{"id":21097,"date":"2017-05-16T17:07:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T21:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=21097"},"modified":"2017-08-04T16:05:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T20:05:35","slug":"the-criterion-collection-announces-august-2017-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2017\/05\/16\/the-criterion-collection-announces-august-2017-releases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Criterion Collection Announces August 2017 Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today The Criterion Collection\u00a0announced their August 2017 line-up, with two upgrades, including one title that was once available on Criterion DVD but that has been out of print for years — I love seeing those come back!<\/p>\n

The blurbs are from The Criterion Collection\u2019s website (so are the links)\u00a0— go there to see the details on the supplements.<\/p>\n

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\"\"August 8, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Breaking Point <\/em>(1950)
\n<\/em>d. Michael Curtiz<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Michael Curtiz brings a master skipper\u2019s hand to the helm of this thriller, Hollywood\u2019s second crack at Ernest Hemingway\u2019s To Have and Have Not.<\/em> John Garfield stars as Harry Morgan, an honest charter-boat captain who, facing hard times, takes on dangerous cargo to save his boat, support his family, and preserve his dignity. Left in the lurch by a freeloading passenger, Harry starts to entertain the criminal propositions of a sleazy lawyer (Wallace Ford), as well as the playful come-ons of a cheeky blonde (Patricia Neal), making a series of compromises that stretch his morality\u2014and his marriage\u2014farther than he\u2019ll admit. Hewing closer to Hemingway\u2019s novel than Howard Hawks\u2019s Bogart-Bacall vehicle, The Breaking Point<\/em> charts a course through daylight noir and working-class tragedy, guided by Curtiz\u2019s effortless visual fluency and a stoic, career-capping performance from Garfield.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"August 15, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meantime\u00a0<\/em>(1984)
\nd.\u00a0Mike Leigh<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

A slow-burning depiction of economic degradation in Thatcher\u2019s England, Mike Leigh\u2019s Meantime<\/em> was the culmination of the writer-director\u2019s pioneering work in television and became his breakthrough theatrical release. Unemployment is rampant in London\u2019s working-class East End, where a middle-aged couple and their two sons languish in a claustrophobic public housing flat. As the brothers (Phil Daniels and Tim Roth) grow increasingly disaffected, Leigh punctuates the grinding boredom of their daily existence with tense encounters, including with a priggish aunt (Marion Bailey) who has managed to become middle-class and a blithering skinhead on the verge of psychosis (a scene-stealing Gary Oldman, in his first major role). Informed by Leigh\u2019s now trademark improvisational process and propelled by the lurching rhythms of its Beckett-like dialogue, Meantime<\/em> is an unrelenting, often blisteringly funny look at life on the dole.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"August 15, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hopscotch<\/em>\u00a0(1980)
\n<\/em>d.\u00a0Ronald Neame<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

The inimitable comic team of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson star in this nimble tale of international intrigue from master British filmmaker Ronald Neame. Based on Brian Garfield\u2019s best-selling novel, the blithe thriller centers on Miles Kendig (Matthau), a disillusioned retired CIA<\/span> agent who, with the help of a chic and savvy Viennese widow (Jackson), threatens to publish his memoirs and expose the innermost secrets of every major intelligence agency in the world. Despite being in major hot water with his former colleagues, Kendig refuses to get in line\u2014he\u2019s having too much fun. Set to the sounds of Mozart, this lighthearted sendup of the paranoid dramas of its era is an expertly crafted, singular take on the spy movie.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"August 22, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

La poison\u00a0<\/em>(1951)
\nd.\u00a0Sacha Guitry<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

The writer, actor, and director Sacha Guitry emerged from the theater to become one of France\u2019s best-known and most inventive filmmakers, and La poison<\/em> marked his first collaboration with another titan of the screen, the incomparably expressive Michel Simon. With Guitry\u2019s witty dialogue and fleet pacing, the black comedy is the quintessential depiction of a marriage gone sour: after thirty years together, a village gardener (Simon) and his wife (Germaine Reuver) find themselves contemplating how to do away with each other, with the former even planning how he\u2019ll negotiate his eventual criminal trial. Inspired by Guitry\u2019s own post\u2013World War II tangle with the law\u2014a wrongful charge of collaborationism\u2014La poison<\/em> is a blithely caustic broadside against the French legal system and a society all too eager to capitalize on others\u2019 misfortunes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"August 22, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sid & Nancy\u00a0<\/em>(1986)
\nd.\u00a0Alex Cox<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

With the lacerating love story Sid & Nancy,<\/em> Alex Cox reimagines the crash-and-burn affair between punk\u2019s most notorious self-destructive poster children: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen\u2014brought to visceral life by brilliant performances from Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. Cox turns his anarchic filmmaking style on the explosive energy of the London punk scene and the degenerate streets of seventies New York, making for an eviscerating depiction of excess and addiction. Through the lens of cinematographer Roger Deakins, the imagery goes from swooning to grimy, and the film\u2019s bleakness is balanced with surreal humor and genuine tenderness, making for an affecting, music-fueled vision of doomed love.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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