This might be the biggest Blu-ray column we've ever published here. I tell you this for no real reason, I just want to impress you. In this latest Blu-ray round-up, we have the newest Jordan Peele movie, a David Lynch horror masterpiece headed to 4K from the Criterion Collection, Brad Pitt making terrible jokes in between okay fight scenes, Idris Elba fighting a lion, a suburban family fighting some ghosts, and much more. Keep those discs spinning.
Nope
One of the best movies of the year, Jordan Peele's "Nope" is at first blush a film about aliens and UFOs. But as usual, Peele has a lot more on his mind — specifically, the way we, as humans, approach spectacles and dare to push back against things that we should probably leave alone. This is Peele's slickest movie yet, with the filmmaker going into full Spielberg mode to create the type of thrilling flick that's funny,...
Nope
One of the best movies of the year, Jordan Peele's "Nope" is at first blush a film about aliens and UFOs. But as usual, Peele has a lot more on his mind — specifically, the way we, as humans, approach spectacles and dare to push back against things that we should probably leave alone. This is Peele's slickest movie yet, with the filmmaker going into full Spielberg mode to create the type of thrilling flick that's funny,...
- 10/19/2022
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
When Ivan Reitman passed away on Feb. 12, 2022 at the age of 75, the Canadian producer, director, and screenwriter was justifiably remembered as one of the driving forces of cinematic comedy for more than four decades. After all, he produced National Lampoon’s Animal House–one of the classic farces of its time–in 1978, before moving on to direct a string of other well-remembered entries in the genre, including Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990), and Dave (1993), while producing films such as Space Jam (1996), Private Parts (1997), and Old School (2003).
Of course Reitman is best remembered for directing Ghostbusters, the seminal 1984 film that spawned a franchise and has influenced an entire subgenre, the horror comedy, ever since its release.
Ghostbusters wasn’t Reitman’s only foray into horror territory, however. His second feature film as a director was a low-budget horror comedy called Cannibal Girls (released in 1973 and starring Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin!
Of course Reitman is best remembered for directing Ghostbusters, the seminal 1984 film that spawned a franchise and has influenced an entire subgenre, the horror comedy, ever since its release.
Ghostbusters wasn’t Reitman’s only foray into horror territory, however. His second feature film as a director was a low-budget horror comedy called Cannibal Girls (released in 1973 and starring Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin!
- 2/27/2022
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates | Written and Directed by David Lynch
David Lynch is well known for being a director who is not ashamed to go to some bizarre places, a man known for his surrealism, his specific and individualistic tone in works like Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and this, the feature debut of the legendary writer/director. It is a weird film, that’s for damn sure, but there’s something truly haunting about it too. Amongst the peculiar imagery lives an eerie undertone that became something of a staple, a trademark, for Lynch.
With Eraserhead, the film that preceded The Elephant Man, which arrived some three years later, Lynch delivered to the world a nightmare of visual terror, a tale of a factory worker named Henry Spencer who is driven slowly mad by the cries of his newborn mutant baby. This isn’t, even 43 years later,...
David Lynch is well known for being a director who is not ashamed to go to some bizarre places, a man known for his surrealism, his specific and individualistic tone in works like Twin Peaks, Lost Highway and this, the feature debut of the legendary writer/director. It is a weird film, that’s for damn sure, but there’s something truly haunting about it too. Amongst the peculiar imagery lives an eerie undertone that became something of a staple, a trademark, for Lynch.
With Eraserhead, the film that preceded The Elephant Man, which arrived some three years later, Lynch delivered to the world a nightmare of visual terror, a tale of a factory worker named Henry Spencer who is driven slowly mad by the cries of his newborn mutant baby. This isn’t, even 43 years later,...
- 10/21/2020
- by Chris Cummings
- Nerdly
The September 2020 lineup of The Criterion Collection has been unveiled, and it’s a packed one. Leading the list is Claire Denis’s masterpiece Beau travail, which has finally received a new 4K digital restoration and features a conversation between the director and Barry Jenkins, and much more.
The third edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is also getting a release, featuring films from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). David Lynch’s second feature The Elephant Man will get the Criterion treatment as well with a new 4K restoration, plus a special feature lineup featuring Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna reading from their book Room to Dream.
The full-length, four-hour restored cut of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli will also be arriving in September. Lastly, a pair of crime drama classics from Jules Dassin...
