Chimes at Midnight: Criterion Collection
November 17, 2016

For years, Orson Welles wanted to portray Sir John Falstaff, a recurring character in William Shakespeare’s plays. In 1939, Welles had produced a Broadway stage adaptation of nine Shakespeare plays and revived it in 1960. While neither were successful,...
The New World: Criterion Collection
July 28, 2016

After completing The Thin Red Line (1998), filmmaker Terrence Malick began working on a film about Che Guevara and his failed revolution in Bolivia (that was eventually made by Steven Soderbergh) but after financing fell through he was offered The New...
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: Criterion Collection
July 7, 2016

With the rather turbulent times in which we live in and the current state of the warring political parties in the United States, Stanley Kubrick’s savage black comedy about nuclear war, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love...
Clouds of Sils Maria: Criterion Collection
June 29, 2016

In international cinema, Juliette Binoche is acting royalty. The veteran actress has worked with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Philip Kaufman, Anthony Minghella, and Krzysztof Kieslowski among others. She is a brave actress with an incredible range, which...
The Player: Criterion Collection
May 31, 2016

The 1980s was a tough decade for Robert Altman. After enjoying so much creative freedom in the 1970s it all came crashing down with Popeye (1980), a big budget adaptation of the comic strip of the same name. It was plagued with production problems and...
Barcelona: Criterion Collection
May 18, 2016

After the warm reception and modest box office hit of Metropolitan (1990), writer/director Whit Stillman followed it up four years later with Barcelona (1994), which focused on the misadventures of two Americans in Barcelona, Spain. Chicago salesman Ted...
The Manchurian Candidate: Criterion Collection
April 26, 2016

John Frankenheimer’s masterful political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962) was released at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis and reflects the mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviets during the Cold War. Based on Richard...
I Knew Her Well: Criterion Collection
April 25, 2016

Antonio Pietrangeli’s I Knew Her Well (1965) was part of the exciting boom of Italian cinema in the 1960s that reflected a period of economic prosperity where poor farmers found themselves becoming wealthier and more urban. Whereas most of these films...
The Hateful Eight
March 30, 2016

It’s safe to say that at this point in his career, you know what you’re going to get with a Quentin Tarantino film – lots of incredibly well-written dialogue spouted by a colorful cast of characters who only stop talking when sudden, bloody violence...
Inside Llewyn Davis: Criterion Collection
February 18, 2016

Every time I watch Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), I’m reminded of the Bob Dylan song, “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and how the lyrics pertain to the film’s titular character. Set in 1961, it is the Coen brothers’ bittersweet love letter to folk music....