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DVD Review: Two John Cassavetes Classics Are Inducted Into Criterion Collection
DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0CHICAGO– Entries number 251 and number 252 in the most important and impressive series of DVDs in the history of the format, The Criterion Collection, come from the same influential...
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Release Date, Cover Art For Criterion’s ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
CHICAGO– Paramount/Criterion made a huge announcement today, revealing that David Fincher’s Oscar-winning “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” will be inducted into The Criterion Collection in its...
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DVD Review: Akira Kurosawa Returns to Criterion Collection With ‘Dodes’da Ken’
DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0CHICAGO– I’m not sure, but I think there are more Akira Kurosawa titles available in the Criterion Collection than any other filmmaker. His classic films like “Ran,” “Rashomon,”...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Continues Blu-Ray Expansion With Pair of Truffaut...
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0CHICAGO– The Criterion Collection continues its foray into the world of HD with one of the most beloved directors of all time, taking a film already in the collection and giving...
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Blu-Ray Review: Classic ‘Wages of Fear’ Thrills in HD
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0CHICAGO– The Criterion Collection continues their brilliant Blu-Ray release pattern this week in which they induct a new film into the collection (“In the Realm of the Senses,”...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Releases Controversial ‘In the Realm of the Senses’
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0CHICAGO– It’s interesting that Criterion has chosen to give their unmatched treatment to two films in the same week that were drastically censored upon their initial releases -...
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Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ Mesmerizes in Criterion...
CHICAGO– I have been writing about DVDs and now Blu-Ray titles for the better part of a decade and have literally worked my way through hundreds of them and the Criterion Blu-Ray release for the widely...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Edition of Akira Kurosawa’s Legendary ‘Kagemusha’
CHICAGO– Now that he is widely recognized as one of the best filmmakers of all time, it’s almost hard to believe that there was a period in the career of Akira Kurosawa when he couldn’t get financing...
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DVD Review: Criterion Edition of David Mamet’s Great ‘Homicide’
CHICAGO– I am an unabashed defender of nearly everything that David Mamet has ever made and the arrival of another one of his films under the Criterion banner makes for a special occasion in this...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Version of Steven Soderbergh’s Riveting ‘Che’
CHICAGO– Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” is one of the most underrated and misunderstood films of the ’00s. It features not only one of the best performances of the last several years from the great Benicio...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion’s Ravishing, Gorgeous ‘Lola Montes’
CHICAGO– When Max Ophuls’s “Lola Montes” was released in theaters in France in December of 1955, it caused an international scandal. Much to the dismay of its director, the producers of the film...
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Blu-Ray Review: Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ Has Lost None of Its Power
CHICAGO– When does a great film become less powerful? We’ve all seen movies that worked wonderfully for us at one point in our lives and had less impact when we saw them again a decade or two later....
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Blu-Ray Review: Visionary ‘Red Desert’ Joins Criterion Collection
CHICAGO– The Criterion Collection recently inducted the great Michelangelo Antonioni’s first color film into their esteemed catalog with a Blu-ray transfer that stands next to the best HD pictures of...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion’s ‘Everlasting Moments’ Has Timeless Power
CHICAGO– Jan Troell’s “Everlasting Moments” is a beautiful film; a perfect fit for Criterion’s Blu-ray line in that it’s the kind of work that both could easily slip under the radar of movie history...
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Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Secret of the Grain’ Frames Life in Close-Up
CHICAGO– Not to be confused with “The Secret in Their Eyes,” “The Secret of Kells,” or “The Secret,” this French family drama is saddled with a most unfortunate title for its American release. Though...
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Blu-Ray Review: Criterion Collection Inducts Taiwanese Masterpiece ‘Yi Yi’
CHICAGO– Taiwan has an interesting cinematic history, as outlined in the strong interview with Asian-cinema critic Tony Rayns on the recently-released Blu-ray of Edward Yang’s “Yi Yi (A One and a...
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Blu-Ray Review: Awesome Criterion Edition of ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’
CHICAGO– I have a love-hate relationship with Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” but it’s a lot easier to fall on the former side of that dynamic with the simply amazing Criterion...
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DVD Review: Jonathan Demme’s Brilliant ‘Something Wild’ Joins Criterion
CHICAGO– I love Jonathan Demme’s “Something Wild” with such passion that I can recommend the new Criterion Collection edition of the underrated ’80s classic and yet still realize that it’s something of...
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Blu-Ray Review: ‘People on Sunday’ Foreshadows Independent Cinema
CHICAGO– One of the most important home entertainment releases of the year is Criterion’s high-definition restoration of Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer’s “People on Sunday,” an extraordinary filmic...
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Blu-Ray Review: Akira Kurosawa’s Riveting Thriller ‘High and Low’
CHICAGO– Very few films from 1963 have the timelessness of Akira Kurosawa’s perfect thriller “High and Low,” a daring piece of tension-building work that takes place almost entirely in one room and in...
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Blu-Ray Review: Incredible Criterion Edition For Olivier Assayas’ ‘Carlos’
CHICAGO– Not all movies are similar in what they demand of the viewer. Obviously, a light mainstream romantic comedy requires a different level of commitment than a French period piece, but even art...
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Blu-Ray Review: Landmark Japanese Film ‘Harakiri’ in Criterion Form
CHICAGO– I’m always amazed when smart people tell me they don’t see foreign films. The fact is that our foreign film market is worse than it’s ever been with fewer and fewer works from other countries...
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Blu-ray Review: Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Lady Vanishes’ Gets Criterion Upgrade
CHICAGO– Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” isn’t one of his most heralded films. You don’t hear it mentioned on most lists of the best works of arguably the most influential director who ever...
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Blu-ray Review: Risque, Delightful Comedy ‘Design For Living’ From Criterion
CHICAGO– From the very first scene, a first-silent exchange in which a beautiful woman enters a train car to see two handsome men sleeping across from her and chooses to draw them on her sketch pad...
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Blu-ray Review: Criterion Edition of Ozu’s Timeless ‘Late Spring’
CHICAGO– Two of the best things about the Criterion release of Yasujiro Ozu’s “Late Spring” happen to be proof of why the film and its director have become so important to so many film historians —...
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Blu-ray Review: Another Spectacular Criterion Edition of Chaplin Classic in...
CHICAGO– There are certain filmmakers who just seem to make perfect fits for The Criterion Collection. Wes Anderson’s films have been given stellar editions. David Fincher. Akira Kurosawa. And, of...
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Blu-ray Review: Feeling of Timelessness in ‘La Vie de Bohéme’
CHICAGO– What is amazing about the texture of this 1992 film version of the 1848 Henri Murger novel, “La Vie de Bohéme,” is that it looks like it could have been filmed during the French New Wave...
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Blu-ray Review: Criterion Release of Peter Weir’s Mesmerizing ‘Picnic at...
Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” is a mesmerizing film. Most who go into it know that it tells a tragic (possibly true) story with no resolution. And so it becomes a slow burn, in which the...
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Film Review: Magic of Orson Welles Rings the ‘Chimes at Midnight’
CHICAGO– Another wondrous pleasure about director Orson Welles – as if he needed something else on his resume – is the discovery of his film career after the “Citizen Kane”/studio system/boy wonder...
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Film Review: Shining Restoration of Jean Cocteau’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’
CHICAGO– One of the legendary films in cinema history is Jean Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bete,” also known to generations as “Beauty and the Beast.” The restored re-release is touring the country, and...
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