stood a chance. I wanted to be someone outstanding:
flyer, traveler, musician... Can't I be reborn?
A banner day for Criterion lovers as they've just dropped a beautiful box-set of three Leos Carax movies -- the above alongside the also-stellar Mauvais sang and The Lovers on the Bridge. All of them great and worth seeing -- especially if you love Denis Lavant and/or Juliette Binoche. I mean if you say that you love Denis Lavant and/or Juliette Binoche I don't know how you couldn't have already seen these three movies, but crazy things happen. Anything's possible! Anyway what I am going to need next is for Criterion to give us a 4K of my favorite Carax movie Holy Motors, that's what I am going to need next.
Happy that the Criterion announcements for December 2026 are landing this afternoon before I am whisked away for the next few weeks of New York Film Festival screenings starting tonight -- fortuitous timing for us all. And fortune ahoy because there are a couple of real thrillers here, including as seen above the 4K premiere of Anthony Minghella's Best Picture winner The English Patient! I know opinions are all over the place on this movie but I love every old-fashioned inch of it -- Ralph Fiennes at his most beautiful and romantic, Juliette Binoche winning an Oscar... how can you not love it? This one lands on December 8th so there will be plenty of time to stuff it in deserving stockings. Speaking of...
... I don't know that Werner Herzog's documentary masterpiece Grizzly Man is exactly "happy holiday" material given what a horror show it is, but I personally am extremely thankful. This doc the true story of the nature-lover Timothy Treadwell, who lived amongst the Alaskan brown bears until they gobbled him up, lands on the same day as The English Patient -- it's only a blu-ray, not 4K, but that's probably as good as we'll get given the source material is mostly old video. If you've never seen this movie good god do you have something in store. (Also that cover is gorg.)
Also ahead is Pietro Germi's 1961 black comedy Divorce Italian Style, which stars Marcello Mastroianni (who else) as a married man who falls in love with his much younger cousin -- oh 1961. Never stop 1961-ing. I've never seen this movie somehow? Those deeply hetero sex-comedies of this time period have never really been my bag but I'm sure it's worth seeing. Then there is December's new entry in Criterion's revived "Eclipse" series of box-sets -- this one tackles Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez who made a series of short films (and one feature) in 1960s and 70s Cuba. Anybody familair with her work? Criterion's final two releases of December are two 4K upgrades -- there's Ernt Lubitsch's classic comedy The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, and there's a little something called Nashville by Robert Altman. Now that's a movie.
Criterion went and pulled a fast one on me by dropping their November line-up announcement on a Friday, a Summer Friday -- I was too busy being the exact opposite of busy then, so here we are. Three days behind! Somebody slap me to the side of a rocket and shoot me into the future, baby, and yes that's me drawing an oh-so-subtle bridge to the first title we're talking -- Philip Kaufman's beloved 1983 NASA epic The Right Stuff. Finally hitting 4k on November 24th -- two days before Thanksgiving so you know the cool dads are gonna be slipping into their Tryptophan slumbers to the smooth sounds of Sam Sheperd. This movie apparently tells the story of the the original Mercury crew who kicked off the "Space Race" and yes I said "apprently" because somehow, no shit, I have never seen this movie. What? How? I don't know. There are thankfully at this point cinematic bigguns that have still slipped through my fingers, is all I can say, and I look forward to my time ahead watching the aformentioned Sam Shepherd as well as Scott Glenn and Ed Harris and MY HUSBAND FRED WARD rock some tight jumpsuits.
Next up we've got the opposite problem -- I have seen both of these critically-lauded movies, but I wasn't enraptured by either. As for K-Pop Demon Hunters, who the fuck cares that I wasn't enraptured -- I am not the audience for that movie, and the people who were loved it and that is nice for them. The only thing that I enjoyed were the boy bond weaponizing their sexiness and I am sure that shocks less than zero people reading this. Anyway Criterion will make so so much money dropping this disc right ahead of holiday shopping and Criterion making money is good! Physical media is good! This will be some little nerd's first 4K disc and a new obsessive will be born. As for Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron I'd been hearing extremely good things for a long while but when I finally saw it it left me cold. Which is weird because, having been the kid in the 1980s whose anger and isolation probably made everybody else in my family nervous, this was a story I could supposedly relate to. Didn't! Oh well, can't win 'em all. It might work for one of you people.
