Showing posts with label Top Ten lists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Ten lists. Show all posts

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Top Ten DVDs from other specialty companies.

Again, in no specific order:
1. DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN--Susan Seidelman's time capsule of NYC mid-80s Hip--Kino Lorber
2. DARK CITY 1950 noir starring Charlton Heston later reworked into Henry Hathaway's 1968 Western 
FIVE CARD STUD--Olive Films
3. TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING--late-period Robert Aldrich thriller with Burt Lancaster--Olive Films
4. THE PROWLER--UCLA restoration of classic film noir directed by Joseph Losey with Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes--VCI
5. BLUE COLLAR--out-of-print issue of Paul Schrader's working-men's heist film with Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto--Anchor Bay
6. THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT--Limited Blu-ray issue of heist film with character and humor from pre-epic-era Michael Cimino starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges and George Kennedy--Twilight Time
7. THE HIRED HAND--also out-of-print from Anchor Bay; Peter Fonda's 1971 Western (mismarketed as a conventional actioner by Universal) co-starring Verna Bloom, Warren Oates and Severn Darden.
8. MIKE'S MURDER--1983 modern L.A. noir directed by James Bridges with Debra Winger, Mark Keyloun, Darrell Larson and Paul Winfield--Warner Bros. Archive Collection (Print-on-Demand DVD)
9. DON'T LOOK BACK--the legendary D.A. Pennebaker concert film with Bob Dylan (DocuRama/NewVideo)
10. HIGHWAY PATROLMAN aka EL PATRULLERO--amorality play about decent Mexican cop surrounded by corruption ties with REPO MAN as maverick director Alex Cox's masterpiece (Microcinema)

Saturday, November 29, 2014

My Criterion Top 10.

In no specific order, here are the Top 10 films I've seen which were released by the boutique classic-and-contemporary film DVD/streaming-via-Hulu Plus imprint Criterion:

1. BAND OF OUTSIDERS (director: Jean-Luc Godard)
2. THE THIRD MAN (director: Carol Reed--out of print but worth finding)
3. PEEPING TOM (director: Michael Powell)
4. BLACK NARCISSUS (directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
5. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (director: Richard Lester)
6. PLAYTIME (director: Jacques Tati; currently available as part of the Tati boxset)
7. TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (director: Monte Hellman)
8. DAYS OF HEAVEN (director: Terrence Malick)
9. BREATHLESS (director: Jean-Luc Godard)
10. THE LAST WAVE (director: Peter Weir)

Honorable Mention (UPDATED 7/3/16): RED DESERT (director: Michelangelo Antonioni), CONTEMPT (director Jean-Luc Godard), SOMETHING WILD (director: Jonathan Demme), BLOW OUT (director: Brian De Palma), DAZED AND CONFUSED (director: Richard Linklater), BADLANDS (director: Terrence Malick), VIDEODROME (director: David Cronenberg), THE SEVENTH SEAL (director: Ingmar Bergman), PERSONA (director: Ingmar Bergman), NAKED LUNCH (director: David Cronenberg), HEAVEN'S GATE (director: Michael Cimino), GIMME SHELTER (directors: The Maysles Brothers), DR. STRANGELOVE (director: Stanley Kubrick)