#1041
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'La Bamba' (1987) - Blu-Ray pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct - $31.96 Release date: Sept 26 "The brief but incandescent life of rock-and-roll trailblazer Ritchie Valens is immortalized in this enthralling biopic from another Mexican American icon, Luis Valdez, the father of Chicano cinema. With sweetness and swagger, Lou Diamond Phillips embodies the 1950s California teenager who, forged by his fiercely supportive mother (Rosanna DeSoto) and rebellious brother (Esai Morales), rises from his farm-working roots to chart-topping fame in the early days of rock—until one fateful night that haunts music history. Propelled by a hip-shaking soundtrack featuring Los Lobos and Carlos Santana, La Bamba captures the electric vitality of an artist who bridged cultures to create his own American dream." DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1042
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'Moonage Daydream' (2022) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo [$39.96] / 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] Release date: Sept 26 "An ecstatic voyage through the creative and spiritual universe of David Bowie, Moonage Daydream is a fittingly unclassifiable tribute to the shape-shifting rock iconoclast and his singular sound and vision. Exploding the conventions of the music documentary, director Brett Morgen remixes dazzling, never-before-seen footage of the artist throughout his career, reveling in his otherworldly presence while revealing the restless philosophical inquiry that guided his myriad metamorphoses. Graced with soulful narration by Bowie, this immersive audiovisual head rush transmits the essence of a phenomenon that cannot be explained—only experienced." DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1043
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'The Trial' (1962) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo [$39.96] / 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] Release date: Sept 19 "A feverishly inspired take on Franz Kafka’s novel, Orson Welles’s The Trial casts Anthony Perkins as the bewildered office drone Josef K., whose arrest for an unspecified crime plunges him into a menacing bureaucratic labyrinth of guilt, corruption, and paranoia. Exiled from Hollywood and creatively unchained, Welles poured his ire at the studio system, McCarthyism, and all forms of totalitarian oppression into this cinematic statement—one of his boldest and most personal, and the film that he himself considered his greatest. Dizzying camera angles, expressionistic lighting, increasingly surreal locations—Welles unleashed the full force of his visual brilliance to convey the nightmarish disorientation of a world gone mad." 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1044
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La Bamba seems strange for Criterion, but hopefully that gets a European release as well
__________________ Triumphant sight on a northern sky |
#1045
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'Don't Look Now' (1973) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo [$39.96] / 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] Release date: October 3 "Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. While in that elegantly decaying city, they have a series of inexplicable, terrifying, and increasingly dangerous experiences. A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, Don’t Look Now, adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier, is a brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural, as renowned for its innovative editing and haunting cinematography as for its naturalistic eroticism and its unforgettable climax and denouement—one of the great endings in horror history." 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1046
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'Videodrome' (1983) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo [$39.96] / 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] / 1 disc DVD [23.96] Release date: October 10 "When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new material for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called “Videodrome.” His attempts to unearth the program’s origins send him on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry, Videodrome is one of the most original and provocative works from writer-director David Cronenberg, and features groundbreaking makeup effects by Academy Award winner Rick Baker." DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1047
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'Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers' - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc Blu-Ray [$55.96] / 2 disc DVD [$31.96] Release date: October 17 "The world is a carnival of criminality, corruption, and psychosexual strangeness in the twisted pre-Code shockers of Tod Browning. Early Hollywood’s edgiest auteur, Browning drew on his experiences as a circus performer to create subversive pulp entertainments set amid the world of traveling sideshows, which, with their air of the exotic and the disreputable, provided a pungent backdrop for his sordid tales of outcasts, cons, villains, and vagabonds. Bringing together two of his defining works (The Unknown and Freaks) and a long-unavailable rarity (The Mystic), this cabinet of pre-Code curiosities reveals a master of the morbid whose ability to unsettle is matched only by his daring compassion for society’s most downtrodden." Freaks - 1932 "The most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning’s crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show’s beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of terrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks effectively ended Browning’s career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power." The Unknown - 1927 "The most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet) whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant (Joan Crawford)—a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man—drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax—Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise." The Mystic - 1925 "A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art-deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes."
