Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Rating (out of five): ****

Francesco Rosi’s The Moment of Truth is a blood-soaked poem observing (if not totally celebrating) the gory pageantry of the bullfighting circuit.

The film begins with an extended, dialogue-less trek through a religious festival in a Spanish city. Onlookers line the street while Catholic acolytes in Klan-like capirotes lumber through clouds of incense, holding grotesque statues of Jesus and the Virgin. The eerie, slow-paced ritual is suddenly interrupted by a group of manic bulls pushing and bucking their way through the crowd. The solemnity is shattered; people are trampled and tossed and one of the bulls is vanquished for the camera. This is the first of many unsimulated animal deaths in the film. The squeamish are hereby advised.

Continue Reading The Moment of Truth (Criterion)

Oscar noms are out today, and this week you can rent the first ever winner for Best Picture (1927's Wings), plus many other hits, new on DVD! 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: January 24, 2011.

It's another banner week for DVDs, with some classic reissues, experimental documentaries, and mainstream hits. We'll be adding many more upcoming releases this week, so stay tuned!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: January 17, 2011.

Reviewer: Jeffrey M Anderson
Rating (out of five): ** 1/2

Lamberto Bava is the son of the legendary Italian horror director Mario Bava. Lamberto entered the business young and assisted his father on many films, and recently even helped to assemble the amazing "lost" film Rabid Dogs (1974). When Mario died in 1980, Lamberto embarked upon his own filmmaking career. Two high points were Demons (1986) and Demons 2 (1987), both of which were co-scripted by Dario Argento, another Italian horror legend, and were both playfully post-modern chillers well before Scream came along.

Continue Reading Body Puzzle

2012 comes to a strong start with this week's batch of new DVDs, featuring releases from cinematic powerhouses Bella Tarr, Godard, Hong Sang-Soo, and more, plus, Vera Farmiga's directoral debut!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: Jan 10, 2012.

Happy return from New Year's, all! Time to sink your teeth into some 2012 cinematic delights, including the Todd Hayne's wonderful Mildred Pierce adaption, quirky UK comedies, and more. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: January 3, 2011.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of five): **** 1/2

The Romanian hits just keep on coming. One of the latest to garner theatrical release here in the USA (and now on DVD) is Tuesday, After Christmas (Marti, dupa craciun) from Radu Muntean, the man who gave us Boogie (Summer Holiday) back in 2008. His new one is one of the leanest (only 99 minutes), most realistic-yet-refined, and utterly poised probings of the dissolution of a marriage that I've yet seen. Easily holding your attention from moment to moment, the movie still sneaks up on you. Only at the end -- maybe quite awhile afterward -- will you fully realize what an accomplishment is this graceful, sad, caring-but-unsentimental film.

Continue Reading Tuesday, After Christmas

Reviewer: Jeffrey M Anderson
Rating (out of five): ****

Of the 40 or so movies Woody Allen has directed, about a half-dozen of them are masterpieces. A whole bunch more are really, really good, and then there are a few duds. Occasionally, though, he knows how to make a movie that can just make you smile. Radio Days (1987) did that, and so did Everyone Says I Love You (1996). And now Midnight in Paris does it. This new movie proves that Allen has moved past the bitter, angry section of his career and moved into what I call the "peaceful resignation" phase. Yasujiro Ozu made the same discovery: that one can find a certain comfort in the realization that some things never change.

Continue Reading Midnight in Paris

It's a very short releasing week following the holidays, but not to worry - things pick up in a big way in January. In the meantime enjoy this week's offerings and queue up early for next month! 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: December 27, 2011.

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of five): *** 1/2

First-time writer/director J.C. Chandor wrote the Margin Call script as the real life financial crisis was happening in late 2008, when he himself was in a bit of a career and financial panic, and the final film reflects this feeling. Unlike a lot of films on the subject, even ones that purport to criticize (paging Oliver Stone), Margin Call doesn't romanticize Wall Street, and it also doesn't overtly moralize or even judge.

Continue Reading Margin Call