM’s Limited Edition Collection have been something of a mixed bag for ...
Read More The Last Days of Disco Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Witty Look at the End of an Era
The Film There’s not a hint of irony in Whit Stillman’s 1998 film The Last Days of Disco despite there ...
Read More Chariots of Fire Blu-ray Review: A Fine Presentation for an Overrated Film
The Film Eminently respectable but not exactly cinematically sound, Chariots of Fire is a film whose merits have been considered ...
Read More The Outside Man (1972) DVD Review: A Contemplative Mob Thriller
An enjoyable conflation of French gangster cool a la Melville and reinvented 1970s American noir, the little-known The Outside Man ...
Read More Gray’s Anatomy / And Everything is Going Fine Criterion Collection Blu-rays Review: A Spalding Gray & Steven Soderbergh Double Feature
The extraordinarily talented monologist Spalding Gray gets a pair of releases from the Criterion Collection this month. Both films are ...
Read More Frank Sinatra Film Collection DVD Review: Ol’ Blue Eyes at His Most Mediocre
Despite the fact he’ll always be more famous as a singer than an actor, Frank Sinatra often excelled on the ...
Read More La haine Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Seething Portrait of a Vicious Cycle
The Film Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 triumph La haine doesn’t pull any punches — it’s right there in the title, which ...
Read More The Innkeepers Blu-ray Review: A Carefully Crafted Genre Exercise
The Film One thing's for sure about indie horror filmmaker Ti West — he's a superb craftsman with an astute ...
Read More A Hollis Frampton Odyssey Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Essential Collection of Avant-Garde Treasures
The Films There isn’t much experimental film represented within the Criterion Collection library, but when the good folks there do ...
Read More Saving Grace (1986) DVD Review: An Unsentimental Look at True Religion
A gently comedic drama about finding religious fulfillment in action rather than ceremony, the little-seen 1986 film Saving Grace is ...
Read More Domain (2009) DVD Review: A Magnetic Lead Performance Saves a Muddled Script
Béatrice Dalle’s extraordinary ability to sensually descend into madness will be forever enshrined in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue, a film ...
Read More Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Blu-ray Review: Both Extremely and Incredibly Shameless
The Film I’m not sure if it’s the nauseating amount of precious quirk or the hammering lack of subtlety that’s ...
Read More David Lean Directs Noel Coward Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Four Distinctly British Films From a Fruitful Partnership
Before his name became synonymous with the widescreen epic, David Lean began his directorial career working closely with playwright Noël ...
Read More The Sitter Blu-ray Review: A Formless Mass of Unfunny
The Film With every new David Gordon Green film, there’s generally a round of bewildered bemoaning about the transformation of ...
Read More Conversation Piece DVD Review: A Probing Penultimate Film from an Italian Master
Luchino Visconti’s second-to-last film, Conversation Piece (Gruppo di famiglia in un interno) is a sure-handed, character-driven chamber drama that may ...
Read More Sinful Davey DVD Review: Pleasant But Hardly Memorable Adventure Comedy
By no means the worst John Huston picture you’ll ever see, but certainly nowhere near his top tier of work, ...
Read More The Visitor (1963) DVD Review: A Nuanced Look at Romance
An increasingly nuanced and complex portrayal of the things we do for security and love, Antonio Pietrangeli’s The Visitor (La ...
Read More 3 DVD Review: A Playful Menage a Trois
After one entirely dull, far too self-serious attempt at a big-budget Hollywood crossover in The International, it’s nice to see ...
Read More Bullhead Movie Review: Oscar-Nominated Drama as Meat-Headed as Its Protagonist
After spending its first act setting up a rote narcotics syndicate narrative — freshened ever so slightly by cattle hormones ...
Read More Special Treatment DVD Review: Prostitution and Psychotherapy Overlap in Underwhelming Film
There’s a promising movie in the middle of Special Treatment, a low-key comic drama that’s at turns too programmatic in ...
Read More The Bed Sitting Room DVD Review: Post-Nuclear British Satire Hits the Mark
An absurdist minor masterpiece, Richard Lester’s The Bed Sitting Room in many ways follows in the same vein as Lester’s ...
Read More 2012 Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Short Films Review: A Mixed Bag of Nominees
Before the 84th Academy Awards take place on Feb. 26, you still have time to catch up with some of ...
