A string of commercial failures drove Soderbergh into what he recently referred to as "the Schizopolis grace period". It was one part spirit journey and one part a plunge into the mind of Spalding Gray.
Soderbergh would then jump into the bigger-budget movies, with the one-two punch of an Elmore Leonard adaptation and one of the best revenge pictures I've ever seen.
Spalding Gray in Gray's Anatomy
Plucked from the fourth installment of the radically overhauled, re-edited, and re-written Soderberghopolis. Schizopolis through The Limey is a hell of a ride, including movies he produced like this one.
The series won't be done in time for the release of Side Effects in cinemas, but it should be finished in time for Behind the Candelabra's arrival on HBO.
Ozu takes a hard turn away from his student comedies, embracing major social and political issues in Depression-era Japan, including the plight of women. From prostitutes to...well...more prostitutes and reluctant mob girlfriends, his next three films reveal a filmmaker in transition.
No point posting a Groundhog Day still on Groundhog Day, right? I just realized this is its 20th Anniversary year.
Stephen Tobolowsky has been in more movies than you may have ever seen, and he's one of my favorite actors. He's also a fellow Dallas native, and very nice to banter with on Twitter.
...in a manner of speaking. Like he explained in Screen Time 22 "Pure Game Language", the Commander Keen IP is still owned my malevolent bastards who have no interest in selling (my words not his). His new platform game creation tool will include the "spiritual sequel", Secret Spaceship Club. For more, here's my post at Ain't It Cool News on the subject.
I had avoided the Blu-ray of Studio Ghibli's saddest (and arguably best) movie ever, Grave of the Fireflies, due to not trusting its unknown-to-me American home video distributor, Sentai Filmworks. What an idiot I am. Don't mind the washed-out color of the cover art: the disc is gorgeous, and features a new English dib if you care about those.
This is a great film, and one of the greatest in the history of animation, but be forewarned that it is both beautiful and profoundly depressing. It opens revealing that the two kids you're going to fall in love with are already dead, and that the movie is about their struggle to survive WWII Japan. Even with that setup, it has my highest "what do you mean you haven't seen it?" recommendation.
My Tony and Ridley Scott series begins very soon. This is from Tony Scott's debut feature, Loving Memory. It's available on all-region Blu-ray from the BFI. This edition includes early short films from both Tony and Ridley, and is the focus of the first installment in "Scott Freed".
Was trying to hold this for when I had the latest Screen Time posted, which is all Batman talk with Andrea Romano. I'll update with a link once it's live.
I dropped cable years ago, and now I finally have something like what I've wanted for a long time: a monthly subscription "instant channel" roughly equivalent to Turner Classic Movies.
Launching in closed Beta, Warner Archive Instant is a new Roku streaming channel that features a rotating selection of SD and HD content from the Warner Brothers back catalogue.
I've tried to get more info out of WB to no avail. They're clammed up tight for the moment.
Titles range from the super-obscure and cult to genre classics to amazing movies from some of the cinema's great directors. A limited quantity of TV show episodes are in the beta too, and knowing the loads of shows released by Warner Archive on DVD, there's an absurd wealth of content there on top of the thousands of movies they have.
The titles included in the Beta are not final, but, I'd assume they are at least representative of the minimum quantity of titles available for the service when it launches at what will hopefully be a sub-$10 monthly fee or the equivalent.
Warner Archive oversees over 5000 titles, including ones previously released on DVD that went out of print. The new Instant channel adds ones that I'd consider major Warner back-catalogue stuff (The Music Man, for example).
I'm thrilled this is finally a reality. Warner Archive has done an extraordinary job of breaking down the wall between a studio/content provider and their audience over the last few years, better than any other studio of their relative scale. Where others have been tepid about MoD DVD at all, preferring to sell to middleman retailers wholesale, or only just gearing up, Warner has really gone for it, and they're listening to customer feedback. I'm sure that's the case with this new iteration of the Archive Collection.
I don't have any non-public details, but there's a library of 157 feature films, 2 made-for-TV movies, and episodes from 7 TV shows in the current public-facing listing. I've listed everything further down, including calling out which titles are in HD. I transcribed all of this manually, so if reposting, please link back rather than simply copy/pasting everything. I hate that I have to say that, but welcome to the world of blogging.
When Warner Archive Instant is opened up to the public, you can bet I'll let you know.
