New Releases for March 30th

Compared to last week, this is a pretty light bunch of movies, but some great stuff's coming out regardless, including a great Criterion set of Pedro Costa films including Ossos, In Vanda’s Room, and Colossal Youth, the excellent Oscar nominated An Education and the tons of fun Sherlock Holmes all drop today.

Check out all the trailers below and plan accordingly (get here early) if you're looking to get your hands on anything.

Afghan Star


Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel


Baader Meinhoff Complex


Did You Hear About the Morgans


An Education


High Kick Girl


Letters From Fontainhas: Three Films By Pedro Costa (Criterion)
Ossos


In Vanya's Room


Colossal Youth


Sherlock Holmes


Under the Sea

Notable selections from the upcoming March 16th new releases.

Dillinger Is Dead -Directed by Marco Ferreri

For Ferreri film was very much used as a continuation, or perhaps an advancement, of the theater of the absurd. 'Dilliger is Dead' happens to be one of the most meritorious of all art-house films but was somehow rarely ever screened and could have been forgotten if Criterion hadn't come along to save it. In my opinion this is the most exciting dvd they've put out all year.



Broken Embraces- Pedro Almodovar:

My favorite Almodovar in years and perhaps his most entertaining one ever, it covers some familiar territory for him but he handles the subject matter perfectly this time around. As with most of his previous work this is a film buffs wet dream with references from Hitchcock to Michael Powell with some Almodovar himself in between. Plus Penelope Cruz stars in it and I firmly believe she is one of the best actresses alive.



Fernando Arrabal Collection

Sometimes the best new releases are the ones we don't even have on our release list. Often they are customer requests and sometimes they are requested by the employees themselves. For those who aren't in the know, Fernando Arrabal, is a Spanis director, poet, playwright & novelist. His cohort, Alejandro Jodorowsky, is more well known but they founded the Panic movement together along with Roland Topor. Arrabal's own play 'Fando y Lis' was actually adapted into Jodorowsky's first movie. We already had 'I Walk Like A Crazy Horse' & 'Viva Muerte' in the store but this collection rounds out what work of his is available on dvd, most notably 'Car Cemetery' which was based on his own play. Also included is 'The Emperor of Peru' starring Mickey Rooney and a collection of his short films featuring 'Borges, Life of a Poet,' 'Farewell Babylon,' & 'Arrabal Panik Cineast.'

criterion does zatoichi

criterion further establishes its place as one of the greatest things modern man has invented, by starting up their own hulu channel! so far they're happily, yet somewhat inexplicably, using it to host a half dozen zatoichi films, but keep your eyes peeled to see where this goes in the nearish future.

if watching these piques your interest in any of the other 4,876 zatoihchi films, i'm glad to report that we at four star have a bunch of the other blind swordsman films, including the 2003 beat takeshi version, if that's what might float your boat (it probably will).

jim jarmusch... music festival curator?

the stars have aligned! last night i finally put the finishing touch my jim jarmusch experience, having finally watched the very excellent mystery train, and i wake up this morning to find that not only is criterion putting their inimitable stamp on that film this summer, but that JJ will be curating a night of music for the all tomorrows parties (ATP to the cool kids) festival this fall.

in case you were wondering, here's the line up of acts he's chosen:

the brian jonestown massacre, raekwon, girls, vivian girls, the black angels, wooden shjips and fucked up with more to be confirmed.

looks like a night of psych rock book-ended with potential insanity... and raekwon the chef? isn't he like, the only wu dude to not make it into a jarmusch flick so far?

A good release week from Criterion

There are two brand new movies coming out via the Criterion Collection, something they've moved into recently with their deal with IFC, and both are highly recommended. Steve McQueen's 'Hunger' was a devastating yet beautiful depiction of the no wash and inevitable hunger protests the IRA staged in response to the British Governments refusal to treat them as political prisoners rather than terrorists. McQueen's history with video art is apparent but I disagree that this is a bad thing, his attention to detail and eye made for a gorgeous and entirely distressing film. 'Revanche' was the first film Criterion stepped up to release theatrically and played at last years Wisconsin Film Fest and made for a gorgeous & brilliantly executed neo-noir following the act of calculating revenge and the possibility for forgiveness.

But if you only have time to rent one movie this week let it be Max Ophuls 'Lola Montes' out on DVD for the first time from Criterion. In my opinion Max Ophuls is the best director of all time and I don't take that sort of status lightly. His movies, such as 'Earrings of Madame De...' are absolute perfection and 'Lola Montes' is another example. It's unfortunate it turned out to be his last film after the studio ruined the film upon release in '55 and it only reached the directors originally intended cut in 2008.

make way for tomorrow

orson welles has said that leo mccarey's 1937 film make way for tomorrow was the saddest movie ever made.

if this is indeed true, then criterion tapping cartoonist seth to do the design work was a stroke of genius.

be sure to look for it on the new release wall on feb 23d.

little birds out hitchhiking

this has absolutely made my weekend i think, even though it's not even 9:00 on saturday morning. i snagged this from the current, the criterion collection's blog of all things arty and awesome.

not sure if i like the godard or the herzog more... the grizzly man narration was a genius move on the part of whoever put this together.

Eric Rohmer has passed away.

Eric Rohmer was a prominent writer, film critic and as a director stood side by side with the likes of Jean-Luc

Godard, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol and his style was a great influence on many directors such as Woody Allen, Olivier Assayas, Arnaud Desplechin, Richard Linklater, Whit Stillman, Steven Soderbergh, and Andrew Bujalski. Four Star carries a great deal of Rohmer's work on both DVD and VHS. Notable entries include 'My Night at Maude's,' 'Claire's Knees,' 'Chloe In The Afternoon,' 'The Romance of Astrea and Celadon' which was his final film and another recent film called 'Triple Agent' from 2003 which was possibly one of his most demanding movies.

R.I.P.