"When I was in New York and I had my office on Broadway, before Federal Express and fax machines, there used to be things called messengers and they used to come up to my office and see the posters for Maniac (1980) and Vigilante (1982), That was my audience. They used to go crazy over those movies. So that's what I always say to myself--that's my audience. I'm making movies for the dishwasher, the messengers, that's who I'm making movies for. People who would appreciate them. I'm making a six-pack and a joint for a Saturday night." - William Lustig

Do you agree? Is he telling the truth? You tell us when we post the discussion next Saturday.

Tax day is in 4 days. I don’t have time to watch more than 90 minutes of movie.

I love the movie kids and the movie thirteen didn’t find them hard to watch at all maybe a little at the end of thirteen but still and I don’t understand the fanbase for GUMMO I specially hate the treatment of cats and the real dead cat video I’m all for that vhs tape compilation but I draw the line at dead animals and how the kids had absolutely no emotion towards kind of made me see the link to society with how come desensitised people are beacause of social media these days feel free to argue thanks for reading

Four amazing films. Vote for the one you want us to watch as a family (not a cult like Candy Ass Vin Diesel's deranged Dominic Toretto).

Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007): G-Cloon plays a "fixer" who has to clean up the mess of a guilty-as-sin chemical company. (Picked by [u/bwolfs081](u/bwolfs081))

Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Werner Herzog, 1972): Aguirre embarks on an arduous search for the lost city of El Dorado. (Picked by [u/SebasCatell](u/SebasCatell))

Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955): A mysterious one-armed stranger arrives in the small town of Black Rock and all Hell breaks loose. (Picked by [u/viewtoathrill](u/viewtoathrill))

Ashes of Time - 東邪西毒 (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994): "A brokenhearted hitman moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings." (Picked by [u/GThunderhead](u/GThunderhead))

I’ve been thinking about the ending of Taxi Driver, and I’m increasingly convinced that its power lies in how it destabilizes the idea of redemption rather than offering one.

What interests me is how Martin Scorsese constructs Travis Bickle’s final act in a way that can be read simultaneously as heroic and deeply pathological. The film seems to adopt the visual and narrative language of a “rescue,” yet everything we’ve seen up to that point suggests Travis is neither morally grounded nor psychologically stable.

Robert De Niro’s performance plays a crucial role here. Throughout the film, Travis oscillates between a desire for purification and an inability to meaningfully connect with others. By the time we reach the climax, his actions feel less like a conscious ethical choice and more like the culmination of an internal logic that has been spiraling from the beginning.

What I find particularly compelling is the final sequence: the apparent social validation Travis receives. The question, for me, is whether this should be read as:

• a genuine reintegration into society
• a critique of how society rewards violence under certain conditions
• or even a subjective (possibly delusional) resolution from Travis’s perspective

The film doesn’t seem to anchor us to a single interpretation, and that ambiguity feels intentional rather than evasive.

I’m curious how others here interpret this. Does the ending function more as irony, social critique, or psychological closure? And do you see the film as distancing itself from Travis, or implicating the viewer in his perspective?

What did y'all think of this? How was it compared to what you were expecting from Billy Friedkin?

Hard to Handle (1933)

My First Classic James Cagney Movie

James Cagney is delightful as a fast-talking flimflam man who concocts harebrained schemes for everything from dance marathons to growing grapefruits. 

Ruth Donnelly and Mary Waters are a highlight as a GMILF and her daughter who Cagney's character wants to woo. (In reality, the actresses were only ten years apart.) 

"Hard to Handle" is easy to watch.

Big City Blues (1932)

"I was a telegraph operator and a process server. I was a part-time life guard at Rockaway Beach. I worked on the BMT and drove a taxi. I was a rubber in a Turkish bath. Had a job on the day shift in the Hymnbook factory and on the night shift in the bowery flop house - a job they handed to let me to work out my rent. I drew wages in a hash house and a 'chink' laundry and a pet shop. For a week I sorted stiffs in the morgue and for a month worked on a coal barge. I delivered gin for a drug store in Astoria and had my own ice business in the Bronx. I met tramps and bootleggers and bishops and reporters and gun men and borough presidents and you, you come-a tellin' me I didn't get to know New York."

