Reviews of new releases from Arrow Video, The Criterion Collection, Flicker Alley, Kino Lorber, Milestone Films, and more.
It’s been 10 years since the Social-Democratic Revolution—“the most peaceful revolution the world has ever known”—but the women have been left behind. So opens Lizzie Borden’s 1983 Born in Flames, a rally cry committed to celluloid that’s bound to stir … Continue reading BORN IN FLAMES
For the boys Giuseppe and Pasquale, the horse means everything. It means the possession of freedom, of financial possibilities. They could rent the horse to wealthy Romans to buy food and maybe a place to call home. Both are in … Continue reading SHOESHINE
Remakes may feel like the name of the game these days, but it’s always been like this. What’s changed is the availability of the original. Saw How to Train Your Dragon in theaters? Watch the animated version on Peacock today! … Continue reading Sweaty Double Feature: THE WAGES OF FEAR and SORCERER
Everybody has a friend like Withnail. And everybody’s worked for a Denis. That’s easy to see. It gets harder when, one day, you stare into the mirror and see either of them looking back. When that day comes, it’s time … Continue reading WITHNAIL AND I and HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING
The year was 1919, and Charles Chaplin, along with Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford, formed the distribution company United Artists. Four years later, made with his own money and on his own schedule, Chaplin released his first film … Continue reading A WOMAN OF PARIS
In 1985, Jean-Luc Godard—the enfant terrible of the French New Wave—and the Israeli producer Menahem Golan signed a contract on a cocktail napkin: the story of King Lear, written by Norman Mailer, filmed by Godard, ready for the following year’s … Continue reading KING LEAR
When it comes to westerns, 1950 was a banner year. More than 125 features were released that year—a high-water mark the genre would never again see—and many would become emblematic of the genre: John Ford’s Wagon Master, Henry King’s The … Continue reading WINCHESTER ’73
I once spent a week with a family friend in the London suburb of Cheltenham, England. “I call the place ‘Evergreen,’” the lady of the house proudly told me. And she wasn’t referring to the tree, but the Barbra Streisand … Continue reading FUNNY GIRL
There were action comedies before Jackie Chan, and there were action comedies after Jackie Chan. The ones that come after are better. Technically, the ones with Chan are the best. He’s the Fred Astaire of his genre, a transformative presence … Continue reading The Project A Collection
Michael J. Cinema 
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