Our next flavor of twosome is cut down the middle -- there's Sergei Parajanov's 1965 Soviet stunner Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors -- "stunner" or so they say as I have not seen this one. Indeed this is one of those Criterion picks that I'd never even heard of. But it certainly sounds up my alley as they're selling it thus: "modernist landmark fuses folkloric traditions, animistic mysticism, and hallucinatory visual invention" I find all of those words interesting! Then landing on 4K on November 10th is a movie I've seen a dozen times by now -- Sofia Coppola's 2006 masterpiece Marie Antoinette. And I'm not going to say...
... that every single one of those viewings was to see Jamie Dornan play the military fuckboi rocking a tri-corn hat over a come-fuck-me pout, but probably half of them were to watch that. Can you blame me? Anyway this release isn't a surprise as Sofia Coppola was just screening the 4K restoration here in NYC within the past few weeks. But if any a movie was pretty enough (not just Jamie, the entire frosting-coated shebang) to demand the premium format, it's this one. As are the other two 4K upgrades landing in November -- Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and (just one of my favorite movies of all-time) Hal Asby's Harold and Maude. The latter has been out of print so this makes me wanna dance!
Yes I dance just like that. But wait! Hold up! Stop shaking ya tail-feather, Ruth Gordon! As ever with blessed Criterion that's not all she wrote -- also landing in November (and speaking of out-of-print movies) is none other than David Lynch's 1990 film Wild at Heart making its 4K debut. Hey -- I was just talking about this movie the other day:
I felt a quiver in the air, I guess. Maybe David Lynch's bisexual ghost blew in my ear. I love the thought that I could be haunted by David Lynch. Come haunt me, man! Make me have dreams every night about frog-locusts and Audrey Horne. Anyway -- Wild at Heart. For a movie supposedly so horny and heterosexual I'd argue that Wild at Heart actually rivals Mulholland Drive as Lynch's queerest movie, but really I would also argue that there's queerness in everything he touched over the years when you start looking. For one the gaze in this thing is deeply bisexual, and for another don't even get me started on the Wizard of Oz stuff. (And no need for it anyway when somebody already made that documentary.) That said I find WAH more a collection of interesting scenes and ideas and performances than I do one of Lynch's greatest accomplishments -- I've given it so many tries and I love so much about it but it never really fully coheres for me. But Criterion won't be beating the claim that they're leading up to dropping a full David Lynch box-set with this news, will they? Let's wish that into existence! That and David Lynch's Bisexual Ghost haunting me. Both of those things.
This week Criterion dropped their 4K of Todd Haynes' 1995 masterpiece Safe -- or do I type it as [safe], I am never sure -- and I plan on re-watching the movie for the gazillionth time via this upgrade this weekend; I find something new every single time I revisit it, as all the greatest films manage. Thinking about what it will look like in 4K though has me thinking about what an astonishingly good looking film it is -- I wonder why it's the only movie Haynes ever shot with DP Alex Nepomniaschy? They accomplished something so spectacular together! -- and so I looked up the movie's budget and they made Safe for one million dollars. One million dollars! I know we're thirty years removed but that's incredible -- I looked up what that works out to in 2026 dollars and it's only about two and a half million now; Safe could not be made for 2.5 million in 2026, that's for sure.
