Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Ratings (out of five): SET **** ½
Pearls of the Deep: *** ½ (Shorts: Mr Baltazer’s Death **, The Imposters *** ½, House of Joy **** ½ , The Restaurant The World *** ½ , Romance ****)
Daisies: **** ½
A Report on the Party and Guests: *** ½
Return of the Prodigal Son: *** ½
Capricious Summer: ***
The Joke: **** ½

Eclipse’s latest set ingeniously collects ten films – five shorts and five features – by five directors at the forefront of the retroactively titled “Czech New Wave.” Pretty much every film presented here was eventually banned by the Soviet overlords who micromanaged the Czechoslovakian culture following the Warsaw Pact.

Continue Reading Eclipse Series 32 - Pearls of the Czech New Wave

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

Architects are more and more in the movies these days. Over the past few years, we've had the likes of Louis Kahn, Frank Gehry (and just why isn't the Gehry film, Sketches of Frank Gehry, listed on the IMDB or as part of the oeuvre of its director Sydney Pollack?) and Charles Eames getting their very own movie (though Chas had to share his with wife Ray). Now comes Sir Norman Foster, a knight of the British realm, whose name is new to me (clearly, I doesn't follow architecture, at least, not until a movie is made about that architect) but whose work, when you see it all together as you do here, is pretty damned impressive.

Continue Reading How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?

Some festival favorites from 2011 (and 2012!) are finally hitting DVD this week, so check out the full lineup - inside!

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: June 19, 2012.

Taking audiences on a humorous, moving, and intimate journey against an epic backdrop of Earth’s final days, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist). Set in a too-near future where time at once stands still and is slipping away forever, the writer/director explores what people will do and how they will feel when humanity’s end is near. Starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley as the unlikely traveling companions, this "witty, warm-hearted and impressively original" (Hollywood Reporter) romantic comedy hits theater this Friday, June 22, 2012. 

Check the jump for details on how to enter our Seeking a Friend for the End of the World prize pack giveaway, and be sure to check out Focus Features site for more cool "end of the world" themed prizes!

Continue Reading Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Contest!

This week Criterion brings us gems from Danny Boyle, Charlie Chaplain, and Hal Ashby, plus we've got another stellar lineup of DVDs and Blu-Rays full of Nikkatsu and Pink films from Japan, box office hits from the US, and more! 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: June 12, 2012.

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Ratings (out of five): ****

John Cassavetes was a handsome, severe actor in television and "B" movies when he raised a few dollars to make the landmark independent movie Shadows in 1959. After that, he juggled two sides of a career, in marketable ventures (The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary's Baby, The Fury), and in pure, artistic achievements (Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Love Streams). Sometimes these things crossed comfortably, as in his masterpiece The Killing of a Chinese Bookie -- set among the world of strip joints and contract murders -- or uncomfortably, as in Gloria, a script he wrote to sell, but ended up directing.

Continue Reading Too Late Blues

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Ratings (out of five): ***

Plot of Fear is a pretty good title for such a twisted example of the giallo genre. The "plot" starts out in a recognizable fashion, but eventually moves into a series of flashbacks and twists, gets a little on the convoluted side. The "fear" part comes at the thought of trying to describe the "plot" part.

Continue Reading Plot of Fear

Huge catalog updates this week, so start queueing up those titles through July! This week brings us some indie gems you wont want to miss. More, inside. 

Continue Reading New and Coming Releases: June 5, 2012.

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Ratings (out of five): ****

Loneliness is not the easiest quality to capture on film, at least not without boring us by offering up the usual visual clichés of the figure, alone in a landscape, or within but separated somehow from the world around him/her. Loneliness when you're with other people is a harder thing to pinpoint, and one of the treats of the new film Hello Lonesome is that its writer/ director Adam Reid manages this odd and tricky task very well.

Continue Reading Hello Lonesome

Audiences everywhere are buzzing over Moonrise Kingdom, the new movie directed by two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Wes Anderson.

"Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in every which way."

"Beguiling and endearing," (Joe Morgenstern), the film is now playing in theaters. Here's your chance to win an awesome prize pack thanks to our friends at Focus Features!

Continue Reading Moonrise Kingdom Prize Pack Giveaway!