Reviews of new releases from Arrow Video, The Criterion Collection, Flicker Alley, Kino Lorber, Milestone Films, and more.
1984’s Dune is a mess. Universal Pictures released it, Dino De Laurentiis produced it, and David Lynch directed it based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel. It was supposed to be a mega-hit, a blockbuster to rival Star Wars with multiple installments. But it … Continue reading DUNE
He was a filmmaker, an actor, a novelist, a playwright, and a revolutionary. He made one of the most profitable and overlooked independent films of all time. He was Melvin Van Peebles, a titan of American filmmaking, and he died … Continue reading Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films
You don’t know it at first, but this is purgatory. Well, a way station might be a better description. Regardless, all the clients who arrive are deceased, and it’s up to the clerks to get them to the next place. … Continue reading AFTER LIFE (ワンダフルライフ)
Two men wait outside a church. They are armed and tasked with an assassination mission. The mark approaches, and the men leap into action, gunning their target down as he opens the doors to the chapel. Mission accomplished. The date: … Continue reading ASHES AND DIAMONDS (POPIÓL I DIAMENT)
It should have been a classic. Major Dundee, a new kind of western with Charlton Heston as the titular major. This was the 1960s, and Heston had already played Moses and Judah Ben-Hur (he won an Oscar for that one). Box … Continue reading MAJOR DUNDEE
Call Marlon Riggs whatever you want. He describes himself as an “independent documentary producer,” but if you want to call him a Black gay filmmaker, fine. “If you want to say gay Black, fine. If you want to say Black … Continue reading The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs
It’s the story of the man who used to be a dog meeting a dog who used to be a boy. And it’s set in a mental institution built in the middle of the Israeli desert of Negev. All the … Continue reading ADAM RESURRECTED
It was the 1960s, and revolution was in the air. For French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, cinema was the way to express ideas artistic, political, and otherwise. He opened the decade with Breathless, a free-flowing anarchic take on cinematic language that was … Continue reading MASCULIN FÉMININ
He’s just so damn handsome. Smooth skin, full head of shiny black hair, snappy dinner clothes, thin as a rail—what girl wouldn’t fall for Jerry Corbett? Coffee heiress Joan Prentice sure does. She falls for his charm and she falls … Continue reading MERRILY WE GO TO HELL
Michael J. Cinema 
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