That's an odd tangent for me to spin off on -- the point is they made a film for one million dollars in 1995 that will look better than 99% of the movies released in 2026, and even assuming one percent might beat Safe in beauty and visual extravagance seems an enormous caveat to make. How we're thirty years removed from this movie and Todd Haynes still remains underappreciated I cannot fathom -- Safe is as far as I'm concerned a Top 5 movie about America. It should be bouncing around at the top of Sight & Sound polls. The original poster for this movie that I own is one of my greatest possessions. Sing a song of Safe y'all! Oh and I really recommend you all go read Walter Chaw's fantastic piece on the film at Roger Ebert today -- when he finds the thoughline to The Birds I just about wept at the perfection of it.
Everybody is incredible in this movie but it really is a Toni Collette Picture when it comes down to it
And in related news -- Velvet Goldmine is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel so I re-watched it two nights ago and good god what a movie. That's another one that I find new things with every single view. So besides watching Safe this weekend I will be spending most of my time in a prayer circle, dragging a dagger down the middle of my palm, in hopes we can get that movie a 4K from Criterion soon. I'm basically just counting the days until De Noche, Haynes' gay movie with Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez will come out. Please please please be next year. In summation the following randomness made me laugh for a very long time this morning:
Tis that semi-annual moment where my birthday and Criterion Announcement Day overlap -- I personally feel as if this means that Criterion should send me copies of every single upcoming release I'm about to tell you about, but sadly the world doesn't work that way. Mean world. Just think -- if it did work that way that'd mean I'd be getting a copy of that complete Stanley Kubrick boxed-set that I told you about last month since that's an October release alongside the rest of these! Holy moly would that rock. That set is obviously the month's show-stopper -- the thing every cineaste will be gifted or gifting themselves for this year's holidays -- but the rest of the October line-up ain't too shabby. For two Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein is escaping its Netflix confines and getting a gorgeous 4K set as pictured...
... right there. Love that art! Jacob Elordi's Oscar-nominated performance is definitely the movie's highlight but I'm excited to have the entire gorgeous package off that streamer and in my greedy little hands -- the rich scenery and costumes and gore (and Jacob Elordi's little bandage underpants) is all gonna look so gorg in 4K! And since we're talking about October aka Spooky Season that's not the only horror on board the month -- no less than some lil' masterpiece called The Silence of the Lambs is hitting 4K finally! Perhaps you've heard of it? Also there's Jerzy Skolimowski's 1978 psychological thriller The Shout starring John Hurt, Susannah York, and Alan Bates (mmmm Alan Bates)...
... coming at us, a film I've seen a couple of times and liked not loved. I don't know -- I always expect more from it than it's willing to give me so I always forget what happens in it like a week later. Like reading through the plot now I am like, "Oh yeah that happened," but I find that movie weirdly unmemorable. Perhaps you disagree? Alan Bates is always worth staring at either way.
The title I'm most curious about in the October line-up though is Ngozi Onwurah’s "radically ahead-of-its-time dystopian sci-fi film" Welcome II the Terrordome from 1995 -- I have heard of this movie but very little about it and I have definitely never seen it before. But it sounds and looks really striking! Bless Criterion for rescuing something like this and putting it in front of people, then. Have any of you seen that one before?
Speaking more of movies I haven't seen -- there's Ulli Edel's 1981 drug-addict flick Christiane F. which... I've admitted this before on here but I really don't like watching addiction movies anymore. They're always so miserable and unplesant and wallow-y, you know? I have had my fill of addiction dramas. No more watching needles go into veins in close-up, no more puke dribbling on chins and people groveling for pennies to get their fix -- I just don't need it anymore! Let the youth learn their lessons; I got it. That said the fact that one David Bowie did this movie's soundtrack is whispering my name all the same... maybe I can just go listen to the soundtrack on Apple Music and be fine that way. We'll see. Anyway the final October release is one of Criterion's always-fantastic Eclipse box-sets -- this one is "The First Films of Samuel Fuller" which includes I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, and The Steel Helmet, aka two Westerns and one War movie. And even though, like drug movies I generally can do without Westerns, I've actually seen The Baron of Arizona before! It's because it's a Vincent Price movie though, and I try to see all of those. He's Vinnie fuckin' Price after all!
