1972 – Stream On Demand

Fernando Di Leo’s ‘Milieu Trilogy’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Action, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, gangsters, International Cinema, Spaghetti Cinema, SVOD 01/23/2023 Sean Axmaker

The crime films of Fernando di Leo are poliziotteschi (Italian crime thriller) at its best and these three films in particular dismantle the pulp glorification of the mafia.

Henry Silva and Woody Strode in Fernando di Leo's gangster classic

‘The Italian Connection’ – Mob schemes on Criterion Channel and free on Kanopy

!Featured, Action, Blu-ray, Crime, Criterion Channel, DVD, Free, gangsters, International Classics, Kanopy, Spaghetti Cinema, SVOD, thriller 01/07/2023 Sean Axmaker

Fernando di Leo, Italy’s king of crime cinema, directs this thriller about a pimp on the run from a pair of New York hitmen for a crime he was framed for.

‘Blacula’ – an African prince finds eternal life on Criterion Channel and AMC+

!Featured, African-American cinema, American Independent Cinema, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, horror, SVOD 10/12/2022 Sean Axmaker

William Marshall stars in the low-budget 1972 horror film about an undead 18th century African prince revived in 1970s Los Angeles.

Marlon Brando stars in the Oscar-winning film by Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ trilogy on Peacock

!Featured, Academy Award, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, drama, DVD, Essential Viewing, gangsters, Hollywood Classic, literary adaptation, Peacock, Sight & Sound 100 Greatest Films of All Time, Streaming Movies, SVOD 10/01/2022 Sean Axmaker

Al Pacino is Michael Corleone in the great American epic of the immigrant dream turned family business in the Oscar-winning trilogy based on the novel by Mario Puzo.

‘Deliverance’ – A harrowing backcountry odyssey on Netflix

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Cult Movies, DVD, Essential Viewing, literary adaptation, National Film Registry, Netflix, SVOD, thriller 07/13/2022 Sean Axmaker

John Boorman’s harrowing adaptation of James Dickey’s novel is as bracing and haunting now as it was when it first shook up audiences in 1975

‘The Harder They Come’ – Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican outlaw, on Criterion Channel

!Featured, African-American cinema, Blu-ray, Crime, Criterion, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, DVD, International Classics, music, SVOD 02/10/2022 Sean Axmaker

The first homegrown Jamaican feature film is an outlaw adventure driven by a high energy reggae score.

‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Academy Award, BAFTA winner, Criterion Channel, DVD, Essential Viewing, International Classics, Politics, satire, socially aware cinema, SVOD 02/08/2022 Sean Axmaker

Luis Buñuel’s sly, dry, deadpan masterpiece of upper class hypocrisy uses satire to skewer social pretensions and moral hypocrisy

Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills star in the Billy Wilder comedy

‘Avanti!’ with Jack Lemmon

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, based on a play, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Comedy, DVD, Romance, SVOD 07/17/2021 Sean Axmaker

Billy Wilder was one of the great directors of classic American comedy. Avanti! (1972), based on the play by Samuel Taylor, is one of the director’s attempts to adapt his trademark mix of wit, romance, and sex to the more permissive era of the 1970s and one of the best films in the last act […]

Gary Sherman directs the landmark British horror film with Donald Pleasance

‘Death Line’ – cannibals in the underground on Shudder

!Featured, Blu-ray, Cult Movies, DVD, Halloween, horror, Shudder, socially aware cinema, SVOD 10/29/2020 Sean Axmaker

Gary Sherman’s British horror of a feral clan hidden beneath the streets of London is also a startlingly tender film about a literal underclass abandoned by the world above. Costars Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee.

Marlon Brando in ‘Last Tango in Paris’ on HBO Now

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, drama, DVD, International Cinema, SVOD 02/09/2020 Sean Axmaker

Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972) was one of the most controversial films of the 1970s, rated X upon its original release for nudity and sexuality (since rerated NC-17). The drama of a widower who escapes his anguish and despair after his wife’s suicide in a purely physical relationship with a free-spirited young beauty […]