Criterion Gives Birth This January

Put another checkmark in the "Fucking finally!" column because one of the great movies that hasn't gotten a proper release since the days of DVD is getting an upgrade on January 27th, 2026 -- yes obviously I speak of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece Birth, as that enormous visage of Nicole Kidman's face with the word "Birth" scrawled across it probably let on already. (Sidenote: Birth is coming out on my mother's birthday? How fortuitous.) I'd have a hard nigh impossible time ranking Glazer's films because he's made nothing but masterpieces in his directing career -- one wants to call his a "brief" career since he's only directed four features, but those four features are spread across 25 years (beginning with Sexy Beast in 2000) and that's the opposite of brief. But depending on the day Birth might be my favorite of his. The next day it'll be Under the Skin and the day after that's it's The Zone of Interest, and so it goes. But this is triuphant news nonetheless -- a 4K disc, including a new doc on the movie's making -- now can we get Alexandre Desplat's now-legendary score released on vinyl please??? No, it's never enough. You get one thing, you need another, and then you die. And are reborn in a little boy to go stalk Nicole Kidman!

And as if Birth wasn't chilly enough -- Criterion is definitely leaning into the January-ness of January -- we'll also be getting Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and John Huston's The Dead hitting 4k that month. I don't think I've seen either of these before? I may've seen the Huston ages and ages ago but I was certainly too young to get it and should revisit. As for Dead Man I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to Jarmusch and I'm not exactly crawling over broken glass to watch Johnny Depp movies these days, but I did really love Jarmusch's latest at NYFF so I can probably be convinced. Opinions on either?

Next up there's Jia Zhangke's tremendous latest Caught By the Tides, which I haven't seen since NYFF 2024 so it's been awhile, but it's a film that flits across my consciousness often -- Zhangke shot the film over 23 years (!!!) with actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin and watching them age in real time, watching China change around them -- it's an incredible experience. I suppose it must've been annoying for him when Richard Linklater beat him to the gimmick with Boyhood but I'm very much Team Zhangke on this one. It's an incredible accomplishment. And then there's the latest entry in Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project series, which honestly has long intimidated the hell out of me. I'll dive into them one day! 

And so we come to the months'f inal three releases (big batch!) -- the second more vital drop this month to my eye is their re-release of Edward Yang's Yi Yi in 4K, which I've talked about a few times since seeing it for the first time just a few months ago; an astonishing film, one of the greats. Then there's the 1985 film of Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Raul Julia and an Oscar-winning turn from William Hurt. I should probably give this one another chance -- I remember not being nuts about it when I saw it in my 20s. And then to bring us home there's Errol Flynn's best movie says me, the enormously entertaining 1935 swashbuckler Captain Blood. Love this movie; Errol is Peak Errol here.The big sword fight on the rocks is unmissable classic cinema. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Gentleman Jim (1942)

Jim: Do you know what I'd do with you if you were my girl? 

I'd just put you over my knee and give you a good spanking.

Happy birthday to iconically eye-patched director Raoul Walsh

who was born 137 years ago today! Fassbinder was a big fan!

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1937

Well I wasn't planning on doing one of my "Siri Says" posts today but I am the poisonous combination of being both dullard-minded and bored to boot this afternoon, and this is a good way to kill an hour plus -- wowza am I ever selling it today! You're welcome! Anyway today's pick ended up being "37" and so we'll be talking the Movies of 1937. Which well first things first it turns out this is the last year of the 1930s that I had left! So, as we do whenever we finish a decade, here are links to all of the 1930s...

Here are my favorite movies of 1930

Here are my favorite movies of 1931

Here are my favorite movies of 1932

Here are my favorite movies of 1933

Here are my favorite movies of 1934

Here are my favorite movies of 1935

Here are my favorite movies of 1936

Here are my favorite movies of 1938

Here are my favorite movies of 1939

Lots of fun to be had up in there, as the 1930s are obviously a killer decades for the movies -- indeed going though the movies of 1937 I have to admit that I was kind of shocked by how few 1937 movies I have seen? I'm pretty good with the 30s in general, but for some reason this year in particular is a big fat void nothingburger. I'll be curious to hear what movies y'all dig from it, because I got not a lot! The enthusiasm of this post, from start to finish, it's really something right? It's just that kind of day. On that note...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1937

The Awful Truth

(dir. Leo McCarey)

-- released on October 21st 1937 --

Nothing Sacred

(dir. William A. Wellman)

-- released on November 25th 1937 --

Stella Dallas

(dir. King Vidor)

-- released on August 5th 1937 --

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

(dir. David Hand, etc.)

-- released on December 21st 1937 --

Make Way For Tomorrow

(dir. Leo McCarey)

-- released on April 30th 1937 --

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Never seen: Easy Living (dir. Mitchell Leisen), Topper (dir. Norman Z. McLeod), Lost Horizon (dir. Frank Capra), Captain Courageous (dir. Victor Fleming), The Life of Emile Zola (dir. William Dieterle), Marked Woman (dir. Lloyd Bacon)

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What are your favorite movies of 1937?

