Criterion Collection - Online Cinematheque

1. Out of print, but I’ve got it! Wheeee! Terrific commentary and eleven Woo trailers!

2. David Gordon Green!

3. God, I love huge breasts, and this one’s got two of the hugest-est. Also, it’s a coming-of-age teen sex comedy, but with fascism! Also, the boobs.

4. There are three terrific movies in the Eclipse set The First Films of Samuel Fuller, and the fact that they’re collected in this nifty package is a huge bonus. The Baron of Arizona plays like an old West episode of Blackadder—and features one of Vincent Price’s best performances.

5. I’ve already written extensively about this lean, nasty little masterpiece. It’s on the list ‘cuz you need to buy it. (To read an interview with artist Sean Phillips about the design of Blast of Silence and for a link to Patton’s writing about the film, click here.)

6. One of the better, funnier DVD menus I’ve ever seen—is it weird to recommend a DVD just for the menu? Plus, great commentary by Stephen Fry, plus background on the Colonel Blimp cartoon strip and creator, which shows you how miraculous this movie adaptation is. Imagine a big-screen version of Family Circus that manages to be a searing indictment of the American family. Wow!

7. One of the best horror movies ever made. The whole movie is shot inside the belly of a quivering, invisible demon—the 1960s, rotting in the sunshine of idealism and about to burst with flies.

8. Okay this DVD’s got the coolest menu Criterion’s ever devised. Crinkly, tabloid newspapers that you leaf through to get to the meat of the murder. Tawdry and beautiful.

9. Packaged like a lost, beloved novel, and full of groovy extras, which stand like a sketchbook of doodlings that eventually jelled into the full movie.