Over the last few years, I’ve become a huge fan of Paul Schrader. I first knew him as a screenwriter of several Martin Scorsese films (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ), but I’ve come to love him as a director. His oeuvre is eclectic to say the least – from the seediness of the L.A. porn industry in Hardcore to the austere world of a Catholic priest struggling with his faith in First Reformed and back again with the sexually charged Cat People remake or the working class angst of Blue Collar, he’s not a director whose ever felt settled.
Buy Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Criterion Collection) 4K UHDThey say Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is his greatest film. To be honest, I started it a year or so ago and got maybe one chapter into it before turning it off. It wasn’t a bad film, not at all, but I wasn’t vibing with it at that moment in time. I meant to return to it a day or two later, but never did. Then it became one of those things where I’d have to start it from the beginning, and my desire to do that just hasn’t happened.
Which is dumb, I know, and now I have the opportunity to watch it in a restored 4K UHD print from Criterion. The film tells the story of the last day of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who famously killed himself in public, while also flashing back to different parts of his life and giving visualizations to his art. It comes with all the usual Criterion extras, including commentaries, interviews, and essays.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season One: Depending on what day you ask me, I’ll respond that Jon Pertwee is my favorite Doctor (other days it might be Tom Baker, David Tennant, or Peter Capaldi). His Doctor was a great man of action and humor (Pertwee’s comedic background really helps make his version of the Doctor a joy to watch). His first season is filled with some great episodes, including Spearhead From Space, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death, and Inferno. Caroline Johns portrays his companion Liz Shaw, a scientific advisor to UNIT, one of the few who could nearly match his intellect. As per usual, this set is filled with loads of wonderful extras.
Brazil 4K UHD: Terry Gilliam’s dark fantasy about a low-level bureaucrat who finds himself ensnared in a Kafka-esque scenario where a mistaken identity leads him down a crazed tunnel of bureaucracy is an old favorite. The Criterion Collection has upgraded it to 4K UHD, which is awesome. The fact that they are not including the several different cuts that exist (and which they have previously included on other releases) is not.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 4K UHD: Shout Factory is releasing this Sam Peckinpah film about an American traveling through the Mexican underworld to collect a million-dollar bounty on a dead man.
