Happy New Criterion Year! 2025, let it be another amazing time to add to the consistently addictive practice of getting these gems at any time. Right off the new year, Criterion has four new films plus a double re-edition in 4K of an Akira Kurosawa double-billing. A Western noir, an epic French dramedy, a semi-autobiographical from one of the greatest standup comics of all time, and a slick neo-noir join the club for early additions to your collection. Here are these wonderful films.
Winchester ‘73 (1950)
James Stewart plays a sharpshooter whose rifle is stolen and used in a serious crime. As the rifle is tracked down, we see it in different hands, as it is a matter of time before it is taken away for good for even more horrendous crimes. It was the first film Stewart and director Anthony Mann teamed up on and altered the Western genre, flying in the face of the traditional formulas Westerns followed. Rock Hudson, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, and a young Tony Curtis also star in this genre-changing film.
Yojimbo/Sanjuro (1961, 1962)
It was never meant to be a two-part film, but Akira Kurosawa created a sensation with his story of an intelligent masterless samurai who goes on with his life wandering the earth. First was Yojimbo; Toshiro Mifune plays Sanjuro, a samurai who enters a village where the citizens are trapped between two warring clans. Both groups try to hire the wandering samurai who uses their weaknesses to his advantage to help the scared villagers. The sequel was based on another story in which Kurosawa incorporates the titular character; this time, Sanjuro decides to help young samurais become proper when he discovers the corrupt influences that doom them.
The Mother And The Whore (1973)
Writer/director Jean Eustache exploded with a three-and-a-half-hour discussion of an angry man (Jean-Pierre Leaud), his girlfriend (Bernadette Lafont), and his new interest (Françoise Lebrun). It is a love triangle about the turbulence after 1968 when France was in upheaval and the disillusionment of young adults. It is bold and willing to spill the beans personally with confessions about past lives, their real feelings, and the failure of what previous years have led them to this point – intellectual, unhappy, and sexually frustrated.
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986)
Richard Pryor co-wrote, starred, and directed his only feature film of a comic that mirrored his own life from a rough upbringing raised in a brothel to struggling for success to addiction and fame to the bizarre freebasing accident that nearly killed Pryor. It is him showing his soul and what he felt as he went through his life through the eyes of Jo Jo and his relationships. Pryor is considered by some of the greatest standup comedians ever and was retired when he directed this film, making this movie the most raw and open. Pryor was telling about his life and vulnerabilities and how he reached the top and nearly fell to the bottom.
The Grifters (1990)
Director Stephen Frears got his first shot in Hollywood with Martin Scorsese producing this classic noir thriller by author Jim Thompson. A mother (Anjelica Huston), her son (John Cusack), and his girlfriend (Annette Bening) are all con men/women who begin to play a game where they start playing against each other to outcon the other, even willing to go kill each other to get ahead. It is a mind game as the Oedipus factors pop out; all the performances are amazing and it shines as Frears perfectly executes this chase to who will come out on top.
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