From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n A small-town fable about violence and redemption,\u00a0Moonrise<\/em>\u00a0is the final triumph of Frank Borzage, one of Hollywood\u2019s most neglected masters. Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, young Danny (Dane Clark) is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormenter. As the police close in around him, Danny makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man\u2019s fianc\u00e9e (Gail Russell), a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression. With this postwar comeback, Borzage recaptured the inspiration that had animated his long and audacious early career, marrying the lyrical force of his romantic sensibility with the psychological anguish of film noir in a stunning vindication of faith in the power of love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 15, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n This wry, melancholic comedy from Aki Kaurism\u00e4ki, a response to the ongoing global refugee crisis, follows two people searching for a place to call home. Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a displaced Syrian, lands in Helsinki as a stowaway; meanwhile, middle-aged Finnish salesman Wikstr\u00f6m (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves his wife and his job and buys a conspicuously unprofitable seafood restaurant. Khaled is denied asylum but decides not to return to Aleppo\u2014and the paths of the two men cross fortuitously. As deadpan as the best of the director\u2019s work, and with a deep well of empathy for its down-but-not-out characters (many of them played by members of Kaurism\u00e4ki\u2019s loyal stock company),\u00a0The Other Side of Hope<\/em>\u00a0is a bittersweet tale of human kindness in the face of official indifference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 22, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n Blending rigorous naturalism with the precise construction of a thriller, this Cannes award\u2013winning drama from Cristian Mungiu sheds light on the high stakes and ethical complexities of life in contemporary Romania. As his daughter nears high-school graduation, Romeo (Adrian Titieni), an upstanding doctor, counts on her winning a competitive scholarship that will send her to university in England. But when an injury sustained during a sexual assault compromises her performance on an important exam, Romeo\u2019s best-laid plans for her threaten to crumble, leading him to seek favors in a world that runs on backscratching and bribery. Suffused with quiet dread,\u00a0Graduation<\/em>\u00a0takes a humane and deeply ambiguous look at how corrosive rampant corruption is to moral convictions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 22, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n With this arresting drama based on notorious real-life events, Cristian Mungiu mounts a complex inquiry into faith, fanaticism, and indifference. At a desolate Romanian monastery, a young novice nun, Voichi?a (Cosmina Stratan), reunites with her former companion Alina (Cristina Flutur), who plans to take her to Germany. But Voichi?a proves unwilling to abandon her calling, and Alina becomes increasingly desperate to reclaim her devotion, putting the outsider at odds with the monastery\u2019s ascetic priest\u2014and precipitating a painfully misguided, brutal attempt to save her soul. A naturalistic tragedy with the dark force of a folktale, anchored by the fraught dynamic between cinema newcomers Flutur and Stratan (who shared the best actress prize at Cannes),\u00a0Beyond the Hills<\/em>\u00a0bears powerful witness to individuals at cross-purposes and institutions ill-equipped to help those most in need.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 22, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n Paul Schrader\u2019s visually stunning, collagelike portrait of the acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima (played by Ken Ogata) investigates the inner turmoil and contradictions of a man who attempted the impossible task of finding harmony among self, art, and society. Taking place on Mishima\u2019s last day, when he famously committed public seppuku, the film is punctuated by extended flashbacks to the writer\u2019s life as well as by gloriously stylized evocations of his fictional works. With its rich cinematography by John Bailey, exquisite sets and costumes by Eiko Ishioka, and unforgettable, highly influential score by Philip Glass,\u00a0Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters<\/em>\u00a0is a tribute to its subject and a bold, investigative work of art in its own right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 29, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n One of the British New Wave\u2019s most versatile directors, John Schlesinger came to New York in the late-1960s to make\u00a0Midnight Cowboy,<\/em>\u00a0a picaresque story of friendship that captured a city in crisis and sparked a new era of Hollywood movies. Jon Voight delivers a career-making performance as Joe Buck, a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy city women; he finds a companion in Enrico \u201cRatso\u201d Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida, played by Dustin Hoffman in a radical departure from his breakthrough in\u00a0The Graduate.<\/em>\u00a0A critical and commercial success despite controversy over what the\u00a0MPAA<\/span>\u00a0termed its \u201chomosexual frame of reference,\u201d\u00a0Midnight Cowboy<\/em>\u00a0became the first X-rated film to receive the best picture Oscar, and decades on, its influence still reverberates through cinema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n May 29, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema,\u00a0Au hasard Balthazar,<\/em>\u00a0directed by Robert Bresson, follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations outside of his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson\u2019s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [\/fusion_text][fusion_text]<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Moonrise.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
Moonrise<\/em><\/b> (1948)
\n<\/b>d. Frank Borzage<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/The-Other-Side-of-Hope.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
The Other Side of Hope<\/i><\/b> (2017)
\n<\/em>d. Aki Kaurism\u00e4ki<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Graduation.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
Graduation\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(2016)
\n<\/em>d. Christian Mungiu<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Beyond-the-Hills.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
Beyond the Hills<\/b><\/em> (2012)
\n<\/em>d. Christian Mungiu<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Mishima.jpg?resize=348%2C490\"){kind=spacer}
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(1985)
\n<\/em>d. Paul Schrader<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Midnight-Cowboy.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
Midnight Cowboy\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(1969)
\n<\/em>d. John Schlesinger<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Au-hasard-Balthazar.jpg?resize=348%2C490\")
Au hasard Balthazar\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(1966)
\n<\/em>d. Robert Bresson<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=mookse-20&l=alb&o=1&a=B079VD2YRH\")
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