The Criterion Collection In July

From "Raging Bull" (Martin Scorsese, 1980)

A bit tardy to the party this month, I suppose. But it's all good, as the folks at Barnes & Noble are still running their 50% off Criterion sale right now, and the last of July's releases have just come out. So, you know, get some cheap new Blu-rays and UHDs. And there are some good ones coming to market in July, including a couple of reissues in new formats, the best film of the 70s (don't @ me), and one of the best movies of 2021.

July 5

I remember being really stoked on Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to "Snowpiercer", 2017s "Okja", when it was announced. His second English language feature, with Tilda Swinton opposing the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Paul Dano, all with An Seo Hyun and a genetically modified superpig caught in the middle.

Pretty high concept, no? But then I went and never finished the movie. Life very much got in the way, not to mention that my days of watching movies solo have run out. So I still have about an hour left to watch.

I suppose the excuses have run thin, with this finally coming to home video after a long, exclusive run on Netflix. You get your choice of UHD/Blu-ray combo pack, Blu-ray, or DVD. And what comes with it? Bong oversaw a 4K digital master of the print, and supervised the Dolby Atmos soundtrack on both the UHD and Blu-ray. While it's missing a director's commentary, this release does provide new interviews between Bong and producer Dooho Choi, as well as a one-on-one featuring lead actor An and supporting actor Byun Hee Bong. Especially in the context of coming between "Snowpiercer" and Academy Award winner "Parasite", we're primed for a closer look at "Okja". I'm ready for it.

"The Virgin Suicides" was Sofia Coppola's debut in 1999. It got the Criterion treatment in 2018 with a lovely Blu-ray and DVD release. However, if you've been holding out for an ultra high definition release, then wait no further. Criterion now has issued a 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo pack, featuring the same great 4K digital restoration in gleaming 4K for that super expensive curved TV you watch all your movies on. Right, you got money, right? Can I have a loan? A gift?

Anyway, you get a bunch of extras, including a making-of documentary from Coppola's mother Eleanor, the "Playground Love" video directed by Coppola, and one of Coppola's earlier short films. Truth be told, this isn't a must have for me; I'm not a huge fan of "Suicides". But if it means we might see a "Lost In Translation" or "Bling Ring" Criterion release, then I'm all for this.

July 12

Dude, it's "Raging Bull". Do I really need to spell out why you, a fan not only of film but of physical media, need to own this? It's the firs time this has come out as a UHD (also featuing a Blu-ray in the combo pack). It's not just one of Scorsese's many master works; it's arguably the best film of the 70s, and one of the greatest films of all time. It's a movie that I can watch time and time again and discover something new about, whether it's a newly-discovered influence in the cinematography that leads me off on a new dive into, say, Russian cinema, or reveling in something previously unnoticed in the performances of Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, and Joe Pesci. I'm not going to whip out my DVD copy from the "Scorsese Collection" to compare extras. I'm just going to buy a combo pack and watch it again.

The second reissue of July is David Lean's "Summertime", starring Katherine Hepburn as an American tourist in Italy who falls in love with a native shop owner. Criterion originally released this on DVD all the way back in 1998, so the re-release, featuring a great new cover by Lauren Tamaki, is long overdue. Criterion has performed a 4K restoration on this classic, a more intimate affair compared to the sprawling Lean epics that followed in the coming years. Also new to this edition: an interview with historian Melanie Williams. She literally wrote the book on David Lean back in 2014.

A nice little bonus appears on the secondary market when Criterion releases one of these revised editions. The earlier versions suddenly become a lot cheaper to acquire, giving us, the viewer, a chance to check out something like this at a really low price. So, whether you cop this new version, or hunt down a $5 copy on eBay, check this one out.

July 19

I don't have anything clever to say about "Drive My Car", Ryusuke Hamaguchi 2021 masterwork, nominee for Best Picture at last year's Academy Awards, and generally regarded as a mighty fine film. I have yet to watch the film; I fully admit that I'm a bit intimidated by the three hour run time (no explosions? no boobs? NO!). And I've been shying away from subtitled films recently; the unfortunate outcome from eye strain bordering on farsightedness. I just haven't been able to hang with the idea of watching a 180 minute adaptation of Haruki Murakami stories. It's a failing; I acknoledge it.

You get a director's approved special edition when you pick up your copy of "Drive My Car". Hamaguchi signed off on a 2K digital master (sadly, a UHD wasn't released initially), and contributed an exclusive interview as a bonus. There's also a making-of featurette, press coverage from Cannes 2021, and a new English language SDH translation. You can probably tell this isn't at the top of my list, but I anticipate that, for those of us who still buy physical media, I'm probably in the minority.