The third edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is also getting a release, featuring films from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). David Lynch’s second feature The Elephant Man will get the Criterion treatment as well with a new 4K restoration, plus a special feature lineup featuring Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna reading from their book Room to Dream.
The full-length, four-hour restored cut of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli will also be arriving in September. Lastly, a pair of crime drama classics from Jules Dassin...
- 6/15/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Gas, Food Lodging will be available on Blu-ray November 13th From Arrow Academy
They Re Sisters. But It Will Take A Miracle To Make Them A Family.
Adapted from the novel Don t Look and It Won t Hurt by Richard Peck, Allison Anders (Grace of My Heart) whipped up a storm at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival with her masterfully crafted tale of a young woman trying to find love while struggling to bring up her two daughters.
Abandoned by her husband, Nora waitresses to keep her head above water while raising two teenagers in a small New Mexico town trailer park. Beautiful and rebellious, Trudi quits school to work alongside her mother, while her sister Shade whittles away her time watching old movie matinees. Their life is turned on its head when Trudi finds that she has fallen pregnant after a string of promiscuous relationships and the...
They Re Sisters. But It Will Take A Miracle To Make Them A Family.
Adapted from the novel Don t Look and It Won t Hurt by Richard Peck, Allison Anders (Grace of My Heart) whipped up a storm at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival with her masterfully crafted tale of a young woman trying to find love while struggling to bring up her two daughters.
Abandoned by her husband, Nora waitresses to keep her head above water while raising two teenagers in a small New Mexico town trailer park. Beautiful and rebellious, Trudi quits school to work alongside her mother, while her sister Shade whittles away her time watching old movie matinees. Their life is turned on its head when Trudi finds that she has fallen pregnant after a string of promiscuous relationships and the...
- 11/5/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
With Halloween only two weeks away now, that means we have another killer batch of home entertainment releases arriving this Tuesday, primed to get everyone in the mood for the macabre. Cult film lovers should get those wallets ready, as Kino Lorber is keeping busy with The Terror Within II, Revenge of the Dead, and a 4K special edition of RawHead Rex, too.
For those who still venture out into the real world to make their media purchases, Target has the exclusive on season one of Stranger Things that comes in nifty retro packaging, and Criterion has put together a stellar Blu for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
Other notable releases for October 17th include American Gods: Season One, Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear, Red Christmas, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Honor Farm, and Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Collection.
American Gods: Season One (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
When...
For those who still venture out into the real world to make their media purchases, Target has the exclusive on season one of Stranger Things that comes in nifty retro packaging, and Criterion has put together a stellar Blu for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
Other notable releases for October 17th include American Gods: Season One, Wes Craven’s Summer of Fear, Red Christmas, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Honor Farm, and Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Collection.
American Gods: Season One (Lionsgate, Blu-ray & DVD)
When...
- 10/17/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
It would seem there’s no need for another documentary about David Lynch, among the most well-documented filmmakers of this or any other era and subject of at least two previous films, Lynch and Lynch 2. Good news, then: David Lynch: The Art Life finds new ground in both story and form, alternating between his California workspace as he lovingly crafts any number of unclassifiable objects before our eyes and a series of archival materials — including, as far as I can tell, Lynch-shot material that’s never been publicly released — complemented by Lynch’s genteel exposition on his younger years.
Jon Nguyen, the film’s co-director (credited alongside Olivia Neergaard-Holm and Rick Barnes) sat down with us to get into the finer points of his project, its visual and emotional complexities being further revealed in our talk. But don’t just take my word for it. As went our review...
Jon Nguyen, the film’s co-director (credited alongside Olivia Neergaard-Holm and Rick Barnes) sat down with us to get into the finer points of his project, its visual and emotional complexities being further revealed in our talk. But don’t just take my word for it. As went our review...
- 4/4/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
[Blue Velvet] was the song that sparked the movie!—David Lynch(1)Blue velvet, red lips, sprawling, manicured neighborhood lawns; the transgressions that go on behind the closed doors of ostensibly squeaky-clean American suburbia; the mysterious melancholy behind a pop song written in the early 1950s: these were the things that inspired David Lynch to write Blue Velvet. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont in the film, a young man who returns to his hometown of Lumberton after his father has had a stroke. Whilst walking home after visiting his father in hospital, Jeffrey comes across an ant-infested human ear in an empty lot and takes it upon himself to investigate the mystery surrounding it, resulting in his being seduced and almost destroyed by the seamy underbelly of the town. In his investigations Jeffrey is torn between two worlds, one of innocence and one of corruption, and it is a duality that is not...
