Reviews of new releases from Arrow Video, The Criterion Collection, Flicker Alley, Kino Lorber, Milestone Films, and more.
The twisting begins before we even meet the hero. A Union soldier makes his way through the carnage of a battle. Confederate bodies litter the ground, and a Yankee survivor plunders them for gold teeth and various effects. Then he … Continue reading A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL
Mark Cousins loves a good road trip. It forms the foundation for several of his movies, be they city symphonies or cinematic histories. And his magnum opus, 2011’s The Story of Film: An Odyssey, has finally been released on Blu-ray … Continue reading The Complete Story of Film
Why am I always in the wrong without knowing what for or what it’s all about? So cries Josef K. The man is on trial, though his appearance before a court of his peers is brief. The rest of the … Continue reading THE TRIAL
Pica (Toby Smith) is an Oakland college student taking Polaroids in a photography class devoted to 35 mm. “I came here to learn how to express myself,” she tells the teacher (Salim Akil). “You gotta have a 35 mm camera … Continue reading Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner: DRYLONGSO and The Ranown Westerns
There once was a time when some of the brightest thinkers wondered if movies were the answer. Could this new visual language topple tyrants? Fix social problems? Rewrite the political landscape? There were many questions, and the answer kept coming … Continue reading PASOLINI 101
The women are on the run. One is a sheltered housewife married to a pig of a man. The other is a waitress hiding from her past. Both are wanted in connection with a murder outside an Arkansas honky-tonk, and … Continue reading THELMA & LOUISE
Change your mind. For once in your life, change your mind. Those are the words Fen hurls at Thomas Dunson, a hardheaded man with money on his mind. Fourteen years later, another woman will say something similar to Dunson, only this … Continue reading RED RIVER
Orson Welles needed money. That’s how this story begins. Back in 1946, Welles was putting the finishing touches on an ambitious stage production of Around the World in 80 Days—a musical!—and funds were running dry. So he called studio boss … Continue reading THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI
Newly restored and available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection, 1934’s Imitation of Life opens with two single mothers: Beatrice (Claudette Colbert) and Delilah (Louise Beavers). Beatrice, white, is recently widowed and trying to keep her husband’s maple syrup company … Continue reading IMITATION OF LIFE
Michael J. Cinema 
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