Last, but certainly not least in July, comes the second Criterion/Denzel Washington release of 2022: 1995's "Devil In A Blue Dress", directed by Carl Franklin. I didn't appreciate it during its initial run, but "Devil" is one of my favorite neo-noirs of the past 40 years, a film that's up there with "The Nice Guys", "Blood Simple", and "Bound" in my rolls. Denzil's portrayal of Easy Rawlins has had me tracking down Walter Mosley paperbacks regularly over time; the cast also includes an iconic Don Cheadle role, as well as standout work by Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Maury Chaykin. It also has a killer Elmer Bernstein score, and a soundtrack populated with 40s jump blues, R&B, and bop.

Franklin approved this special edition, which replaces Twilight Time's 2015 Blu-ray release. There are a ton of new features, from the new 4K restoration and sound mix, to new interviews with Franklin, Mosley, and Cheadle, to Cheadle's screen test. And I might be mistaken, but it sure looks to me like Carver Center graduate, Ziggy Sobotka himself, James Ransome contributed the cover. Cool as hell.

From "Okja" (Bong Joon Ho, 2017)

I cannot tell a lie; it was with some relief that I viewed July's release lineup, especially after a jam-packed last few months of Criterion releases. Sure, I could save some bread getting these now via Barnes & Noble, but the titles I'd typically buy Day 1 ("Raging Bull", "Devil In A Blue Dress") are ones that I already own in previous editions. There's a nice little gap of three weeks between "Devil" and "Drive"s releases, and the first August drops. It's a perfect time to stack some paper and get excited for an early Safdie Brothers film, a cult favorite from a longtime Safdie collaborator, a pair of French and Mexican cinematic luminaries, and an all-time classic from the late, great Sidney Poitier. I may even be back to preview them ahead of the first of August. Watch this space to find out!

The Criterion Collection in June

 

From "Shaft" (Gordon Parks, 1971)

You hope, and you pray, and you cross your fingers that, one day, the niche art you grew up with, that you adore, that inspires you and raises you up, will be acknowledged, thus acknowledging your own superior taste and validating your existence.

Or is that just me?

At any rate, June's releases from the Criterion Collection count two of my all-time favorite movies. One, the long-awaited revival of an old Criterion laserdisc title, debuting on Blu-ray for the first time. The second, an all-time favorite of mine whose theme song served as my radio show's theme throughout its lifespan. Tack on a new restoration of a Powell & Pressburger classic, new cinema from the US and Norway, and a Chinese New Wave reissue, and it's another damned good month in what's been a great year so far from Criterion.

June 7

Mrs. Ape is the one who brought me to an appreciation of the works of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. I knew nothing of their collaborations 15 years ago, and were only familiar with their names as a result of Martin Scorsese's and George Romero's name-dropping. It's been super cool over the space of our relationship to get exposed to such a wide body of work. She's a mega-fan of "The Red Shoes", and through her influence, I've really gotten to love "The Life And Death Of Captain Blimp" and "A Matter Of Life And Death".

Criterion has slowly been reissuing their Powell & Pressburger releases from the past on Blu-ray. The latest is 1951's "The Tales Of Hoffmann", starring "Red Shoes" lead Moira Shearer opposite Robert Rousenville. This mix of music, dance, and effects is one of the few marriages of opera and film that's ever held my attention; like the rest of Powell and Pressburger's catalog, it's magic, the likes of which can only exist on film. "Hoffmann" gets a new 4K digital restoration for this reissue; it looks to be the key difference between this Blu-ray and the original 2005 Criterion DVD release. If you don't already own this, it's worth checking out the George Romero interview. Commentary comes courtesy of Mssr. Scorsese; critic Bruce Eder, present for the original 1992 recording, apparently has added new insights to the commentary track. It's a good opportunity to upgrade your 2005 DVD or your Essential Art House copy with some superior visuals and sound.

June 14

It's always dope when Criterion releases a contemporary film from a director I've not heard of before, so I know to keep an eye out from when their next film comes out. 2020's "Farewell Amor" is the latest of those. The feature debut from director Ekwa Msangi, "Farewell Amor" tells of a story of immigrant reunion, set in the African-American diaspora. It's not the sort of thing that I'm typically drawn to, but the Criterion label is enough a seal of approval that I want to seek this out. Msangi oversaw production of this special edition, providing commentary as well as three of her previous shorts to the release. Critic (and Raptors fan) Tiana Reid also provided an essay for the included booklet; she wrote a piece on a Basquiat exhibition at the Guggenheim a few years back that blew my mind a bit and that I suggest you check out. So that's one more reason to check this out.

June 21

Stanley Kwan always seems to be the next name I've encounter (after Wong Kar-Wai) when reading about Hong Kong's Second New Wave. Unlike his well-known contemporary, Kwan's works haven't ever been easily found her in the States. So it's great to see his best known work, 1987's "Rouge", get a director-approved special edition on Blu-ray and DVD. This love story, set in both 1930s and pre-Handover Hong Kong, features the late Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in the two lead roles as a pair of fated lovers. Like the best works of Douglas Sirk, this lusciously-filmed tale is a coded queer love story that will enrapture any film lover. I saw this years ago at a film festival, half paying attention in the first 15 minutes before falling head-over-heels into it; I'm thrilled to peep it again. Two of Kwan's later works are included in this release: his 1997 documentary on queerness in HK cinema, "Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema", and his memoir from the same year, "Still Love You After All These". Dennis Lim, who programs for the Film Society at Lincoln Center and wrote The Man From Another Place about David Lynch, provides an essay on Kwan and "Rouge". All in all, here's one I cannot wait to watch.

