Identification of a Woman Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Futile Search for Romantic Fulfillment
By Dusty Somers |
The Film Among those disinclined to enjoy films without a clear story arc, well-defined conflict, and a resolute conclusion, the ...
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Kuroneko Criterion Collection DVD Review: Expressionistic Horror in Feudal Japan
By Dusty Somers |
A spooky, poetic Japanese ghost story, Kuroneko is the kind of film that captivates you by virtue of an astonishing ...
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Smiles of a Summer Night Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: All’s Well That Ends Well
By Gordon S. Miller |
Though legendary director Ingmar Bergman is well known for creating films that deal with serious subjects about life and death, ...
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The Four Feathers (1939) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Offers Quite a Bit of Excitement
By Shawn Bourdo |
The A.E.W. Mason classic adventure book The Four Feathers (1902) has been adapted into at least seven films directly. The ...
Read More Island of Lost Souls (1932) Criterion Collection DVD Review: Are We Not Men?
By Greg Barbrick |
”Do you know what it means to feel like God?” asks the fiendish Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) at one point ...
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The Killing Criterion Collection DVD Review: A Day at the Races
By Joe Garcia III |
The Criterion Collection has scored big again with the DVD release of The Killing, Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film noir classic. ...
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The Four Feathers (1939) Criterion Collection DVD Review: One Man’s Journey of Redemption
By Todd Karella |
Harry Faversham (John Clements) comes from a long line of heroic officers in the British army. But ever since he ...
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Criterion Collection Eclipse Series #29 DVD Review: Aki Kaurismaki’s Leningrad Cowboys
By Greg Barbrick |
Not since the likes of Sigue Sigue Sputnik have a band with so little to offer gained such mass attention. ...
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Kuroneko Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Things That Go Bump In The Night
By Steve Geise |
Although classified as a horror film, Kuroneko isn’t very scary. Instead, it delivers atmosphere and oddities, making it more akin ...
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Harakiri Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The Samurai Condition
By Steve Geise |
When a bedraggled masterless samurai, or ronin, approaches the estate of a large warrior clan and asks for permission to ...
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Buy the Disc, Take the Ride
By Gordon S. Miller |
First appearing in the pages of Rolling Stone, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas details the drug-fueled ...
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My Life As a Dog Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Boy’s Eccentric Journey to Manhood
By Shawn Bourdo |
When you further categorize the films that I love the most, you’ll find that the majority of them speak to ...
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The Phantom Carriage Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Spooky Silent Cinema That Transcends Genre
By Dusty Somers |
The Film Victor Sjöström’s intensely atmospheric, technically brilliant The Phantom Carriage was highly influential on the career of Ingmar Bergman, ...
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Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The True Origins of the French New Wave
By Dusty Somers |
The Films The French New Wave evokes thoughts of two films above all others — François Truffaut’s and Jean-Luc Godard’s ...
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Carlos (2010) Criterion Collection DVD Review: An Extraordinary Movie
By Greg Barbrick |
From the opening explosion of a car bomb in Paris, through the anti-climactic, somewhat pathetic ending – Carlos is a ...
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The Phantom Carriage Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Impressive Ghost of Cinema Past
By Steve Geise |
I don’t spend much time watching silent films, especially foreign silent films, but The Phantom Carriage has me rethinking that ...
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The Phantom Carriage Criterion Collection DVD Review: The Pinnacle of Swedish Silent Filmmaking
By Greg Barbrick |
Swedish director Victor Sjostrom’s (1879-1960) The Phantom Carriage (1921) is a profoundly emotional film, and was a seminal influence on ...
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Orpheus Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Cinematic Magic from a Familiar Tale
By Dusty Somers |
The Film Jean Cocteau had a knack for applying a distinct surreal stamp to familiar tales. He did it in ...
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Cul-De-Sac Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Roman Polanski Leads Down a Dead End Road
By Shawn Bourdo |
With new releases from The Criterion Collection, the ones I look forward to the most aren’t always the major works ...
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Topsy-Turvy Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: It Is the Very Model of a Modern-Day Blu-ray Release
By Gordon S. Miller |
After five films, Mike Leigh took a break from modern-day kitchen-sick dramas and created Topsy-Turvy, a marvelous historical biopic about ...
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The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara DVD Review: Diverse Dispatches from the Japanese New Wave
By Dusty Somers |
Watching the five films in Criterion’s latest Eclipse offering, The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara, one gets the sense that ...
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Orpheus Criterion Collection DVD Review: Jean Cocteau Constructed a Masterpiece
By Greg Barbrick |
”Look at yourself in a mirror all your life and you will see Death at work,” says Heurtebise (Francois Perier) ...
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Blow Out Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Hearing Is Believing
By Gordon S. Miller |
Brian De Palma’s Blow Out is an intriguing political thriller that plays with the ideas of perception and cinema. These ...
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Secret Sunshine Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Secret No More
By Steve Geise |
After an interminable four-year delay, Secret Sunshine has finally reached U.S. shores thanks to the fine folks at Criterion. The ...
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The Killing Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Meet Me at the Racetrack
By Steve Geise |
The Killing is a fine little film on its own, and yet I couldn’t help but compare it unfavorably to ...
