My relationship with the work of Agnès Varda began in 2017. Strictly speaking it began in college, when I first saw Vagabond, but when Faces Places opened in 2017, I firmly and immediately put the film on my best-of list for the year and began exploring her films beyond these two, culminating in some words on One Sings, … Continue reading
Of games of death and dragons and fists and big bosses. Continue reading
Me, you, and everyone we know, including Destry and the Cremator, take a trip to the Grand Budapest Hotel but get caught out by an army of shadows. Continue reading
Temple Drake’s gonna tell her story with tunes of glory until the end of the world. Continue reading
In November’s Criterion round-up: There’s a cold war being fought, Betty Blue and Eve make the voyage all about themselves. Continue reading
All I want is to talk about Godzilla, but I’ll have to just settle for talking about Josef von Sternberg instead, even though his movies do not have radioactive thunder lizards in them. Continue reading
And now, Andy gets to talk a little bit about Jane Campion. But only a little bit, because if he talks too much, you won’t click the link. Continue reading
Two French masters, a Montanan master, and an Austrian master all walk into the Criterion Collection and that’s it, that’s the joke. Continue reading
I think its strange, he’s friends with Fu Manchu
And he thinks he knows you
Uh uh uh uh uh oh
Oh Daniel San made in Taiwan Come on Jackie Chan
Uh uh uh uh uh oh Continue reading
I swear to the Criterion gods, one of these days we’ll get a Criterion round-up live in the month it’s intended for. Just not this month. Maybe not next month. But one of these days! Anyway, “To Sleep with Anger” is incredible. Continue reading
Elaine May, Alfred Hitchcock, Abbas “We Miss You” Kiarostami, and Norman Jewison’s unexpected tonic for “Green Book” make up the DNA of this month’s Criterion round-up. Continue reading
I didn’t share this the other day because…I’m…lazy, I think? I gotta be honest, keeping this ol’ sucker up to date is a chore on my middling days (and don’t worry, it’s a joy on my best days). Also, I am never sure what the best way is to sum up the Criterion round-ups. We watched … Continue reading
Want some words on the October Criterion Collection slate? As you wish! …look, I had to do it. I didn’t write about The Princess Bride; I had some Shampoo in my eyes. (I had to do that, too. Full of applesauce today, I am.) But in case you can never get enough of The Princess Bride, we have that. We … Continue reading
Question: Does anyone care if Paste‘s Criterion round-ups publish the month after they’re intended for? This used to bother me just on grounds of professional, writerly pride, but I’m not sure anymore if it’s worth me being bothered by; by the time these pieces land, every release from the preceding month is commercially available, which feels … Continue reading
It’s Criterion time! This time: A smaller slate, because at least one title got bumped from the August schedule. But as usual the slate’s damn good, even if my good buddy Oktay Ege Kozak didn’t like Smithereens as much as I did (and even if I did not like Smithereens anywhere near as much as I liked Memories … Continue reading
This month via The Criterion Collection: Dragon Inn. That’s pretty much all you need to know. I went nuts over A Touch of Zen, King Hu’s other grand wuxia film, back in July of 2016, when Criterion added that one to their library and I wrote about the release, though apparently my writing on the matter never published … Continue reading
…huh! Seems we missed out on our Criterion piece last May! How ’bout that. (Hey, don’t look at me. I just assemble the doc. And also write my blurbs. Such is life.) Good news is, the June slate rocked, as it usually does, and we managed to get the piece on Paste Magazine just under the wire; … Continue reading
I’m increasingly finding it difficult to find ways to introduce Criterion round-ups! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. (It’s probably a matter of only seeing one or two of the movies on each slate.) That being said: This one’s worth it just for Oktay Ege Kozak’s bit about The Awful Truth, plus Dom Sinacola’s words … Continue reading
Foreword: Volker Schlöndorff’s Baal made me want to throw up all over myself. I’ve sat through some truly ugly and thoroughly noxious films in my time, many of them more overtly hideous than this one, but boy oh boy, I cannot think of the last time I sat through an 80 minute film that felt this … Continue reading
And yet another entry in “better late than never,” though in this case you still get some utility out of the piece: Now you know which February Criterion releases are worth your time and money, courtesy of the team at Paste Magazine. (Hint: Night of the Living Dead.) (Second hint: Elevator to the Gallows.) (Third hint: Tom Jones, … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 