I'm inclined to wax truly poetic about Gordon Parks' "Shaft", and its place within film history. I think I have my senior thesis somewhere around here on a flash drive that I could copy verbatim. But I'll instead speak about what it means to me. I came to it as a teenager who'd seen "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" and was drawn to the action interwoven with the score. So many of the films that had influenced "Sucka" were available for purchase (not just rental) on VHS, so I'd take my paycheck from Taco Bell and split it between punk rock records and tapes of "Superfly" and "Dolemite". I picked up "Shaft" fairly early on, drawn to star Richard Roundtree's picture on the cover, aiming a revolver directly at me. It began a love affair with the film; a genre movie starring a clear outsider pulled between opposing factions, soundtracked by some of the coolest music I'd ever heard. How are you going to idolize Bruce Willis once you've encountered John Shaft? Michael Kamen could never hold a candle to Isaac Hayes. Later aided by resources like Darius James "That's Blaxploitation!", I'd continue to dive deep into Black cinema, coming to admire how influential these low-budget one-offs could be.

It's wild to me to see "Shaft" added to the Criterion Collection, and yet totally appropriate. 51 years on, the success of Gordon Parks's second film tore down many barriers between the white and Black film worlds, and opened following generations up to a level of grit and realism that had previously never been represented. While most of the principals have passed away, this release is incredibly comprehensive. Producer Isaac Hayes III, son of soundtrack artist Isaac Hayes, has remastered the previous stereo soundtrack for the 4K digital restoration. That restoration itself is most welcome; previous scans have looked like total dogshit, so I'm hyped to check out what has been adjusted. There are a number of documentary pieces I've never seen before, featuring the likes of Nelson George and Walter Mosley. There's also a bunch of archival work available, with the late Parks and Hayes speaking alongside Roundtree. The 1972 sequel, "Shaft's Big Score", comes as an extra on both the UHD/Blu-ray combo pack and the Blu-ray; a welcome addition considering how underseen "Big Score" has been, relative to "Shaft". Add in a fresh new cover from Bill Sienkiewicz, and THIS become a must have in any action or genre fan's library.

June 28

Things I know about "The Worst Person In The World":

• Nominated for the 2021 Palme d'Or and two Academy Awards
• Directed by Joachim Trier as part of his "Oslo Trilogy"
• Described as a "dark romantic comedy"
• Everyone I've spoken to who's seen it loved it, and told me "it's right up your alley"
• NEON released this in the US, and I've liked every acquisition they've made so far

So, yeah, I think I'm going to dig this. The Blu-ray seems a bit bare bones: interviews with all the key players, a bit of behind-the-scenes, some deleted scenes, an essay from Sheila O'Malley (Film Comment). But that won't scare me away from copping this soon.

There's nothing complicated about my feelings for John Waters. Falling in love with his movies in my teens with "Cry-Baby", moving to Baltimore weeks before "Serial Mom" came out, quickly discovering so many things about my new hometown as a result of seeing them onscreen in his movies...John was my tour guide to the real Charm City. I went to watch movies in the places where he went to watch them, rented them from the same video stores that appeared in his films, drank at the same bars he visited, bought books and records from the store where he had his mail delivered. His work became a shibboleth; if you knew "Hag In A Black Leather Jacket" or "Polyester", we were probably going to be friends.

"Pink Flamingos" is 50 years old this year. It was Waters' third feature, a break-out film for him and nascent distributor New Line Pictures. Criterion released a laserdisc a quarter century ago, and New Line did a DVD a few years later. But this special edition, overseen like the previous three Criterion/Waters releases by the Pope Of Trash, is the first time its been available on Blu-ray. While the two commentary tracks are repurposed from the laserdisc and DVD releases, there's a new conversation between Waters and Jim Jarmusch included, as well as an essay by critic/misanthropologist Howard Hampton that I can't wait to read. The Cookie Mueller essay about the making-of appeared in "Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black" (back in print for the first time in decades), but is a great read if you haven't done so before. This also includes Steve Yeager's documentary "Divine Trash", a must-see if you're a fan of Waters' art. I don't need to dive into the content of the film too deeply; if you can't pick up what you might see in a movie about the filthiest person alive, it's probably not for you. It's funny and profane and sick and wonderful and has influenced everything great and creative and insane over the past five decades.

From "Pink Flamingos" (John Waters, 1972)

It sucks being out of work, because June is a month where I'd preorder every single release. But instead, I need to be judicious with my purchases. It'll probably come down "Shaft" and "Pink Flamingos" on the preorder front, with "Worst Person" and "Rouge" coming as soon as I sell some stuff on Discogs. Things don't get easy in July, when work from the likes of Scorsese, Coppola, Bong, and Hamaguchi all join the Collection. Be there in 30...aloha!

