Month: June 2025

July Criterion Channel Lineup

June 28, 2025

Summertime!

Pretty solid lineup coming in July; last month set a very high bar but we’re definitely continuing with those sun-drenched themes. Plus, uh, Haneke.

Blue Steel, 1990 - ★★★½
July 9, 2025
What an absolute hallucination of a movie. “Why did you become a cop?”“I wanted to shoot people.”We get that line early and it sounds like a throwaway. First day on the job banter. It’s not; Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is in fact pretty horny to shoot someone, and then she gets her wish, and then […]
Worldcon 2025 Film Program
July 8, 2025
A work in process, starting with feature films. See the official page for more.Not on Letterboxd yet: Rewind (Morgan Szymanski)Time Helmet (Mike Jackson)Surge of Power: Where There’s Smoke (Vincent J. Roth, Jeff Rector, Mario DeAngelis) Battledream Chronicle Breaking Infinity I Watched Her Grow The Ladder The Old Man and the Demon Sword La Villa del Seis
Control Room, 2004 - ★★★★
July 6, 2025
Strong documentary that uses the Iraq War to investigate questions of objectivity in journalism. It can’t help but place the US in the wrong, for no other reason than that it was an unjust war and the US was in the wrong. (The early sequence with Hassan Ibrahim and Josh Rushing arguing about weapons of […]
Thieves' Highway, 1949 - ★★★½
July 6, 2025
Crossfire was such a great post-war noir I figured I’d knock off another one before it leaves the channel. Hard to go wrong with Jules Dassin. Turns out it’s not so much about the post-war experience, more straightforward than that, but still with some interesting themes beyond being a fun noir.The core is a pretty standard […]
Bucking Broadway, 1917 - ★★½
July 5, 2025
Engaging and cute enough; by no means fully formed. Ford’s eye for composition is there, as is his sense of humor. His ability to depict interesting characters is not. Cheyenne Harry (Harry Carey) doesn’t have many personality traits, nor does Helen (Molly Malone). Gertrude Astor has the only really interesting role as Gladys, a woman […]