What’s leaving Criterion at the end of October

It’s scary! You turn your TV to the Criterion Channel, and the film you wanted to see has suddenly disappeared! Don’t let that happen!

Full recommendations

A+ Do the Right Thing (1989)

Spike Lee’s masterpiece just may be the best fiction film ever made about modern race relations in America. For a 34-plus-year-old film, it feels very much like the here and now. By focusing on a single block of Brooklyn over the course of one very hot day, Lee dramatizes and analyzes everything wrong (and a few things right) about race relations in America. This beautifully made film is touching, funny, warm-hearted, and humane. Read my Blu-ray review.

A The Big Heat (1953)

A cop commits suicide, and the first person the new widow calls is a mob boss. The mob runs the unnamed city and the police do what they’re told in this Fritz Lang noir – except for one honest detective assigned to the case (Glenn Ford in a strong performance). Soon he’s sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. He’s fired, of course, but that doesn’t stop him. And getting fired isn’t the worst that will happen to him and other good people in this tale of thorough corruption. Gloria Grahame gives a great performance as the rebellious girlfriend of a violent thug (Lee Marvin).

A Deep Cover (1992)

Here’s an extraordinary film noir from the early 1990s. Laurence Fishburne stars as a police officer who goes undercover to get rid of the drugs being smuggled into Los Angeles. He wants to clean up the bad neighborhoods, but as he becomes a major cog in the drug scene, he begins to realize that he’s just making things worse, and he’s not sure if he’s a cop or a criminal? Jeff Goldblum plays a Jewish mobster who becomes one of his best friends.

A- Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Not the great trail movie I thought it would be, but still worth watching if you have the time (it runs two hours and 41 minutes). The cast is terrific, with James Stewart, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, George C. Scott, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell, and more. Duke Ellington did the music and had a cameo. Much of the dialog is mature for its time, but you should expect that when the film is produced and directed by Otto Preminger.

B+ Attenberg (2010)

You have to adjust yourself to the slow pace here. Writer/director Athina Rachel Tsangari examines the life and character of a young woman simultaneously facing her late-blooming sexuality and her father’s mortality. The static and low-key opening scene of two women kissing in the most awkward way possible sets the tone: Be patient, and you’ll be rewarded with some unique yet believable individuals, as well as some genuine and human laughs. And with the funniest sex scene I’ve ever seen (at least the best that was intended to be funny). Read my full review.

B- Computer Chess (2013)

This reasonably funny mockumentary follows a computer chess tournament in 1980. Assorted geeks and nerds (including one “lady”) show up at a hotel to test their hardware and software’s chess skills. The winning algorithm will then face an actual human chess master. To add color, a bizarre new-age group has its own gathering at the same hotel. The whole thing is shot in standard-def black-and-white; it looks awful but that’s the point. The jokes range from the clever to the obvious, and I must admit that most of the audience I saw it with laughed more than I did.

B- The Cocoanuts (1929)

The Marx Brothers’ first movie is an amateurish effort with occasional scenes of brilliance, with only hints at the laughs to come. But it’s fascinating to watch, if only from an historical perspective. As a very early talky based on a stage play, Cocoanuts suffers from the bad audio, static staging, and mostly dull photography of the transitional period, despite a few attempts at visual flair. The movie spends too much time on the dull jewel-thief plot and not enough on the brothers. But the non-speaking Harpo gives his best screen performance. Whether he’s drinking ink, stealing handkerchiefs, or “swimming” across a perfectly dry room, he’s both hilarious and transcendent.

These are only some of the films that will disappear come November. Here is the full list of films that will go away after Halloween.