Criterion Channel Diary: July
By Austin Johnson
The Criterion Channel journey continues with this random shit that I got to watch in July…
The Big Knife (1955) - 8
The Great Dictator (1940) - 8
The Clown Turns Prophet
The Player (1992) - 9
Smithereens (1982) - 8
Detour (1945) - 8
45 Years (2015) - 9
Lovely & Amazing (2001) - 8
Friends with Money (2006) - 8
Please Give (2010) - 8
Shorts for Days: Women Auteurs Introduction
Saute ma ville (1968)
Uncle Yanco (1968)
An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1982)
Lick the Star (1998)
Wasp (2003)
California Suite (1978) - 8
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) - 9
The Amateurist (1998)
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) - 7
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014) - 9
Infinite Football (2018)
The Big Knife is the first film I watched in July because it’s in the critically acclaimed “Films Play Itself” collection which contains films that are about filmmaking or film makers in some way. The Big Knife is the oldest film in the collection from 1955, but there are 9 others and I actually watched 2 of them in April (Hollywood Shuffle and David Holzman’s Diary) and 1 of them in June (Contempt). It’s a killer collection that I’ll continue checking out. The Big Knife has the best Jack Palance performance I’ve seen so far and some jaw dropping writing from James Poe.
We have two podcasts going on here at Filmgazm productions right now. The Filmgazm pod covers genre films, mostly horror and then our Oscar Sunday pod discusses Oscar-nominated films. For our fifth episode on Oscar Sunday, we chose Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator from 1940 which received five nominations at the 13th Academy Awards. I was all in with that pick because Connor is a massive fan and it’s on Criterion Channel along with commentary and multiple docs/interviews so that made for an easy second watch for July. I watched The Clown Turns Prophet which taught me a lot in just 20 minutes of still photos with a dude talking. I think The Great Dictator is a must-see and if you like it, then you should definitely check out the supplementary material Criterion has to offer.
I went straight back to “Films Play Itself” and checked out The Player which is a damn near perfect film. I have heard and read so many wonderful things about The Player but it took Sean Fennesey and Amanda Dobbins from the The Big Picture Podcast to really push me to watch it. They released an episode that discussed their favorite films about making films and they both had The Player at number 2. It might not be second for me but it’s most certainly in the discussion. Tim Robbins was on a different planet during the 90’s and his work as Griffin Mill in The Player might be his best effort ever.
One of the most popular sections on the Criterion Channel is the “Criterion Edition” collection of films that are selected by Criterion and put on the streaming service. It’s typically films that you can actually find on DVD or blu-ray. The next 3 films I watched are all a part of that collection which are Smithereens, Detour, and 45 Years. 80’s to 40’s to 2010’s. Smithereens is a very punk rock film, Detour is the definition of film noir, and 45 Years is an intense drama about a marriage. I fucking love Criterion.
After jumping all over the place in the “Criterion Edition” section, I decided to watch all 3 films in the “Three by Nicole Holofcener” collection. She’s an incredible writer/director from New York City with a very distinctive style. I was able to watch her second film Lovely & Amazing, her third film Friends with Money, and her fourth film Please Give. All of them are glimpses into everyday people going through everyday kinds of things. Catherine Keener appears in all three films and she’s spectacular at all times. I feel a pretty equal likeness for each one personally and I will definitely be watching her other stuff when I get the chance.
The next batch of stuff I watched in July after the three by Holofcener was all 5 shorts from the “Shorts for Days: Women Auteurs” collection. I watched them in order of what year they came out so it went from Chantal Akerman to Agnes Varda to Jane Campion to Sofia Coppola to Andrea Arnold as the director/writer for each one. Those are some power house women that proved to me that they not only make great feature length films but their vision works for shorts as well, because they use their time so efficiently. My favorite of those is definitely Andrea Arnold’s Wasp which is a very intense look at a single mother and her children living in Arnold’s hometown of Dartford, England. It won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 77th Academy Awards.
After diving into those shorts, I checked out the “Marriage Stories” collection of 18 films which includes a few I’ve already seen. The Squid and the Whale is a Noah Baumbach film that Connor and I have both written a review for after watching it on Netflix. I watched Tuesday, After Christmas last month and loved it. I watched 45 Years earlier this month. Kramer vs. Kramer is in the collection and I saw that a few years back and I like that one as well. It’s a strong collection so I decided to check out California Suite from 1978, mainly because the cast is fucking absurd. Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau, and Elaine May? Jesus, I’m still getting over that and the film itself is pretty good. It’s about a bunch of different couples staying at The Beverly Hills Hotel. When the film ended, I immediately wanted to rewatch the Smith and Caine bits.