Before we get to the full list, here are a pile of highlights (among loads of great titles) with brief commentary:
A Face in the Crowd [HD]
America, America
Elia Kazan is one of the great filmmakers, and these two are criminally under-seen and under-appreciated. Face in the Crowd features a career-best performance form Andy Griffith.
The Alphabet Murders
Worth watching for the novelty of Tony Randall as Hercule Poirot, but fun and entertaining on top of that.
Auntie Mame [HD]
Mame
Both of these adaptations of the musical theatre classic were impossible to find for some time before Archive started pressing DVDs. I never felt like owning them, but occasionally wanted to be able to watch them. Mame is Lucille Ball's final film performance.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms [HD]
A nuclear blast awakens a giant dinosaur that wreaks all sorts of havoc in this movie that features creature effects by Ray Harryhausen and which is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury. If you even just kinda like monster movies and have never seen this, make it a top priority. Godzilla would come out in Japan the following year, and they...share some DNA. This movie's success drove Godzilla into actually getting made. I can't believe I can finally watch this monster movie classic in HD, when previous DVD releases have all been pretty much lousy in the picture department.
The Beast With Five Fingers
One among many great, sinister Peter Lorre performances is on display in this movie where a famous pianist dies...and his hand returns for revenge. This movie has never been on DVD, and only recently because available for SD streaming on Amazon. I'd buy it if Archive did a Blu-ray. I'd help them find people to interview for the extras.
Blow-Up [HD]
Michaelangelo Antonioni's classic from the 60's available in HD for the first time. Brian De Palma remade this as the equally masterful Blow-Out in the 80's. If you've never watched an Antonioi movie, this is an exceptional place to start.
Dames [HD]
Footlight Parade [HD]
These represent 2/5ths of one of my favorite Warner DVD releases, the Busby Berkeley Collection, and in HD no less.
Disorderlies
If you've never been blessed to see this "The Fat Boys" classic, it's a nice reminder of enjoyable trash from the 80's (and I mean that in the sweetest way possible).
Doc Savage: Man of Bronze
Legendary producer George Pal's last produced film find pulp hero Doc Savage and his five Amazing Adventurers team up to solve the disappearance of Doc's dad. It was supposed to be a franchise starter, and it's crying shame that it wasn't. This has always been a favorite blind recommendation to friends loading up on DVDs in a sale. It's fun and kid-friendly, too.
Finian's Rainbow [HD]
The Music Man [HD]
I'm more stunned that The Music Man is in here in HD due its broader popularity, but Finian's Rainbow, on top of some other musicals, make this pretty great just for the musical category of stuff thus far.
Freaks [HD]
Tod Browing's freakshow horror classic that stars actual sideshow performers...and in HD.
Freebie and the Bean
This movie is tremendously racist, hilarious, fun, and a perfect artifact of 70's American cinema. "The Bean" refers to co-lead Alan Arkin...who plays a Mexican-American. I've said this about a couple of others, but make this one of the first five you watch. Edgar Wright re-discovered this movie for so many during one of his Wright Stuff movie marathons in L.A. Bless you, you brilliant English bastard.
The Divorcee [HD]
A Free Soul [HD]
Night Nurse [HD]
Red Headed Woman [HD]
Four excellent pre-Production Code, pre-Ratings System movies, one of which features Clark Gable as a nasty dude. Saucy, salacious stuff previously available in SD on the Forbidden Hollywood collections.
Soylent Green [HD]
Hope that no one ruins Soylent Green for you before you find out what Soylent Green actually is in the movie.
Storm Warning
Ronald Reagan fights the Klan.
Tarzan And The Amazons
Tarzan And The Huntress
Tarzan And The Leopard Woman
Tarzan And The Mermaids
Tarzan Triumphs
Tarzan's Desert Mystery
Six Johnny Weismuller classic Tarzan pictures, all in one place.
Time After Time
HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) chases Jack the Ripper into the future year of...1979!
The Valley of Gwangi [HD]
A cowboy goes after glory and gold, trying to capture a Tyrannosaurus Rex so he can sell it to a Mexican circus. Another Harryhausen-powered stop motion creature movie.
