It’s finally time to celebrate Christmas, New Year’s, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, to all those who celebrate one or all holidays. For us cinephiles, it’s when we get showered with all the major Oscar players coming out, as well as all the critics’ awards and major award nominations being released. Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice nominations are released, and the campaigns begin with everyone releasing their best-of lists of the year. As for Criterion, two re-releases, three new entries, and a collection of shorts from one of art’s most unique figures will be released for any Christmas shopping your friends and family can give to you.
His Girl Friday (1940)
Being re-released is among the greatest comedies of all time, let alone in its era. A remake of The Front Page, made just nine years earlier, this updated version from Howard Hawks is an all-timer with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell as an ex-couple working for a newspaper covering a breaking story. She is about to go off with her new fiancé, but her ex-husband, the paper’s editor, still retains her for one more day on the job, and they max out the dialogue like a fast ping-pong match. It’s an impressive feat that jams it all in 92 minutes and doesn’t let up, making it an archetype of the screwball genre.
I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)
The second re-release has been a long time coming. The Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, directed this amazing romantic comedy of a headstrong woman (Wendy Hiller) who finds her personal plans disrupted by Scotland’s infamous windstorms, which put her on an island with a lonely navalman (Roger Livesey). Engaged to a wealthy businessman, she insists she knows what she wants and where, but fate changes all while trapped on the island. Having to shoot the film on black-and-white and on location, the duo created this dreamy story that was about simplicity instead of riches in the middle of a country’s darkest period.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
The late Paul Reubens made his name with his famous alter ego, the bowtie-wearing manboy, an oddball who embarks on a journey to retrieve his stolen bicycle. This film, co-written by SNL legend Phil Hartman, was reportedly influenced by his experiences with smoking weed; watch the two-part documentary on Reuben’s life, and he confirms this. With Tim Burton at the helm before his big hits in Beetlejuice and Batman, this movie made this character a staple of 1980s pop culture.
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Indian director Mira Nair, whose mainstream hits include Monsoon Wedding and Queen of Katwe, went from documentary to narrative storytelling with this neo-realist portrayal of the slums of Bombay. After being left out by his family, a boy has to gather money to return home, but encounters the hard life that other street children deal with. Unflinching in showing how prostitution, trafficking, and drugs reign over the area, Nair used real-life street children and shot on location to give audiences the real-life feel of the extreme poverty that remains even today in India.
David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020)
From Spike Lee, this concert film features the Talking Heads’ frontman and his adaptation of his album, mixing past and present songs, while incorporating themes of isolation and fractured connections in a changing era. With his ensemble of musicians and dancers, all dressed in matching suits like Byrne’s famous big suit forty years earlier, the performances bring out the exhilaration from Byrne’s call to remain positive amongst the negativity in the world. Thanks to Lee’s camera, the film captures the technological advances on stage – wireless audio and real-time tracking – with the burst of energy in every movement given by Bryne and his crew.
Return To Reason: Four Films By Man Ray
Legendary surrealist artist Man Ray dabbled in cinema in the 1920s with four short films: Le retour à la raison, Emak bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé. As with other surrealist artists, his visuals are meant to shock and distort our perceptions, especially in that period when the genre was at its highest. This remastering includes a new score by director Jim Jarmusch and musician Carter Logan, known together as the band SQÜRL, which will create an even more in-depth tone to what Ray made in his work.
Follow me on X: @brian_cine (Cine-A-Man)
