I know I saw that the monthly Criterion announcement sneaks up on me every mid-month but I'm not just blowing smoke today because they jumped the gun by two entire days! Usually these drop on the 15th but I guess they don't take the Dowager Countess' approach to that whole "weekend" thing -- they know what one is. But sure, let's do this -- I was sitting here thinking I was exhausted and had nothing to say today so this gives us some... oh he's gonna say the word... content. (Sorry.) Especially since they're dropping a huge load on us, and it includes one of my all-time favorite movies -- Atom Egoyan's 1997 masterpiece The Sweet Hereafter! This movie is long long overdue a proper release -- I don't think it's been upgraded since DVD? My tired old copy can finally be buried in the backyard, sent off to the glue factory. Any other fans of this movie? It's definitely the first time I ever took notice of Sarah Polley and for that alone it owns my heart but this story of the reverberations of a catastrophe in a small town is mesmerizing, heartbreaking, and beautiful stuff. Hugely recommended.
Next up they're giving Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly a physical release -- for most streaming movies this is not guaranteeed but it seems like most of Baumbach's films are safe in Criterion's loving grasp. Even ones as middling as this movie. I am not a fan. I am not one of your faaaaaans, Jay Kelly! There's only so much rumination on George Clooney's ego I can suffer and we passed that tipping point several decades ago. Better that they're upgrading Martin Scorsese's 2019 streaming picture The Irishman to 4K in February as well -- now there's a stunner that actually earns its place. And I'm glad I held off on ordering the blu-ray all this time! It paid off. For once. Not so with Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche, which is also getting an upgrade... right after I finally broke down and bought their old DVD of it. Dammit.
After that there's a little box-set of three films inside what they're calling Victor Sjöström’s Hollywood Masterworks -- the Swedish director's films He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney and The Wind and The Scarlet Letter, both starring Lillian Gish, are featured. I personally have seen two of these three before -- He Who Gets Slapped (wonderfully bizarre) and The Wind -- they're both terrific, so this set is probably a safe bet.
On my own I probably wouldn't usually think to put Ruggles of Red Gap, a 1935 Leo McCarey comedy starring Charles Laughton, right next to Stephen Chow's slapstick masterpiece Kung Fu Hustle, but Criterion went and made their cover-arts of a similar feel so here we are. I've never seen the former and I haven't seen the latter since it came out -- any fans? Finally the final film on Criterion's February line-up is Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón's latest called Romería, which they've also had playing on the Criterion Channel for awhile now but which I haven't had time to watch yet. I'm a massive fan of Simon's film Summer 1993 though so I will watch this when I've finally got some breathing room. And thus endeth the February haul! What are you most looking forward to?
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