#Criterion Theater

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The silent Paramount picture The Covered Wagon, starring Warren Kerrigan and Lois Wilson and produced by Jesse Lasky, at the Criterion Theater, 1923.

Photo: Masheter Movie Archive/Alamy

[orlaite]

No waaaay Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920) reference

[madman731]

Movie time again!

[francis-mulcahys-angels]

Idk if there’s a criterion release of Stop Making Sense but I need it to be a thing like how True Stories has a criterion release, it just makes sense

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

Sources: http://ericskillman.blogspot.com/2011/09/atp-2011.html, MutualArt, Pinterest, Taschen, various, etc...

[this-is-the-ticket]

025 Show Notes

Ilona Maher's TikTok

USA Women's Gymnastics video

Aly Raisman's video on gymnastics scoring

Men's Canoe Slalom 2024

COOL RUNNING'S, MAN!

Nodar Kumaritashvili - the luger who died in 2022

Top Banned Gymnastics Moves lol

The banned move Casey refers to is a Thomas Salto, the Russian gymnast he refers to is Yelena Shushunova - here is her at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she successfully completes the Thomas Salto at 1:05

Why do these people run for 24 hours in a basement?

Fast may allow you to reset your circadian rhythm faster according to this 2016 article lol

In Defense of Taste - CASEY'S SUBSTACK BABY!

She Came to Me Trailer

Casey's review of She Came to Me

TOXIC AVENGER WITH OUR BOI DINKLAGE!

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore trailer

Peter Dinklage Peter Dinklage Peter Dinklage

The Emotional Bank Account

Start paying attention to the bids in your relationship

The video Ari watched that mentioned Limerence

As cliche as it is now, James Clear was a huge influence on Ari after college.

Criterion 40 is upon us

Malia Obama is 26. She was born on Independence Day.

The critical reception of Last Man Standing is hilarious

VHS vs Laserdisc Star Wars

Article on Hezly Rivera's gold medal win

Article on Kerri Strug's 1996 injury

Ian Gunther's video on the Men's Gymnastics selection

Pommel Horse Guy lol

Japan won gold in men's artistic team all-around, China won silver.

Casey said "Matthew Brody," his name is Brody Malone

Aly Raisman's last Olympics was 2016.

"Why is Team USA so bad at 3x3 basketball?"

Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter doing Waiting for Godot

Ari is full of lies! Steve Martin & Robin Williams doing Waiting for Godot video!

Pauly Shore being annoying about Richard Simmons

Ramon Novarro, pioneering Mexican actor

Casey's Criterion 40 SPREAD SHEET FOR YOU NERDS!

Winona Ryder's Criterion Closet

[marisatomay]

Anti-intellectuals are always making up a cinephile that can’t shut up about experimental short films that only screen once every ten years at a specific theater in Toronto and no you’re not invited because they’re better than you meanwhile the Criterion Channel and I are both trying to get people to watch Cocktail (1988)

[dyke-o-matic]

So you saw fell in love with Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon and now you want her on your screen as much as possible? I’m here to help.

Certain Women directed by Kelly Reichardt

This was the first time I saw Lily Gladstone in anything and I screamed about her specifically for days. The film is segmented into three stories about women living in the northwestern plains region of the US. All three segments are good, but Lily Gladstone’s is by far my favorite. She plays a ranch hand who starts sitting in on a night school law class when she develops a crush on the teacher, played by (bonus!) Kristen Stewart.

Certain Women is streaming on The Criterion Channel, AMC+, and Kanopy (Kanopy is free!). It is also available to rent on the major platforms.

The Unknown Country directed by Morrisa Maltz

This movie is stunning. Think Nomadland but even more stripped down. Lily Gladstone plays a character on a roadtrip to reunite with her estranged family after the death of her grandmother. Along the way she tries to learn more about who her grandmother was in life and reconnect with her memory. A lot of the film is unscripted, and breathtaking shots of the western US landscape punctuate the brief encounters she has at each stop on her journey.

The Unknown Country is available to rent on the major platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon, and YouTube.

Quantum Cowboys directed by Geoff Marslett

This one’s for the multiverse fans. A really fun romp that might make your head hurt if you think about it too hard. Lily Gladstone plays a character in the 1870’s southwest who encounters a pair of travelers stuck in a time loop (sort of). She enlists their help (sort of) in a plan to recover land that was taken from her and in return helps them in their attempt to break their cycle. Most of the film is rotoscope animation, so it’s a completely different type of a performance from Lily Gladstone. I had the extraordinary luck of meeting her at a festival screening last year and they said it was such a fun deviation from their usual hyper realistic work.

Quantum Cowboys is available to rent on major platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon, and YouTube.

Fancy Dance directed by Erica Tremblay

The most recent Lily Gladstone film to blow me away, and maybe my favorite film of 2023. Lily Gladstone plays a character who has been trying to find her missing sister while simultaneously providing care for her sister’s daughter. When it appears she may lose custody, the two hit the road to search for the teen’s mother. It’s sad and sweet and beautiful. I have to warn that the subject matter is heavy and all too real but that’s why it’s an important story. It’s about something that is so pervasive, yet people outside of the community affected turn a blind eye to it.

