A previously scarce John Sayles films surfaces in a beautiful widescreen edition. Cynicism and frustration pits a town against itself, in a story of civic trouble that echoes Bruce Springsteen’s laments for America’s crumbling cities. Builder Tony Lo Bianco is in hock to the Mob, and can’t pretend he’s not part of the corruption; activist…

It’s the kind of movie we get dragged to see … which then becomes a respected favorite. Robert Anderson, Fred Zinnemann and Audrey Hepburn’s interpretation of Kathryn C. Hulme’s book is a stunningly mature woman’s odyssey, about a young nun’s attempt to find fulfillment in a a demanding social-spiritual vocation, that seeks to reconstruct its…

Stanley Kubrick’s early work can tell us a lot about the artist, as might a collection of Da Vinci or Renoir sketch books. His tentative first feature has big problems — a ponderous script and war-movie ambitions it can’t deliver — but qualifies as a noble, promising first effort, especially because he was such a…

Come back to the middle 1960s, when America’s hottest film student Francis Ford Coppola started on his path to directorial glory by parlaying his UCLA film school thesis film into a full-on studio production. A canny synthesis of youth trends and Coppola’s own weird sense of humor, the free-form comedy announces ‘I’ve arrived.’ The music…

Good news for sci-fi fans; Kino’s newly remastered trio of monsterrific thrillers looks great. The favorite Paramount semi-classic The Colossus of New York still impresses with its haunting piano score and solemn direction by Eugène Lourié. The gooey fungus freakout The Unknown Terror is available domestically for the first time in its full ‘Regalscope’ glory….

Michael Powell and Leo Marks encode their tale of a sick serial killer with 1001 wicked observations, insights and unflattering jokes about everything cinematic, emphasizing voyeuristic excess and obsession. Carl Boehm’s protagonist is a ‘very British Psycho’ who conducts his murderous crusade like an explorer in taboo territory, and fetishizes his cameras as sexual objects….

Philo Vance Collection Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1928 – 1930 Starring William Powell, Eugene Pallette, Jean Arthur Written by S. S. Van Dine, Bartlett Cormack Photographed by Harry Fischbeck, Archie Stout Directed by Malcolm St. Clair, Frank Tuttle Between 1928 and 1930, Paramount fast-tracked three films about a high society sleuth known as Philo Vance. The…

Jessamyn West’s bright vision of America’s agrarian dream has plenty to say about anxious times: a family of Quakers try to maintain their values against secular temptation, and the threat of Civil War. Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire star, with Anthony Perkins, Phyllis Love and Richard Eyer. Sentimental, insightful and very funny, it earns its…

Dellamorte Dellamore Blu-ray Severin Films 1994 Starring Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi Written by Gianni Romoli Photographed by Mauro Marchetti Directed by Michele Soavi In I Bury the Living, one of the more eccentric horror films of the fifties, Richard Boone inherits a cemetery where the dear departed won’t stay buried. The mystery behind…

Francis Ford Coppola’s first personal film through his Zoetrope experiment is an acting tour-de-force for Shirley Knight, a purposely marginal road movie in search of cinema truth. It comes out as an honorable attempt to meld Americana and European ‘film honesty;’ what we really admire is Coppola’s expert direction of Knight and her co-stars, James…

When is a horror movie not a horror movie?  Does the absence of most horror content make a difference?  This Regal Films ‘Regalscope’ production is handsomely filmed and shot on location, but it feels like a stack of disconnected ideas. Lovely Peggie Castle is possessed, and Arthur Franz and Marsha Hunt don’t know what to…

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Vinegar Syndrome 1965 Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee Written by Milton Subotsky Photographed by Alan Hume Directed by Freddie Francis Universal’s classic horror films were inspired by Victorian literature, Hammer Films was inspired by Universal, and Amicus Productions was inspired by Universal, Hammer, and comic…

Shot for shot, David Lynch’s galactic epic is as brilliant as any of his films, with vivid characterizations, strong performances and a parade of weird, strikingly Lynchian visuals. The bizarre Lynch sensibility is a good match for Frank Herbert’s complicated saga; Viavision’s Limited Edition is the first Region A Blu-ray to offer both the Theatrical…

