Petite Wings of Thelma's Desire

Criterion Announcement Day always sneaks up on me -- I briefly considered putting it in my calendar as a repeating "15th of the month" occurrence but decided that was a nerd bridge too far, which is uhh saying a lot coming from the person who has it written in there that it's the fifth anniversary of Game Night next week. Anyway yes tis Criterion Announcement Day, huzzah et cetera -- these movies will be released by the fanciest-pants boutique brand in the month of May in the year 2023, and we're kicking it off with a little movie called Thelma & Louise from director Ridley Scott. I've long maintained that this is the last truly great movie that Ridley Scott directed and I stand by that, although I have come to like Prometheus a lot (even though it's hella dumb in parts) and The Counselor as well, for sheer WTF-ery. But Thelma & Louise is perfect, a perfect movie, and not just because it introduced Brad Pitt's Abs to the world. 

But not not just because of that either. I mean I love the cover-art they used but I think Brad Pitt's Abs might have also sold some copies, just saying. Anyway Criterion is dropping the film on 4K and per usual it's loaded with extras, all of which are flaunted on their site -- that one hits on May 30th, at the start of the summer so just in time for us all to be considering a road-trip where we'll also go on the run and mount some sexy grifter's abs at a skeevy rundown roadside motel ourselves. But T& L isn't even the May release from Criterion that I am most excited about! No that title goes to...

... Peter Bogdonovich's 1968 masterpiece Targets! Targets is one of my all-timer faves and it's been begging for a good release for ages -- BFI was putting one out last year and then they abruptly canceled the release much to my chagrin; I wonder if this is what happened? Anyway very excited to finally get a good version -- Targets, if you're unaware, was Bognonovich's first film and stars TV actor Tim O’Kelly in really his only notable role as a dapper middle-class Vietnam vet turned maniac who drives around shooting people in Los Angeles; his path eventually crosses at a drive-in movie-theater with Boris Karloff who's basically playing a version of himself. Besides this and The Last Picture Show I kind of hate Peter Bogdonovich, who always came off as a preening egotist to me, but damn do I love those two movies. Criterion is dropping this one on May 16th. 

But wait there's another another great movie hitting ye Collection d'Criterion come May -- Céline Sciammas glorious little 2021 ode to childhood imagination Petite Maman will hit blu-ray on May 23rd! Here is my review of this deeply moving yet wildly brief (it's only 73 minutes long!) little flick about a girl who magically travels through time to bond with her own mother when she was a little girl. This movie makes me cry and cry and cry and then have to call my mom -- j'adore. And I think this will be its first physical media release here in the US? Scoop it up, yo. The other two titles that Criterion has on tap for May are 4K upgrades of two titles they've previously released -- Wim Wenders' 1987 masterpiece Wings of Desire and Seijun Suzuki's 1967 Japanese New Wave flick Branded To Kill. I've still (shamefully) never seen the latter but I've seen Wings a few times now and it lives up to the word "masterpiece" and then some. And I am sure there are better examples of Hollywood fucking up a remake than what City of Angels did this one but I don't know if I am as offended by any others as I am by that. Ugh!