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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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. – – –
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The 4Ks are coming! This November, Orson Welles’s dazzling debut Citizen Kane will appear in a deluxe edition, eighty years after it changed the course of cinema history and thirty-seven after it launched Criterion’s laserdisc line. The raw and riveting first feature by Albert and Allen Hughes, Menace II Society sent shock waves through American cinema and hip-hop […]
After years of waiting for a push to the 4K UHD Blu-ray format, the Criterion Collection is thrilled to announce their first 4K Ultra HD releases, a six-film slate that includes Citizen Kane, Menace II Society, The Piano, Mulholland Dr., The Red Shoes, and A Hard Day’s Night. The first of these editions and their special features will […]
The great thing about this surprise Criterion Collection choice, Bill Duke’s 1992 undercover cop thriller Deep Cover, is that it’s a great film, regardless of its placement in Criterion’s extensive library. As much as I dig the collection, it’s not hard to see a curious lack of films directed by Black Americans. Whether or not […]
This October, the Safdie brothers will join the Criterion Collection with their acclaimed adrenaline rush of a thriller Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler in a manically brilliant dramatic role. Humphrey Bogart gives a star-making turn alongside Ida Lupino in the gritty crime picture High Sierra, directed by action-movie master Raoul Walsh. A highlight from the early career of Satyajit […]
This September, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s groundbreaking coming-of-age film and beloved sports romance Love & Basketball will join the Criterion Collection in a new restoration. Never before available on home video, the genre-blending judo tale Throw Down is a perfect introduction to Hong Kong’s most prolific and offbeat auteur, Johnnie To. Luchino Visconti’s most savagely subversive film, The Damned traces the rot of […]
Presenting the latest box set from The Criterion Collection: Melvin Van Peebles: Four Films. Director, writer, composer, actor, and one-man creative revolutionary Melvin Van Peebles jolted American independent cinema to new life with his explosive stylistic energy and unfiltered expression of Black consciousness. Though he undeniably altered the course of film history with the anarchic […]
When considering the racy nature of Merrily We Go To Hell, it’s interesting to think about how long certain struggles have been going on within a media-driven culture. While one can look to the 1960s and 70s to get more of an idea of what women went after during the counter culture days, it’s not […]
What a picture! That can apply to many of these great releases from the Criterion Collection, but 1947’s Nightmare Alley is quite the film noir. This Edmund Goulding classic features Tyrone Power, cast against type, as a traveling con man who experiences both a rise to the top and a descent to the bottom. It’s […]
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