Listen -- if I stumble upon a picture of Paul Newman shirtless that I have somehow never seen before, I am going to post said photo, reasons be damned. Given all we have posted of perhaps the most beautiful man to ever grace the silver screen over the decades, finding a nugget of anything of this sort is a small miracle. And yet even as I started this post thinking I was being random, I realized I am not -- the Fates aligned! Because Newman's perhaps greatest performance in Hud has just been released onto the Criterion Collection in 4K this very day! Kismet! Paul putting the kiss in kismet. As in somebody build me a time machine so I can go make out with Paul Newman kinda "kiss." Anyway -- Hud! Helluva pitchuh.
How has Fucktoys not come out yet? What is this world? This movie has been bouncing around film fests for over a year, since premiering at SXSW last March -- I posted the first trailer even before then. I follow the movie on social media and it's constantly screening places -- it's screened here in NYC more than once but somehow every time it did I was otherwise occupied. I feel cheated! At least François Arnaud s out here giving us hope. Hope, and other feelings. Anyway this has been a lazy week for me but somehow, despite me taking it easy in the wake of Tribeca and NewFest back to back, I have fully hit the wall today -- don't be surprised if you're forced to stare at François flexing from now til Monday. Such a sacrifice! I've got a screening of Hairspray to attend tonight -- with John Waters and "guests" in attendance! -- so maybe keep your eye on my Instagram and you'll see some of that there. And I'm seeing John a second time tomorrow when he and Ricki Lake do a Q&A and signing at Barnes & Noble. (This is all to promote Criterion's release of Hairspray and Desperate Living this week, which I told you about on Tuesday.) So... yeah. Have a good weekend or whatever!
Mink Stole's every line delivery in this movie is ICONIC. Anyway Criterion really going above and beyond this Pride Month, dropping not just one but two John Waters movies onto 4K today -- both the above 1977 classic as well as his 11-years-later masterpiece Hairspray. Just realized there's a weird semi-factoid connecting these two films -- Desperate Living was Waters' first film without Divine in it, while Hairspray would be their last film together (since Divine died just eight days after that film premiered). I don't suppose that's why they're being released side by side liike this as that's a bit morbid, but it's there!
Anyway besides having these two films on glorious 4K now there's one other reason we need to be celebrating -- this brings us two steps closer to John Waters getting a big beautiful box-set like the one that Criterion announced for Stanley Kubrick yesterday. With these two movies Criterion has now released six of eleven features -- we're over the halfway hump! I'm jonesing for Serial Mom the most out of what's left, but it strikes me that this makes for a good poll:
By now I'm sure you've heard that Criterion just dropped a bomb on us that only Slim Pickens could ride -- a massive box-set of every Stanley Kubrick movie on 4K, plus some shorts, plus all of those special features they're known for, will be landing on our heads come October 20th. You can pre-order it here if you're a person for whom money is no object (in which case hey there why don't you scooch a lil' closer, new best friend) although obviously I recommend you wait for one of the big 50% off sales that land in the fall at Criterion's own site or at Barnes & Noble. Because the price right now is four hundred and eighty bucks and goodness me that's a lot of money. Especially if you're a collector like me who already owns most of these movies in some format or another. (I suppose y'all who don't need or want 4K should be keeping your eyes on my eBay though because I will be buying this set so I will be selling off those discs at some point in the next few months.) But even if you're waiting to buy the set check the long long long list of specifics at the link -- this is really a staggering set; Criterion proving they're the gold standard yet again. And here's their trailer:
Although Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent was one of my favorite movies out of last year it's not the September 2026 Criterion release that got announced today that I am the most thrilled about, for one simple reason -- we already knew that Criterion was releasing this film on disc. That news had been spoiled months ago. But I don't think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out why I'm nevertheless beginning this post with that picture of The Secret Agent's leading man Wagner Moura. I think we all got it! I am a simple man. Anyway this will release be on 4K, it comes out on September 22nd, and this movie is probably pretty much an undistputed masterpiece -- if you haven't seen it yet do, and then just buy the damned disc. Or blind-buy it. I really doubt you'll be unhappy you did. It's one of those rich feasts of movie that we hardly ever get anymore. Moving on to more feasts...
