As summer ends, we move into a new period of new releases by Criterion that go into anarchism, darkness, and transgressive behavior that not many films plunge into. Only one film is a re-release while another is a return to the Criterion after many years; two contemporary releases also join and both touch upon death is different ways. A controversial American indie dramedy comes aboard, and a radical trilogy of works about gay youth and their revolt against mainstream, heterosexual America fill out the lineup for this September’s inductions.
The Long Good Friday (1980)
I had a wide grin when I saw this film was coming out. It was an original Criterion release that fell out-of-print many years ago, but has finally come back. The first release from George Harrison’s HandMade Films, Bob Hoskins plays a gangster looking to close a major business deal with his American counterparts when a series of attacks threatens to undo everything he’s worked for. Dame Helen Mirren is the girlfriend who is very cool in her delivery and support for her boyfriend’s actions as they fight to keep it all under control while hounding those who want to tear it all down from them. With the special features is the documentary, An Accidental Studio (2019), which interviews those who worked during the heyday of HandMade Films.
Repo Man (1984)
On re-release is Alex Cox’s cyberpunk cult classic of Los Angeles in a broken state and a tow trucker (Harry Dean Stanton) who shows a young nihilistic rocker (Emilio Estevez) the job of repossessing cars. But with one car they come to get, they find it has certain powers which has connection to possible aliens. This critique of Reaganism and consumerism by the British Cox is an eclectic trip of punk music mashed with contemporary complaints of a wasting generation not part of the times and became a bigger hit once released on VHS in the thick of the home technological boom.
Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (1993-1997)
New Queer Cinema birthed an anti-establishment Generation X director in Araki who came out with a radical set of movies about disillusionment, surrealism, rebellion, and free sexual expression against the mainstream. Among those who starred in the trilogy included Rose McGowan, Margaret Cho, Parker Posey, and James Duval. In Totally Fucked Up, Araki follows a group of young gays who live together and survive day by day. The Doom Generation is a wild road trip movie about a teen couple who pick up a hitchhiker and make stops full of mayhem along the way. Nowhere follows a group of LA college students and their strange lives which Araki described as Beverly Hills 90210 on acid. Each film with a different plot, but all three with the same themes and thriving on violence, sex, and mindfucking the viewers.
Happiness (1998)
Writer-director Todd Solondz dark comedy-drama follows mulitple storylines from suburbia of people who are looking for love but get some in some unusual ways. The film was rated NC-17 because of its disturbing sexual content ranging from adultery to pedophilia. With an ensemble including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jon Lovitz, Ben Gazzara, and Dylan Baker, Happiness is Solondz’s very bold and daring combination of humanity from those who struggle to find their happiness and the taboo ways they try to find it. Happiness later resulted in a sequel, Life During Wartime (2008), which is already available on Criterion.
All Of Us Strangers (2023)
Andrew Haigh has a third film after Weekend and 45 Years to enter the Criterion Closet with this story of love, loss, and memory. A screenwriter (Andrew Scott) is working alone in a hotel until he meets a mysterious neighbor (Paul Mescal) and begins an affair with him. He reconnects with his parents (Claire Foy & Jamie Bell), but it is a reach that bends time and space. It is a solemn film with Scott arguably giving his best performance to date and notches another classic LGBTQ film from the last twenty years.
Totem (2023)
From Mexico, director Lila Avilés’s story is set in a household preparing for a dying man’s birthday party through the eyes of a child, Sol. Soon, Sol learns the pains of letting go and saying goodbye as the party nears and the atmosphere starts to weigh heavily on everyone. Aviles explores the dynamics of family in a difficult period and gives life to how they may celebrate life as a child learns the next stage which comes after.
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