After California Suite, I was enticed by a film that was being advertised at the very top of the home page. It’s filled with all the colors of the rainbow and highlights the title, Me and You and Everyone We Know. It was Miranda July’s first feature length film and a very poetic effort at that. I’m still a bit shook up over John Hawkes performance in the film and the direction itself caused me to watch one of July’s shorts from the 90’s called The Amateurist. I enjoyed it and I know there’s more of her stuff on the service, so I’ll be checking back in with her in the future.
First Reformed is one of my favorite films from 2018. Paul Schrader is unfairly underrated and I think his career deserves some sort of re-evaluation. The Comfort of Strangers came out in 1990, in between writing the screenplay for The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 and then writing and directing Light Sleeper in 1992. The Comfort of Strangers features two pretty unsettling performances from Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren. I didn’t love the film overall, but Schrader is an excellent director that certainly brings his own style every time.
I’ve been able to dive into David Lynch’s career a bit deeper through Criterion Channel and I won’t ever stop if they keep adding his films and shorts into the mix. I watched Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces on a random night and I was expectedly blown away. The Twin Peaks universe is one I don’t ever want to escape and The Missing Pieces only added to that. Plus, you get more David Bowie as Philip Jeffries and that’s definitely a good thing.
Last month, I watched a Romanian film called Tuesday, After Christmas that sort of inspired me to research the history of Romanian cinema. I lived in Romania for about a year and football or soccer as it’s called here, is my favorite sport. I finished off July with a Romanian documentary called Infinite Football which was directed by one of Romania’s most critically acclaimed directors named Corneliu Porumboiu. It’s about Laurentiu Ginghina, who is a man obsessed with changing the rules of football. Honestly, his ideas would form a totally different sport. In his mind, it would be a rival sport to football. It’s a wonderful doc.
I was able to watch 13 films, 7 shorts, and 2 documentaries on the Criterion Channel during the month of July. I’m still working full time right now and I’m very grateful for that, but I will continue these diaries even if I only watch a handful of films through this wonderful streaming service during a month. I have 5 films that truly swept me off my feet, and 4 films that I think every film buff should check out.
Personals
5. 45 Years
4. Me and You and Everyone We Know
3. Infinite Football
2. Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
1. The Player
Recommendations
4. Wasp
3. The Big Knife
2. The Player
1. The Great Dictator
The Big Knife (1955) - 8
The Great Dictator (1940) - 8
The Clown Turns Prophet
The Player (1992) - 9
Smithereens (1982) - 8
Detour (1945) - 8
45 Years (2015) - 9
Lovely & Amazing (2001) - 8
Friends with Money (2006) - 8
Please Give (2010) - 8
Shorts for Days: Women Auteurs Introduction
Saute ma ville (1968)
Uncle Yanco (1968)
An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1982)
Lick the Star (1998)
Wasp (2003)
California Suite (1978) - 8
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) - 9
The Amateurist (1998)
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) - 7
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014) - 9
Infinite Football (2018)
The Big Knife is the first film I watched in July because it’s in the critically acclaimed “Films Play Itself” collection which contains films that are about filmmaking or film makers in some way. The Big Knife is the oldest film in the collection from 1955, but there are 9 others and I actually watched 2 of them in April (Hollywood Shuffle and David Holzman’s Diary) and 1 of them in June (Contempt). It’s a killer collection that I’ll continue checking out. The Big Knife has the best Jack Palance performance I’ve seen so far and some jaw dropping writing from James Poe.
We have two podcasts going on here at Filmgazm productions right now. The Filmgazm pod covers genre films, mostly horror and then our Oscar Sunday pod discusses Oscar-nominated films. For our fifth episode on Oscar Sunday, we chose Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator from 1940 which received five nominations at the 13th Academy Awards. I was all in with that pick because Connor is a massive fan and it’s on Criterion Channel along with commentary and multiple docs/interviews so that made for an easy second watch for July. I watched The Clown Turns Prophet which taught me a lot in just 20 minutes of still photos with a dude talking. I think The Great Dictator is a must-see and if you like it, then you should definitely check out the supplementary material Criterion has to offer.
I went straight back to “Films Play Itself” and checked out The Player which is a damn near perfect film. I have heard and read so many wonderful things about The Player but it took Sean Fennesey and Amanda Dobbins from the The Big Picture Podcast to really push me to watch it. They released an episode that discussed their favorite films about making films and they both had The Player at number 2. It might not be second for me but it’s most certainly in the discussion. Tim Robbins was on a different planet during the 90’s and his work as Griffin Mill in The Player might be his best effort ever.