... the September release that has not just knocked my socks off but shot them right across the room is the box-set of three Leos Carax movies! Fuck yeah and yes please! If we were just talking about his first film, Boy Meets Girl, which I only just saw for the first time a couple of years ago and fell deeply madly and completely in love with upon first sight, that'd be enough here. But it also includes his two Binoche!-starring follow-ups, Mauvais Sang and The Lovers on the Bridge -- amongst Juli's best roles, which is really saying something when you're talking about the world's greatest living actress says me. These two are magnificent showcases for her and for what magic Carax is possible of making. He's one of my number one movie-makers, and this set will give you a clue why. (I wish Criterion would go ahead and put Holy Motors in the Collection already but I'm sure it is inevitable.)
And then we've got another two-fer of 2025 flicks coming in hot -- there's Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, which as far as Richard Linklater movies go I kinda of liked? Out of the two movies he made last year it's a goddamned masterpiece at least, compared to the unbearably shrill Blue Moon which I couldn't fucking stand. I thought all of the actors were terrific as the French New Wave Gods they were tasked with playing in Nouvelle Vague at least, and Linklater's adoration of characters who won't shut the fuck up for five seconds at least made sense when dealing with a person like Jean-Luc Godard. The other 2026 title is Sergei Loznitsa's "Kafka-esque thriller" Two Prosecutors, which I really wanted to see (I will watch anything described as a "Kafka-esque thriller") but somehow slipped through the cracks. I will consider this release my chance to fill up said crack, then. Any fans? Is it indeed a "Kafka-esque thriller" or is this just Criterion suckering in Lit-major dopes like me who always fall for that descripotion?
I'm gonna plow through the last three titles coming out in September a little quickly now because 1) I don't have a lot to say about any of these and 2) I should be working on my ongoing Tribeca reviews but I am allowing myself a brief break so the site doesn't sit here silent as the grave all day. Here goes. They are upgrading Sidney Lumet's classic 12 Angry Men to 4K; they are dropping the massive nine-hour-long Holocaust document Shoah (which means that I will definitely finally watch Shoah, one of the long overdue experiences I've admittedly been terrified of experiencing all these many many years); and they are releasing Satyajit Ray's beloved 1970 film Days and Nights in the Forest, which I have not yet seen either. Ray also represents a massive hole in my film knowledge -- I believe I've only ever seen Pather Panchali? So many damn holes and cracks to fill, damn damn damn.
God there is so much snappy dialogue in Body Heat, I love it so much -- I could've chosen a dozen other lines to highlight (see also here); it's why I think it's one of the most successful of the neo-noirs that popped up in the 70s and 80s (alongside Chinatown of course). The dialogue harkens beautifully back to the genre's heyday where the verbal playfulness between the lovers-to-be reveals not just their desire but their danger -- anybody who can whip out a double entendre this fast isn't to be trusted. And it also helps when the people are as sexy as William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are in this scorcher. Anyway we're here of course because Lawrence Kasdan's sweaty masterpiece is hitting 4K thanks to the Criterion Collection today -- go snatch up a copy stat! How hot is that cover art too? Humina humina!
I don't mean to besmirch the rest of Criterion's just today announced line-up for August 2026 but when the headliner is Todd Haynes' 1995 masterpiece Safegetting a 4K upgrade I'm going to be somewhat hyper-focused. Haynes has several masterpieces under his belt but I'd say this is the crown-jewel -- or to continue the belt metaphor this would be the buckle. And now I need to own a belt buckle that has that famous image from the poster of that woman in her white body-suit lurching like Bigfoot through a field. (Which reminds me that I own a copy of the original Safe poster and how the hell is that not hanging on my wall?) Anyway I couldn't cough up enough superlatives about this movie -- I think it's one of the greatest American films ever made, and it only feels more resonant and affecting with every year that passes. While I'm still dying for Velvet Goldmine to get an upgrade already -- long long long overdue, that one -- the ocassion of Safe in 4K is a hallelujah moment if ever there was one. That lands on August 4th.
