The death of moviegoing in 2020 has hurt in a myriad of ways, but in every loss an opportunity. Few have risen to the occasion like The Criterion Collection, both on their streaming channel and via their handsomely packaged Blu-ray/DVD … Continue reading THE CAMERAMAN
“The canon is the canon,” Mark Cousins said at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival. “It’s robust. It’s resistant to change. It’s impervious to truth.” That truth he’s referring to is the canon’s sexism. And its racism. It’s elevation by way … Continue reading Ida Lupino: Filmmaker Collection
While theatrical moviegoing in 2020 might be defunct, home viewing has seemingly gotten all the better. And not just in the breadth of streaming selections, but in the sheer amount of quality physical discs released. The Criterion Collection remains the … Continue reading LE PETIT SOLDAT
You just got to play detective, don’t you? Do I go around playing piano? — Capt. Flood, Black Angel 1946’s Black Angel isn’t the most well-known film noir adapted from a Cornell Woolrich novel. That honor goes to 1944’s Phantom Lady, the story of a … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: BLACK ANGEL
Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. That’s the line that opens the story Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The story of Billy Pilgrim, World War II, sexual desire, post-war suburban malaise, the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, free will vs. fate, and … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
Silent pictures are the purest form of cinema. —Alfred Hitchcock For many, he was the Master of Suspense. The eyes and hands behind Rear Window, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. The droll voice and the rotund figure behind the popular TV show, Alfred … Continue reading Blu Tuesday — Hitchcock: British International Pictures Collection
Three men work the line at the Checkered Taxi auto plant in Detroit, Michigan. Their lives revolve around hard labor and heavy drinking, getting yelled at by their supervisors and trying to keep their heads above water at home. They’re … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: BLUE COLLAR
It must have come as a surprise to filmgoers in the mid-90s that the next Martin Scorsese feature film would focus on the childhood of the 14th Dalai Lama. Then again, it probably came as a similar surprise in the … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: KUNDUN
Released in 1989, New York Stories is an omnibus film, three shorts stitched together by a city. And though two of the directors’ oeuvres are inseparable from the city streets, tenements, and high rises that dot the New York skyline, it is … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: NEW YORK STORIES
Buster Keaton was destined for the silver screen before moving pictures were even born. As the story goes, an 18-month-old (or was that six-month-old?) Keaton took a tumble down a flight of stairs and didn’t make a sound. “That’s some … Continue reading Blu Tuesday: OUR HOSPITALITY