Radiance comes through again, giving us Mario Bava’s haunted space opera in multiple versions. The original Italian encoding improves greatly on everything we’ve seen so far — it’s dazzling. Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell struggle to overcome the curse of a ‘demon planet’ — which rushes to possess every life form it encounters. The alien…

This little-seen Paramount war picture finishes William Holden’s run with lovely Nancy Olson as his co-star; John Farrow’s direction gets serious about a naval officers’ ‘between the wars’ troubles, and then settles on a recruiting stance for the then-hot Korean War. It’s filmed partly at sea, which adds to the realism, and it tries to…

The Mask of Fu Manchu Blu-ray Warner Archive 1932 Starring Boris Karloff, Myrna Loy, and Lewis Stone as Nayland Smith Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf, and John Willard Photographed by Tony Gaudio Directed by Charles Brabin The Mask of Fu Manchu is not so much a movie as an issue of Architectural Digest…

“Only at the point of dying.”   Hailed in Europe but ignored here, Sergio Leone’s most prestigious western transcends classic status. Its operatic gunfighter rituals become drama-sculptures of ‘genre destiny.’ Henry Fonda overturns his ethical, decent screen image with a supremely sadistic villain; Charles Bronson catapulted into European superstardom as this film’s ‘man with no…

Guy Trosper, Anthony Mann and John Alton’s western is shocking stuff for 1950 — Hollywood did address the historical raw deal handed Native Americans, way before the activist ’70s. Robert Taylor is a Shoshone rancher in Wyoming, who comes back from the Civil War with medals and finds that opportunists are passing laws that dispossess…

This one played like gangbusters in the theater. The only negative flak we heard came from a) people that don’t like Sandra Bullock no matter what she’s in, and b) people that violently deny the premise that space garbage poses a potential threat. The thrills in this presumed 99 & 44/100% CGI space thriller just…

La Vampire Nue, Les Démoniaques Blu-ray – All Region Powerhouse Indicator 1968, 1974 Starring Christine François, Joëlle Coeur, John Rico Written by Jean Rollin, Serge Moati Photographed by Jean-Jacques Renon Directed by Jean Rollin Which came first, the art of Philippe Druillet or the films of Jean Rollin? There’s an easy answer; Druillet began his…

UK correspondent Lee Broughton returns with coverage of an original and engaging British folk horror film. Director Elliot Goldner’s found footage show was released to little fanfare in 2013 but those curious film fans who subsequently picked it up as a speculative cheap buy on DVD or caught it on TV came away pleasantly surprised….

Milestone films and the Criterion Collection team together for this 1964 epic, a a joint Cuban-Soviet super-travelogue celebration of the revolutionary spirit. Four vignettes from the pre-Castro years spell out the glory of anti-imperialism, using fancy visuals and gravity-defying camerawork. The cultural experiment was judged a failure and shelved for decades, until it was rediscovered…

Ignore the exploitative original posters … this thriller from 1983 is a clear-eyed view of America’s gun problem, expressed, wouldn’t you know it, by an Englishman. Filmmaker Tony Garnett formats his show like a vigilante shocker, but the real subject is a culture gone awry. Karen Young makes a star-caliber debut as a Boston schoolteacher…

Anthony Mann’s high-quality conventional western has top stars Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, plus good input from Neville Brand, John McIntire and especially Betsy Palmer. Perkins takes lessons in how to be Marshall Dillon, while the womenfolk fuss and slimy Lee Van Cleef shoots nice people in the back. We get a Cold War lesson…

Nancy Savoca belongs in the top rank of creative filmmakers of the 1990s. This unorthodox telling of a ‘neighborhood miracle’ may be her most ambitious and original work. TV comedienne Tracey Ullman surprised everyone with her unusual characterization, but Lili Taylor stole the show with the most compelling depiction ever of someone enraptured by faith…

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Severin Films 1981 Starring Susan Tyrrell, Bo Svenson, Jimmy McNichol Written by Stephen Breimer, Boon Collins Photographed by Robbie Greenberg Directed by William Asher As the love-starved auntie with romantic designs on her teenage nephew, Susan Tyrrell delivers a primal scream performance that would send the…