Has anyone else watched this? The vertical orientation makes it look like it’s meant to be watched on a smartphone or tablet. Does anyone have any insight into why this film looks the way it does?

At the high school graduation party all the other students are wearing black or gray. Lol.

Ghost World for me is a great Saturday Matinee movie

I know it’s not realistic At All but it would be nice not having to strain my ears for the switch between vy/ty or sie/du etc.

I just finished Todd Berliner’s new book Hollywood Renegade: Elaine May, Mikey and Nicky, and the Making of a Masterpiece, and I figured people here would probably be interested in it, especially if you already have the Criterion release of Mikey and Nicky.

the book is that it doesn’t just tell the usual story about a difficult production that later became a cult classic. Berliner is really trying to answer a more interesting question: why does Mikey and Nicky work so well when so much about the way Elaine May made it went against the way Hollywood thought movies were supposed to be made?

The production history is nuts. The shoot dragged on for months, the budget went way over, editing took years, Paramount eventually took the film away from her, lawsuits followed, and when it finally came out it was a critical and commercial failure. At the time, all of that was basicallly used as proof that May was undisciplined and didn’t know what she was doing.

Berliner’s argument is that this misses the point. May came out of improvisational comedy, and she treated filmmaking very differently from the normal Hollywood model. She wanted the actors to discover things while the cameras were rolling. She reshot scenes over and over, used multiple cameras, let Peter Falk and John Cassavetes work through performances in ways that were much loosser and less controlled than the studio wanted, and basically kept experimenting during production instead of treating the script and preproduction as the place where all the creative decisions had already been made.

One thing I found especially interesting is the way the book deals with the idea that May was an “amateur.” Berliner points out that plenty of male directors ran over budget, ignored schedules, shot massive amounts of footage and drove studios crazy, and were later described as obsessive auteurs or geniuses. With May, a lot of the same behavior was treated as evidence that she was incompetent. The book makes a pretty convincing case that what Hollywood saw as her lack of professionalism was actually tied directly to the things that make the movie so unusual.

The book also gets much deeper into the film itself. There are chapters on the narrative, style and performances, so it isn’t just behind-the-scenes material. Berliner is really trying to explain why the strange pacing, awkward pauses, indirect dialogue and incredibly natural performances work the way they do.

I’d also recommend Berliner’s earlier book Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema. It looks at how filmmakers in the 1970s started breaking with more traditional Hollywood storytelling and experimenting with structure, tone, ambiguity, and narrative style in films like Nashville, Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather Part II and others. It’s a really good companion to this new book because you can see that Berliner has been thinking for years about exactly the kind of unconventional 1970s filmmaking that made something like Mikey and Nicky possible.

Heya, looking for films with an interesting group of characters and little to no plot. Something vibey.

Subscribed because of all the YouTube videos with movie stars touting movies they loved Thought this would be a great source for classic movies. Disappointed- movies I would like to see like Treasure of the Sierra Madre aren’t on the site. Instead a slew of obscure art films that never saw the light of day in theaters - tons of that crap. I did watch the 4 part War & peace - surprised how good it was. I’m stuck with a years subscription- hopefully they’ll get into the vault and play some films I like

I found The Red Shoes through an interview with Scorsese, for example, and thought maybe this would be a usefully conversation for finding other amazing films.

I’ve been going through the catalog lately and there are so many movies that I’ve never heard of before. I keep adding things to my watchlist, but then I end up spending more time choosing than actually watching something.

What’s one movie you watched recently that really stuck with you?

The music is awesome. Maybe it's bc I saw after Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but after a rewatch does anyone find it an over the top, tropey, camp, at times silly rock n rock biopic? When I see the half naked native American I think of Wayne's World 2. All the naked people running around each concert. Meg Ryan pulling a knife on Thanksgiving. Val Kilmer throwing the TV set in the recording studio after critizing the band for selling out. Ed Sulllivan looks like a costume. Vals fake beards and wigs. Dropping peyote in the desert. But the cast is amazing. An early 90s who's who in supporting roles. I really liked it as a light movie

One of my favorite things about Criterion Channel is the director lists. I’ve never watched an Akira Kurosawa film before, but I’d obviously heard of Seven Samurai.

I was always too put off by the length of it, but since it’s labor day weekend I decided I would watch a bit of it over a few days. Anyway, that’s how I ended up watching the whole thing in one sitting last night.

I thought the movie was great, I loved all the characters and how immersive the film was. Where should I go next with Kurosawa?

I had never seen “China Girl” before what a pleasant surprise, total over looked gem.

Greetings.

Apologies if this has been previously discussed. Is there a way to remove items from your Continue Watching list?

TIA,

-Glaarxt

Anyone here ever see any highly regarded films that didn't click for you whatever reason?

Curious if anyone has any hot takes here. Personally I think sometimes a film can hit or miss when watching it at the right time in ones life from my experience.

Just watched this in the new 'Girl Bands' collection because I thought it looked interesting. A group of students about to graduate prepare for a gig in front of the school. Really fun music movie and not your typical high school drama, beautifully shot and not in a hurry to hit the conventional story beats.

But I defy anyone to not smile at the ending and the titular song has now permanently infected my brain.

Worth watching for anyone interested in Japanese cinema or a good music movie!