One of the most popular sections on the Criterion Channel is the “Criterion Edition” collection of films that are selected by Criterion and put on the streaming service. It’s typically films that you can actually find on DVD or blu-ray. The next 3 films I watched are all a part of that collection which are Smithereens, Detour, and 45 Years. 80’s to 40’s to 2010’s. Smithereens is a very punk rock film, Detour is the definition of film noir, and 45 Years is an intense drama about a marriage. I fucking love Criterion.
After jumping all over the place in the “Criterion Edition” section, I decided to watch all 3 films in the “Three by Nicole Holofcener” collection. She’s an incredible writer/director from New York City with a very distinctive style. I was able to watch her second film Lovely & Amazing, her third film Friends with Money, and her fourth film Please Give. All of them are glimpses into everyday people going through everyday kinds of things. Catherine Keener appears in all three films and she’s spectacular at all times. I feel a pretty equal likeness for each one personally and I will definitely be watching her other stuff when I get the chance.
The next batch of stuff I watched in July after the three by Holofcener was all 5 shorts from the “Shorts for Days: Women Auteurs” collection. I watched them in order of what year they came out so it went from Chantal Akerman to Agnes Varda to Jane Campion to Sofia Coppola to Andrea Arnold as the director/writer for each one. Those are some power house women that proved to me that they not only make great feature length films but their vision works for shorts as well, because they use their time so efficiently. My favorite of those is definitely Andrea Arnold’s Wasp which is a very intense look at a single mother and her children living in Arnold’s hometown of Dartford, England. It won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 77th Academy Awards.
After diving into those shorts, I checked out the “Marriage Stories” collection of 18 films which includes a few I’ve already seen. The Squid and the Whale is a Noah Baumbach film that Connor and I have both written a review for after watching it on Netflix. I watched Tuesday, After Christmas last month and loved it. I watched 45 Years earlier this month. Kramer vs. Kramer is in the collection and I saw that a few years back and I like that one as well. It’s a strong collection so I decided to check out California Suite from 1978, mainly because the cast is fucking absurd. Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau, and Elaine May? Jesus, I’m still getting over that and the film itself is pretty good. It’s about a bunch of different couples staying at The Beverly Hills Hotel. When the film ended, I immediately wanted to rewatch the Smith and Caine bits.
After California Suite, I was enticed by a film that was being advertised at the very top of the home page. It’s filled with all the colors of the rainbow and highlights the title, Me and You and Everyone We Know. It was Miranda July’s first feature length film and a very poetic effort at that. I’m still a bit shook up over John Hawkes performance in the film and the direction itself caused me to watch one of July’s shorts from the 90’s called The Amateurist. I enjoyed it and I know there’s more of her stuff on the service, so I’ll be checking back in with her in the future.
First Reformed is one of my favorite films from 2018. Paul Schrader is unfairly underrated and I think his career deserves some sort of re-evaluation. The Comfort of Strangers came out in 1990, in between writing the screenplay for The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 and then writing and directing Light Sleeper in 1992. The Comfort of Strangers features two pretty unsettling performances from Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren. I didn’t love the film overall, but Schrader is an excellent director that certainly brings his own style every time.
I’ve been able to dive into David Lynch’s career a bit deeper through Criterion Channel and I won’t ever stop if they keep adding his films and shorts into the mix. I watched Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces on a random night and I was expectedly blown away. The Twin Peaks universe is one I don’t ever want to escape and The Missing Pieces only added to that. Plus, you get more David Bowie as Philip Jeffries and that’s definitely a good thing.
Last month, I watched a Romanian film called Tuesday, After Christmas that sort of inspired me to research the history of Romanian cinema. I lived in Romania for about a year and football or soccer as it’s called here, is my favorite sport. I finished off July with a Romanian documentary called Infinite Football which was directed by one of Romania’s most critically acclaimed directors named Corneliu Porumboiu. It’s about Laurentiu Ginghina, who is a man obsessed with changing the rules of football. Honestly, his ideas would form a totally different sport. In his mind, it would be a rival sport to football. It’s a wonderful doc.
I was able to watch 13 films, 7 shorts, and 2 documentaries on the Criterion Channel during the month of July. I’m still working full time right now and I’m very grateful for that, but I will continue these diaries even if I only watch a handful of films through this wonderful streaming service during a month. I have 5 films that truly swept me off my feet, and 4 films that I think every film buff should check out.
Personals
5. 45 Years
4. Me and You and Everyone We Know
3. Infinite Football
2. Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
1. The Player
Recommendations
4. Wasp
3. The Big Knife
2. The Player
1. The Great Dictator