CineSavant

Blu-ray Holiday (1938 + 1930) This classy late-'30s Park Avenue romp gives us Katharine Heburn and Cary Grant at their best; Grant is especially good in a particularly demanding comedy role. The original play is warmed up a bit with comedy touches, and some pointed political barbs slip in there as well. The marvelous acting ensemble gives terrific material to...

Region-free Blu-ray Under the Shadow Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with a review of Babak Anvari's Under the Shadow (2016), a smart tale of supernatural happenings out in the Middle East. A Farsi language British production shot in Jordan, the film is set in Tehran at the height of the Iran-Iraq War that ran throughout most of the 1980s. Here...

Blu-ray Canyon Passage This great unheralded western is divorced from the usual concerns of law and order and gunslinger protocol. As in most every film by Jacques Tourneur we feel a strong empathy for characters that behave like real people working out real problems. The Oregon Territory is pioneered by imperfect types -- opportunists, knaves and hopeful dreamers...

Blu-ray It Started with a Kiss It's another big-star MGM romantic comedy, and not exactly a classic. Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford pick their way through a travelogue story that seems made of leftovers from I LOVE LUCY, inventing flat-farce gimmicks to sex things up without offending the Production Code. What's the movie most remembered for?  It features the exotic concept...

Blu-ray Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 1 At long last a beautifully restored and mastered selection of a number of cartoon king Tex Avery's brilliant, innovative and (most of all) hilarious MGM shorts comes to Blu-ray via the Warner Archive, with the implied promise of more volumes to come. Some of his greatest cartoons are included, and many of these shorts have...

Region B Blu-ray Endless Night (Region B) Why does CineSavant write so many positive reviews, even for films not commonly thought of as even being 'good?'  Well, I'm about to offend committed fans of this Hayley Mills thriller... it bothered me in such basic ways that I had to watch it twice to make sure I hadn't missed something important. Hayley Mills...

Blu-ray Parasite Hipster film folk love a good black comedy, and one that doesn't hit too close to home can become a big hit. Bong Joon-ho has been making smart, clever movies for years, and this intense satire hit pay dirt, commercially. Neon played their Oscar season cards beautifully as well, with the personable director seemingly omnipresent...

Blu-ray X The Unknown Hammer's copycat Quatermass picture stands apart from similar 'mystery sci-fi monster' thrillers by virtue of its serious tone and realistic presentation. Talk about a sober semi-docu style: there are no major female roles and the leading character is a mass of radioactive mud. (Is there an election year joke in that?) Hammer found a new...

Blu-ray Roma Alfonso Cuarón's labor of love will go down as having changed the delivery norm for top-quality feature motion pictures: unlike most foreign films before, millions had a chance to see the highly-advertised show on Netflix, even if the real life-changing way to see it was the limited 70mm theatrical run. Cuarón's ode to his upbringing...

Blu-ray Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman "Not so much a suspension of disbelief as a suspension of dreary naturalism." Criterion acknowledges a great filmmaker with this trio of Karel Zeman spectaculars, truly original fantasies that showcase a blend of animation and theatrical effects concocted, confected, perfected half a century before CGI. The Czech filmmakers take us on a prehistoric safari, on...

Blu-ray The Criminal Gangland London, 1960: Expatriate director Joseph Losey gives the Brit crime film a boost with a brutal gangster tale starring the ultra-tough Stanley Baker -- and seemingly every up & coming male actor on the casting books. A committed thief returns to his craft the moment he's freed from prison, but the emphasis is on...

Blu-ray Monstrosity (The Atomic Brain) How can a 'Z' horror production so completely absorb the thoughts of this ex- film student?  This maladroit 1963 monster mash can't even tell when it's doing something good. A capable cast gives their all to a marginal production that, re-titled as The Atomic Brain, became a staple on late-nite TV, where it worked better...

Blu-ray The Light at the Edge of the World Jules Verne's version of 'Die Hard' takes place not on Christmas Eve in Century City, but 160 years ago at a lonely lighthouse in Tierra Del Fuego. The mini-moguls the Salkinds rounded up a great cast -- Kirk Douglas! Samantha Eggar! Yul Brynner! -- but let them down severely in production details and particularly the...