Now for the current complete listing:
77 Sunset Strip: Years 2-6
Adventures of Superman (Eps 1-13)
Hawaiian Eye: Years 1-4
Cheyenne (Season 1)
Gilligan's Island (Eps 1-13)
Jericho (Season 1)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Eps 1-29)
Cosa Nostra: An Arch Enemy of the FBI
Planet Earth
36 Hours [HD]
The Ace of Hearts
Across the Pacific [HD]
Action in the North Atlantic
Adventures of Don Juan
Advise and Consent
The Alphabet Murders
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse [HD]
America, America [HD]
The Americanization of Emily [HD]
Armored Car Robbery [HD]
Auntie Mame [HD]
Baby Doll [HD]
Baby Face [HD]
Back to Bataan [HD]
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Bad Seed (1956) [HD]
Bataan
Battle Cry
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms [HD]
The Beast With Five Fingers
Bells Are Ringing
Best Foot Forward
The Best House in London
The Big Cube
The Big Stampede
Billy Rose's Jumbo [HD]
Black Legion [HD]
The Black Scorpion [HD]
Blonde Crazy
Blow-Up [HD]
Born Reckless
The Bride Came C.O.D.
Brother Orchid [HD]
Caged
The Cameraman
Cat People [HD]
Chamber of Horrors
The Charge at Feather River
The Charge of the Light Brigade [HD]
Clash by Night
The Clock
Colt .45
Cornered
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
The Curse Of Frankenstein [HD]
Dames [HD]
The Damned Don't Cry [HD]
Dark Passage [HD]
Day for Night [HD]
Death in Venice [HD]
Deception [HD]
Decoy [HD]
Desperate Journey [HD]
The Devil Doll
The Devil's Brother [HD]
Die Laughing
Disorderlies
The Divorcee [HD]
Doberman Gang
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze
Doctor X
A Face in the Crowd [HD]
A Fan's Notes
The Fearless Vampire Killers [HD]
Fighting Frontier
Finian's Rainbow [HD]
Flying Leathernecks
Footlight Parade [HD]
Freaks [HD]
A Free Soul [HD]
Freebie and the Bean
Fury
George Washington Slept Here
The Great Lie [HD]
Gun Crazy [HD]
Gun Law Justice
The Hill [HD]
Horror Of Dracula [HD]
Hot Rods to Hell [HD]
In This Our Life [HD]
The Invisible Boy
Isle of the Dead
It!
It's a Great Feeling
Lady Killer [HD]
Love in the Afternoon
The Loved One [HD]
Lust for Life [HD]
Mad Love
Madame Bovary
Mame
The Man From Monterey
Mark of the Vampire [HD]
Marked Woman [HD]
The Mask Of Fu Manchu [HD]
The Mayor of Hell [HD]
Merrill's Marauders [HD]
Mexican Spitfire
Midnight Mary [HD]
Moon Zero Two
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) [HD]
Mr. Skeffington [HD]
The Mummy (1959) [HD]
The Music Man [HD]
Night Nurse [HD]
Norman, Is That You?
Objective, Burma
One on One
Our Dancing Daughters
The Pirate
Planet Earth
The Prince And The Showgirl
Private Parts (1972) [HD]
The Purchase Price [HD]
Queen Of Outer Space
Razorback
Red Headed Woman [HD]
Ride Him, Cowboy
The Ritz [HD]
Run of the Arrow
San Quentin [HD]
Satellite in the Sky
The Scarlet Letter
The Sheltering Sky [HD]
Somewhere in Sonora
Soylent Green [HD]
Stage Fright [HD]
The Star [HD]
Storm Warning
Tarzan And The Amazons
Tarzan And The Huntress
Tarzan And The Leopard Woman
Tarzan And The Mermaids
Tarzan Triumphs
Tarzan's Desert Mystery
Taste the Blood of Dracula [HD]
The Telegraph Trail
The Temptress
Texas Lawmen
They Live by Night
Time After Time
To Kill a Man [HD]
Torch Song [HD]
The Ultimate Warrior [HD]
Until The End Of The World [HD]
The Valley of Gwangi [HD]
Violence [HD]
Wagon Master [HD]
West Point
Where the Boys Are
Where the Spies Are
Wild Boys Of The Road [HD]
World Without End
Zero Hour [HD]
Posted late. My apologies. I came down with something nasty yesterday after interviewing voice director Andrea Romano.
This is one of the most affecting frames in The Dark Knight Returns Part 2. Like I said to Andrea yesterday, Jim Gordon might be my favorite part of the Batman universe she has sculpted over the last 20 years.
Like the first part, released late last year, The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 looks, sounds, and plays note-perfect. I'm hoping to have voice director Andrea Romano return to Screen Time this week to discuss all things Batman with me. Things are looking positive. UPDATE: Tune in at 4:30pm CST Thursday right here.