Read More Cul-de-Sac Criterion Collection DVD Review: Not Your Garden Variety Thriller
By Cinema Sentries |
Written by Lisa McKay The tragedies and controversy swirling around director Roman Polanski’s personal life have frequently overshadowed his reputation ...
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The Mikado Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Dated but Has its Charms
By Gordon S. Miller |
The Mikado is the ninth opera created by the tandem of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. It debuted in London ...
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The Battle of Algiers Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Political Powder-Keg
By Dusty Somers |
The Film The Battle of Algiers doesn’t simply tack on a cinema verité veneer to achieve a sense of realism; ...
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Leon Morin, Priest Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Sex and Religion on the Mind
By Dusty Somers |
The Film Léon Morin, Priest is a somewhat atypical film for director Jean-Pierre Melville and star Jean-Paul Belmondo, at least ...
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High and Low Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Kurosawa and Mifune: The Gold Standard
By Steve Geise |
Master director Akira Kurosawa and his acting muse Toshiro Mifune teamed up once again for this kidnapping drama set in ...
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Life During Wartime Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Alternative Happiness
By Steve Geise |
Writer/director Todd Solondz has forged a cottage industry out of exploring the foibles of odd suburban characters, popping in every ...
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Naked Criterion Blu-ray Review: Anti-Hero’s Odyssey Through Thatcher’s London
By Shawn Bourdo |
In Mike Leigh’s 1993 UK film, Naked, I don’t think a main character has turned the audience against him quicker ...
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Au revoir les enfants Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Louis Malle’s Remembrance of Things Past
By Gordon S. Miller |
Writer-director Louis Malle’s childhood informs Au revoir les enfants, a story about two boys at a Catholic boarding school in ...
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The Music Room Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Solitary Man
By Steve Geise |
Right from the opening shot of this film, it’s evident that viewers are witnessing the work of a masterful director. ...
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Black Moon (1975) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Gloria Steinem Meets Lewis Carroll
By Shawn Bourdo |
I don’t know the exact definition of a “black moon” just as I’m not exactly clear on the definition of ...
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Insignificance Criterion Collection DVD Review: There is Significance in Everything
By Greg Barbrick |
In 1954, four of the most famous people in the world were Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Joe McCarthy, and Albert ...
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People on Sunday Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Lazy Sunday
By Steve Geise |
People on Sunday is a fascinating historical document of late 1920s Germany, offering a glimpse into the fashion, architecture, and ...
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Kiss Me Deadly Criterion Collection DVD Review: Endlessly Entertaining
By Greg Barbrick |
Appearing at the tail end of the classic era of film noir, Kiss Me Deadly (1955) was a stylishly brutal ...
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The Makioka Sisters Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: No Joy No Luck Club
By Steve Geise |
Director Kon Ichikawa’s late career work centers on the relationships between four adult sisters as they run their family kimono ...
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Criterion Collection Eclipse Series #27 DVD Review: Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas
By Greg Barbrick |
Raffaello Matarazzo (1909 – 1966) was an Italian director who specialized in some of the most melodramatic pictures to ever ...
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The Great Dictator Criterion Collection DVD Review: The Most Courageous Act of His Remarkable Career
By Greg Barbrick |
Charles Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) is undoubtedly his most controversial film. It is also one of his greatest. His ...
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The Great Dictator Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Charlie Chaplin Still Gives Hope Today
By Shawn Bourdo |
When we last saw Charlie Chaplin in 1936 at the end of Modern Times, The Tramp and his muse, “the ...
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The Times of Harvey Milk Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: History in the Making
By Gordon S. Miller |
The Times of Harvey Milk is an outstanding documentary that presents an important chapter in the United States civil rights ...
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Diabolique (1955) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Crime and Punishment
By Steve Geise |
There’s a clear point part way through this French classic where it drops its conventional nature and morphs into an ...
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Diabolique (1955) Criterion Collection DVD Review: Influential Horror that Stands the Test of Time
By Greg Barbrick |
Henri-Georges Clouzet’s Diabolique (1955) is a classic suspense/horror film. Although Clouzet was maligned as “old guard” by the up and ...
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Army of Shadows Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Different Kind of Spy Thriller
By Gordon S. Miller |
Writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969) opens with a powerful image: an extended take of a long line of ...
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Something Wild Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Jonathan Demme’s Film is a Wild Thing
By Shawn Bourdo |
The Criterion Collection is on a serious roll this Spring. I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing White Material (a superb ...
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Something Wild Criterion Collection DVD Review: Jonathan Demme’s Vision of a Yuppie Nightmare
By Greg Barbrick |
”It’s better to be a live dog, than a dead lion.” So says Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels) as he leaves ...
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Pale Flower Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Essential Japanese New Wave
By Steve Geise |
Although this is a Japanese film, the words that immediately come to mind to describe it are largely French: a ...
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8 1/2 Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A World-Cinema Landmark
By Gordon S. Miller |
The Criterion Collection has released Federico Fellini's 8 ½ on Blu-ray. The Academy Award-winning 1963 Italian film is a world-cinema ...
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