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1048
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'The Others' (2001) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 2 disc 4K UHD+Blu-ray Combo [$39.96] / 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] Release date: October 24 "A remote manor; hushed, candlelit atmosphere; and shivery, supernatural menace. With his first English-language feature, Chilean Spanish writer-director-composer Alejandro Amenábar resurrected the classic gothic chiller to create a ghost story of uncommon emotional resonance. Nicole Kidman stars as a World War II–era mother whose imperiousness masks a terrifying pain, as she keeps her light-sensitive children enshrouded in darkness on her country estate. The arrival of three new servants punctures her insular world—and seems to disturb the balance between the living and the dead. With each stunning twist and turn, Amenábar immerses us more deeply in a realm haunted not only by spirits but also by guilt, trauma, and repression." DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1049
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'Nanny' (2022) - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 1 disc Blu-Ray [$31.96] / 1 disc DVD [$23.96] Release date: October 31 "A spellbinding blend of social observation and artful shocks, the debut feature from Nikyatu Jusu plunges into the increasingly fractured consciousness of Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant who takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family in New York City. Separated from her own son and casually exploited by her employers, Aisha finds herself consumed by unsettling visions and a growing rage—one that could either destroy or empower her. This visually captivating tour de force—the first horror movie to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival—distills complex ideas about motherhood, inequality, and cultural dislocation into a work of dreamlike dread." DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
#1050
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'Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar' - Pre-order available from The Criterion Collection direct for 4 disc Blu-Ray [$99.96] Release date: November 7 "Originally tapped as a potential successor to Bruce Lee, Hong Kong martial-arts phenom Jackie Chan soon established his own unique screen persona, blending goofball slapstick and bone-crunching kung fu into intricate feats of supercharged athleticism. Tracing his rise from breakout star to full-fledged auteur, these six unabashedly silly, unstoppably entertaining early-career highlights find Chan refining the lovably mischievous image that would make him a global icon, while also assuming greater creative control over his projects—first as his own martial-arts choreographer, and later as a writer-director who set a thrilling new standard for daredevil action comedy." Films In This Set Half a Loaf of Kung Fu - 1978 "Like a live-action comic book, this antic farce lets Jackie Chan, choreographing his own fight sequences, cut loose with a wild parody of the martial-arts genre. He plays a bumbling wannabe kung-fu master who, when he assumes the identity of a dead hero, finds himself embroiled in a series of absurd misadventures and the search for a pair of mystical artifacts. Cartoon sound effects and send-ups of everything from Popeye to Jesus Christ Superstar are part of the lighthearted fun — not to mention Chan fighting a bald adversary with his own wig!" Spiritual Kung Fu - 1978 "Jackie Chan’s kung-fu clowning gets a supernatural twist in this off-the-wall action fantasy. He stars as a cheeky student at a Shaolin temple who must fight to protect his order, with help from some unexpected mentors: five pink-haired, silver-leotard-sporting extraterrestrial spirits who train him in arcane, animal-style martial arts with an otherworldly flair. The ghostly high jinks (realized with eye-poppingly outlandish special effects) give way to a last half hour that’s near-nonstop action, with Chan single-handedly taking on eighteen stick-wielding monks in a blistering battle royal" The Fearless Hyena - 1979 An auteur emerges as Jackie Chan — working for the first time as director, in addition to serving as cowriter, lead actor, and martial-arts choreographer — takes full charge of his on-screen image. Perfecting the archetypal Chan character, he stars here as a rapscallion student of his martial-arts-master grandfather (Hong Kong cinema legend James Tien) who uses his kung-fu prowess to fight challengers for money — until a personal tragedy forces him to get serious. Experimenting with various lenses and camera setups, Chan maximizes the action’s visual impact, while unleashing some of his most innovative fight choreography in a stunning, whirlwind display of “emotional kung fu.”" Fearless Hyena II - 1983 "By the early 1980s, Jackie Chan’s popularity made him box-office gold. Thus when, midway through filming the sequel to his hit The Fearless Hyena, Chan walked off the production to defect to rival studio Golden Harvest, producer Lo Wei opted to complete the film with the help of stunt doubles and recycled footage. The result — the tale of two lazy cousins (Chan and Austin Wai Tin-chi) who join forces to avenge the deaths of their fathers — may not be pure Chan, but there are plenty of loony pleasures (including our hero fighting an adversary with his feet!) to be had." The Young Master - 1980 "Jackie Chan’s second directorial effort was also a film of important firsts: his first for upstart studio Golden Harvest and his first with cowriter Edward Tang, who would become a key collaborator. The star-filmmaker shows his increasing confidence with this endlessly inventive tale of a martial-arts student (Chan) who goes in search of his exiled brother, only to become entangled in a case of mistaken identity — with much amusement provided by Chan’s interplay with his real-life former schoolmate Yuen Biao. The epic finale, in which Chan goes from human punching bag to raging bull, is a bruising highlight of his career" My Lucky Stars - 1985 "Longtime friends Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao — who had worked together since childhood as part of a Beijing opera troupe—join forces for this rollicking blend of action thrills and lunatic humor, which sees Chan’s undercover agent recruiting his band of outlaw buddies to travel to Japan in order to help him catch a rogue cop who has stolen millions in jewels. Though not the main star, Chan lights up the screen in the film’s most exhilarating set pieces: a kinetic amusement-park-set opening and a surreal haunted-house finale, both stylishly and creatively staged by director-star Hung"
__________________ People try to put us down Just because we get around Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |
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