Risky Business Criterion Collection Review: Introducing Tom Cruise and Guido the Killer Pimp
By Greg Hammond |
Written and directed by Paul Brickman, 1983’s Risky Business turned Tom Cruise into a superstar. And it isn’t just dancing ...
Read More Black God, White Devil Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Could Not Be More Relevant
By Davy |
Once in a while, a film comes along and redefines my perception of the limitless possibilities of filmmaking. Influential Brazilian ...
Read More Victims of Sin Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Zoot Suit Riot
By Steve Geise |
If you’re new to Mexico’s rumbera musical genre, imagine classic Hollywood musical tropes filtered through a crime-ridden back alley, removing ...
Read More Querelle Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Man in Every Port
By Jack Cormack |
In director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle (1982; adapted from a book by Jean Genet), a Belgian sailor, Querelle (Brad Davis), ...
Read More A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu
By Steve Geise |
Previously released on Criterion DVD in 2004, this Ozu double feature finally gets a Blu-ray upgrade with newly improved technical ...
Read More Defending Your Life Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Love in the Time of Purgatory
By Gordon S. Miller |
Defending your life is a task all face in the afterlife in Albert Brooks' film of the same name which ...
Read More The War of the Worlds Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Special-Effects Spectacle
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells, Byron Haskin's The War of the Worlds transports the story of ...
Read More Dogfight Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: More Than It Seems
By Joe Garcia III |
Lili Taylor and River Phoenix shine bright in Dogfight (1991) directed by Nancy Savoca and penned by Bob Comfort. Set ...
Read More All That Money Can Buy (aka The Devil and Daniel Webster) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review
By Davy |
The ancient tale of man selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for wealth and prosperity has been adapted ...
Read More The Lady Eve Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Preston Sturges Presents a Two-Sided Love Triangle
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Monckton Hoffe's “Two Bad Hats,” The Lady Eve is Preston Sturges's third outing as writer/director, and with it, ...
Read More The Heroic Trio/Executioners Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Insane Hong Kong Lady Action
By Kent Conrad |
In the pre-Internet era, information about different cultures’ cinema was obscure. It was rumor. It was some still in a ...
Read More Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: An Enjoyable Six-Pack of Chan’s Early Films
By Gordon S. Miller |
Jackie Chan movies entered into the Criterion Collection in 2019 with the one-two punch of Police Story/Police Story 2. The ...
Read More Days of Heaven Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Blue Harvest
By Jack Cormack |
The Criterion Collection has released Days of Heaven (1978; dir. Terrence Malick) in 4K as part of a 4K UHD/Blu-ray ...
Read More Scorsese Shorts Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Must-own for Fans of the Director
By Gordon S. Miller |
Scorsese Shorts presents a quintet of director Martin Scorsese's early short films, two documentaries from the '70s and three short ...
Read More No Bears Blu-ray Review: A Powerful Work About the Passion for Filmmaking
By Davy |
I'm not familiar with Jafar Panahi's cinema, but from what I've heard from other film lovers and critics is that ...
Read More La Bamba Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Soars Far Above Other Hollywood Biopics
By Joe Garcia III |
La Bamba (1987) is the story of Richard Valenzuela, known better as Ritchie Valens, a name associated with a song ...
Read More Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Feels Like We’re Witnessing Real Life
By Davy |
Ever since legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasjuiro Ozu died in 1963, there has been an array of cinematic stories he left ...
Read More Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Master Reflects
By Kent Conrad |
With a master artist, their later works are impossible to judge outside of the context of their careers. One could ...
Read More One False Move Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Southern Discomfort
By David Wangberg |
Carl Franklin’s work is a blind spot for me, sad to say. While the acclaimed filmmaker has only a few ...
Read More The Rules of the Game Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: The Shooting Party
By Jack Cormack |
On the brink of WWII, Jean Renoir—inspired by baroque music and an opera, Les Caprices de Marianne—took his collaborators to ...
Read More The Servant Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Scathing, Subversive Film of Class, Sexuality, and Manipulation
By Davy |
Only a few films in cinematic history have ever portrayed the rather complex dynamics between masters and their manservants, but ...
Read More Time Bandits Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: A Child’s Nightmare Fantasy
By Kent Conrad |
Is Time Bandits a children's movie? It stars a child, and there's nothing on the face that a child shouldn't ...
Read More Thelma & Louise Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Two for the Road
By Gordon S. Miller |
Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise tells a familiar story about two friends on a road trip who unintentionally become outlaws, ...
Read More Branded to Kill Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Yakuza Movie as Experimental Art
By Kent Conrad |
Goro Hanada's life is spinning out of control. His wife spends all his money, so he's always on the financial ...
Read More Wings of Desire Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Stay
By Jack Cormack |
Not much happens in Wings of Desire (1987; dir. Wim Wenders), but it’s among the most beautiful of films. In ...
