Blu Review: ‘The Shakedown’ (Early Universal Vol. 1, Eureka)

by Ruairí McCann The Shakedown (1929) has just found its way to a Blu-ray release, via Eureka’s Masters of Cinema line and the boxset Early Universal Vol.1, where it’s presented in its silent version with a lively jazz score by Michael Gatt. This finely forged and unabashedly felt movie is no small example of the late silent era on its plinth, when it comes to … Continue reading Blu Review: ‘The Shakedown’ (Early Universal Vol. 1, Eureka)

Rice Krispies for a Revolution – Blu Review: ‘The Edge/Ice’ by Robert Kramer (Re:Voir Video)

by Jack Seibert How many French critics does it take to release an American movie? Somewhere in the dozens, if the movie is Robert Kramer’s The Edge. Cahiers du Cinéma spilled gallons of ink around its 1968 release, with Jacques Rivette naming it his favorite film of the year. Three years later he’d transport its paranoid post-revolutionary ramblings across the Atlantic for his legendary Out … Continue reading Rice Krispies for a Revolution – Blu Review: ‘The Edge/Ice’ by Robert Kramer (Re:Voir Video)

Blu Review: Two Silent Films by John Ford (Eureka!)

by Ruairí McCann Produced and released by Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema line, this new Blu-ray boxset of two early silent John Ford westerns is most welcome. Not only because it makes readily available two very fine movies; it also offers a chance to pull at a thread that is too often ignored.  The received critical approach to the western genre is to fasten its iterations … Continue reading Blu Review: Two Silent Films by John Ford (Eureka!)

Blu Review: ‘How You Live Your Story – Selected works by Kevin Jerome Everson’ (Second Run)

by MLP Last fall, Second Run released a 2-disc blu-ray set featuring 8.6 hours of work by American artist-filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson, titled ‘How You Live Your Story’. ‘Artist-filmmaker’ works better here as a descriptor than in its usual capacity. That is to say, while the term often refers to filmmakers working with just about anything other than conventional narrative, Everson is, more specifically, someone … Continue reading Blu Review: ‘How You Live Your Story – Selected works by Kevin Jerome Everson’ (Second Run)

Blu Review: ‘Goodbye, Dragon Inn’ (2003) dir. Tsai Ming-liang (Second Run)

by Ruairí McCann In a Taipei caught under a thick canopy of rain, an old late night movie theatre serves as a symbolic shelter. It is the last playing ground for a vibrant popular cinema, but also its mausoleum. A net open to catch the lovelorn and lonely, a salve and conduit for their stifled fantasies. Though not for much longer, as this picture palace … Continue reading Blu Review: ‘Goodbye, Dragon Inn’ (2003) dir. Tsai Ming-liang (Second Run)