- 11/8/2016
- MUBI
Ambiguous Ave.? Bizarro Blvd.? David Lynch's major mystery movie is back looking better than ever in a 4K transfer. Criterion's presentation accompanies it with a stack of interesting interviews with Lynch, Naomi Watts, Laura Herring plus other actors and crew people. The movie began, it seems, as sort of a non-spinoff spinoff of Twin Peaks. Mulholland Dr. Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 779 2001 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 146 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 27, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Ann Miller, Scott Wulff, Robert Forster, Brent Briscoe, Maya Bond, Patrick Fischler, Michael Cooke, Bonnie Aarons, Lee Grant, Chad Everett, James Karen, Dan Hedaya, Monty Montgomery, Rebekah Del Rio. Cinematography Peter Deming Production Designer Jack Fisk Film Editor Mary Sweeney Original Music Angelo Badalamenti Written by David Lynch Produced by Neal Edelstein, Tony Krantz, Michael Polaire, Alain Sarde, Mary Sweeney Directed by David Lynch
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Time alters everything,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Time alters everything,...
- 11/10/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
I was skeptical about the market receiving another David Lynch book. What worthwhile words could be added to the pile (I don’t use that term endearingly) of all that’s been written and said over the decades? What compelled such a valuable critical voice to enter that territory? I second-guessed those feelings almost immediately after starting Dennis Lim‘s David Lynch: The Man from Another Place, a work that, in combining thorough research with perceptive, even-handed critical analysis, can shine light on material without needing to declare itself a new paragon. (One can sample it here and here.) With crisp prose — one small example: I love how he describes Eraserhead as “an exemplar of ingenuity born of poverty” — and a consistent brevity (the 179-page text is not-inaccurately described in its press release as “meditation-length”), this is an obvious must-read for Lynch’s admirers.
It’s to my fortunate...
It’s to my fortunate...
- 11/3/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Mulholland Drive
Written and directed by David Lynch
USA, 2001
Included with the original DVD release of Mulholland Drive was a note giving David Lynch’s “10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller.” These were teasing vagaries like “Where is Aunt Ruth?”, “Who gives a key, and why?”, and “Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.” As provocative as these clues are, none are particularly helpful when it comes to deciphering the mysteries of this mesmerizing film. Still, as points to ponder, they do add even further dimensions to one of the best, most fascinatingly perplexing films from a director who knows a thing or two about fascinating and perplexing films.
Leading up to the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Mulholland Drive, which does not include these clues but does contain interviews, a deleted scene, and behind the scenes footage (as per Lynch’s home video instructions,...
Written and directed by David Lynch
USA, 2001
Included with the original DVD release of Mulholland Drive was a note giving David Lynch’s “10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller.” These were teasing vagaries like “Where is Aunt Ruth?”, “Who gives a key, and why?”, and “Pay particular attention in the beginning of the film: at least two clues are revealed before the credits.” As provocative as these clues are, none are particularly helpful when it comes to deciphering the mysteries of this mesmerizing film. Still, as points to ponder, they do add even further dimensions to one of the best, most fascinatingly perplexing films from a director who knows a thing or two about fascinating and perplexing films.
Leading up to the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Mulholland Drive, which does not include these clues but does contain interviews, a deleted scene, and behind the scenes footage (as per Lynch’s home video instructions,...
- 11/3/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Hope everyone has their boomsticks ready, as this final week of October is looking to be yet another banner week for genre Blu-ray and DVD releases, highlighted by the anticipated Collector’s Edition set for Sam Raimi’s cult classic Army of Darkness from Scream Factory. The recent thriller, The Gift, is also making its way to multiple formats on October 27th and for those of you fans of The Fifth Element out there, Sony is putting together a nifty Cinema Series release that arrives this Tuesday.
Olive Films is also keeping themselves busy this week with several cult classic releases including Breeders, Sometimes They Come Back, Dr. Terror's House of Horror and Saul Bass’ Phase IV, with Warner Home Video resurrecting several classics in HD as well—The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Son of Kong, Them! and the Special Effects Collection box set.
