World on a Wire: Criterion Collection
February 20, 2006
Based on Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 science fiction novel Simulacron-3, World on a Wire (1973) is a two-part miniseries Rainer Werner Fassbinder made for German television while taking a break from filming Effi Briest (1974). It was relegated to obscurity...
Anatomy of a Murder: Criterion Collection
February 20, 2006
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) was the culmination of a taboo-smashing decade that saw director Otto Preminger challenge the Production Code Administration, which censored content in American movies that it deemed immoral, with the sex comedy The Moon is...
Tiny Furniture: Criterion Collection
February 20, 2006
Every so often there comes along an independent filmmaker that is touted as a major new voice and makes a film that causes a big splash, spawning countless substandard copies and wannabes. In the past, it’s been the likes of Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch,...
Manhattan
February 20, 2006
After the phenomenal success of Annie Hall (1977), Woody Allen confounded the expectations of his critics and fans with Interiors (1978), which saw him doing his best Ingmar Bergman impression. It was his first dramatic film and while critical reaction...
Dark Shadows
February 20, 2006
While the original Dark Shadows in the late 1960s was very campy, the show’s creator, Dan Curtis, decided to make the ‘90s incarnation a more serious take in the Hammer horror tradition. He is the godfather of TV horror with an impressive resume that...
Return
February 20, 2006
Films about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to be hard sell with American audiences. Perhaps it is because we are still living through them, still experiencing loved ones coming home from the Middle East maimed, scarred or dead. Nobody wants...
Vanya on 42nd Street: Criterion Collection
February 20, 2006
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) began in 1989 as an extended workshop by legendary stage director Andre Gregory. He assembled a cast of actors to rehears Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya at the abandoned Victory Theater on 42nd Street in New York City. They...
The Magnetic Monster
February 20, 2006
“Today, new dangers face mankind. Dangers, which challenge his life, threaten his very existence…” intones the solemn voiceover narration in vintage 1950’s science fiction film fashion and starts off The Magnetic Monster (1953). The voice belongs...
The Three Musketeers
February 20, 2006
To date there have been numerous cinematic adaptations of Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers that go back to 1903. More than a hundred years later the first version rendered in 3-D was made by Paul W.S. Anderson, the man responsible for the...
Halls of Anger
February 20, 2006
Halls of Anger (1970) carries on in the tradition of hard-hitting urban youth films like Blackboard Jungle (1955) with angry youth rebelling against the authoritarian teachers albeit dealing with racially charged issues. Quincy Davis (Lockhart) is an...