Read More 2012 Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films Review: Five Strong Nominees Vie for Gold
No matter how much of an Oscar completist you are, by the time February rolls around, it’s usually the short ...
Read More Halls of Anger DVD Review: Turgid Race Drama Enlivened by the Performances
A racial drama lacking the stylistic bravado to match its potentially incendiary subject matter, Halls of Anger retains any kind ...
Read More Busting DVD Review: ’70s Buddy Cop Film Elevated by Elliott Gould
As far as little-seen ’70s buddy cop films go, Peter Hyams’ Busting isn’t as bizarrely transgressive as Richard Rush’s Freebie ...
Read More The Moment of Truth Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Heady Symphony of Sound and Image
The Film Francesco Rosi doesn’t waste his time on extraneous details in The Moment of Truth, a lean symphony of ...
Read More The Overcoat (1952) DVD Review: A Genre-Bending Satire from the Age of Neorealism
Made when the Italian Neorealist movement was still prominent, Alberto Lattuada’s The Overcoat sounds like a prime example of the ...
Read More Traffic Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Thrilling and Uncompromising Look at the War on Drugs
The Film One of the predominant narratives used in describing Steven Soderbergh’s career is that he’s a director capable of ...
Read More Eat This New York DVD Review: Jumbled Restaurant Documentary Proves Unsatisfying
There are two movies duking it out in Andrew Rossi’s and Kate Novack’s Eat This New York, a 2004 documentary ...
Read More Sid & Nancy Blu-ray Review: Grotesque and Sublime Doomed Love
The Film I had to laugh when reading the back of the newly released Fox/MGM Sid & Nancy Blu-ray, which ...
Read More I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive DVD Review: Study of Post-Adoption Scars Falls Flat
There are some severely displaced feelings at the center of I’m Glad My Mother is Alive, a 2009 French film ...
Read More Sabu! Criterion Collection DVD Review: Adventures With The Immensely Charming Child Star
Plucked from obscurity as an elephant handler in southern India and vaulted to international stardom largely by the efforts of ...
Read More The Moon in the Gutter Blu-ray Review: Ponderous Movie, Worse Blu-ray
The Film After his art house crossover hit debut feature Diva, Jean-Jacques Beineix followed it up with The Moon in ...
Read More Stars and Stripes Forever Blu-ray Review: A Deadly Dull Biopic
The Film John Philip Sousa occupies an undeniably important place in American music history, and Henry Koster’s 1952 Technicolor biopic ...
Read More Come Have Coffee With Us DVD Review: Italian Sex Comedy Subverted
A bitterly ironic and slyly subversive Italian sex comedy, Alberto Lattuada’s Come Have Coffee With Us mostly succeeds in spite ...
Read More Behind the Mask (1946) DVD Review: Inert Pulp Adaptation
One of a number of films based on pulp magazine hero The Shadow, Behind the Mask (also known as The ...
Read More Under Fire: Journalists in Combat Movie Review: Slapdash Production Values Undermine Compelling Content
Oscar shortlisted documentary Under Fire: Journalists in Combat has one major factor in its favor — its subjects are all ...
Read More The Music Lovers DVD Review: A Spirited Symphony of Excess
The first theatrical feature in Ken Russell’s series of unconventional composer biopics, The Music Lovers must be a frustrating experience ...
Read More The Sleeping Beauty DVD Review: French Provocateur Catherine Breillat Re-imagines the Fairy Tale
French director Catherine Breillat’s depictions of sexual awakening can be shocking — consider the seemingly out-of-nowhere conclusion to her 2001 ...
Read More Rushmore Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Wes Anderson’s Best Film Dazzles in High-Def
The Film By and large, there’s been quite a backlash against the films of Wes Anderson, and even though I’m ...
Read More Identification of a Woman Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Futile Search for Romantic Fulfillment
The Film Among those disinclined to enjoy films without a clear story arc, well-defined conflict, and a resolute conclusion, the ...
Read More Kuroneko Criterion Collection DVD Review: Expressionistic Horror in Feudal Japan
A spooky, poetic Japanese ghost story, Kuroneko is the kind of film that captivates you by virtue of an astonishing ...
Read More Le Havre Movie Review: Another Low-Key Delight from Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki’s films often require the viewer to get on a specific wavelength in order to appreciate the wry tone ...
