Tag Archive for 'Criterion'
August 17th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in November: Věra Chytilová’s defiant Czechoslovak New Wave provocation Daisies; Jane Campion’s psychologically piercing revisionist western The Power of the Dog; Andrew Lau Wai-keung and Alan Mak’s gripping saga of two rival moles in Hong Kong’s criminal underworld, The Infernal Affairs Trilogy; and Spike Lee’s visionary monument to an iconic civil rights leader, Malcolm X. Plus: an upgrade […]
August 13th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
With the recent passing of acting legend (as well as director and diplomat) Sidney Poitier, it’s entirely fitting to see the Criterion Collection release Buck and the Preacher. Also directed by Poitier (his first directorial effort), here’s a film that plays as an entertaining buddy western and a societal commentary focused on black life in […]
July 18th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
This October: Kasi Lemmons’s Eve’s Bayou, a southern-gothic tale suffused with Creole folklore; Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure, a grisly murder mystery that redefined Japanese horror; and Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona, a political ghost story rooted in Guatemala’s bloody past. David Lynch’s twisting neonoir Lost Highway unfolds in the Hollywood Hills, while Frank Capra’s screwball classic Arsenic and Old Lace mixes the madcap […]
July 9th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
Seeing the announcement of Devil in a Blue Dress as an upcoming 4K release from the Criterion Collection was a great joy. An underperformer at the time of its release, only to find more appreciation as the years have gone why, this period thriller starring Denzel Washington brings together two major ideas – a neo-noir […]
June 12th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
In an entirely fitting movie for the Criterion Collection, 1971’s Shaft has been selected to join the ranks and has received the deluxe treatment with a 3-disc 4K UHD set (2 Blu-ray discs). A notable film from the Blaxploitation era, it may not be the first or perhaps even the best, but Shaft is the […]
May 16th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
This August, we invite you on a euphoric, hallucinatory Ethiopian odyssey with Jessica Beshir’s Faya dayi and a poetic-realist sojourn in 1930s Paris with Marcel Carné’s Hôtel du Nord. The creative trio behind Uncut Gems dig into their disorienting debut features, Josh and Benny Safdie’s Daddy Longlegs and Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland, and Sidney Poitier directs Sidney Poitier in a touchstone Black western, Buck and […]
April 19th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
This year’s Oscar winner for Best International Feature Film, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, will make its home-video debut in July alongside David Lean’s radiant Technicolor gem about romantic longing, Summertime, and a stacked 4K UHD slate: Carl Franklin’s stylish noir set in segregated 1940s Los Angeles, Devil in a Blue Dress; Bong Joon Ho’s modern fairy tale […]
March 17th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
This June: Criterion presents Ekwa Msangi’s stunning feature debut, Farewell Amor; Joachim Trier’s ultra-charismatic Oscar contender, The Worst Person in the World; Hong Kong master Stanley Kwan’s swooningly romantic ghost story, Rouge; and Shaft, the blaxploitation action-hero epic from Gordon Parks, now on 4K UHD. Plus: the filthiest, trashiest film on the Nation Film Registry, Pink Flamingos by John Waters, meets the lushest, most operatic […]
February 21st, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
This was an entirely fitting choice. Miller’s Crossing is one of the ultimate kinds of Criterion films in many ways. It’s a neo-noir, low-budget yet heavy on style and influence, one of the early efforts from the Coen brothers, a cult favorite for audiences, despite receiving plenty of acclaim at the time from critics then […]
February 15th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
Mystery lurks this May with a missing man in San Francisco’s Chinatown in Wayne Wang’s Chan Is Missing, a mistaken identity in World War II-era Paris in Joseph Losey’s Mr. Klein, and the sinister scheme in hard-boiled LA that put film noir on the map in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. Plus: The maker of Tampopo, Juzo Itami, takes on the Japanese way of death […]
January 18th, 2022 by Aaron Neuwirth
In April, Jayne Mansfield rocks Frank Tashlin’s jukebox musical The Girl Can’t Help It with a who’s who of 1950s radio idols, and bebop legend Dexter Gordon anchors one of the most beloved jazz films ever made, Bertrand Tavernier’s ’Round Midnight. A stunning 2020 debut from Lagos, Nigeria, Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) brings a neorealist eye to the modern megacity, […]
December 23rd, 2021 by Brandon Peters
The year comes to a close in a matter of days, so that means its time break out the obligatory end of year/best of/top 10 of things from 2021. This year saw a nice surge in titles coming to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, ending the year with Criterion FINALLY getting on board and getting involved in […]
December 15th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming in March: The Last Waltz, a genre-defining concert doc by music lover Martin Scorsese; Adoption, the 1976 stunner that made Hungarian auteur Márta Mészáros the first woman to win the coveted Golden Bear; love jones, Theodore Witcher’s singular tale of Black love and poetry in 1990s Chicago; and The Flight of the Phoenix, a psychologically charged Saharan survival epic featuring World War […]
December 12th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
Upon hearing the announcement of The Criterion Collection’s first set of 4K UHD Blu-ray releases, I was excited by all that was being offered (Citizen Kane! Menace II Society II), but I was most interested in seeing The Red Shoes in 4K. Looking at the list of archival releases put out in 4K in this […]
November 15th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
In February, The Criterion Collection is bringing out two classics of romance and melodrama, Leo McCarey’s Love Affair and Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind; the Coen brothers’ Prohibition-era gangster saga, Miller’s Crossing; and Ann Hui’s heartrending, humanist look at the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Boat People. – – –
October 15th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
This January, the Criterion Collection is ringing in the New Year with major works by three fiercely imaginative women filmmakers: The Piano, Jane Campion’s sensual tale of a woman’s inner awakening, now in 4K UHD; Dick Johnson is Dead, Kirsten Johnson’s inventive, deeply moving love letter to her father; and Time, Garrett Bradley’s poetic look at one […]
September 15th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming to the Criterion Collection this December, Academy Award-winning actor Regina King, in her directorial debut, brings to cinematic life an imagined 1964 meeting between four African American icons in One Night in Miami…, and renowned photographer turned filmmaker Gordon Parks weaves a spellbinding coming-of-age story in The Learning Tree—the first Hollywood studio film by a Black director. And Michael Powell and […]
August 31st, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
Following the announcement of the Criterion Collection’s first set of 4K UHD releases, we now have an update regarding the Safdie’ Brother’s acclaimed 2019 film, Uncut Gems. The Adam Sandler-starring thriller, which was already set to come out this year, has been upgraded to a 4K release, complete with new artwork as well. The 4k […]