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!

The Criterion Collection in March

From "Defending Your Life" (Albert Brooks, 1991)

I skipped my first month's worth of Criterion releases since restarting the blog last month. Why, you may ask? Well, I may reply, there wasn't a single title that met my high standards of making up some bullshit. It happens. They can't all be winners. There's always one month every year that I don't preorder anything. This year, it was February. March, however, has one bona fide must have in it, as well as a quartet of titles worth discussing. So let's do the damn thing.

March 9

Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1973 post-colonial classic, "Touki bouki" ("The Journey Of The Hyena"), gets its first Blu-ray release after a 2013 DVD-only edition. When Mrs. Ape and I discussed this month's lineup (as is the custom in our house), this was the title she was most excited about. She doesn't currently own a copy, but she regaled me with tales of going to San Francisco to see it, and how taken she was by the film's movement and pacing, as well as the filmmaker's take on French New Wave. Who am I to argue with the missus? It's the tale of two Senegalese 20-somethings, an iconic motorbike, and a trip to Paris and the promise of a new life. Sounds pretty cool to me. The 2K transfer came from a 2008 restoration, but it's the first time that the film has been available on video with an uncompressed soundtrack. Mambéty's 1968 short film, "Contras' City" has also been added here, along with an introduction by Martin Scorsese, interviews with Mambéty's family and collaborators, and an essay from Ashley Clark, the current curatorial director at the Criterion Collection. This is one I'm looking forward to seeing for the first time.

March 16

The first new release in March comes via "Céline and Julie Go Boating" ("Céline et Julie vont en bateau"), a 1974 French film from Jacques Rivette. I don't know a lot about Rivette, other than many of his films are incredibly long and that I've heard he stands along the same line of strangeness in filmmaking as Lynch, Jonze, and Gondry. The Criterion page for "Céline and Julie" calls this "both one of the all-time-great hangout comedies and a totally unique, enveloping cinematic dream space". I've not taken the opportunity to dive into his worlds of mystery until now (I've been watching a lot of film noir and Marvel Cinematic Universe sorry not sorry), so this stands as a good opportunity to jump in. The film itself has received a 2K restoration along with a commentary track from Australian critic Adrian Martin, whose insights always add something to film watching for me. Claire Denis, whose work I've really gotten into in recent years, also contributes her 1994 documentary mini-series on Rivette. There are interviews with Rivette's cast on the film and producer Barbet Schroder (!), and an essay from all-around badass writer Beatrice Loayza. I expect I'll be carving out 4-5 hours to watch this one; after all, the dog loves to take walks in the midst of enthralling movies.

March 23

Are you tired of paying top dollar for out-of-print Criterion titles? Worried you might end up with a shoddy bootleg? Have you beat that Kino DVD snapcase to death? Well, Criterion finally takes care of you with "World Of Wong Kar Wai", their first box set of the year. And, much like their previous Bruce Lee and Godzilla sets, this is a Day One must have for me. Collecting seven of the first eight films of WKW's career (only "Ashes Of Time" is missing), and offering them with 4K restorations, in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "In The Mood For Love". His movies are poetry given form; his collaborators, typically stars on their own, become supernovas when they work together. It's awesome to see these films collected together.

So, what does $200 get you? The gatefold case, designed by Nessim Higson, appears to be of the same dimensions as the Bruce Lee set; a bit oversized to fit with the rest of my collection, but c'est la vie. As I mentioned above, each film has received a 4K restoration. "As Tears Go By" and "Days Of Being Wild" both receive uncompressed audio, while the rest get a really sharp DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix. There's also an alternate edit of "Days", never before released on video. The bonus materials offer a ton of archival material, but the big get here is the Q&A between WKW and the likes of Sofia Coppola, Rian Johnson, Lisa Joy, Chloé Zhao, André Aciman and Jonathan Lethem. That's a murderer's row of creatives, asking questions and getting answers from one of their influences. John Powers, whose spots on "Fresh Air With Terry Gross" always make me stop and listen, also provides an essay as part of a perfect bound booklet. It's the cherry on top of a very tasty cake.

March 30

Damn, dude, we getting old. It's been 25 years since I sat in the Rotunda Theatre in Hampden and watched Mike Leigh's "Secrets & Lies". Real talk: I don't recall enjoying it. I think I was trying to impress a girl who had no interest in me. Good call, right: take a girl to a British drama about an adoptee searching for her birth mother. Christ, I'm dumb. The French knew what's up, though. They gave it the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year. I've learned better, too, having really enjoyed diving into Leigh's ouevre over the past several years. Leigh, along with his DP Dick Pope, put together a 2K restoration for this new release of "Secrets & Lies", as well as sat down with composer Gary Yershon to discuss the role of music in the film. Ashley Clark returns with a second essay this month, and star Marianne Jean-Baptiste speaks with Corrrina Antrobus (Bechdel Test Fest).

