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.

Tunnel, 2016 - ★★★½
June 28, 2025
This is the very definition of a competent movie. It’s a survival disaster movie, not a — whatever we call the ones with a huge cast that focus on the ongoing cataclysm. Here, the tunnel collapses and the dude is trapped and there are a couple of hours of attempts to rescue him as matters, […]
Love & Mercy, 2014 - ★★★★
June 25, 2025
Miss you, Brian.I can see the seams in this better now than when I first watched it. I can also see the vision: the way a fractured sense of time echos Wilson’s darker years, until time shatters with the late introduction of Brian as child. And then the return to the childhood house, which is […]
Cotton Comes to Harlem, 1970 - ★★★½
June 22, 2025
As a buddy cop movie, it’s fine. As a slice of life in 70s Harlem from the resident point of view, it’s great; Chester Himes’ original novel is better but Ossie Davis nailed Himes’ smart cynical vibe. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques really capture their tough-ass cop roles, giving the vibe you want from […]
Taxi, 2015 - ★★★★
June 22, 2025
I found myself in the mood for an Iranian film today, so I cued up this act of resistance. The simplicity of the setup masks the complexity of the social commentary, spun around concepts of theft and what we owe to society. Panahi is part of a community, whether he likes it or not; in […]
Volver, 2006 - ★★★★
June 22, 2025
I still don’t totally resonate with Almodóvar, but there’s nothing to dislike here. It’s a heartwarming movie built on really dark foundations; that sense of the hope created by family (found family as well) is quite lovely. Cruz is excellent, as is the rest of the cast, slowly stumbling towards revelations that serve to strengthen […]