Safe aside August will also bring a double-feature of Barbara Kopple documentaries -- her most celerated one Harlan County USA from 1976 is getting the 4K upgrade from a previous release, while 1990's American Dream, about a labor strike in Austin in the mid0-80s is hitting the Collection for the first time. I've never seen the latter so that'll be something to look forward to.
Next up is French legend Bertrand Tavernier's 1981 classic Coup de torchonstarring Isabelle Huppert in a Jim Thompson adaptation about a corrupt cop in West Africa and the dangerous and unprectiable gal he falls for. "Dangerous and Unpredictable" -- has there ever been a quicker distillation of The Whole Huppert Thing? After that there's James Gray's directorial debut Little Odessa from 1994 -- I have never seen this! Could this be the movie that convinces me James Gray deserves the hype people throw on him? Because I have yet to really get it. With a cast that includes Tim Roth, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximillian Schell, and Edward Furlong... uhh I don't know where I was going with that. With every name that list of names got weirder and weirder and threw me off. Anyway the final August release from our favorite physical media barons is a box-set of documentaries from the Japanese legends Kazuo Hara & Sachiko Kobayashi -- Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 and The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On have both been on my To Watch list for years and years so I embrace this golden opportunity to fill them holes. In summation -- SAFE IN 4K!!!!!!
Iesha: Why you don't ever wanna have no fun no more?
Justice: Please.
Iesha: Girl, don't you know the world is just
a big place for us to go out and fuck up in it.
I'm not posting a quote from this movie starring Janet Jackson right now because Janet had the common sense and decency to say "fuck no" about being in that gross bio-pic of her brother that just made a shit-ton of money this past weekend -- it's just good timing like that. I am posting this quote because Criterion just dropped their box-set of John Singleton's "Hood Trilogy" today -- besides Poetic Justice it includes 1991's Boyz n the Hood and 2001's Baby Boy, the latter which I've still somehow never seen! But speaking for the other two this set is long-awaited and a very welcome addition to my collection. All that said -- there are so many great little Regina King performances out there waiting to be re-appreciated! I've loved her since forever -- seeing her win that Oscar for Beale Street was one of those far and few between legit triumphant times where AMPAS did the right thing.
Earlier today what I am still calling a "rumor" broke that Criterion will be releasing Alexander Payne's first and still best movie the 1996 abortion satire Citizen Ruth on 4K soon -- I thought that might come officially with their announcement for July's releases, which I knew would be landing today since it's the 15th of the month... but no. It did not. Maybe next month. We do have the slate of their July releases though and there's no reason to be disappointed -- this is a slam dunk of a month! Starting with a box-set that I literally squealed at the sight of -- on July 28th they're dropping "I'll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills", a three-film 4K set that includes Beginners, 20th Century Women, and C'mon C'mon, which are as far as I'm concerned every single one masterpieces. (Here is my review of the latter.) None more than 20th Century Women, which is truly one of the greatest films of... well it feels like the millennium is the marker we're measuring things by now and it's that, but as far as I'm concerned it's one of the greatest films of all time, period. When I think about how Annette Bening wasn't even nominated for Best Actress, much less didn't deservedly win for the greatest performance of her career, I get hives. So let's move on...
... which is easy enough given this slate! How about a double-feature of Martin Scorsese's 1974 masterpiece Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore starring Ellen Burstyn (aka the finest tipped spear through the argument that Marty doesn't know what to do with women characters) alongside Paul Newman's greatest performance in 1963's Hud from director Martin Ritt? I somehow only saw Hud for the first time in the past decade and it's a stunner of a film. Stunning to look at -- and I don't just mean Paul Newman in those jeans...