It really bums me out that Albert Brooks' directing career petered out the way it did, because, even as a kid, I really enjoyed his sense of satire and his directing style. Seeing "Defending Your Life" in 1991 came at a pretty key point in my life: a year out of Christian school and out of the Deep South for the first time in my life, asking questions of religion that hadn't come up before. To encounter this movie addressing some of these same questions within the framework of a rom-com was pretty revelatory. That's a good-ass cast! But that's Brooks' thing, innit? He addresses these huge existential issues within these innocuous packages. Plus, it has Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry in it. Brooks oversaw the 4K restoration on this print, and sat down with long-time "Curb Your Enthusiasm" director Robert Weide for an interview. I'm also pretty excited to read Ari Aster's essay in this release.

And there you have it: another month's worth of Criterion releases on the page. It's pretty likely I end up adding "Defending Your Life" to my preorder for the WKW box set. I'll end up getting the other three as time and money allow. I'm back in 30 (more or less) for a lineup that I can sum up in three words: motherfuckin' "Irma Vep". Be there...aloha!

The Criterion Collection in January

From "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese" (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

I really didn't think we'd make it. Yet here we are, on the cusp of a new year, with a new slate of Criterion releases to consider. The list of Q1 2021 releases is pretty solid so far, heavy on debuts, with a few reissues salted in. I'm not sure if I'm going to end up broke yet, but I'm really hoping this is the year that I get on the promo list (hint, hint).

January 5

Let's start the new year off with something really iconoclastic. The Criterion Collection has always provided a video home here in the States for Spanish/Mexican provocateur Luis Buñuel. I have laserdiscs of "Belle de jour" and "That Obscure Object of Desire" dating back to the 90s, and Criterion has released nine of the master's films on DVD over the years. Only a couple, though, have received Blu-ray releases until now. So it's pretty cool that Buñuel's last three films are being collected on Blu-ray as "Three Films by Luis Buñuel", a most apt title.

The three-disc set compiles hi-definition transfers of 1972s "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", 1974s "The Phantom of Liberty", and "That Obscure Object of Desire" from 1977. All three are absurd and political and brutal and really fucking funny, even in a language that isn't native to me. "Discreet Charm" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Feature in 1973; Buñuel put down the honor, saying it was based on the judgement of "2,500 idiots, including...the assistant dress designer." Pretty tough stuff. In addition to the films, there are a number of new bonus features that didn't appear or exist when Criterion released the DVD counterparts 20 years ago. The featurette on Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina, who both portrayed Conchita in "That Obscure Object of Desire", looks most interesting to me. I may not immediately run out to replace my DVDs, but it's on my short list of cool box sets to keep an eye out for.

January 12

I really got into "Minding The Gap" when we finally regained internet access and a good bud passed me his Hulu password last year. This story of three skateboarding friends, growing up in an Illinois city just shy of the Wisconsin border, really resonated with me. I grew up in a similar place, doing the same kind of shit, finding release and purpose in punk rock. That it spun out of director Bing Liu just shooting he and his friends for fun years ago only added to the appeal; this small thing finding purchase and reaching an audience when it was initially only intended for fucking around. It all reminds me a lot of "Hoop Dreams", following these subjects over the course of a decade through some good times and a lot of shit times. I'm really glad to see this finally get a home release, especially with the wealth of supplemental material added. Liu, along with his co-stars/friends Keire and Zach, provide what I expect to be a really good commentary track. There are featurettes with Liu's producers, as well as Tony Hawk (the Ian MacKaye of skateboard docs), as well as one of Liu's short films. It'll be great to dive further into this one in the coming months.

January 19

How's this for an understatement? I have a really complicated opinion of Bob Dylan. I suppose that's to be expected of someone who'd already had three distinct career arcs before I was born. There's the Village folkie, the poet superstar, and the re-emerged rocker, all leading up to his "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour in 1975 & 1976. The idea was simple: Dylan had never assembled his own band to tour behind him, so do that and play smaller rooms after the "Dylan & the Band" arena tour of '74. Long-time Dylan cinematographer Howard Alk joined the tour to shoot footage for Dylan's self-directed film "Renaldo & Clara". The initial tour wound down post the release of "Desire", having fizzled out in the second leg. "Renaldo & Clara" came out in 1978 to a wet fart's worth of criticism, and was quickly withdrawn. Yet Dylan still continues the "Rolling Thunder Revue", 3,000+ shows and 40 years on.

