Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … A Black family is terrorized when they move into an all-white neighborhood in 1950s Los Angeles in “Them” (not rated). The first season of the anthology series plays out over ten days […]
Category: Criterion Channel
Burt Lancaster is ‘The Leopard’ in Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece on Criterion Channel
The Leopard (Italy, 1963), Luchino Visconti’s adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s novel (said to be a national touchstone for Italy), is his masterpiece. Burt Lancaster (his voice is dubbed by a deep-voiced Italian) may seem an unusual choice to play Prince Don Fabrizio Salina, an idealistic 19th century Sicilian prince (Visconti favored Laurence Olivier, a […]
Continental noir: ‘The Third Man’ on Criterion Channel
Carol Reed’s continental film noir The Third Man (1949), written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten as a cynical American pulp novelist playing detective in the rubble-strewn underworld of post-war Vienna and Orson Welles as a charming but ruthless black marketeer, is one of the true classics. The film is directed by Reed but […]
Warren Beatty and Julie Christie are ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ on Criterion Channel
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Robert Altman’s third film since staking out his claim on 1970s cinema with M*A*S*H (1970), turns the western myth into a metaphor for the fantasy of the American Dream colliding with the power of big business. Warren Beatty is John McCabe, a drifting gambler who rides into the mining camp […]
What to stream: ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and ‘Made for Love’ on HBO Max, ‘Concrete Cowboy’ and ‘The Serpent’ on Netflix
Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … The two biggest movie monsters around go toe-to-claw in “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021, PG-13) after the lizard king attacks Florida and the giant ape is set free from Skull Island for the […]
What to stream: ‘Irregulars’ on Netflix, ‘Invincible’ on Amazon, ‘Aretha’ on Hulu, ‘The Father’ on VOD
Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … Anthony Hopkins stars a lively 80-year-old widower defiantly holding on to his independence as his mind begins to falter and Olivia Colman is the loving daughter watching him slip away in “The […]
‘Gun Crazy’ – a film noir classic on Criterion Channel
Gun Crazy (1950), the greatest of the criminal lovers-on-the-run thriller, explodes onto the screen in a fury of sex and guns and love and violence. Directed by Joseph H. Lewis, it is a masterpiece of style and a blast of cinematic ecstasy on a budget barely bigger than a B movie. John Dall is a […]
‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ on Criterion Channel
I have a soft spot for Albert Lewin, a literary Hollywood writer/producer turned director with a continental sensibility and an eye for handsome imagery (if not always cinematic storytelling). His productions tended toward literary adaptations (The Good Earth, which he produced, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, which he scripted and directed) but Pandora and […]
What to stream: ‘Bombay Rose’ and ‘Yes Day’ on Netflix, ‘Genera+ion’ on HBO Max
Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, video-on-demand, and other streaming services … The hand-painted animated feature “Bombay Rose” (India, 2021, PG-13) is a romantic drama of two outsiders—a Muslim refugee and a Hindi girl escaping an arranged marriage—who dream of a Bollywood movie escape […]
The original ‘The In-Laws’ on Criterion Channel
“You interested in joining the CIA? The benefits are great. The trick in not getting killed. That’s the key to the whole benefits program.” Ever had a relative who thinks they’re part of the CIA? Ever had one who really was? The original The In-Laws (1979) tackles both at once and delivers one of the […]