With the distance of time, Superman's employment by President Reagan as his human WMD is funny but not entirely unrealistic or farcical.
Who cares about The Jazz Singer anymore? Does it matter, aside from its place in history, which is mostly due to being the right movie at the right time?
Isn't it just a regressive, racist, and decrepit artifact?
Yes, absolutely hell yes, and in a manner of speaking, I guess so.
Racist and offensive, but it's important to remember the sins of the past.
It's worth mentioning that loads of English comedians (Ullman, Lucas, others) still do black/brown/yellow-face characters in their sketch comedy.
These are the three most-ignored movies in Soderbergh's filmography. Every one of these movies bombed, but he would make two more commercial failures right after them. I'm glad that Hollywood used to be a version of forgiving.
From one of Ozu's masterpieces, 1932's I Was Born, But... (featured in today's new installment of Discovering Ozu).
This is from right before two little boys bring down the thunder.
This cycle of three films finds Ozu saying goodbye to making movies about small children or college kids (for the most part). We see his signature lead actor (Chishu Ryu) take on more substantive roles, in addition to the rise of a silent-era comedy star (Takeshi Sakamoto) and the big break for a legendary Japanese actress and filmmaker (Kinuyo Tanaka).
THX's new app costs $2 starting next week, and is made to turn your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch into a home theater calibration device.
What's the upside to this over the THX calibrator on various DVDs and Blu-rays? You can use the phone/tablet's camera to do color and tint calibration instead of shelling out for blue filter glasses (which aren't cheap or easy to come by).
You can calibrate video via AirPlay and an AppleTV, but to do sound you'll need Apple's iPhone/iPad to HDMI adapter: Lightning connector version, 30-pin version.
JJ "Jeffrey" Abrams is the credited co-writer on 1997's wrong-guys-caught-in-the-middle-of-something comedy Gone Fishin', which stars Joe Pesci and Danny Glover. Willie Nelson is their spiritual mentor, as he should be for everyone. This is a screen capture from the Blu-ray, which can be found almost everywhere for the princely sum of $5.
Vulture has a really great longread transcription of an interview with Steven Soderbergh, wherein you actually get some context as to his "post-cinema" career that begins after the release of Side Effects next week.
He talks about painting, the allure of television, and the major cultural transformation seen over the last 30 years or so...
...but one of the most interesting nuggets revealed is that he's working on a recut, German-dubbed (!) reworking of his 1991 movie Kafka. The movie stars Jeremy Irons as Kafka and features one of Alec Guinness' final screen performances. They apparently shot inserts during production of Side Effects for the new version of the 22-year-old movie.
Kafka isn't perfect, but it's really goddamned interesting, and I think it's a lot better than Soderbergh himself thinks it is.
The relevant segment from the interview:
Well, I’m remaking—it’s been a long process—but I’m overhauling Kafkacompletely. It’s funny—wrapping a movie 22 years later! But the rights had reverted back to me and Paul Rassam, an executive producer, and he said, “I know you were never really happy with it. Do you want to go back in and play around?” We shot some inserts while we were doing Side Effects. I’m also dubbing the whole thing into German so the accent issue goes away. And Lem and I have been working on recalibrating some of the dialogue and the storytelling. So it’s a completely different movie. The idea is to put them both out on disc. But for the most part, I’m a believer in your first impulse being the right one. And I certainly think that most of the seventies directors who have gone back in and tinkered with their movies have made them worse.
He's not erasing the original cut from existence, either, as he says above. Here's hoping for yet another great Criterionization of a Soderbergh movie. As it stands, Kafka is only on OOP laserdisc, for crying out loud.
The next proper installment of Soderberghopolis, which posts tomorrow, just so happens to include Kafka.
(Yes, I know it's "en pointe")
Criterion's first 3D Blu-ray release is the ambitious, beautiful, and deeply moving dance performance art documentary (ish) hybrid Pina, from the great Wim Wenders. One of my biggest missed-in-theatres regrets is now on my shelf. I'll have to revisit it if/when I get 3D capable equipment.
My favorite and most unique college film class experience came from taking Dance in the Movies, taught by an amazing dance historian, critic, and professor: Dr. Sally Sommer. I can't calculate how much I owe the person who introduced me to Madam Satan and so many more, especially Saura's Carmen and Jamaican sensation Dancehall Queen.
The best portrayal of Elvis ever.
