John Sayles, the Don of American independent cinema, has dedicated much of his career to examining and exploring buried and ‘unofficial’ histories. This fascination, this need to tell, has taken Sayles far, from the coal-mining hollers of West Virginia (Matewan) to the tundras of Alaska (Limbo) to Latin/Central America (Men with Guns) and out […]
The Criterion Collection
Dexter Gordon in ‘Round Midnight (1986) – Pop Screen 107
Fists in the Pocket (1965): A Disquieting, Macabre Satire of Family Values and Catholic Morality (Review)
Okja (2017): Superpig In the City (Review)
Originally released on Netflix, Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja is the second of a trilogy of films that launched his name recognition in the West, with Snowpiercer and the Oscar-winning Parasite on either side of it. Like the former, there is a strong Western presence with a cast including Tilda Swinton, Paul […]
La Dolce Vita (1960): when Fellini became Fellini-esque (Review)
On April 11th 1953, the body of aspiring actress Wilma Montesi was found on a beach outside of Rome. Her death, which remains unsolved, sparked one of the first major tabloid scandals in Italian history, as journalists from monarchist and Communist papers alike suggested the police’s apparent inability to catch […]
Scorsese Shorts (1963-74) supremely confident first steps of a master (Review)
The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Parallel Lives, Parallel Loves (Review)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) feels like a living watercolour painting (Review)
The Emigrants (1971) / The New Land (1972) (Review)
In its native America, the Criterion Collection earned its reputation for desirable, extras-packed editions of arthouse classics over whole decades, disc by disc. When it expanded to Region 2 in April this year, it wasn’t an unknown quantity – cinephiles with region-free players had been spreading the word for years. […]
The Squid and the Whale (2005) one of the most endearing examples of divorce-cinema (Review)
In a director interview, Noah Baumbach says of his newly issued Criterion Collection film, the Squid and the Whale, that he typically finds the writing process laborious but in the scripting of his 2005 film it was a deeply physical experience – exorcising demons that have laid dormant for years. […]