Blu-ray All About My Mother Pedro Almodóvar's challenging films shouldn't be only for his dedicated fans: nobody mixes genuine human compassion with world-class filmmaking as well as he ... while maintaining a marvelous sense of humor, of human proportion. This 1999 effort is perhaps Pedro's strongest drama, and yet another heartfelt endorsement of womankind. For the life-beleaguered Manuela, tragedy and...

Blu-ray The Abominable Snowman Just under the top echelon of British sci-fi lurks this well-produced, absorbing 'expedition to terror!' that surprises us by paying off on an intellectual plane. After building his monster but before defeating Dracula, Peter Cushing found himself in a real fix on a snowy mountain peak. Sure, the race of enormous Yeti are shiver-inducing, but...

Blu-ray Room at the Top One of the first 'kitchen sink realist' films of the British New Wave is also one of the best English films ever -- believable, absorbing, and emotionally moving. The adaptation of John Braine's novel launched Laurence Harvey as a major star, and English films were suddenly touted as being just as adult as their continental...

Blu-ray Underwater! No, this isn't a documentary about the sorry situation faced by too many American homeowners.  Howard Hughes takes RKO into SuperScope and Technicolor for this attractive, somewhat tame sunken treasure adventure starring his captive glamour star Jane Russell. No off-color advertising slogans this time around, but the show shapes up as a swimsuit catalog for...

Blu-ray Penelope What can one say about a comedy that just limps along, even when an attractive cast does fine work every step of the way?  Even the bit parts are creatively cast in this odd romp infected with a really bad case of The Cutes. Natalie Wood is at her best, but in service of dumb...

Blu-ray Tobruk Rock Hudson's small budget big-explosion war movie applies decent production values and decent direction to a good idea, but substitutes some weak double-crosses for a real screen story. Hudson and his co-producer Gene Corman toss in a fine stack of quality actors... who don't do much more than dodge tanks, flame throwers, and big explosions....

Blu-ray Gregory’s Girl From the director of the beloved Local Hero: 'Pure Simple Joy' is an apt way to describe this deceptively meek, completely endearing Scottish film with a universal theme about adolescence and the reality of teen love. John Hughes' teen pix do not hold a candle to the innocent charm found here. The gawky yet boundlessly...

Blu-ray House by the River One of Fritz Lang's least-known thrillers had aspects that appealed to him, and he certainly applied his personal viewpoint and visual talents. It's a period Gothic with women in corsets, about a deranged writer who lets his desires get out of hand. It may be actor Louis Hayward's best work. Jane Wyatt is the suffering...

Blu-ray Fail Safe The world trembles on the brink, and liberals are in charge!  The nicest President you ever met gives the Soviet Premier an offer anybody could refuse, while technical glitches, not crazy people or radical politics, are blamed for starting WW3. Sidney Lumet's taut, scary armageddon-outta-here thriller was weighed in the balance against a certain Stanley...

Blu-ray Tunes of Glory Some critics wondered if Alec Guinness and John Mills should have swapped roles for this adaptation of James Kennaway's incisive novel about popularity vs. discipline in the command structure of a Scots army brigade. Ronald Neame's direction is exemplary, showcasing the powerhouse performances yet avoiding theatrical flourishes. And the movie introduces Susannah York as well....

Blu-ray The War Lord One of the more satisfying costume adventures of the 'sixties is also one of its star's best vehicles. Charlton Heston was born to play bigger-than-life historical types, and his Norman knight in this film has the benefit of an intelligent screenplay and a terrific supporting ensemble. This hero's armor doesn't shine -- he's more than...

Blu-ray Black Angel This unassuming noir classic can boast a strong creative pedigree and an unusual ending... which I'll not spoil. Dan Duryea is the confused pianist helping June Vincent clear her husband of a murder charge, by infiltrating the nightclub of suspicious Peter Lorre. The outline sticks close to Cornell Woolrich's story source, and Roy William Neill...

Blu-ray The Titfield Thunderbolt Toot Toot!  The Little Engine that Could becomes a tale of the little town that could, when their tiny rail service is discontinued. A crackerjack cast of Ealing regulars -- Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, John Gregson -- band together to take over the little spur line and keep it running. We get to see a...