Read More Leap Year (2011) DVD Review: A Painful Portrait Of Isolation
There’s not much respite for Laura (Monica del Carmen), the plain freelance journalist who’s onscreen nearly every second in Michael ...
Read More O Brother, Where Art Thou? Blu-ray Review: An Epic High-Def Upgrade
The Film A bit of a trifle compared to more exactingly crafted Coen Brothers films, O Brother, Where Art Thou? ...
Read More The Phantom Carriage Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Spooky Silent Cinema That Transcends Genre
The Film Victor Sjöström’s intensely atmospheric, technically brilliant The Phantom Carriage was highly influential on the career of Ingmar Bergman, ...
Read More Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The True Origins of the French New Wave
The Films The French New Wave evokes thoughts of two films above all others — François Truffaut’s and Jean-Luc Godard’s ...
Read More Dressed to Kill Blu-ray Review: Brian De Palma Conflates Sex and Death
The Film Exhibit A of the “Brian De Palma just rips off Hitchcock” trope has to be Dressed to Kill, ...
Read More Orpheus Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Cinematic Magic from a Familiar Tale
The Film Jean Cocteau had a knack for applying a distinct surreal stamp to familiar tales. He did it in ...
Read More The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara DVD Review: Diverse Dispatches from the Japanese New Wave
Watching the five films in Criterion’s latest Eclipse offering, The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara, one gets the sense that ...
Read More La Rabbia DVD Review: A Politically-Charged Italian Oddity
Differing opinions don’t get much more diametrically opposite than those put forth in La Rabbia or The Anger, a two-part ...
Read More The Big Lebowski Blu-ray Review: Not Quite a Gutterball, but Close
The Film There’s no film in the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre quite like The Big Lebowski, which seems to have generated ...
Read More The Battle of Algiers Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Political Powder-Keg
The Film The Battle of Algiers doesn’t simply tack on a cinema verité veneer to achieve a sense of realism; ...
Read More Donnie Darko 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Review: Nothing New to See Here, Folks
The Film A bona fide cult classic and champion of the home video era after a disastrous post 9-11 limited ...
Read More Wedding Daze Blu-ray Review: Agreeably Low-Key Rom-Com
The Film For a movie about a spontaneous marriage proposal, the stakes feel pretty low in Wedding Daze, essentially a ...
Read More Leon Morin, Priest Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Sex and Religion on the Mind
The Film Léon Morin, Priest is a somewhat atypical film for director Jean-Pierre Melville and star Jean-Paul Belmondo, at least ...
Read More The Myth of the American Sleepover Movie Review: Naturalism and Awkwardness in Equal Measures
It’s to writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s credit that he takes the concerns of his teenage characters seriously in his debut ...
Read More Make Believe Movie Review: Teen Magicians Vie for Glory
Somewhere, there’s a stack of embarrassing pictures of me as a kid, dressed in one of my dad’s suit coats ...
Read More Park Row DVD Review: Samuel Fuller’s Energetic Ode to the Newspaper Business
I bet I’d have a hard time finding a journalist who wouldn’t have a soft spot for Samuel Fuller’s Park ...
Read More Adua and Her Friends DVD Review: A Moving Italian Drama
Antonio Pietrangeli isn’t a particularly well-known filmmaker within the United States, but his wonderful 1960 film Adua and Her Friends ...
Read More The Misfits (1961) Blu-ray Review: An Overlooked American Classic Looks Stunning In High-Def
The Film With the powerhouse combination of writer Arthur Miller and director John Huston behind the camera and the star ...
Read More The Horse Soldiers Blu-ray Review: One of John Ford’s Lesser Films
John Ford elevated the western from sturdy B-picture to bona fide art form with his 1939 film Stagecoach, and would ...
Read More Some Like It Hot Blu-ray Review: A Timeless Comedic Classic Impresses on Blu-ray
An enduring classic that’s often considered one of the finest American comedies ever made, Some Like It Hot is a ...
Read More The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Blu-ray Review: Effective, if Dated, Political Paranoia
The Film Political thrillers don’t get much more famous than The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer’s entry into the pantheon of ...
Read More Summer Children DVD Review: A Lost Film Is Found Again
Never properly released after it was shot in 1965, Summer Children was recently unearthed by producer Jack Robinette and finally ...
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