Streaming Roulette, April: The Blazing Perks of Molly's Xanadu

by Nathaniel R

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

VO: And since I heard that having a girlfriend makes you happy I tried hard to love her like I love Sam.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) on Netflix
Sweet movie. Remember Logan Lerman? We had such a good interview with him for this movie. Sad that he's trapped on a tv series with bad reviews at the moment (Hunters). 

Click to read more ...

Toshiro Mifune @ 100: The Hidden Fortress

Team Experience is celebrating the Centennial of Japan's great movie star Toshiro Mifune for the next few days. Here's Nathaniel R...

Raised as an American child (through no fault of my own) in the era when the original Star Wars trilogy first captured the world's hearts, it's perhaps unsurprising that I knew Star Wars before any of its influences. Though my innate interest in cinema led me eventually to "Akira Kurosawa's greatest hits" somehow The Hidden Fortress (1958), always escaped my eyes. I knew of it mainly only as 'that movie that everyone says inspired George Lucas's space opera.' 

It would be foolish to pretend with snobbish cinephilia that the original Star Wars film doesn't improve on its then 19 year-old inspiration, but The Hidden Fortress deserves more than this footnote status; minor Kurosawa is still Kurosawa...

Click to read more ...

Deneuve on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

Catherine Deneuve is one of the most beautiful people to ever step in front of a camera. Since the 60s, she has dazzled moviegoers in projects that span from conventional fare to the craziest experiments. While it's true she may not be a performer of astounding tonal flexibility or chameleonic aptitude, many directors have known how to utilize Deneuve's ice queen persona to great effect. Demy made her into a paragon of youthful romance, Buñuel captured a dangerous masochism in her eye, Polanski made her sing rhapsodies of madness while Téchiné gave Deneuve opportunity to modulate her expression into painful naturalism. She is a muse to many an auteur and it's easy to see why – her face must have been made for the big screen by the cinema gods.

If you want to peruse her cinematic glories, The Criterion Channel is currently streaming a marvelous collection of 16 Deneuve films. Here are five highlights from the collection…

Click to read more ...

Movie Watching in Quarantine Times

by Murtada Elfadl

With all of us self isolating in quarantine the daily question of what to watch gains even more importance. Not only do you want to watch something good and entertaining but also something that will engross and really distract and take you away from the reality of the grave situation we are living in. Something soothing and comforting above all, however you never know where comfort might come from. 

Last night I thought a comedy was in order and based on Wes Anderson’s recommendation in a sweet email to The Criterion Channel I chose Arthur Hiller’s The-Out-of-Towners (1970) with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Denis. However I turned it off 15 minutes into the film. Lemmon constantly yelling his entitlement was not comforting nor funny. The rants were well written and the situations would have probably been funny in another context. But not at this time.

Last week the movie was Francois Trauffaut’s The Last Metro (1980)...

Click to read more ...

Streaming Roulette: Honey Boys & Gates of Hell

by Nathaniel R

The mania of Oscar season completely detached us to what people might have actually been streaming at home. So let's get back to that with a short round of Streaming Roulette. If you're new to the site that's how we share new streaming offerings. We select a handful (or two) of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating. 

If you'd like us to write up any of the new to streaming pictures (there's a huge list after the roulette) please share what you'd most like to talk about in the comments. Maybe we'll get to 2 or 3 of them? Ready? Let's stream...

The reviews were... like, I murdered their children or something. 

Click to read more ...