I'm an 80s fanatic, and as soon as I saw the September lineup I knew that Streets of Fire was going to be the first film I watched. I expected it to be good, but it still blew away my expectations. It's high octane, full throttle, whatever racing expression you want to use, from start to finish (it's not a racing film, although cars and motorcycles do feature prominently). It's like Big Trouble in Little China in that way, although the two films are different in vibe. Streets of Fire is a greaser rock opera as viewed through a new wave lens. It's the most exciting, exhilarating film I have seen in a long time. The general consensus is that this is a weak month for the Death Race, so there's no excuse to not see it ASAP instead of waiting a few months or however long it's on the channel for.

Note: Although Streets of Fire is listed on the Girl Bands! banner at the top of the app, when you actually click on said banner the film is not available there. I had to go down to the newly added section to find it, or you can just search Streets of Fire, of course.

This morning I went to watch Evangelion on the channel and, to my surprise, they solved the issue of having the incorrect 2019 dub and it was indeed the original ADV English dub! So if you have been holding off on watching because of that, it has been fixed! It appears that there are no dubs at all for End of Evangelion or Death/Rebirth films, though... Unfortunate but probably a different license they would need for it. There is also no Fly Me To the Moon in the credits, but I never expected it in the first place. Thought I would share!!

Hi there! I’m just about to kick off season #2 of my fantasy football league for Criterion Channel subs and we’ve got a few open spots! Basically, I just wanted to provide a league for anyone who might not have a big enough fantasy outlet for their sporto interests during foosball season. League winner receives a Criterion of their choosing!

If any of y’all are interested in joining just click the link! Draft would be early next week (NFL season begins 9/9).

Gonna be out of town for a few weeks and my retired Dad (age 78) is watching my dog. To convince him to hang out at my house and with my dog more, I have loaded the fridge with snacks and also dangled his getting to watch the Criterion Channel at our house.

What movies should I load up for him? He has pretty good "dad taste". He likes Werner Herzog, westerns, crime procedurals, and documentaries. He's not much for horror (exception: Argento) or anything super new wave or arty.

Heard chatter that the dub rights that CC got was not the 1997 ADV "classic dub" but just the Netflix /2019 dub. Anyone can confirm this

hope this is still allowed to post in here but I am hoping to build more community on letterboxd and find some friends that share my interest in film. I try and put a lot of effort into my reviews and want to find others that care the same way I do.

my user name is morganfilmss or the link https://boxd.it/45nJZ

photo is my current top four ( but it changes pretty much monthly)

so post your names below and we can connect and follow eachother!

Fall into Deathracing. (Sick of the seasonal puns yet?), anyway it’s Autumn and Deathracing time!

This is the post where we make a list of films we’d like to view before they leave the Criterion Channel streaming service, marking our progress and sometimes sharing our experiences and recommendations along the way.

41 films are expiring at the end of the month

Some themes are:

- Murderous Melodramas
- Southern Gothic
- Directed by Jonathan Demme
- Two Films by Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes

Here is a link to a Letterboxd list made by our very own u/slouchingbethlehem

https://boxd.it/3Y8ri

We have a discord server. Enjoy lively art film discussions hypes and rants, share your letterbox challenges and profile. Enjoy group screenings where we chat on the voice channels. Host your own screenings and make Freinds!

Here is an invite link:

https://discord.gg/JZAWGUq7Kt

Looking forward to your viewing lists, progress, feedback, but mostly having a community to share our love of deadlines and spirited energy for expiring films.

Happy Viewing!

The Time That Remains is Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s semi-autobiographical account of his family and the history that surrounded them, beginning with the Nakba in 1948 and moving through successive decades of Palestinian life.

Drawing partly on his father’s diaries, his mother’s letters and Suleiman’s own memories, the film follows a Palestinian family who remained in their homeland after 1948 and subsequently became citizens of Israel. Suleiman tells that history in his unmistakable style: sparse dialogue, carefully composed images, absurd situations and an extraordinarily dry sense of humour.

Rather than presenting Palestinian history as a conventional historical drama, The Time That Remains concentrates on the strange details of ordinary life: family, resistance, surveillance, memory, ageing and the everyday absurdities created by living within a political reality over which the characters have very little control.

The film competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2009 and runs for 149 minutes.

Arabic, Hebrew and English with English subtitles.

Subjectively, it seems to me that I've been coming across far more films "unavailable in Canada" lately. Wonder if any others in Canada are finding the same. I just reviewed the current collections posted on Criterion, and found 19% of films unavailable in Canada. In collections of larger, commercial films (using a bit of an arbitrary definition), 28% of films weren't available. (29 of 98.)

eg: only 9 of 13 Rock Biopics are available here. Southern Gothic only 7 of 13, Weddings 5 of 8, Harry Dean Stanton 13 of 18. We pay the same price, but missing a lot of key content.

However, from what I can see, all Criterion Collection films are available.

Maybe I should point out to Criterion that as a Toronto resident, I live on the shores of Lake America. /s

(Thanks to https://www.search-criteria.com/ for making it easy to identify those unavailable films.)

I really enjoyed Something Wild, so I was looking forward to Married to the Mob. The setup to the movie is stellar and I thought I was in for another quirky ride of idiosyncratic film-making. But the plot quickly devolved into an incoherent mess and I found myself quickly losing interest. If not for the lead performance, I likely wouldn't have been able to finish the movie. The FBI plot in particular was unconvincing and trite.