Read More The Seventh Seal Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Chess with Death
By Jack Cormack |
The Criterion Collection has just released Ingmar Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal (1957), in 4K UHD. When I first saw ...
Read More Chilly Scenes of Winter Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The Star of the Movie Is Director Joan Micklin Silver
By Greg Hammond |
Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Ann Beattie. ...
Read More Hollywood Shuffle Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Be the Change You Want to See
By Gordon S. Miller |
When struggling actor Robert Townsend was frustrated by the stereotypical and racist roles he was being offered as a black ...
Read More Dazed and Confused Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: School’s Out
By Jack Cormack |
Dazed and Confused (1993; dir. Richard Linklater) circuits darkness: On the last day of school before the summer of 1976, ...
Read More Three Colors Trilogy Criterion Collection 4K UHD Review: Enigmatic Masterpieces About People Connecting
By Kent Conrad |
The Three Colors of this film trilogy, Blue, White, and Red, are so-chosen for the French tri-color flag (sorry, U.S.A.) ...
Read More The Adventures of Baron Munchausen Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Wondrous Story about a Wondrous Storyteller by a Wondrous Filmmaker
By Gordon S. Miller |
Co-writer/director Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen has the distinction of being the sixth Gilliam-directed title (#1166) released by ...
Read More Cooley High Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Coming-of-Age Gem Authentically Told from a Black Perspective
By Davy |
Usually, when you think of Black-oriented films from the 1970s, you mind automatically gears toward the Blaxploitation genre, which usually ...
Read More Make Way for Tomorrow Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Children Just Don’t Understand
By Gordon S. Miller |
Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Hell is other people.” That’s hard to disagree with, especially after seeing the way the ...
Read More Lost Highway Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Neo-noir with a Twist
By Gordon S. Miller |
The opening credits of Lost Highway are a POV from a car racing down a darkened highway, its headlights the ...
Read More Le Corbeau Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Poison Pen French Noir
By Kent Conrad |
France has always been one of the centers of cinema in the world. After all, the Lumiere brothers rivaled Edison ...
Read More If…. Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: If Only It Had a Plot
By Steve Geise |
This 1969 UK film has exactly one notable claim to fame: Malcolm McDowell’s first star turn in a film just ...
Read More Hotel du Nord Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Somber French Realist Classic
By Davy |
I was not always familiar with legendary filmmaker Marcel Carne's work, such as 1938's Port of Shadows, or his 1945 ...
Read More Devil in a Blue Dress Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Denzel Washington Makes Solving Mysteries Look Easy
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Walter Mosley's 1990 novel of the same name, Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress is an engaging ...
Read More The Worst Person in the World Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Breathtakingly Honest
By Davy |
Seeing The Worst Person in the World, filmmaker Joachim Trier's breathtakingly honest and so in-the-moment take on relationships and finding ...
Read More The Red Shoes Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: 15 Minutes in Heaven
By Steve Geise |
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s classic 1948 film treads a well-worn path of backstage drama at a stage production, but ...
Read More Mississippi Masala Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Mira Nair’s Beguiling Sophomore Film
By Davy |
Films about star-crossed lovers has been old as time itself, but we arguably don't get those about interracial or intercontinental ...
Read More ‘Round Midnight Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Perhaps the Greatest and Most Compelling Jazz Film Ever Made
By Davy |
The late, great Bertrand Tavernier wasn't just a highly influential film critic, he was also an incredible filmmaker with vast ...
Read More Bringing Up Baby Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Bone up on a Comedy Classic
By Gordon S. Miller |
Directed by Howard Hawks and based on Hagar Wilde's short story, which Criterion includes in the booklet, Bringing Up Baby ...
Read More The Piano Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Jane Campion’s Sublime Masterpiece
By Davy |
Despite all the accolades and acclaim, director Jane Campion still seems to be continuously undervalued and taken for granted. That's ...
Read More High Sierra Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Raoul Walsh Tells a Story Twice
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on W. R. Burnett's second novel, director Roaul Walsh's High Sierra (1941) is a captivating crime drama notable for ...
Read More The Learning Tree Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Semi-Autobiographical Story from Gordon Parks
By Davy |
There have been so many films about growing up where characters (mostly youth) deal with first love, family issues, peer ...
Read More Throw Down Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Brawl Room Blitz
By David Wangberg |
Johnnie To’s Throw Down is a titular double entendre. Not only is it a film about martial arts (kind of); ...
Read More The Incredible Shrinking Man Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Giant-Sized Fun
By Mat Brewster |
I wonder what it is about stories of humans being shrunk down to tiny size or living in a land ...
Read More Ratcatcher Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Definite Punch to the Gut
By Davy |
Despite only having four feature-length films and a handful of shorts, filmmaker Lynne Ramsay has crafted a compelling body of ...
Read More Love & Basketball Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Love Story That Feels Fresh
By Davy |
There are so many cinematic tales of young love that spans time that are riddled with clichés. They usually have ...
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