Other notable titles coming out on...
Olive Films is also keeping themselves busy this week with several cult classic releases including Breeders, Sometimes They Come Back, Dr. Terror's House of Horror and Saul Bass’ Phase IV, with Warner Home Video resurrecting several classics in HD as well—The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Son of Kong, Them! and the Special Effects Collection box set.
Other notable titles coming out on...
- 10/27/2015
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Having returned from the Moorish and Amazonian horrors to enter the multiplex – the home of the celluloid dream that has dispatched many a willing viewer to their homes to be terrified by creaking floorboards, so this week we find ourselves returning home.
In part four of our FrightFest special feature ‘Unwanted Guests’, HeyUGuys interrogated director Ate de Jong and producer Elisar Cabrera about contributing an invasive descent into human nature – spiralling into the depths of repression and emotional and physical abuse for their independent home invasion drama Deadly Virtues.
What does it mean to have played at FILM4 Frightfest?
Elisar Cabrera: Well as a Londoner it is quite thrilling, and although I have been to FrightFest before as a sales agent and I have represented films here, this is my first time as a producer.
Ate de Jong: It is actually a very strange experience. I’ve lived in London for fourteen years,...
In part four of our FrightFest special feature ‘Unwanted Guests’, HeyUGuys interrogated director Ate de Jong and producer Elisar Cabrera about contributing an invasive descent into human nature – spiralling into the depths of repression and emotional and physical abuse for their independent home invasion drama Deadly Virtues.
What does it mean to have played at FILM4 Frightfest?
Elisar Cabrera: Well as a Londoner it is quite thrilling, and although I have been to FrightFest before as a sales agent and I have represented films here, this is my first time as a producer.
Ate de Jong: It is actually a very strange experience. I’ve lived in London for fourteen years,...
- 9/12/2014
- by Paul Risker
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Arrow Video is excited to announce the UK Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD and Steelbook release of the 1987 British thriller, White of the Eye, which will be making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, and UK DVD debut from 31st March 2014. Described by the distinguished critic David Thomson as “one of the great secret works in cinema”, White of the Eye is one of the most bizarre and unforgettable thrillers ever made. Arrow Video’s Francesco Simeoni said: "Donald Cammell was such an unfortunate filmmaker, side-lined by critics who thought Nicolas Roeg was the creative force behind Performance, projects which would never come to fruition, studio interference and personal problems, his life was arguably more famous than his films. White of the Eye is possibly his most problem free film, though even this film suffered cuts, which we have included, although sadly no sound could be found. Though the film was cut, Cammell never commented,...
- 3/7/2014
- 24framespersecond.net
BBC Four has announced an hour-long documentary about the late Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed, who died in October at the age of 71.
Produced and directed by Chris Rodley, Lou Reed Remembered will be broadcast on the channel this Sunday, December 15 at 9pm. It will be repeated the following day at 3am.
Lou Reed 1942-2013: Obituary of Velvet Underground co-founder
"With the help of friends, fellow musicians, critics and those who have been inspired not only by his music but also by his famously contrary approach to almost everything, the documentary looks at how Reed not only helped to shape a generation but also helped to create a truly alternative, independent rock scene, while also providing New York with its most provocative and potent soundtrack," the BBC said.
Contributors to the film include Reed's former Velvet Underground bandmates Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule, Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter, novelist Paul Auster...
Produced and directed by Chris Rodley, Lou Reed Remembered will be broadcast on the channel this Sunday, December 15 at 9pm. It will be repeated the following day at 3am.
Lou Reed 1942-2013: Obituary of Velvet Underground co-founder
"With the help of friends, fellow musicians, critics and those who have been inspired not only by his music but also by his famously contrary approach to almost everything, the documentary looks at how Reed not only helped to shape a generation but also helped to create a truly alternative, independent rock scene, while also providing New York with its most provocative and potent soundtrack," the BBC said.
Contributors to the film include Reed's former Velvet Underground bandmates Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule, Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter, novelist Paul Auster...
