Jul 22, 2011
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Regarding his father, Charles Chaplin, Jr. once wrote the following: “Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. ‘Just think,’ he would say uneasily, ‘he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around.’” More
Jul 18, 2011
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Ken Loach's 1970 film, Kes, about a lonely teenage boy named Billy Casper (David Bradley), who rears and trains a kestrel, is generally considered the second feature film from the esteemed British director. Indeed, Kes was Loach's second film to be distributed in theaters, following 1967's Poor Cow, but Loach had been working in television throughout the '60s and had been making (by today's standards) feature-length films for BBC1's The Wednesday Play. Loach's 1966 film, Cathy Come Home, which chronicles a young mother's descent into homelessness, is included as a special feature with Criterion's Blu-ray/DVD release of Kes. More
Jun 10, 2011
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Alfred Hitchcok's Psycho (1960) owes quite a bit to Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 horror-thriller masterwork, Les Diaboliques (titled here as Diabolique). More
May 24, 2011
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Near the beginning of French auteur Claire Denis' latest feature film, White Material, a man from the French army shouts down from a helicopter circling over a barren African road, urging Frenchwoman Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert) to vacate the area for her own safety. As the copter's rotor blows dust in Maria's face, she gestures an "up yours" skyward, in defiance of the men trying to help her. More
Apr 22, 2011
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Undoubtedly there are Blu-ray fans already familiar with 1957's Sweet Smell of Success looking forward to seeing Oscar-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe's vivid Manhattan through Criterion's new presentation. They won't be disappointed. More
Apr 15, 2011
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The Best Picture nomination was nice, but was hopefully a product of the ridiculous ten nomination policy and not anyone thinking 127 Hours was actually Best Picture material. It’s a good movie—a surprisingly good one considering the level of difficulty involved in portraying a man who is hiking and has his arm crushed by a boulder as a motion picture. Emphasis on the motion. More
Apr 12, 2011
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As the vibrant cast of villagers in Amarcord provided moviegoers in the early 70s with director Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical childhood time capsule, Criterion's Blu-Ray edition finds the world of the fictional Borgo charmingly and gorgeously intact. More
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Mar 22, 2011
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A phenomenal idea for a movie—a hermit decides to host his own funeral before he dies so he can hear what people think about him—Get Low roars along for a good long while before the audience has the realization the plot's not going to be as exciting as they'd hoped. Despite the best efforts of an excellent Robert Duvall, the film loses steam and eventually collapses.
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Mar 10, 2011
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More than being a film about the industry it's titled after, Broadcast News is a look into a love triangle in the newsroom. More
Studio: Sony Pictures Classic
Feb 21, 2011
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Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has made a career of exploring outsiders: hunted kids (City of Lost Children), rogue vegetarians (Delicatessen), and, perhaps most famously, shy dreamers (Amélie). Micmacs faithfully follows in these films’ heartfelt, Technicolor footsteps. More
