The Criterion Collection in May

From "Chan Is Missing" (Wayne Wang, 1982)

One of my very esteemed readers noted that they wished I still did previews of upcoming Blu-ray releases. Now, I stopped doing these back in February of last year, not because I suddenly stopped liking movies. No, it was because I had, for the past few months, been working for an e-commerce platform as a buyer, and really didn't have the inclination, after a long day of setting up preorder codes and resizing images, to write a couple thousand words about Blu-rays. Better to leave it to people who were getting promos and getting paid to blog.

That said, I found out Friday that my time in that position would be ending in a couple weeks. Between that, and always wanting to honor the wishes of one of my few irregular readers, I figured, "yeah, let's spit about the new Criterion jonz." So welcome, my friends, to the soon-to-be-regular-again Criterion preview for May. Once again, I'm disappointed by the lack of a "My Cousin Vinny" Criterion Blu-ray, but I guess we can't have it all.

May 10

May's new releases kick off with a thriller I've never seen or heard of before. It's 1976's "Mr. Klein", directed by the blacklisted American expatriate Joseph Losey and starring Alain Delon. I know Losey via his 1951 adaptation of "M" for Columbia, and apparently I've seen a few of his 60s movies that he made in the UK ("The Criminal", "The Damned"). Delon is Delon, man...the epitome of French cool, a man so bad he inspired Chow Yun-Fat. This film, while not a day one purchase, hits a few interest points for me: mistaken identities, World War II, the decadent French. The 4K restoration, as well as contemporaneous interviews with Losey and Delon also pique my fancy. Yeah, I'll keep an eye open for this.

May 17

I know the late Jûzô Itami best as the director of "Tampopo". It's a movie that's much loved in the Ape Mummy household, something I think we own in three or four different formats. I've not seen Itami's directorial debut, which came a year earlier in 1984 in the form of "The Funeral" ("Osôshiki"), but it sounds like it presages "Tampopo" pretty well. It's a dark comedy set around the death and burial of a family patriarch, drawing tension and humor from the clash between old Japanese custom and new attitudes. Someone on imdb describes this as having a lot of Tatiesque scenes. So I guess if you're into Itami's other work, or you're into Jacques Tati, you'll probably be into this. Me? I'm a sucker for just about any comedy set at a funeral. After all, tragedy is when I fall down and break my leg; comedy is when you fall down and break your neck. Itami stars Nobuko Miyamoto and Manpei Ikeuchi are interviewed as part of the extras; there are also apparently some ads for Ichiroku Tart that Itami directed.

May 24

It's with no small sense of relief that we finally encounter a film I can discuss with some level of expertise. It's been a long time since I've seen "Mississippi Masala", so while I'm familiar with it, I'm really looking forward to watching it with fresh eyes. Mira Nair has always been a great storyteller, and her work here with Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington as a pair of star-crossed lovers is something that EVERYONE should experience at least once. Nair hits a lot of topics that I know I wasn't ready for in 1992 when this first came out; thirty years later, speaking honestly about racism, colorism, immigration, and cross-cultural romance is even more of an issue (sadly). I'm really looking forward to seeing this in a 4K restoration, as I think I saw this after it'd already been circulating for several months, and I can't imagine Samuel Goldwyn minted more than a couple dozen prints of this back in the day. There's a bunch of interviews with cast and crew included as extras, and the Blu-ray features a reproduction of Nair's production diaries. Fun trivia: imdb says Nair is directing the first episode of the Disney+ "National Treasure" revival.

May 31

The last day of May brings a pair of titles that I think I'm going to need on day one. The first is Wayne Wang's "Chan Is Missing". I've like just about every film on Wang's I've seen, from "Smoke" and "The Joy Luck Club" to "Maid In Manhattan" (a top-five J.Lo performance, IMHO). The plot is straight out of a film noir: two aspiring cabbies search Chinatown to find their missing business partner and their $4,000. The difference, and what makes "Chan" so important, is the dive into Chinese American culture, with an iconic San Francisco setting. It's a film that is just as important now as it was upon release 40 years ago, a reminder that representation matters, the kind of movie that paved the way for the 80s and 90s indie revolution, and a really entertaining flick. Wang oversaw the restoration and transfer on this one (its debut on Blu-ray, if memory serves), and sits for commentary, as well as interviews with Ang Lee and critic Hua Hsu. I'm also hyped to check out Debbie Lum's behind-the-scenes documentary, "Is Chan Still Missing?" This one might show up on the Criterion Channel in May, so I might hold off until the month's streaming offerings get announced before preordering. But it's one I definitely want to own.

Speaking of which...May's lone UHD release is also the lone, sure-fire, Day One Criterion release for this month. Billy Wilder's 1944 classic noir, "Double Indemnity", starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson, is getting the royal treatment with a comprehensive 4K digital restoration. This is one of my all-time favorite movies; it's probably one of the first Wilder movies I saw, has some crackling dialogue and an aces plot courtesy of Raymond Chandler, and one of the best femme fatale performances ever via Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson. It's a stone-cold classic, a must-have for anyone who loves thrillers, and arguably Wilder's first great film. The late Richard Schickel provides the commentary track on this one; I don't have my Universal DVD handy, but I assume it's the same one. On the new front, there's a conversation with Eddie Muller and Imogen Sara Smith, an interview with writer Noah Isenberg, and radio adaptations of the script dating from 1945 and 1950. Even if, like me, you don't have a 4K TV and UHD player yet, I definitely recommend copping the combo pack on this one, if only to future proof and plan for a REALLY good looking transfer in the coming days when you do get that sick tax refund back.

That's May, my friends. There's a ton of excellent releases dropping, so save those nickels and dimes. June has already been announced, what with the likes of another pair of my favorite films coming to the Collection. I suppose I'll be back in around 30 days to talk about tohse; sooner if I don't get a new gig between now and then. Happy watching; be there...aloha!