Whether Fellini Satyricon is a paean to excess or a reflective deconstruction of ancient myths and legends, one thing is for sure: It isn’t driven by a strong narrative or what one would consider effective acting, in any sense. Instead, its a series of stagey set pieces that happen to feature one of a couple main characters, loosely strung together by theme.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
When I was a kid, I loved — and still love — Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, out now on a fantastic-looking Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection. It offered a wealth of visual delights, a main character I could relate to, a sardonic sense of humor, and it never pandered.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Frank Capra is one of classic cinema’s most famous directors. His movies from the 1930s and 40s epitomized American ideals and attitudes like few other. Two of his best pre-World War II movies are newly available on Blu-ray.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
L’avventura is the film that gave Antonioni a name. The film was booed at its first screening at the Cannes Film Festival, but at the second viewing of the film, it was greeted quite enthusiastically, and then finally awarded a Special Jury Prize for “the beauty of its images, and for seeking to create a new film language.”
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What is remarkable about The Vanishing is how, like Gone Girl, it reveals much about its central mystery fairly early on in the film. Unlike Gone Girl, it continues to deepen its characters and maintain a believable sense of dread that plays into its central conceit.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Out now in a new restored 4K digital restoration on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection, this emotionally raw picture combines minimalistic acting, evocative framing, and unabashed melodrama for a timeless moviegoing experience.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It would be wrong to describe Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1962 film L’eclisse, out now in a dual-format Blu-ray-DVD combo pack from The Criterion Collection, as impenetrable.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Judex truly seems like a movie that exists completely out of time — which it turns out, is the truly bizarre film’s greatest asset.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not only do the new 2K restoration of Ace in the Hole and new 4K restored digital transfer of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou look fantastic, but the films themselves seem timeless now.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not only does it feature two bumbling pals as “heroes” and comic relief, but The Hidden Fortress is a rollicking adventure, complete with castles, lots of extras and landscape shots, and Kurosawa’s first Tohoscope widescreen presentation
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Perhaps more than any other art-house European film of the 1960s, Ingmar Bergman’s striking 1966 masterpiece Persona embodies the period.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Stop-motion animation is a painstakingly long process, one point made perfectly clear by many of the excellent special features on the Criterion Dual Format Blu-ray-DVD combo of Wes Anderson‘s 2009 Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr. Fox.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Experienced completely through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy named Bud, Terence Davies’ 1992 film The Long Day Closes is a deeply personal impressionistic triumph, out in a dual-format Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Director Michael Mann may be best known for the crime film ‘Heat,’ but ‘his debut, 1981’s Thief’ is a moody precursor, out in a new Criterion Blu-ray/DVD edition now.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Seth Rogen is one of those actors who who seems like he might have sprouted fully formed from a movie like Slacker. He’s actually Canadian, but his comedic tendencies seem to have evolved from a similar worldview as the Austin fringe thinkers.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