- 12/9/2013
- Digital Spy
Chicago – I adore David Cronenberg. He’s one of the most important filmmakers of his generation from “Videodrome” (also available in a great Criterion release) to “The Fly” to “Dead Ringers” to “The History of Violence.” He matters. And yet I’ve never been in love with “Naked Lunch,” recently released in Criterion Blu-ray and DVD. It’s one of those movies that I always admired but never loved. It’s about all that could be done with a Burroughs’ book, one that clearly could not be directly adapted into film, but I find it more interesting as a filmmaking exercise than an enjoyable piece of work on its own. Having said that, the Criterion treatment of it is expectedly stellar.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Criterion HD transfers should be the model for all. “Naked Lunch” doesn’t look overly polished like too many movies from before 2000 often do. It just looks right.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Criterion HD transfers should be the model for all. “Naked Lunch” doesn’t look overly polished like too many movies from before 2000 often do. It just looks right.
- 4/22/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre releases for April.
John Dies at the End (2012) Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD Available Now
Finally, a new Don Coscarelli movie! After years of waiting, the cult auteur comes back with a lively adaptation of David Wong’s popular novel. A drug that induces an out-of-body experience sends its users across time and other dimensions. When some of them come back not quite human, an otherworldly invasion is set into motion. Suddenly, college dropouts John (Rob Mayes) and Dave (Chase Williamson) find themselves in an epic battle to save the world. Coscarelli’s surreal visual flair and black comic bent are in full effect here. Hopefully, its critical success will ensure that the beloved filmmaker won't have to wait another ten years to make a film.
Special Features:
· Feature-length audio commentary by Coscarelli, Williamson, Mayes and producer Brad Baruh
· Seven deleted...
John Dies at the End (2012) Magnolia Home Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD Available Now
Finally, a new Don Coscarelli movie! After years of waiting, the cult auteur comes back with a lively adaptation of David Wong’s popular novel. A drug that induces an out-of-body experience sends its users across time and other dimensions. When some of them come back not quite human, an otherworldly invasion is set into motion. Suddenly, college dropouts John (Rob Mayes) and Dave (Chase Williamson) find themselves in an epic battle to save the world. Coscarelli’s surreal visual flair and black comic bent are in full effect here. Hopefully, its critical success will ensure that the beloved filmmaker won't have to wait another ten years to make a film.
Special Features:
· Feature-length audio commentary by Coscarelli, Williamson, Mayes and producer Brad Baruh
· Seven deleted...
- 4/12/2013
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
This week: Bill Murray as President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the highlight of "Hyde Park on Hudson," which should in no way be considered a historically accurate account of Fdr's meeting with the King and Queen of England in 1939.
Also new this week are two Criterion Collection Blu-ray debuts: Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" ("My kingdom for a horse!") and David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" ("Exterminate all rational thought").
'Hyde Park on Hudson'
Box Office: $6.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 38% Rotten
Storyline: Based on the private journals and diaries of Margaret 'Daisy' Suckley (Laura Linney) that were found after her death, this biographical comedy drama takes a look at the events surrounding a pivotal historical meeting in upstate New York between President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and the King and Queen of England on the eve of World War II. The British royals walk into an awkward domestic situation as Fdr's wife,...
Also new this week are two Criterion Collection Blu-ray debuts: Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" ("My kingdom for a horse!") and David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" ("Exterminate all rational thought").
'Hyde Park on Hudson'
Box Office: $6.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 38% Rotten
Storyline: Based on the private journals and diaries of Margaret 'Daisy' Suckley (Laura Linney) that were found after her death, this biographical comedy drama takes a look at the events surrounding a pivotal historical meeting in upstate New York between President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and the King and Queen of England on the eve of World War II. The British royals walk into an awkward domestic situation as Fdr's wife,...
- 4/8/2013
- by Robert DeSalvo
- NextMovie
Hollywood has always played fast and loose with books – risking the author's wrath by changing plot and characters wholesale. Joe Dunthorne looks back on some memorable film cheats
At book readings, Stephen King sometimes tells a story about his "only preproduction discussion" for the 1980 film adaptation of The Shining. At seven in the morning, King was shaving in the bathroom when his wife ran in to tell him there was a call from London, it was Stanley Kubrick. Just the mention of the director's name was shock enough that when King went to the phone, he had a line of blood running down one cheek and the other was still white with foam. The first thing Kubrick said – and it's worth noting that King's growly impersonation makes him sound like a swamp creature – was: "I think stories of the supernatural are fundamentally optimistic, don't you? If there are ghosts then that means we survive death.
