Time to play catch up with Criterion releases of the past couple of months. I confess that I had never heard of Canoa: A Shameful Memory (Mexico, 1976) before Criterion announced it. Having now seen, I wonder how that could have been. While not on my radar, this is celebrated as a landmark of Mexican […]
Miike Takashi made his reputation as Japan’s gonzo gun-for-hire, a genre madman who pumped manic energy and wild style into films he pushed to the extremes in every way, from violence to surreal twists. He once described himself as “an arranger, not an author.” Taking a cue from one of his own film titles, I […]
Here are some notes on a few Twilight Time releases I’ve enjoyed but not had time to write up feature reviews. I’ll be listing all the supplements but know that each disc also features Twilight Time’s trademark isolated score, the original trailer, and an accompanying 8-page booklet with an essay by Julie Kirgo. Each disc […]
The Yakuza (1974) (Warner Archive, Blu-ray) – Film critic turned screenwriter Paul Schrader put his passion for Japanese cinema and his insight into American genre movies into an original screenplay that he wrote with his brother, Leonard, and sold to Warner Bros. for a record payday that made the trade papers and gave Schrader a […]
Summer Lovers (Twilight Time, Blu-ray), the sexy 1982 tale of Americans in Greece learning to shed their inhibitions, is not your usual eighties sex romp. Written and directed by Randall Kleiser, riding high after Grease (1978) and The Blue Lagoon (1980), the film takes an adult look at love, sex, and modern romance in the […]
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) (Twilight Time, Blu-ray) – Hammer Films had just launched their full color revivals of the classic movie monsters when they tackled Sherlock Holmes, giving him the Gothic treatment in a mix mystery and supernatural horror. Peter Cushing is perfectly cast as the great detective, the very embodiment of science […]
Support Your Local Sheriff / Support Your Local Gunfighter (Twilight Time, Blu-ray) – James Garner established himself as a natural for the comic western with the TV series Maverick, playing the reluctant hero who avoided conflict and gunplay with charm, wit, and a con-man’s knack for keeping his opponents off balance. The brought that sensibility […]
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Twilight Time, Blu-Ray), one of Sam Peckinpah’s personal favorites of his films (and the rare Peckinpah film not to get reworked by the studio), opens on an idyllic river scene with a pregnant girl soaking her feet in the lazy current with a beatific smile on her face. […]
The Killer Elite / Noon Wine (1966) (Twilight Time, Blu-ray) – By even the most generous measure, The Killer Elite (1975) is one of Sam Peckinpah’s weakest film. Which, by Peckinpah standards, is still a cut above a great many films. He manages to get his own sensibility into the tale of black ops mercenaries […]
The Lovers on the Bridge (France, 1991) (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray), Leos Carax’s tale of l’amour fou, was the most expensive film ever made in France at the time and one of the most ravishing made anywhere ever. It was also a commercial disaster, alternately celebrated as a triumph of personal expression and vilified as the […]
