Lost in Criterion show

Lost in Criterion

Summary: The Adam Glass and John Patrick Owatari-Dorgan, attempt the sisyphean task of watching every movie in the ever-growing Criterion Collection and talk about them. Want to support us? We'll love you for it: www.Patreon.com/LostInCriterion

Podcasts:

 Downhill Racer | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:26:29

Michael Ritchie's directorial debut is one of the greatest sports films to ever come out of Hollywood, second only to Ritchie's later Bad News Bears.

 Gomorrah | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:39:09

A spiritual successor to the works of Francesco Rosi, in content if not style, Matteo Garone's 2008 film Gomorrah takes a look at the modern state of organized crime in Naples. Filmed on location in the real life places the portrayed crimes take place, and with non-professional actors who would go on to serve prison time for their involvement in real life crimes, Gomorrah shows us the all-too-common story of those ground up and left behind by capitalism.

 A Christmas Tale | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:42:10

Arnaud Desplechin's 2008 A Christmas Tale wears its influences on its sleeve and meshes them into a cohesive whole, but perhaps an overly-full whole. There's a lot going on here, and clearly the version we're seeing was meant to have even more going on.

 Z | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:49:21

We loved the last Costa-Gavras film we saw, and we love this one. Z (1969) is a story pulled from the headlines of the director’s homeland of Greece that takes a hard look at police alignment with far-right politics and the disastrous results oh letting that power go unchecked.

 Wings of Desire | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:30:00

Wim Wenders Wings of Desire is one of the most arthousey arthouse films we've seen since our last Jean Cocteau, but this one has Peter Falk and is thus much more accessible.

 Mira Nair Fiction Shorts | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:40:35

We finish up the "And Seven Short Films" included on the Monsoon Wedding release with the four fiction shorts included: The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993), her section of the 11'09'01 anthology (2002), Migration (2007), and How Can it Be? (2008). They are an interesting mix of Nair's work made under a variety of political impetuses. 

 Mira Nair Documentary Shorts | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:26:06

According to the cover, the title of Criterion Spine 489 is Monsoon Wedding and Seven Short Films, and we're being extra completionist by dedicating two episodes for covering the Seven Short Films. This week it's the three documentary shorts: So Far from India (1983), India Cabaret (1985), and The Laughing Club of India (2002).

 Monsoon Wedding | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:36:43

Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding is a fantastic look at family at a few crossroads in an India at a few national crossroads of its own. And as if the movie itself weren’t enough, the Criterion Collection packs this release with seven other shorter pieces from Nair, which we’ll be covering in the coming weeks.

 Howard's End | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:41:51

James Ivory’s adaptation o the E. M. Forster novel, Howard’s End is a star-studded, period-accurate recreation of a Britain in transition from patriarchal colonialism to kindler, gentler, female-inclusive neoliberal colonialism. It actually doesn’t deal with the colonialism all that directly, but we still see the failings of the new order in regards to class equality, how a even a little power can corrupt and how charity isn’t justice.

 That Hamilton Woman | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:25:26

Alexander Korda’s 1941 biopic of Emma Hamilton and her love affair with Horatio Nelson doubles as an attempt to convince the US to enter World War 2. Korda almost faced a Congressional inquiry for this act of propaganda, but Pearl Harbor happened five days before he was to appear. As far as pro-war propaganda goes, this is possibly the worst we’ve encountered in the Collection, which would explain why it’s Winston Churchill’s favorite movie.

 Homicide | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:36:42

David Mamet makes a movie about the insidiousness of antisemitism but apparently decides that systemic bigotry is not a thing?

 The Last Days of Disco | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:45:41

Honestly, it's hard to remember that Whit Stillman's ode to the yuppies who killed disco is a period piece. One because there's very little in the main characters that feel of the time period the movie is set in, but also because the moneyed class gentrifying neighborhoods and cultural movements out of existence is a perennial problem.

 Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:55:25

In Chantal Akerman’s 1975 meticulous look at domestic life, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, her protagonist makes some changes. Maybe we all should.

 Repulsion | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:26:03

After many years we finally see another Roman Polanski film and maybe moving forward it would be best if we don't watch the bonus features that contain interviews with Roman Polanski, who always seems to come off as a misogynistic jerk. Repulsion itself is a pretty good thriller, technically, though it would be better if we felt that the filmmaker wanted us to be sympathetic to the main character at all.

 Holiday Special 2021: The Long Kiss Goodnight | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:23:14

For this year's Holiday Special we come to the saint of "movies that incidentally take place at Christmas" Shane Black. Black wrote A Long Kiss Goodnight before taking a long break from screenwriting. Renny Harlin directs, and he's no stranger to holiday-adjacent action fare having also directed Die Harder. Joining us this year are Stephen G. and Ben JW, and Ben makes a compelling argument that this is Shane Black's most actual Christmas movie. Whether or not that's true, it's ridiculous.

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