At book readings, Stephen King sometimes tells a story about his "only preproduction discussion" for the 1980 film adaptation of The Shining. At seven in the morning, King was shaving in the bathroom when his wife ran in to tell him there was a call from London, it was Stanley Kubrick. Just the mention of the director's name was shock enough that when King went to the phone, he had a line of blood running down one cheek and the other was still white with foam. The first thing Kubrick said – and it's worth noting that King's growly impersonation makes him sound like a swamp creature – was: "I think stories of the supernatural are fundamentally optimistic, don't you? If there are ghosts then that means we survive death.
- 4/6/2013
- by Joe Dunthorne
- The Guardian - Film News
Blu-ray Release Date: April 9, 2013
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Something's bugging Peter Weller in Naked Lunch.
Peter Weller (Firstborn), Judy Davis (To Rome with Love) and Roy Scheider (Jaws) star in David Cronenberg’s (Cosmopolis) 1991 film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory, once-thought unfilmable 1959 novel Naked Lunch.
Weller takes the lead in the biographical drama-comedy as a part-time exterminator and full-time drug addict named Bill Lee who plunges into the nightmarish Interzone, a netherworld of sinister cabals and giant talking bugs.
Alternately humorous and grotesque—and always surreal—the film mingles aspects of Burroughs’s novel with incidents from the writer’s own life, resulting in an paranoid fantasy and a self-reflexive investigation into the mysteries of the creative process.
The Blu-ray contains the same bonus features that were offered on the Criterion DVD that was issued back in 2003 (and that’s still available). Here’s what’s included:
• High-definition digital transfer,...
Price: Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Something's bugging Peter Weller in Naked Lunch.
Peter Weller (Firstborn), Judy Davis (To Rome with Love) and Roy Scheider (Jaws) star in David Cronenberg’s (Cosmopolis) 1991 film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory, once-thought unfilmable 1959 novel Naked Lunch.
Weller takes the lead in the biographical drama-comedy as a part-time exterminator and full-time drug addict named Bill Lee who plunges into the nightmarish Interzone, a netherworld of sinister cabals and giant talking bugs.
Alternately humorous and grotesque—and always surreal—the film mingles aspects of Burroughs’s novel with incidents from the writer’s own life, resulting in an paranoid fantasy and a self-reflexive investigation into the mysteries of the creative process.
The Blu-ray contains the same bonus features that were offered on the Criterion DVD that was issued back in 2003 (and that’s still available). Here’s what’s included:
• High-definition digital transfer,...
- 1/22/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Second #5828, 97:08
At the basement party, Sandy has just assured her friends that it’s okay that she’s there with Jeffrey, not Mike. “It’s all taken care of,” she’ll tell Jeffrey in a few seconds, as “Mysteries of Love” is about to begin.
They were asking a lot of money for the [“Song to the Siren” by This Mortal Coil] track, and we didn’t have any money. At one point Fred Caruso said, ‘David, you’re always writing little things. They could be called lyrics. Why don’t you write something and send it to Angelo and he will write you a song?’ . . . So Angelo wrote ‘Mysteries of Love.’ At first it wasn’t what it is now: same melody, same words, but it had a completely different feel. So I talked to him, and then I started falling in love with this thing. And he got this friend of his—Julee Cruise—to...
At the basement party, Sandy has just assured her friends that it’s okay that she’s there with Jeffrey, not Mike. “It’s all taken care of,” she’ll tell Jeffrey in a few seconds, as “Mysteries of Love” is about to begin.
They were asking a lot of money for the [“Song to the Siren” by This Mortal Coil] track, and we didn’t have any money. At one point Fred Caruso said, ‘David, you’re always writing little things. They could be called lyrics. Why don’t you write something and send it to Angelo and he will write you a song?’ . . . So Angelo wrote ‘Mysteries of Love.’ At first it wasn’t what it is now: same melody, same words, but it had a completely different feel. So I talked to him, and then I started falling in love with this thing. And he got this friend of his—Julee Cruise—to...
- 6/15/2012
- by Nicholas Rombes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Second #5311, 88:31
1. This frame is from around twelve seconds into a thirteen-second shot, just before the screen goes black. Jeffrey sobs. The unflinching, unmoving camera eye does not look away. There is no soundtrack. There is nothing ironic or postmodern about this moment.
