Colossal Youth Archives - The Playlist

Criterion Releases Mega Clues For 2010 Line-Up

Rodrigo Perez — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Over the holidays, our good friends at the Criterion Collection unleashed a New Year’s Postcard, chock full of those squiggly cartoon clues that adorn their newsletters (the postcard is drawn by regular wacky clue artist Jason Polan). We love those clues, and immediately the Internet exploded with speculation about what everything meant (on sites like Criterion Forum and High Def Junkies), while we puzzled over the clues ourselves. Here’s a rundown of what most of the mega-clue probably mean.

Continue reading Criterion Releases Mega Clues For 2010 Line-Up at The Playlist.

Criterion In March: Nicholas Ray’s ‘Bigger Than Life,’ Pedro Costa’s Boxset & Marco Ferreri’s ‘Dillinger Is Dead’

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:04:00 +0000

Anyone complaining of Criterion pulling a “populist” shift of late will be quieted by their selection of titles for March, which mainline selections that have long been unavailable on DVD, some long-awaited favorites.

First up is “Bigger Than Life,” Nicholas Ray’s cautionary melodrama that tells the story of a schoolteacher who gets hopelessly addicted to painkillers. Ray’s Cinemascope film is a vicious takedown of the American family, a theme the director had just visited a year earlier with “Rebel Without A Cause.” Also arriving on BluRay, the extras will include an appreciation by author Jonathan Lethem, a half-hour TV interview with Ray and a commentary by film critic Geoff Andrews.

Continue reading Criterion In March: Nicholas Ray’s ‘Bigger Than Life,’ Pedro Costa’s Boxset & Marco Ferreri’s ‘Dillinger Is Dead’ at The Playlist.

Pedro Costa’s ‘Colossal’ Masterwork Finally Coming To DVD; Criterion To Release Entire Fontainhas Trilogy

samcmac — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:20:00 +0000

It’s certainly not for all tastes – nor would it likely agree with everyone on our staff – but Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa’s slow-burning, stark and almost mystical “Colossal Youth” strikes this writer as one of the towering achievements in DV film this decade (up there with David Lynch’s impressionistic head-fuck “Inland Empire” and, yes, the divisive, grainy Michael Mann epic, “Miami Vice”). As such, it’s a shame that no one has bothered to release Costa’s magnum opus in any form since its very limited NYC theatrical run in 2007.

Continue reading Pedro Costa’s ‘Colossal’ Masterwork Finally Coming To DVD; Criterion To Release Entire Fontainhas Trilogy at The Playlist.