The latest entertainment news and reviews in 4K UHD, Blu-ray, movies and more…
One of the most celebrated documentaries of 2018, let alone the past decade, Minding the Gap is a wonderful chronicle of friendship, society, and skateboarding. I was excited when The Criterion Collection announced their plans to release the film last year, and this Blu-ray did not disappoint. As a debut feature, director Bing Liu manages […]
Bursting onto the scene in 2000, after spending years as a radio DJ, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first film, Amores Perros, is an exceedingly confident debut, which melded together three stories, all linked by one defining moment, and greater themes connected to life, along with the presence of dogs. The Criterion Collection has done all they […]
“But if I just focus on a top ten, and then add some honorable mentions, that will save me some time.” Famous last words… This year’s top ten Blu-ray list didn’t get any more streamlined, but there’s a lot out there to enjoy, so get ready to go on a tour of physical media from […]
For their final new-release announcement of the year, The Criterion Collection has unveiled upcoming editions of a satirical afterlife comedy by Albert Brooks, an enigmatic ode to friendship and imagination from Jacques Rivette, the Palme d’Or–winning family drama that made Mike Leigh one of the world’s most beloved auteurs, and Djibril Diop Mambéty’s convention-shattering debut […]
Presented by The Criterion Collection, with his lush and sensual visuals, pitch-perfect soundtracks, and soulful romanticism, Wong Kar Wai has established himself as one of the defining auteurs of contemporary cinema. Joined by such key collaborators as cinematographer Christopher Doyle; editor and production and costume designer William Chang Suk Ping; and actors Tony Leung Chiu […]
It’s not as though The Criterion Collection doesn’t have its share of comedies or romantic films, let alone downright hilarious features. That in mind, seeing 1987’s Moonstruck enter the collection is the kind of move that will ideally not only help restore the value to be found in this Norman Jewison-directed, John Patrick Shanley-written romantic […]
In February, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, a troubling and profound coming-of-age story starring Laura Dern in her breakout performance, will join the Criterion Collection in a new 4K restoration supervised by the director. Ousmane Sembène satirizes the greed and dysfunction of postcolonial Senegalese society in his bitterly ironic second feature, Mandabi, newly restored in 4K. Warren Beatty stars […]
In January, the Criterion Collection presents a mischievous chronicle of a rock icon’s most extravagant tour from one of our greatest filmmakers—Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese makes its home-video debut in an edition featuring never-before-seen concert footage, a new interview with Scorsese, and more. Also appearing for the first time on […]
What once was gone, now is found. Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou was one of the Criterion Collection’s first Blu-ray releases in 2009 before the rights were lost to StudioCanal. That initial release may be a collector’s item, but for those who want to see the film with a deluxe Criterion treatment, this re-release brings […]
On September 8th (Yeah, I’m behind), The Criterion Collection released two films from director Jules Dassin. In addition to the subject of this review, 1948’s The Naked City, they also put forth the film Dassin had done the year prior; Brute Force (1947). Aaron Neuwirth wonderfully covered that one for Why So Blu, so if […]
This December, the Criterion Collection welcomes the monumental first feature that kick-started twenty-first-century Mexican cinema with an electrifying jolt: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s blistering Amores Perros will appear in an edition featuring a new 4K restoration, along with extensive new interviews with the cast and crew and programs on the making of the film. David Cronenberg’s icily erotic treatise […]
Coming at audiences with a one-two punch this month from The Criterion Collection is a double-dose films from famed and once-blacklisted director Jules Dassin. Both The Naked City and Brute Force have finally been given the Blu-ray upgrade, and what fantastic work it is to see these 70+-year-old films get proper treatment in their restorations. […]
This November, the Criterion Collection will bring Martin Scorsese’s elegiac, Academy Award–nominated mob epic The Irishman to home video in an edition featuring extensive interviews with the cast and crew and behind-the-scenes programs on the film’s production. An Oscar-winning Cher stars alongside Nicolas Cage in the beloved romantic comedy Moonstruck, appearing in a new 4K restoration. Claudia Weill’s trailblazing Girlfriends, an […]
Joining in the international celebration of Federico Fellini’s 100th birthday, Criterion is thrilled to announce Essential Fellini, a fifteen-Blu-ray box set that brings together fourteen of the director’s most imaginative and uncompromising works for the first time. Alongside new restorations of the theatrical features, the set also includes short and full-length documentaries about Fellini’s life and work, archival interviews with […]
This October, Bong Joon Ho’s international sensation Parasite, winner of the Palme d’Or and four Academy Awards, will join the Criterion Collection in a director-approved edition packed with special features. Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones star in Claudine, a big-hearted romantic comedy that empathetically explores Black working-class life, with a chart-topping soundtrack composed by Curtis Mayfield and […]
Here’s another screwball classic getting the Blu-ray upgrade from The Criterion Collection. The Lady Eve is a wonderful romantic comedy about a con gone wrong due to feelings getting in the way. Preston Sturges is in peak form with this film, knocking it out the same year as another one of his classics, Sullivan’s Travels. […]
This September, Claire Denis’ long-unavailable, ravishingly sensual masterpiece Beau travail will join the Criterion Collection in a new, restored 4K digital transfer. Turning forty this year, David Lynch’s atmospheric, Oscar-nominated The Elephant Man, stars John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins in the poignant true story of John Merrick. Never before available on home video, the full version of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped […]
This August, Paul Schrader’s seductive thriller The Comfort of Strangers– adapted by Harold Pinter from the novel by Ian McEwan- will join the Criterion Collection in a new 4K restoration. A landmark of poetic realism that went on to influence the French New Wave, Jean Renoir’s Provence-set drama Toni will make its first appearance on Blu-ray and DVD. […]
You are currently browsing the Why So Blu? weblog archives.
Longer entries are truncated. Click the headline of an entry to read it in its entirety.