Like "Minding the Gap", "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story" debuted on streaming (via Netflix). Unlike "Minding the Gap", Martin Scorsese was given charge to take 40+ year old footage from the tour and turn it into another of his music documentaries. What came out is rightfully described as a magic trick, blending the archival with the modern, along with a fair amount of that ol' Zimmerman mischief. It's crazy, the people who pop up throughout the film: Patti Smith, Ronnie Hawkins, Joan Baez, Sam Shepard, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Roger McGuinn. Everything is underpinned by Allen Ginsberg. It's a wild document. If you're buying this, instead of just streaming it, it's probably for the DTS-HD Master Audio mix on the Blu-ray, the additional concert footage, and/or the interviews with Scorsese, David Tedeschi, and Ratso Sloman. I always thought this was the real beginning of Dylan's "head-up-his-ass" period that only came to an end with "Time Out of Mind", but I guess I have a better handle with age and exposure to other art what was going on here.

January 26

Is it fair to call this re-release of "The Ascent" ("Восхождение") a reissue? I've had the Eclipse Series release of "Wings" & "The Ascent" for a hot minute now, but this...this, with its 4K restoration and uncompressed sound and deeper bench of extras...this, I'm going to buy for Day One. Larisa Shepitko was a Ukranian director who made but four features before she died in a car accident in 1979. However, all four are pretty amazing, with "The Ascent" being foremost amongst them. Along with the 2020 reissue of "Come & See", this is not just a great war movie; it's one of the finest examples of Soviet filmmaking, an allegory about betrayal and loyalty and spiritual value. I've only been able to watch it through twice, because even though I love it, it makes me weep the same way I do when I watch "The Passion of Joan of Arc", and I just cannot finish. Included here are Sheptiko's second film, a short called "The Homeland of Electricity", and her spouse's posthumous tribute, "Larisa". If it seems like I'm being overly effusive about this, it's because I am. I don't typically feel that strongly about a film that doesn't include boobs or gore, but this is art, and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. It'll change your life, man.

From "The Ascent" (Larisa Shepitko, 1979)

So it is written; so it shall be. Go forth, preorder "The Ascent". Those are marching orders. We're back in approximately 30 to review February, what with its Warren Beatty and Laura Dern movies and its world cinema. Be there...aloha!

The Criterion Collection in December (plus The Best of 2020!)

From "Amores perros" (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2000)

Christ, where would I be in 2020 if I hadn't been writing these?

I started writing back in May because I decided, with my therapist, that I needed to talk about something good. I live on the other side of the country from most of the people I love, and we're all locked in the house (or should be), and my spouse is susceptible to all manners of infectious disease, which happens when you take chemo, and half the nation seems hellbent to rush us into some afterlife that's not necessarily promised to anyone. I could either give into the desperation, and wallow in the depression I've experienced my entire life, or, you know, I could revel in something that was enjoyable.

So, here we are. Eight months on, reviewing the last Criterion releases of the year of our Lord 2020. It's fun. It's something I look forward to. That shit is crucial right now. I hope you dig them.

December 1

Frankly, I've been rooting for a Criterion edition of "Fast Company", but I suppose we all have to "settle" for the 4K restoration of David Cronenberg's "Crash". I've been rewatching what Cronenberg I own in my collection throughout the pandemic (I wonder why), but I don't own a copy of "Crash", so the timing is good, I suppose. This is the sixth release Criterion has done with the Canadian director, and while the extras are fairly bare bones, "Crash" has only been available as a made-on-demand DVD-R release here in the States for most of the past decade. It's the first time it's been available on a Region A Blu-ray...ever. So, I have to assume its release will fill a fairly big hole in most of our collections. The extras look to carry over from the 1998 Warner Home Video DVD release. Still...Cronenberg. Get weird with it.

December 8

This week is all about the reissues, as Criterion reissues a pair of mid-aught catalog pieces with Blu-ray editions for the first time. Now, neither of these have ever grabbed my attention, probably because I'm more likely to rewatch "Maximum Overdrive" than view Ozu for the first time, but I guarantee they'll be on a number of folks' wishlists. The "Symbiopsychotaxiplasm" films by documentarian William Greaves are the sort of features that I almost certainly should be aware of, but I wasn't aware of until now. "Take One", originally released in 1968, is a work of meta art, the likes of which wouldn't be widely seen until its being championed by Steve Buscemi and Steven Soderbergh in the 90s. It's a feature about a documentary, which is in turn being documented, and then again documented. It's very incepted. "Take 2 1/2" revisited a pair of the leads of "Take One", some forty years after the original shoot. I've suddenly become very interested in this in the course of writing it up. Thanks, blogging! I can't tell if these releases feature the same transfer as the original 2006 Criterion DVD release, but it's on Blu-ray for the first time, ya know?

Also getting a first-time domestic release on Blu-ray: Robert Bresson's 1967 film "Mouchette". Bresson's another French New Wave director whose work I'm only very lightly familiar with. I feel like I saw "Au hasard Balthazar" on a date when it got re-released in 2003...or maybe I just own a copy thanks to Mrs. Ape's cultured influence. You know "Au hasard Balthazar", right? Story of a mistreated donkey? It's great, just great. So I probably should be forgiven for not having seen "Mouchette" before. Instead of an abused ass, it's a teenage girl whose name translates to "little fly" going through 81 minutes of trauma. Look, I have a fair amount of intellectual curiosity about what makes "Mouchette" renowned, but in this Year of our Dark Lord 2020, I don't have any sort of masochist drive to watch something that's going to inevitably depress me, no matter if it's got a fresh 4K restoration. Maybe I'll just save this one over for next year...should we make it that far.