Fancy Dance can be seen in select theaters and is now streaming on Apple TV+. Erica Tremblay previously directed Lily Gladstone in the short film Little Chief, which can be found on Vimeo.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

I was a skeptic about Criterion releasing any post-Showa Godzilla movies on disc, but lo and behold, they're teeing up Godzilla vs. Biollante, my favorite movie of all time, for 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray (or just plain Blu-ray) on March 18. The description:

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New 4K digital restoration, with 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

New audio commentary featuring film historian Samm Deighan, host of the podcast Eros + Massacreand coeditor of the book Revolution in 35mm

Making-of program from 1993 featuring director Kazuki Omori and special-effects director Koichi Kawakita, among others

Short documentary from 1993 about the Biollante and Super X2 vehicle concepts

Deleted special effects

TV spots and trailers

New English subtitle translation

PLUS: An essay by science-fiction and horror film expert Jim Cirronella

Yes, this means they're skipping over The Return of Godzilla and not waiting until all the Heisei films are in their hands to unload them as another box set. I was surprised at first, but it makes sense. Biollante is the only Heisei movie Toho has released on 4K in Japan so far (with The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II joining it in June), and arguably the best-regarded. Toho's always going to prioritize the domestic market first, so this is Criterion's best shot at a new release during Godzilla's current swell of popularity.

I have mixed feelings, as is usual when any new English kaiju/tokusatsu home release is announced. I'm glad the movie is back in physical circulation; it's again become legendary as the most difficult Godzilla movie to find on home video for a reasonable price. Only one library in my county owns it, and that number is about to spike. It'll be a major visual upgrade to boot. The non-G54 movies in the Criterion Showa box set didn't have audio commentaries, so I'm glad they sprung for one this time. I'm not familiar with Samm Deighan's work, but I think she's the first woman to record an English commentary for a Godzilla movie.

But...

I saw the Criterion presentation of Godzilla vs. Biollante at the Dryden Theater in October, and the subtitles were... simply not proofread, or at least not proofread by anyone who should have a job in the field. "More typos than a Mill Creek Ultraman Blu-ray" was how I described it at the time. I believe Criterion is using a number of vintage (we're talking probably-shown-in-Hawaii) subtitle scripts for the Toho tokusatsu films they're made available on streaming but not on disc, and I dearly hope they show more care with the Biollante 4K.

There's also no English dub.

This suggests that Toho is now doing its best to bury all the pre-Reiwa Godzilla dubs, even the ones they commissioned themselves. I doubt Criterion will bother to include the film's English visuals either. So... the version of Biollante I rented from Blockbuster some 20 years ago, the version I grew up with, will just be completely erased from the latest-and-greatest (and last?) edition. Depressing stuff. The current incarnation of Toho might be embarrassed by those old dubs, but as an indignant woman in the Diet Building once exclaimed, the truth is the truth! And Biollante's one of the films I prefer to watch dubbed (for one, nobody can argue that the English the actors spoke on set was better than that recorded by the Hong Kong Players).

Lesser concerns: I'll have to double-check, but I think the making-of program and the short documentary were on the old Echo Bridge discs too. The trailers would be new, but, well, they're trailers. So potentially nothing fresh in the featurette department, certainly not a retrospective with surviving cast and crew. (Somebody get one of those done before we lose even more of them!) And I do feel bad for Ed Godziszewski, whose commentary for Echo Bridge was effectively pocket-vetoed by Toho and is now truly never going to see the light of day.

Bleh.

[tbhclove]

You’re So Dark - Live Perfomances

San Diego, CA, USA (The Observatory) - May 2, 2018

videos: 1, 2, 3, 4

Los Angeles, CA, USA (Hollywood Forever Cemetery) - May 5, 2018

videos: 1, 2, 3, 4

Brooklyn, NY, USA (Brooklyn Steel) - May 9, 2018

video: x

Berlin, Germany (Columbiahalle) - May 22, 2018

videos: 1, 2, 3

Oklahoma City, OK, USA (The Criterion) - October 10, 2018

videos: 1, 2

Houston, TX, USA (Revention Music Center) - October 12, 2018

video: x

Seattle, WA, USA (WaMu Theater) - October 23, 2018

video: x

[letzternachtzug]

ANGELINA JOLIE ph. by Jim Smeal - taken during the 'Playing God' premiere at the Criterion Theater, New York. October 14, 1997

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Employees of the Fleischer Studios picket the New Criterion Theater to protest the showing of Popeye and other cartoons drawn by striking Fleischer artists, 1937. The five-month strike led to the first union contracts in animation, a later strike at the Disney studios, and groundbreaking new works from frustrated employees who left these animation shops to set out on their own.

