Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

August 2023 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8194-the-criterion-channels-august-2023-lineup

Belly on Criterion, you love to see it

Finishing up films leaving today I watched "Heart of Midnight" over the weekend. Thoroughly bizarre, like David Lynch remaking Repulsion. The plot doesn't make much sense, but worth a watch if you like weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNf5RK9VOQ

I continue to waste money on this--my fault--but will definitely watch Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, a theatrical screening of which I had to miss a few months ago.

I enjoyed an obscure Stanwyck movie the other night before it left, Breakfast for Two.

Can anyone recommend any of the Kay Francis movies?

just watched the Caro-Gottlieb doc last night, it was great. obviosuly a little more poignant with Gottlieb's recent passing. i just finished Master of the Senate last week so it was perfect timing.

Can anyone recommend any of the Kay Francis movies?

Trouble in Paradise and Jewel Robbery, if you haven't seen them, are essential. The Cocoanuts and One Way Passage are worth seeing. The others...IMHO Criterion is scraping the barrel, though I'm glad to see these titles in legitimate copies.

Also, don't miss Quick Millions (part of the Rowland Brown package). It doesn't approach the Big Three gangster films, but I'm pleased to see that the channel and the MoMA film department have been able to work with Disney to make available some of the surviving early Fox films.

Thanks! Have seen Trouble in Paradise (amazing ofc) and The Cocoanuts which makes me laugh a lot and is one of my favorite Marxes. Have not seen the other two Francis films you mentioned,

Jewel Robbery is dynamite pre-code - a must watch!

Check out the 9-minute short, Family Nightmare. Holy shit.
https://www.criterionchannel.com/family-nightmare

I thought “turn every page” was really good, was worried it would be a little over-sentimental, but it’s just really sweet

Good god, 93 movies are leaving at the end of Aug. 31?! (I never bothered to look at previous months' "watch soon" lists; no idea if that's a lot or not.)

In the future all movies will only stream for fifteen minutes.

i pick a lot of my watching from the "leaving this month list" and ive never counted but that doesnt seem like much more than usual - they seem to churn through stuff at a pretty good clip

Half of it seems to be Buster and Fatty. Still, may be time to rewatch AI.

Jewel Robbery was fabulous, thanks for the recs

Finally saw the Oppenheimer doc from 1981. Extremely interesting, though still leaving some questions open for perhaps a deeper dive.

✨MARK YOUR CALENDARS✨ Starting in September, HIGH SCHOOL HORROR is coming to @criterionchannl—featuring VHS-era exploitation shockers, '90s teen-movie touchstones, & cult favorites.

DONNIE DARKO
SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE
THE CRAFT
SUSPIRIA
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
& more! pic.twitter.com/X1F95lcwdn

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) August 11, 2023

Full list of September 2023 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8230-the-criterion-channels-september-2023-lineup

I watched QUICK MILLIONS and that's a really good one. Spencer Tracy as a truck driver who basically manifests his way into becoming a crime boss with a steel grip on the unnamed city's construction industry, with an ending Johnnie To might have skillfully borrowed for Election 2, and one of the great final dialogue exchanges to nail the lid shut.

Hangover Square is p good

There’s a film of it?

Oh, with Linda Darnell and George Sanders, just like Forever Amber.

The talented star of that one, Laird Cregar, died shortly before the film came out from a dangerous crash diet he undertook for the role.

Dangerous crash diet?

Yeah, including amphetamines.

Ah.

Hal Hartley!!! oh man i have been wanting to see trust and the unbelievable truth again for ages. can never find them streaming or on dvd. they are showing all his movies! throwing a bone to us gen x grumps.

Hangover Square is a good one. i always like a good "during my blackouts i'm a murderer" story, and this one is elevated by the setting and the fiery conclusion (and the fiery disposal of one victim.) SPOILER as soon as i realized he was going to dispose of Netta by disguising her body as a Guy Fawkes effigy and sticking her atop the pyre i was impressed the film was going to go there. That ending is quite something, a real cataclysm. I don't know how well-regarded the film is overall, the wiki seems to suggest it was regarded dismissively, but i think it's very good.

I'm going to watch Massacre at Central High for the first time.

FINALLY watches Sorcerer. It was good. A nice relaxing movie. Didn't have that infuriating ending that Wages of Fear did. Had a different one, but I was glad.

October 2023 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8262-the-criterion-channels-october-2023-lineup

Love that they're slipping The Devil, Probably into horror month.

I've been curious about Paul Morrissey's Frank/Drac films for years, glad I'll finally get a chance to see them.

Unfriended is a terrible movie.

gonna start in on some Linda Darnell films this week. She was mesmerizing in Hangover Square, just such a vicious and alive performance.

Fallen angel is p good

3 wives of course

She’s usually very good, despite her alleged and not totally surprising insecurity. At one point it seemed like maybe she was only remembered for My Darling Clementine and her horrible death.

Forever Amber worth watching also for George Sanders as the king with his entourage of dogs following him around and telling them “Come children!”

Wow that was Sanders? It's been so long since I've seen that I'd forgotten that!

She's great in Summer Storm

She’s great on What’s My Line?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KVk5fthbTU

Also I just found a recent audiobook of BBC radio productions of Patrick Hamilton plays that looks really intriguing.

Still kind of enjoying my teenage favorite "Dark City"

That’s a good one. I believe Roger Ebert once did a shot-by-shot analysis.

Linda Darnelll's birthday today, according to Criterion.

Linda Darnell even

Catching up on Kay Francis before those films leave. I was totally charmed by everything about One Way Passage.

November 2023 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8291-the-criterion-channels-november-2023-lineup