2. Paul Virilio, from his book Open Sky:
‘If anyone thinks I paint too fast, they are watching me too fast,’ Van Gogh wrote. Already, the classic photograph is no more than a freeze frame. With the decline in volumes and in the expanse of landscapes, reality becomes sequential and cinematic unfolding finally gets the jump on whatever is static.
3. Rendered at a low frame rate (below) the shot in question suggests Jeffrey’s jagged brokenness. In order not to watch too fast maybe we ought to watch differently, deforming the film to correspond to its own portrayal of psychological torment and deformity.
4. David Lynch, from an interview...
1. This frame is from around twelve seconds into a thirteen-second shot, just before the screen goes black. Jeffrey sobs. The unflinching, unmoving camera eye does not look away. There is no soundtrack. There is nothing ironic or postmodern about this moment.
2. Paul Virilio, from his book Open Sky:
‘If anyone thinks I paint too fast, they are watching me too fast,’ Van Gogh wrote. Already, the classic photograph is no more than a freeze frame. With the decline in volumes and in the expanse of landscapes, reality becomes sequential and cinematic unfolding finally gets the jump on whatever is static.
3. Rendered at a low frame rate (below) the shot in question suggests Jeffrey’s jagged brokenness. In order not to watch too fast maybe we ought to watch differently, deforming the film to correspond to its own portrayal of psychological torment and deformity.
4. David Lynch, from an interview...
- 5/14/2012
- by Nicholas Rombes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr. – why do David Lynch's films exert such a grip on our imaginations?
Let us start, as David Lynch himself did, with Eraserhead. I first saw it on the college film circuit in 1981, four years after its UK release – but I had been haunted by it long before seeing it. Even the small advert in the Evening Standard – a tiny version of the poster, with Jack Nance's appalled, ambiguous gaze, and that haircut, with, of course, its baffling title – compelled, and made me realise that I was going to have to see it one day. When I was old enough.
For it was an X certificate (now demoted to a 15), and it contains horrors, most notably the grossly deformed baby sired by the hapless Henry, which in the final scenes is subject to a gruesome dissection, leading to some kind of apocalypse. As a...
Let us start, as David Lynch himself did, with Eraserhead. I first saw it on the college film circuit in 1981, four years after its UK release – but I had been haunted by it long before seeing it. Even the small advert in the Evening Standard – a tiny version of the poster, with Jack Nance's appalled, ambiguous gaze, and that haircut, with, of course, its baffling title – compelled, and made me realise that I was going to have to see it one day. When I was old enough.
For it was an X certificate (now demoted to a 15), and it contains horrors, most notably the grossly deformed baby sired by the hapless Henry, which in the final scenes is subject to a gruesome dissection, leading to some kind of apocalypse. As a...
- 2/18/2012
- by Nicholas Lezard
- The Guardian - Film News
This is as good a Friday treat as we're ever likely to offer. Just as I celebrated the 25th anniversary of the film [1] this summer, it was announced that fifty minutes of deleted scenes had been recovered for David Lynch's seminal 1986 film Blue Velvet. Those scenes are available on the film's new Blu-ray disc release, which streets next week, on November 8. I just watched a handful of the 'new' scenes, and while I haven't yet seen them in full blu-ray resolution, what I did see suggested that the mastering and color correction all supervised by Lynch, were done with a meticulous attention to detail. But don't take my word for it. Below you'll find a scene featuring Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) threatening one of his 'friends' as Jeffrey Beaumont and Dorothy Vallens (Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini) look on in horror. The clip is considered Nsfw due to language and nudity,...
- 11/4/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Well, look at that: Brundlefly is twenty-five years old today. On August 15, 1986, David Cronenberg’s The Fly was released by Twentieth-Century Fox. The film became Cronenberg’s greatest success to date, and quickly established itself as an instant classic of practical effects thanks to the Oscar-winning work of Chris Walas. (Who would go on to direct the sequel.) The Fly also gave stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, who had met and begun dating while making Transylvania 6-5000, their first true breakout lead opportunities. Those are all significant results of the film’s release, but The Fly is a film worth revisiting and honoring for other reasons. It marks a real turning point in the career of David Cronenberg, and stands as one of the unassailable arguments for the idea of the film remake. And, in the cinematic culture of 2011, where the superhero is ascendant, some of you might join...
- 8/16/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
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