Photo: Getty Images/Business Insider

[madman731]

More Theater and TV Viewings

[atomicradiogirl]

i was able to see the beast (2023) in my college theater last night since the french program is having a film festival and ugh it was so worth the wait. i’m so so glad i got to see this in theaters with other people. it upped the experience tenfold. it was so unique and creative and weird and beautiful. it was tenet meets past lives meets twin peaks. very lynchian in the best way. it was one of those doomed by the narrative tragic love stories i adore. there were so many sci fi and horror elements i also really enjoyed. i hope this movie gets on more streaming services (rn its only on criterion) but it deserves a cult following. lea seydoux and george mackay were spectacular. this was the perfect mix of weird and beautiful. seeing this on a big screen was a treat. the music and the cinematography were amazing. i was the target audience. LEA SEYDOUX GIRL KISSER!!!

[travelingtwentysomething]

Rules: Without naming them, post a gif from ten of your favorite films, then tag ten people to do the same.

Thanks for tagging me @mundaneone , I don't normally like doing 'get to know me' posts, but I am a massive movie buff- evidenced by my own personally curated (and half inherited from my dad) Blockbuster-esque movie wall. When I die, I'm gonna haunt the Criterion Closet. So without further ado, and maybe a lil over sharing because ofc-

∆ The first movie I ever watched on DVD. My dad took me on our weekly trip to Blockbuster (he worked for Phillips, so got a 50% discount on a brand new, $500 DVD player), and he let me help him pick our first 10 DVDs. He let me pick the first movie we would watch from the stack. It was the year 2000, the summer before I turned 8. It was also the very last movie I watched with my dad in the summer before I turned 27 and he would have turned 59, in 2019. This movie always made me cry, but now I bawl.

∆ The first DVD I got for Christmas when I was 8. This was the start of my illustrious movie collection, alongside my Dad's.

∆ The first movie I watched with my mom when I visited her after she moved almost 1000 miles away after my parents divorce when I was about 14. We cuddled on her boyfriend's pullout sofa (a Christmas tree lit up in the corner of the room even though it was summer because she hadn't seen me or my brothers since the summer before and missed Christmas with us), and rented a movie "on demand" through his cable DVR. (Streaming before Netflix murdered Blockbuster, for anyone who wasn't alive before we stopped summoning the internet with the demonic tones of a dial-up connection.)

∆ The best Studio Ghibli movie. If you don't agree, may all your bacon burn.

∆ The first movie I can recall crying to. I was absolutely obsessed. At least for the first 3 of what would eventually be a 14 movie franchise. (My Grandma brought the first one on VHS when she took a break from retired life- sailing around South America with my Grandpa on their little sailboat, and came to stay with us when my little brother was born.)

∆ The first Disney movie I remember being obsessed with (followed closely by The Little Mermaid). I got it on VHS for my fourth birthday, but that night, before I could watch it, my big brother tore the tape out before my very eyes. When my mom asked him wtf?! he told her he was mad he didn't get any presents on my birthday. I never got a replacement. Still bitter about it.

∆ The movie I've been falling asleep to since I was 5. The soundtrack slaps. (Coming in 2nd place for a nostalgic bedtime OST: Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron.)

∆ This one has a killer soundtrack as well, and I was obsessed with Freddie Highmore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. (My Dad understood that I loved movies, he's the one who instilled that love of storytelling in me. But I hated his other favorite pass-time- going out to restaurants for 2+ hours while my parents hung out and drank with family or friends. Once I was old enough to go alone, he'd take me to a nearby theater, drop me off to see a movie while everyone else enjoyed their evening at the loud, crowded restaurant, then would come pick me up in time to order food just before everyone called it a night. He may not have fully understood me, but he really tried to make me happy. It's a shame we never got me diagnosed with autism. Anyway, saw this movie instead of having to go to dinner, and felt very special, because on the way back to the restaurant it was just me and my dad, and he let me ramble on about how great the movie was. He always trusted my taste in movies.)

∆ Also, strangely, a comfort movie.

∆ The first movie I remember seeing at the Drive-In Movies, 6 years old, sitting on the roof of my family's ugly green van and eating popcorn. It was the encore of a Double Feature, with a movie that had come out the year before- Men In Black. (This started my obsession with the Drive-In, my safe place.)

∆ And +1 Bonus: If asked what my favorite horror movie is, this is the first one that comes to mind. (2nd place goes to The Shining, the movie I considered tied with Titanic as my absolute favorite when I was 6 years old. My mom was appalled, my dad thought it was hilarious. Also, weirdly, my mom would only let me watch the second VHS for Titanic because the first half had a sex scene and the "Paint me like one of your French girls" scene. It's like she thought sex was worse than an explicit mass casualty event?!)

*Disclaimer, this is not a ranking, just 10 of my favorite movies that are clearly very important to me because of the memories attached. The oversharing was optional 😂 so don't feel pressured guys. Feel free to make your own post or attach 10 gifs to this one and keep the movie recs going, I'd love to see your responses-

@richard-michael-afton @steddiecameraroll @eddiethebrave @finalmoondragon @dragonsandgayships @spectrum-spectre @cloudedsunshines @demon-loverss @asexualasshat @subcultureblues @thatfaeb1tch @zombiethingy (oops I can't count 😎)

[scavengedluxury]

Junction of 7th Avenue and 44th Street, with the Criterion Theater in the foreground, New York, 1990. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.