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1935

This post hasn't even begun and I have lied to you. LIED. I don't know how we recuperate from this violence, but maybe me spilling the beans will help. You see normally when I do my "Siri Says" series I ask my telephone to choose a number between 1 and 100, and then I give me my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds with the number. That's you, know, kinda the entire idea behind the series. But when I took stock of the archives of this series back in January I realized that I only had 14 out of 100 years left, and to be quite honest it would have taken Siri half an hour at them odds to come up with a fresh number. So I didn't ask Siri! What I did was write the 14 remaining years down on slips of paper and choose the year from that. See?

At least this much is true! I never could have just written "1935" on a random slip of paper or anything -- that would be the work of a crazy person, and you're obviously, hehe, in the hands of the entirely sane here. Only a sane person would spend two paragraphs and what, a good minute of everybody's lives, detailing all of this in minute detail. So yes, the Movies of 1935 is where we're resting our heads this Monday afternoon, and... meh? Not the greatest year for the movies, save stone-cold masterpiece (the first one in my list below) and several solid-enough flicks after that. Tons of very serious literary adaptations this year (David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, A Tale of Two Cities, Crime and Punishment, Peter Ibbetson, A Midsummer Night's Dream) that feel a little musty now. But I dug up some good stuff...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1935

The Bride of Frankenstein

(dir. James Whale)

-- released on April 19th 1935 --

Captain Blood

(dir. Michael Curtiz)

-- released on December 19th 1935 --

Mad Love

(dir. Karl Freund)

-- released on July 12th 1935 --

The 39 Steps

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on July 31st 1935 --

The Devil is a Woman

(dir. Josef von Sternberg)

-- released on March 15th 1935 --

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Runners-up: Top Hat (dir. Mark Sandrich), Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (dir. Henry Hathaway), Triumph of the Will (dir. Leni Riefenstahl), The Raven (dir. Louis Friedlander), The Call of the Wild (dir. William A. Wellman), Magnificent Obsession (dir. John M. Stahl), Mark of the Vampire (dir. Tod Browning), Anna Karenina (dir. Clarence Brown) 

Never seen: David Copperfield (dir. George Cukor), The Wedding Night (dir. King Vidor), Roberta (dir. William A. Seiter), The Informer (dir. John Ford), Alice Adams (dir. George Stevens), Peter Ibbetson (dir. Hathaway), Annie Oakley (dir. Stevens), Dangerous (dir. Alfred E. Green), Sylvia Scarlett (dir. Cukor), Toni (dir. Jean Renoir), An Inn in Tokyo (dir. Ozu) 

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What are your favorite movies of 1935?

Great Moment in Movie Staches

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I could fill this series a thousand entries strong by just posting about Errol Flynn's mustaches over the years but today, in honor of the 109th anniversary of his birth, let's focus in on the 1939 Western called Dodge City, which was one of the biggest hits at the movies that year and yet you don't hear much about it anymore. It was the seventh time that Flynn co-starred with Olivia De Havilland (out of eight films they made together) -- here's a clip that showcases why the two were so popular (as well as showcasing Errol Flynn in pretty tight cowboy trousers):

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Dodge City was directed by Flynn's frequent collaborator, the psychotically paced director Michael Curtiz - Dodge is wedged right between The Adventures of Robin Hood in '38 and The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex later in '39, which I consider probably Flynn's two most important films. That said I never hear anybody talk about DC nor have I seen it myself - of course I'm not the world's biggest connoisseur of Westerns, my least favorite genre give or take a couple grand exceptions. If you've seen it how does it stack up?

I Quit Smoking Ten Years Ago Today

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Wow you guys! Round numbers equal milestones, and here we are at a very round milestone indeed. It has officially been a full decade since I have touched a cigarette, as of today. I am, in the parlance of the poets, quite fucking incredible. 

I don't really have a speech prepared - at this point cigarettes seem a distant memory, a youthful indiscretion. I don't have any inclination towards them at all; the only time I think about them is doing these posts each year - you can click through all ten years worth at this link - or when I see a picture over the course of the year to save for these posts.

I suppose I also think of cigarettes when some prick is walking down the sidewalk blowing their cigarette smoke in my face, but I don't think i have quite yet become the stereotype of the screaming ex-smoker. I still do these posts, after all! In that spirit let's get to it; hit the jump for dozens more sexy smoking menfolk...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1940

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We're not dawdling in this here brand New Year - let's dive right in and continue our "Siri Says" series, in which we ask our telephone to give us a number between 1 and 100 and then choose a favorite list of films that correspond to whatever number she gives us. Today it was the number 40, and so we turn our eyes to The Movies of 1940. Glancing at the annual poll of Box Office Stars 1940 fell right square in the middle of Mickey Rooney's reign of cinematic terror, but no worries - no Mickey here! Well, there is one Mickey, but a different far better Mickey...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1940

Fantasia

(dir. James Algar etc.)

