Decent month with a great themed collection as the centerpiece. Any time you can put one of the biggest stars in the world in your banner image has to feel like a win for the Channel and there’s George Clooney being all home spun front and center. Do you ever contemplate the fact that Clooney is a nepo baby, or is that just me?
So let’s start with Odysseys, since that’s the collection we’re talking about. Brilliant theme, everything from Sullivan’s Travels to After Hours to, yes, O Brother, Where Art Thou? There is not a bad choice in the bunch, and the concept is focused. I think this one is simply deilghtful.
Next up, Criterion flashes its populist side with three James Bond movies from the Connery days. You could wish for a wider survey with multiple Bonds, or even the whole series, I suppose. Still way cool. Here’s to the 1960s.
Then we get way more modern with a Starring Courtney Love collection. This is fine. I don’t actually give Love as much credit as a performer as the writeup does; I’d still recommend The People vs. Larry Flynt in particular and who knows what else I’ll dabble in. Man, this really isn’t an arthouse oriented month, is it?
Nope, it isn’t Weddings is the next thing on the table. It’s a stretch to call The Umbrellas of Cherbourg a wedding movie but you should still watch it. This is another theme which just doesn’t resonate with me much. It’s well-constructed, though. I like the range here – there’s a lot of space between the spectacle of Umbrellas or Marie Antoinette and the gloom of Melancholia.
LGBTQ+ Favorites is cool. It feels like someone decided to check the Channel and assemble this out of the available movies although I haven’t checked to see if there’s anything new in here. Possibly I’ll take this as the cue to go watch Querelle finally for some of that grim Fassbinder action. It’s another collection this month with strong range. (And don’t miss the companion LGBTQ+ Shorts collection way down at the end of the post.)
Skipping ahead to director spotlights: Alex Cox is worth your time and this is four of his better ones. No Sid and Nancy; Repo Man makes up for it. Walker is a delirium of anti-colonial commentary – watch it if you’re under the misapprehension that our little Venezuela invasion is anything new. Cox is such an interesting guy, currently financing his low budget pictures via crowdfunding and staying creative. Long may he work.
I digress. I’ve seen one Yann Gonzalez movie, Knife+Heart, which I enjoyed. His riffs on giallo style are quite cool. Islands seems fun, although the Letterboxd description doesn’t say anything about it being a monster movie. At 23 minutes, easy to take a look and see what I think.
Finally, there’s an Eric Rohmer collection. Once again we’re bringing together a bunch of existing movies into a presumably permanent collection; Rohmer’s certainly deserving of that. I’ve never been sad I took the time to watch one of his movies and I haven’t even seen My Night at Maud’s yet. I always feel like he’s somehow under-appreciated as a chronicler of youth despite his strong reputation.
On to the one-offs. It’s a really, really good month for these so I’m just gonna hit the highlights quickly. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a wild debut to bury down here; I’d have expected an aliens collection of some kind. Wild at Heart is a great one. Helvetica – all I can say is that I am the audience for a thoughtful documentary about a typeface.
Nomad is a Hong Kong flick I’ve wanted to see for a while. Typhoon Club is by Shinji Somai – I really enjoyed his movie The Friends, and his stuff is really hard to find, so this is a big win for me.
And at long last, the other one-offs, an absolutely insane lineup of Criterion editions. The Game, The Harder They Come, After Hours, The Darjeeling Limited, Sullivan’s Travels, and (even though I already mentioned it) Repo Man? All but the obvious one of those with director commentaries? Plus a few more less famous movies that I won’t list out because I’ve been typing long enough? Embarrassment of riches. Good thing I’m retiring; I’m gonna need the time.