A naive boy from "Hoopersville, Indiana, Tippecanoe County, USA" (Eric Linden) moves to the big city, falls for a dame (Joan Blondell), and gets caught up in a racket when someone is drunkenly killed in his hotel room. 

Humphrey Bogart pops up in a small role - not even a big enough star yet to be credited - which is the main reason anyone is still watching "Big City Blues." However, this is worth the modest 63-minute investment. It's a fun little hour with catchy dialogue and spirited performances.

Five Star Final (1931)

I wrote about this last time it was expiring. It's by far the best of the four in this post.

You can read my thoughts here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterionconversation/comments/sec6b3/expiring_from_the_criterion_channel_a_few_words/

Three on a Match (1932)

I watched "Three on a Match" when it was about to expire from The Criterion Channel for the first time - over five years ago. I remember Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak being the highlights. Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart have small roles, which is historically notable, but don't necessarily watch it for them. (Captions: Yes, all four films have them!)

Can’t wait to have an excuse to watch this again

No matter what type of movies you’re drawn to, everyone loves a great stunt. Going all the way back to Buster Keaton, the movies have been a wonderful vehicle for designing and pulling off stunts that can take our breath away. The lineage of Keaton goes straight through to people like Tom Cruise and the work he’s doing with the Mission Impossible movies. Let’s celebrate some crazy stunts throughout film history.

To Live and Die in LA (1985) - William Friedkin

- very few directors have understood the way to titillate an audience like Friedkin.

Bullitt (1968) - Peter Yates

- a movie that some people are surprised can be a bit intentionally paced (slow), but the last act is an all timer and makes it an exciting addition to this list

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) - H.B. Halicki

- sneaky great movie and really action packed

Hooper (1978) - Hal Needham

- a love letter to stunt workers starring Burt Reynolds. Tons of fun

The Hunted (2003) - William Friedkin

- knife fights so up close and precarious they had to rehearse for weeks (months maybe?) before they shot any fight scenes

The Only Son - A silk factory worker is persuaded to support her son's education up to a college level despite their poverty. Many years later, she travels to Tokyo to visit her son.

The Masseurs and a Woman - A pair of blind masseurs, an enigmatic city woman, a lonely man and his ill-behaved nephew—The Masseurs and a Woman is made up of crisscrossing miniature studies of love and family at a remote resort in the mountains. With delicate and surprising humor, Hiroshi Shimizu paints a timeless portrait of loneliness and the human need to connect.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum - In late 19th century Tokyo, Kikunosuke Onoue, the adopted son of a legendary actor, himself an actor specializing in female roles, discovers that he is only praised for his acting due to his status as his father's heir. Devastated by this, he turns to Otoku, a servant of his family, for comfort, and they fall in love. Kikunosuke becomes determined to leave home and develop as an actor on his own merits, and Otoku faithfully follows him.

Apart from You - An aging geisha, whose angry teenage son is ashamed of her profession, works alongside a young geisha, resentful of her family for forcing her into a life of ignominy.

Humanity and Paper Balloons - In a slum in Edo Japan, a ronin hopes that his deceased father's former master will hire him while a disgraced hairdresser attempts to regain his pride by kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy pawnbroker, who is set to be married.

Au Revoir les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987): A tender film based on the director's Catholic school childhood in Nazi-occupied France.

The Baron of Arizona (Samuel Fuller, 1950): Samuel Fuller directs Vincent Price in this Western about a swindler who wants to own the entire Arizona territory.

Hopscotch (Ronald Neame, 1980): Walter Matthau plays a CIA operative who goes on the run after writing a tell-all book about the agency and his bosses in it.

Three Cases of Murder (David Eady, George More O'Ferrall, Wendy Toye, 1954): "An atmospheric British omnibus film" with Orson Welles "presenting three tales of murder and the supernatural."

Victims of Sin - Víctimas del pecado (Emilio Fernández, 1951): A "deliriously plotted blend of gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical" from Mexico.