The Friends of Eddie Coyle: Criterion Collection
April 27, 2015
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) is one of those forgotten films from the 1970s. It’s a melancholic story of small-time criminals working on the fringes of Boston’s underworld. It’s not exactly the kind of feel-good story that lights up the box...
Sullivan’s Travels: Criterion Collection
April 21, 2015
Sullivan’s Travels (1942) came out of Preston Sturges’ desire to make fun comedies after finding that the genre had become too preachy. He wrote the film with Joel McCrea in mind even though the character he was going to play may have been inspired...
Hoop Dreams: Criterion Collection
April 14, 2015
For every Allen Iverson or Shaquille O’Neal that makes it to fame and fortune in the NBA, there are hundreds that don’t. Hoop Dreams (1994) is a documentary that follows two Chicago inner-city boys from their freshman year in high school to their...
Don’t Look Now: Criterion Collection
April 13, 2015
Adapted from the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now (1973) took a familiar genre and depicted it in an unusual way, employing several flashbacks and flashforwards as director Nicolas Roeg examined the psychological effects...
The Palm Beach Story: Criterion Collection
April 8, 2015
Fresh from his 1941 hit The Lady Eve, Preston Sturges drew partially from his own life for his next film, The Palm Beach Story (1942). His ex-wife was an heiress that traveled among European aristocracy and was even courted by Prince Jerome Rospigliosi-Gioeni....
Tootsie: Criterion Collection
February 24, 2015
When it was released, Tootsie (1982) was a commercial and critical hit that poked fun at the women’s liberation movement as an actor struggled to find roles and out of frustration he began dressing up as a woman in order to get a job. In retrospect,...
Safe: Criterion Collection
January 22, 2015
Safe (1995) was only independent filmmaker Todd Haynes’ second feature film, but it established him as an emerging talent with a unique worldview and a knack for presenting fascinating female protagonists, in this case one played by Julianne Moore who...
Time Bandits: Criterion Collection
January 22, 2015
The early 1980s was a fertile time for fantasy films with the likes of Excalibur (1981), Dragonslayer (1981) and Conan the Barbarian (1982) among others. Time Bandits (1981) came out of Terry Gilliam being unable to get his passion project Brazil (1985)...
L’Avventura: Criterion Collection
December 18, 2014
When Michelangelo Antonioni’s sixth film, L’Avventura premiered at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, it was met with catcalls, but it was a critical darling that went on to captivate audiences all over the world thereby establishing its director’s...
La Dolce Vita: Criterion Collection
November 24, 2014
At the time of its release, Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960) was considered a prescient masterpiece that anticipated our celebrity-obsessed tabloid culture. Looking back now, its subject matter seems rather tame, but after the likes of O.J. Simpson,...