-- released on November 13th 1940 --

Rebecca

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

-- released on April 12th 1940 --
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My Favorite Wife

(dir. Garson Kanin)

-- released on May 17th 1940 --

His Girl Friday

(dir. Howard Hawks)

-- released on January 18th 1940 --

Pinocchio

(dir. Ben Sharpsteen etc)

-- released on February 23rd 1940 --

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Runners-up: The Philadelphia Story (dir. Cukor), The Grapes of Wrath (dir. Ford), The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Lubitsch), Foreign Correspondent (dir. Hitchcock), Remember the Night (dir. Leisen), The Mark of Zorro (dir. Rouben Mamoulian)...

... They Drive by Night (dir. Raoul Walsh), The Thief of Bagdad (dir. Michael Powell), All This, and Heaven Too (dir. Anatole Litvak),  Black Friday (dir. Arthur Lubin), The Letter (dir. William Wyler), The Great Dictator (dir. Chaplin)

Never seen: Arizona (dir. Wesley Ruggles), Kitty Foyle (dir. Sam Wood), The Sea Hawk (dir. Michael Curtiz), The Bank Dick (dir. Cline), The Invisible Man Returns (dir. James Whale), Night Train to Munich (dir. Carol Reed), Our Town (dir. Sam Wood)

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What are your favorite movies of 1940?

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1939

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When I did one of my "Siri Says" posts for the year 1938 I made mention that the following year (meaning 1939) is notorious for being one of the greatest years in all of cinema history. It's a big damn year. Cut to today and color me surprised when Siri's actually handed me The Movies of 1939 to evaluate and in doing so has gone and made me realize that I have seen a shockingly small number of this year's classics! I mean sure, yes, I've seen the biggies, the ones everybody thinks of when you say "1939!" (AKA the ones that Victor Fleming and/or George Cukor both directed.) But the list is short, and there are many from this year I'm clueless about. Huh. So while I ruminate on my cinematic phoniness, you ruminate on my list.

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1939

The Women

(dir. George Cukor)

-- released on September 1st 1939 --

Gone With the Wind

(dir. Victor Fleming)

-- released on December 15th 1939 --

Dark Victory

(dir. Edmund Goulding)

-- released on April 22 1939 --

The Wizard of Oz

(dir. Victor Fleming)

-- released on August 25th 1939 --

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

(dir. William Dieterle)

-- released on December 29th 1939 --

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Runners-up: Golden Boy (dir. Gene Feldman),  Ninotchka (dir. Ernst Lubitsch), Intermezzo: A Love Story (dir. Gregory Ratoff), Union Pacific (dir. Cecil B. DeMille), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (dir. Chuck Jones), Mr Smith Goes to Washington (dir. Frank Capra), Wuthering Heights (dir. William Wyler)

Never seen: Stagecoach (dir. John Ford), Goodbye Mr Chips (dir. Sam Wood), The Spy in Black (dir. Powell / Pressburger), The Rules of the Game (dir. Jean Renoir), The Rains Came (dir. Clarence Brown), Love Affair (dir. Leo McCarey), Jesse James (dir. Henry King), Gunga Din (dir. George Stevens), Destry Rides Again (dir. George Marshall), Beau Geste (dir. William A. Wellman), Young Mr. Lincoln (dir. John Ford), Son of Frankenstein (Rowland V. Lee)

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What are your favorite movies of 1939?

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1942

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And now we're back, from outer space -- that is if "my living-room floor" falls under the definition of "outer space" (there's no gravity when your spine gives in) -- and let us not look upon each other with sad looks upon our faces but rather joy, for it's time for one of our "Siri Says" series, in which I ask my cell phone to choose a number between 1 and 100 and we then choose our five favorite movies from the corresponding year. 

Today we got stuck with 1942 (all of these movies are turning 75 this year!) and at first I thought this would be a tough one - a lot of titles weren't jumping off the year's Wikipedia list at me. But then I started investigating closer, and realized I'd just forgotten the titles of several movies - there are actually a whole lot of movies from 1942 that I love. So many that narrowing it down to only 5 was a tough nut to crack. 

I managed, with some elbow grease brain-wise, but the runners-up should be thought of as a special bunch too. I mean a Hitchcock movie actually didn't make my top five - that's when you know something's nutty...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1942

Casablanca

(dir. Michael Curtiz)

-- released on November 26th 1942 --

Now, Voyager

(dir. Irving Rapper)

-- released on October 31st 1942 --

The Palm Beach Story

(dir. Preston Sturges)

-- released on December 10th 1942 --

 To Be Or Not To Be

(dir. Ernst Lubitsch)

-- released on March 6th 1942 --

Cat People

(dir. Jacques Tourneur)

-- released on December 25th 1942 --

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Runners-up: Bambi (dir. James Algar etc.),  Saboteur (dir. Alfred Hitchcock), The Corpse Vanishes (dir. Wallace Fox), Woman of the Year (dir. George Stevens), Gentlemen Jim (dir. Raoul Walsh), The Black Swan (dir. Henry King), The Pride of the Yankees (dir. Sam Wood), The Man Who Came to Dinner (dir. William Keighley)

Never Seen: Mrs. Miniver (dir. William Wyler),  

The Magnificent Ambersons (dir. Orson Welles)

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What are your 5 favorite movies of 1942?

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