The Criterion Collection already corners the home-video market for prestige releases of classic and contemporary foreign films. Now the company adds a new line of releases alongside its central line-up. What’s the new brand? Criterion will work with Janus Films on Janus Contemporaries, a home-video line for first-run international releases. The DVD/Blu-Ray editions of these films will also coincide with their premieres on the Criterion Channel, Criterion’s streaming service.

Continue reading The Criterion Announces Janus Contemporaries, A New Home-Video Line For First-Run Theatrical Releases at The Playlist.

Yes, we’re not quite over with last year. But we’re getting there today, don’t worry. You’re busy; we get it. You may not have time to see everything; hell, you may not have seen our list of the Best Films of 2022 (25 films). But we assure you there are riches of cinema out there if you look.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023

In the spirit of this idea, and because there are so many films released that not all of us have time to see, there’s even more to explore (and because you just might be pulling up a computer for the first time in several weeks this week, hence running this now).

Continue reading Overlooked & Underrated: The 25 Best Films Of 2022 You (Prolly) Didn’t See at The Playlist.

Inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 classic “Au Hasard Balthazar,” Jerzy Skolimowski’s “EO” also follows the life and times of a humble donkey. However, this latest offering by the 84-year-old Polish filmmaker is in no sense a direct remake of one of cinema’s enduring masterworks. So titled for the hee-hawing sounds a donkey makes, “EO” (now in theaters) is an experimental donkey picaresque, dispensing with the ascetic filmmaking aesthetic for which Bresson was best known and instead capturing the world as vividly experienced — seen, felt, imagined, perhaps mourned — through all the senses of one noble ass.

Continue reading ‘EO’: Jerzy Skolimowski On Presenting A Donkey’s Inner Monologue [Interview] at The Playlist.

Film Comment revealed its top 20 films of 2022 at a special live talk at Lincoln Center in NYC last night, as well as its top 10 list for 2022 films still without US theatrical distribution. Their best film of 2022?  David Cronenberg‘s “Crimes Of The Future,” with Jerzy Skolimowski‘s “EO” and Charlotte Wells‘ feature debut “Aftersun” not far behind.

Continue reading ‘Crimes Of The Future,’ ‘EO,’ ‘Aftersun’ Top Film Comment’s Top 20 Films Of 2022 List at The Playlist.

As 2022 draws to a close, critics and publications round up their favorite films from the year to rank for their annual top 10 lists. But does anybody do it better than John Waters. Sure, the subversive filmmaker isn’t one to choose the usual run-of-the-mill, awards-season contenders like some others. But that’s why we love him! Water has always been unapologetic about being himself and totally unafraid to boast his opinions, no matter how unpopular or eccentric they may be.

Continue reading John Waters’ Top 10 Films Of 2022 List Includes Two François Ozon Films, ‘Bones And All,’ ‘EO,’ & Quentin Dupieux’s Latest at The Playlist.

As 2022 comes to a close, the season of year-end lists begins, with critics and publications announcing their top 10 films from the last calendar year. And few publications’ annual lists carry as much gravity for movie fans as Cahiers du Cinéma, the critical stalwart of the French film world. So, what does the magazine have atop their best films of 2022 list?

READ MORE: ‘Pacification’ Review: Albert Serra Makes A Gorgeous & Grave Tropical Anti-Epic With Post-Colonial Intrigue [NYFF]

None other than Albert Serra‘s “Pacifiction,” fresh off its French theatrical release last month.

Continue reading ‘Pacifiction,’ ‘Nope,’ & ‘Licorice Pizza’ Top The Cahiers Du Cinema Top 10 Of 2022 at The Playlist.

Few filmmakers have had as idiosyncratic a career as Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. But Skolimowski may have saved one of his best movies for a late-career highlight with “EO,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it co-won the Jury Prize with “The Eight Mountains.”

READ MORE: ‘Eo’ Review: Jerzy Skolimowski’s Reimagining Of Robert Bresson’s ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’ Has A Haunting Beauty [Cannes]

Inspired by Robert Bresson‘s 1966 film “Au Hasard Balthazar,” the film follows a donkey that escapes the Polish circus to traverse the countryside on an absurd and stirring adventure.

Continue reading ‘EO’ Trailer: Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes Jury Prize-Winning Donkey Drama Hits NYC/LA Theaters Next Month at The Playlist.

There’s always at least one. Just a few nights deep into this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the competition has thrown up its first wild, batshit, and occasionally beautiful curiosity. Reimagining “Au Hazard Balthazar,” Robert Bresson’s classic fable of human cruelty and indifference for the present day, “Eo” follows a lowly circus donkey on a recurring series of captures and escapes, some more legible than others, some more hallucinogenic and experimental than others, but all combining into a singular surrealist whole.

Continue reading ‘Eo’ Review: Jerzy Skolimowski Reimagining Of Robert Bresson’s ‘Au Hazard Balthazar’ Has A Haunting Beauty [Cannes] at The Playlist.