JD Jon Danziger

DVD Review SUNSET BOULEVARD (Blu-ray)

An indelible piece of pop culture. The greatest movie ever made about movies. Maybe even the greatest movie ever made, full stop. On a sweet new Blu-ray.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 26, 2012, 2:06 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: sunset boulevard, norma desmond, billy wilder, paramount

DVD Review SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (Criterion Blu-ray)

Pasolini's notorious final film, one for whom the audience is likely self-selecting. Criterion's Blu-ray release has it looking as good as possible, and makes as persuasive a case for it being a masterpiece as one can.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - December 22, 2011, 2:40 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: criterion, pasolini, de sade

DVD Review TABLOID

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Errol Morris and the Interratron on a juicy, sexy scandal from back in the day!
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - December 7, 2011, 10:08 am - DVD Review
Keywords: documentary, errol morris, interratron

DVD Review CUL-DE-SAC (Criterion Blu-ray)

Roman Polanski's triangle of menace and mayhem, with a killer new transfer.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - December 1, 2011, 8:50 am - DVD Review
Keywords: criterion, gangster, polanski

DVD Review 3 WOMEN (Criterion Blu-ray)

Robert Altman's ruminative, moody vision all souped up in Criterion Blu-ray.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 23, 2011, 12:35 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: altman, criterion

DVD Review BASEBALL'S GREATEST GAMES: 1986 WORLD SERIES GAME 6

The greatest night in all of human history.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 22, 2011, 3:15 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: mets, world series, 1986, red sox, buckner, mookie, awesomeness

DVD Review LEON MORIN, PRIEST (Criterion Blu-ray)

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Richard Chamberlain: separated at birth? A consideration.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 21, 2011, 2:22 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: melville, criterion, belmondo, neorealism

DVD Review HIGH AND LOW (Criterion Blu-ray)

Toshiro Mifune as a true master of the universe, in Akira Kurosawa's brutally taut crime story. On Blu-ray from our friends at Criterion, and it's never looked better.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - August 11, 2011, 1:32 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: kurosawa, mifune, mcbain

DVD Review THE MUSIC ROOM (Criterion Blu-ray)

Satyajit Ray finally makes his Criterion Collection debut—is it a warmup for the inevitable Apu Trilogy Criterion box set of a cinephile's dreams?
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - July 28, 2011, 2:21 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: criterion, satyajit ray

DVD Review PEOPLE ON SUNDAY (Criterion Blu-ray)

A charming look at leisure time in Berlin between the wars, from a passel of filmmakers who would emigrate and change the course of Hollywood.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - July 18, 2011, 1:30 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: silent, berlin, wilder, zinnemann, siodmak, ulmer, neorealism

DVD Review FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (Criterion Blu-ray)

On the road again, with Johnny Depp channeling the psychopharmacological vibe of Hunter Thompson, and Benicio del Toro riding shotgun.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - July 14, 2011, 1:56 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: criterion, fear, loathing, vegas, depp, gilliam, del toro

DVD Review THE GREAT DICTATOR (Criterion Blu-ray)

Criterion spruces up Chaplin's first talking picture, an extended, impassioned, heartfelt kick in the ass of Adolf Hitler.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - July 6, 2011, 2:01 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: chaplin, hitler

DVD Review THE COMPANY MEN

Not even having won an Oscar can cushion the blow of the recession, apparently, according to John Wells' star-studded ensemble piece.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - June 28, 2011, 11:35 am - DVD Review
Keywords: business, drama, ensemble, boston

DVD Review KISS ME DEADLY (Criterion Blu-ray)

How can you not love a movie that starts with a psycho, speechless Cloris Leachman, and ends with the prospect of nuclear armageddon?
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - June 23, 2011, 1:33 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: noir, criterion, spillane

DVD Review SOMETHING WILD (Criterion Blu-ray)

A quarter century has done nothing to dim the many charms of arguably Jonathan Demme's best movie. Now looking more choice than ever, on Criterion Blu-ray.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - June 16, 2011, 2:29 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: demme, 80s, east village, screwball, road movie

DVD Review LE CERCLE ROUGE (Criterion Blu-ray)

Jean-Pierre Melville empties his chamber and pours everything he knows into this honey of a noir. Looking extra swanky now, on Blu-ray.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - June 10, 2011, 8:49 am - DVD Review
Keywords: melville, noir, criterion

DVD Review THE KING'S SPEECH

The DVD release of a film with an impeccable pedigree, a moving story, and the awards to show for it.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - May 28, 2011, 12:17 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: royals, stuttering, speech therapy, bromance, windsors, abdication, nazis

DVD Review THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (Criterion Blu-ray)

The landmark documentary about one of the human rights pioneers of the last century, in a thorough and completely absorbing Criterion package.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - May 28, 2011, 12:17 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: documentary, criterion, milk, lgbt, gay rights

DVD Review SAFE...NOT SORRY Classic Educational Shorts, Volume 3

An omnibus of forty years of educational films scaring the hell out of children, for their own good.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - May 5, 2011, 11:17 am - DVD Review
Keywords: safety films, elsheimer

DVD Review BROADCAST NEWS (Criterion Blu-ray)

James L. Brooks demonstrates why his nonpareil touch with romantic comedy outlasts any medium, especially one as ephemeral as network—network!—news broadcasts.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - April 25, 2011, 11:41 am - DVD Review
Keywords: romantic comedy, brooks, hunter, journalism

DVD Review SHOCK CORRIDOR (Criterion Blu-ray)

Samuel Fuller has no use for understatement or subtlety, especially when he encamps to the insane asylum.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - March 25, 2011, 2:19 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: samuel fuller, pulitzer prize, insanity, asylums

DVD Review ARMY OF SHADOWS (Criterion Blu-ray)

Jean-Pierre Melville's epic of the French Resistance, unseen stateside for thirty years, continues its renaissance.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - March 16, 2011, 2:15 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: melville, french resistance, war, nouvelle vague

DVD Review THE NAKED KISS (Criterion Blu-ray)

Samuel Fuller's riotously overwrought, madly influential opus, in glorious Blu-ray.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - March 15, 2011, 1:01 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: samuel fuller, criterion collection, bald hookers, angel foam

DVD Review BREATHLESS (Criterion Blu-ray)

Fifty years out, and still brimming with all the hope and intelligence and possibility and romance of the New Wave.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 24, 2010, 7:14 am - DVD Review
Keywords: godard, belmondo, new wave, nouvelle vague

DVD Review CHARADE (Criterion Blu-ray)

The paragon of rogue charmóAudrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Paris, postage stamps.
Release Date: ,

Read More...

Posted by: Jon Danziger - November 1, 2010, 1:50 pm - DVD Review
Keywords: cary grant, audrey hepburn, paris, caper