December 15

We come to the end of 2020 with the debut film from Mexican director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2000's "Amores perros". I remember becoming aware of "Amores perros" around the same time as Alfonso Cuarón's "Y tu mama tambien", and really just falling in love with both directors' work. In Iñárritu's film, three strangers' lives collide (literally) in a tragic accident. It's a violent, funny, dire, and class conscious piece of work that just really springs off the screen. Just writing about it makes me want to rewatch it (it's been a minute since I last saw it). Iñárritu would get a nom for an Academy Award for "Perros", and go on to win Best Director Oscars for 2014's "Birdman" and 2015's "The Revenant".

He, along with D.P. Rodrigo Prieto, has overseen the 4K digital restoration of "Perros", which includes a remix to 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray. There are a ton of new extras created for this release: a new making-of documentary, conversations with the cast and the director, and all three music videos Iñárritu shot for the soundtrack. It's a great way to end the year's releases with Criterion, and the one of my two must-haves from December.

From "Crash" (David Cronenberg, 1996)

Speaking of which, I've been considering my favorite additions of 2020 to the Criterion Collection. It's fun to write about these ahead of the release, but I really haven't gone back and mentioned how they turned out for me. There's a 50% off sale at Barnes & Noble on all Criterion releases running thru the end of November, so feel free to take this as my recommendations for what you might pick up.

1. "Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits" (various, 1971-1978)
2. "Parasite" (Bong Joon Ho, 2019)
3. "Come And See" (Elem Klimov, 1985)
4. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. "Paris Is Burning" (Jennie Livingston, 1990)
6. "The Great Escape" (John Sturges, 1963)
7. "Holiday" (George Cukor, 1938)
8. "The War Of The Worlds" (Byron Haskin, 1953)
9. "Dance, Girl, Dance" (Dorothy Arzner, 1940)
10. "Portrait Of A Lady On Fire", (Céline Sciamma, 2019)

I'm back in around 30 with the first releases of 2021 by the Criterion Collection: a Luis Buñuel box set featuring his final three films, Scorsese shoot Dylan, and features from Bing Liu and the late Larisa Sheptiko. Be there...aloha!

The Criterion Collection in November

From "The Irishman" (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

I've been thinking a lot about the long-time effects of COVID-19 on film exhibition. I know, I know; me and everyone else. I'm really not sure it'll have any effect on my own viewing habits. There's only been a small handful of movies I've had to see in in a theatre in the past five years. Even movies like the last two "Avengers" releases or the last two "Star Wars" films, movies that, in my 20s and 30s, I would have broken my neck to see opening night, have been easy to wait out for a home video release. What I'd love to see is for programming to become less corporatized. I think it'd be good for theatres to become home for the best of the best. Let all but the most cinematic end up on a streaming platform. Save the movie theatre experience for the likes of a "Parasite", a revival of "The Godfather", for any of this month's Criterion releases. That would get me back into a theatre, mask and all.

November 10

There's an off week between the release of "Parasite" and the first release in November. So, you'll have plenty of time to dive into the extras on that "Parasite" set, to watch the black & white version as well as the color release, and to revisit the Bong Joon Ho filmography. Go on, get it out of your system. It's good for you.

This week's release has me asking, "Why don't I know about Claudia Weill?" To be fair, there weren't a lot of teachers repping women in cinema when I went to school 20 years ago, and Weill's filmography is a lot less extensive than, say, a Tamra Davis or an Ida Lupino. But her two features, 1978's "Girlfriends" and 1980's "It's My Turn", are still well regarded, if underseen, and her story and direction on the former earned her admission to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It set a blueprint for making independent film, utilizing grants from both the NEA and the AFI to get made over the course of nearly three years. It was named to the National Film Registry in 2019. So, yeah, it's a work worth knowing.

Weill sat with director of photography Fred Murphy to supervise the 4K digital transfer and restoration of this indie classic, presented here for the first time. There are also two early short films by Weill on the disc, dating from 1970 and 1972. The cast and crew interviews look pretty great as well. There's a one on one between Weill and Joey Soloway ("Transparent", "Six Feet Under"), as well as a separate interview with the Criterion team. There's also an interview with screenwriter Vicki Polon, who worked with Weill to shape her story into the script. And there's a feature on the cast, with lead Melanie Mayron, Bob Balaban, and Christopher Guest all dropping in to talk about the movie. It's a great chance to discover something new.

November 17

I'll be honest (not that I've been lying until now): it's been a minute since I last saw "Moonstruck". It's odd, because Mrs. Ape and I have been slowly going through a lot of the romantic comedies from the 80s that one or both of us haven't seen, and while we've both seen it, this seems like something we'd come across and say, "Let's watch Nicolas Cage romance Cher!" We make weird statements in our house.