... although I don't not mean that either -- and stunning emotionally. Newman and Patricia Neal are just absolute fire in this. And of course both of these will be the first time these classics will be on 4K -- if I stopped there July would already be a month for the record books from Criterion. But I ain't! I ain't stopping there. They've also got Neil Jordan's The Crying Game hitting 4K for the first time on July 14th! This movie really got done dirty by the press and comedians at the time, with its focus on Jaye Davidson's genitals -- this movie is so much richer than the way its title has become synonymous with unexpected trans revelations. It's truly a great film.
Now we come to the one film of their July's releases that I haven't seen -- Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth from 1960, which stars Miyuki Kuwano & Yusuke Kawazu as a pair of sexy teenage criminals on the run... and yes it sounds very Bonnie & Clyde slash Badlands coded, although it came out first, one should note. Criterion's description of it as a film "bursting with vivid color, this visually scintillating, furiously nihilistic film howls with rage" sold me. 1960s era Japanese films that are described as colorful always end up being my bag -- the pop look of these films is very much my wavelength. Anybody seen this one? Moving along to the last two titles -- Hlynur Pálmason's 2025 feature The Love That Remainsis getting its disc debut (I saw it last year and it is very good!) while David Lynch's masterpiece (how many times have I used that word in this post??) The Elephant Man, the blu-ray of which has been out of print for awhile now and going for enormous prices, is getting the 4K upgrade treatment on July 7th. Much needed! WHAT A MONTH!
I love that Criterion has really taken the concept of "June as Pride Month" to heart and gives all the gays a feast in new 4K releases every year -- take a look at June 2026's just-dropped announcements, which include two yes you read that right TWO John Waters movies entering the Collection! Holy hell! The two movies in question are his 1977 film Desperate Living (perfect cover art) and his beloved 1988 comedy Hairspray -- the latter has been on blu-ray before but the former I don't think has been released since DVD days? And these are both 4K upgrades -- can't wait to see the putrid toxic dump of Mortville that most of Desperate Living is set in be made so shiny clean and in our face lol. Maybe Criterion is working towards a complete John Waters box-set? Dare to dream. What I would give for Serial Mom on 4K! What delightful news, though.
But the gay pride doesn't end there -- they're also dropping Lisa Cholodenko’s 1998 debut feature High Art starring Ally Sheedy as a lesbian photographer (I think that's what the character has on her business cards) who's over her old love (a tremendously funny Patricia Clarkson) and moving onto the hot new thing played by Radha Mitchell. Good movie! I only saw it for the first time a couple of years ago but Cholodenko rules in general -- can never go wrong with a Cholodenko.
Next up a couple of tremendous movies from 2025 are being represented -- first there's Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident, which I'm really sad didn't win either of the awards it was nominated for at the Oscars last night, as it was one of 2025's best and we really needed to get Iranian cinema figurehead Panahai on that stage to say some shit about current events. But seriously -- I re-watched this movie yesterday and it's incredible; so light and funny about such a nightmarish topic. And what an ending. The other 2025 is Lav Diaz's Magellan, an astonishing evisceration of colonialism that, in a just world, would've had Gael Garcia Bernal winning acting awards all season long as well.
There really are a lot of titles being dropped this June -- I wonder if they open the flood-gates then because, besides the gays being courted, there's the month-long 50% Off sale at Barnes & Noble? Anyway this is the "foreign films I'm unfamiliar with" portion of the pile -- and speaking of anti-colonialism, there's Med Hondo's 1979 musical West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty, which is set aboard a slave ship traveling through different time periods and locations. Anybody seen it? It sounds like one I'll have to see soon (it is already playing in the Criterion Channel so maybe I'll watch it this weekend.) And then there's Spanish director Carlos Saura’s "Flamenco Trilogy", a trio of films from the early 80s which is the latest in Criterion's newly reinvigorated Eclipse series of box-sets. And finally the last two June drops are 4K upgrades for Stanley Donen's ever-entertaining Charade with Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn and the Jack Nicholson classic Five Easy Pieces. What are looking you forward to the most?
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
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