The Rose: Criterion Collection
June 18, 2015
Originally titled Pearl, The Rose (1979) was initially conceived as a biopic about singer Janis Joplin (Pearl was the name of her last album). However, when her family refused the rights to her story, the producers fictionalized Joplin’s life enough...
Repo Man: Criterion Collection
April 16, 2013
“Not many people got a code to live by anymore,” says Bud (Stanton), the veteran repo man to his protege, Otto (Estevez) near the beginning of Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984). This film is all about personal codes and philosophies. It seems...
Two-Lane Blacktop: Criterion Collection
January 4, 2013
In anticipation of its release later that year, Esquire magazine ran a substantial piece on Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and boldly proclaimed it to be the best film of the year. Despite high praise from such a prestigious periodical, the studio refused to...
Paris, Texas: Criterion Collection
February 1, 2010
Films made about the United States by foreign filmmakers are interesting because quite often they provide a unique perspective – someone from the outside looking in. German filmmaker Wim Wenders did just this with his film Paris, Texas (1984). It was...
Wise Blood: Criterion Collection
June 1, 2009
Legendary filmmaker John Huston had an uncanny ability to adapt unfilmable literature into well-crafted films. He made sense of Dashiell Hammett’s convoluted plot with his take on The Maltese Falcon (1941), he successfully translated Malcolm Lowry’s...
Inland Empire
September 13, 2007
“A woman in trouble.” That is David Lynch’s concise synopsis for his latest film, Inland Empire (2006), but it could easily describe any one of his female protagonists, from Lula traveling along the weird, yellow brick road in Wild at Heart (1990)...
The Green Mile: Special Edition
December 1, 2006
Magic realism is a tricky thing to pull off in a movie. It’s a deft balancing act that if you go too far in one direction you run the risk of losing the audience. In literature, it is much easier to pull off because a lot of it is left up to the reader’s...
Bukowski: Born Into This
March 29, 2006
Charles Bukowski was a famous novelist and poet who lived the grungy, skid row life that he wrote about so well and that also made him famous. He was an uncompromising counterculture icon and this documentary, Bukowski: Born Into This (2003), attempts...
Repo Man: Collector’s Edition
March 4, 2006
“Not many people got a code to live by anymore,” says Bud (Stanton), the veteran repo man to his protege, Otto (Estevez) near the beginning of Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984). This film is all about personal codes and philosophies. It seems...
Wild at Heart: Special Edition
June 20, 2005
By 1990, David Lynch was at the peak of his popularity and enjoying the most productive period of his career. His television show, Twin Peaks, had captivated American audiences and he was directing a number of commercials and performance art pieces (Industrial...