Anyway, Cher correctly won the Oscar for this role, and the remainder of the cast is top notch: Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardinia, John Mahoney. Screenwriter John Patrick Shanley also wrote "Joe Versus the Volcano", another beloved rom-com in our house. While Norman Jewison directed a lot of movies I don't care about, he helmed this, "Send Me No Flowers", and "The Cincinnati Kid", and he's in his mid-90s, so, you know, mazel tov!

There are a ton of repeat features on this release. I see ones in common with the MGM DVD that's floating around my apartment somewhere. The real draw, in addition to the 4K digital scan, are a new interview with Shanley, an essay by Vox's Emily VanDerWerff, and a feature on the role of opera in the film with NYU professor Stefano Albertini. If you haven't seen this before, or don't own a copy, you should check it out. 

Well, Criterion's back with a new Jim Jarmusch release, and it's 1999's "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai". His seventh feature was a go-to as we were coming down from boozing in my early 20s. Forest Whitaker is so cool as the ronin in a Mafia world. The RZA score is probably the most-underappreciated Wu-related release from the last millenium. And it's one of the last pre-Guiliani, pre-9/11, street level NYC movies; the city is such a great character in the film. A speaking of character: it's one of the last roles for Henry Silva, one of the greats of Euro crime.

I'm really glad to see this get the Criterion treatment; I haven't thought to watch it in about 10 years, so when it was announced, I was like, "YEAH!" Jarmusch oversaw the 4K restoration here; the Blu-ray even gets a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio refurbishment, which should sound dope on a decent soundsystem. RZA's score gets its own isolated audio track, a feature that isn't nearly as prevalent as it should be, as well as a video essay. Whitaker and Jarmusch regular Isaach De Bankolé also sit for a conversation with Michael B. Gillespie. This looks like no worse than the second-best crime movie to release via Criterion this month.

November 24

I have a few mixed feelings about the "Essential Fellini" set coming out here. On one hand, I already own the Fellini films I love. On the other...damn, what a way to celebrate the master's 100th birthday! It's 14 of his 27 films, from his 1950 debut of "Variety Lights" all the way to his penultimate film, 1987's "Intervista". Two of these have never been issued by Criterion before ("Intervista" and 1957's "Il bidone"), and a number of these had not been restored before this release.

The extras are where this set gets wild. His portion of the anthology film "Spirits of the Dead", "Toby Dammit", and his 1969 documentary for NBC, "Fellini: A Director's Notebook", both receive full restorations. There are sooooo many documentaries; I count nine, only one of which I've ever seen available on video. There's also a "La dolce vita"-era feature on Fellini that originally aired on Belgian TV. There's a metric fuck ton of archival material, video essays, trailers, commentaries: the whole nine yards, the whole ball of wax. Apparently, there are also TWO BOOKS in this thing, chock full of images and essays by smarter people than I. The set isn't as comprehensive as the "AK 100" set from a few years back, but it is the sort of thing I'll have no shame in requesting for Christmas.

I was dubious about "The Irishman" when it came out last year. A 3+ hour gangster opus from a beloved director whose last movie I enjoyed came out 15 years before, featuring the kinda-creepy de-aging software to make the likes of Pacino, Pesci, Deniro, and Keitel not look old as hell? It was ostensibly about Jimmy Hoffa? It was only going to stream? There's no way it could be good, right?

Here's one of those times I admit I was wrong. I subconsciously pooped on this because I didn't have Netflix when it came out, couldn't afford streaming, and thus had to lower the excitement of a Scorsese movie. I finally got around to watching it a few weeks ago, over the course of three days, and I really liked it. It was so good to be able to watch in leisure, and the worries about the integration of the visual effects were really overblown. Shit, truth be told: I really should have been into it because Pesci came back for it.

But do I need to own it? That's the $40 question. I suppose it's going to come down to how much I want to listen to Martin Scorsese discuss his craft. I really enjoyed the actor roundtable that's streaming on Netflix; I'm curious to see how that's been recut for this physical release. "The Evolution of Digital De-Aging" also looks like the kind of thing that would make this worth a purchase for me. It's a real toss up; I'm sure I'll end up ordering this, sleep deprived, during a sale in the near future.

In a perfect world, I'd end up preordering all five of these releases. There's so much about each disc that makes me want to dive in. This, however, is an imperfect world, and, hell, we may not even make it to November 10th as a nation. So I'm planning on hedging my bets. I'll let the missus know that I wouldn't mind a copy of "Ghost Dog" for the holidays, while hoping I pull in some bread from eBay and Discogs to cop her that Fellini set. After all, loving couples share things like movies, right? Provided we're still here and the power's on, we're back in thirty to talk up some Cronenberg, some Iñárritu, and reissues from Bresson and Greaves. Get stoked!

From "Juliet of the Spirits" (Federico Fellini, 1965)