Criterion Collection

When I was ten years old, nuclear war seemed a real possibility. I knew U.S. relations with the Soviet Union were fraught through occasional glimpses of…

Actor and director Edward James Olmos, best known for his roles including patriarch Abraham Quintanilla Jr. in the film “Selena,” his Oscar-nominated…

Can you imagine watching David Lynch’s bleaker-than-midwinter prequel to “Twin Peaks” without having seen a minute of the TV show? That was me, back in…

In a 2005 essay for NPR’s “This I Believe” series, filmmaker Errol Morris laid out the personal philosophy behind his documentary filmmaking: “Truth is…

Mystery abounds in Peter Weir’s “Picnic At Hanging Rock,” a movie that would not ever be made today both for its unresolved plot as well as the subtlety…

At one time in America, “The Little Tramp” was one of the most recognized characters in the world. Among classic movie characters, I think Dorothy from…

It’s really a shame that any review of “On the Waterfront” is colored by EliaKazan’s infamous friendly testimony before the House Un-American Activities…

This week, the Criterion Collection released a marvelous set of David Lean films based on the work of Noël Coward. Of those films (and many others),…

A painter may paint a picture, a composer may write a beautiful melody for solo piano, but in the world of the theater (and here I count motion pictures…

“The Jazz Singer” may have brought sound to the movies in 1927, but it didn’t exactly bring them to life.  Cumbersome sound equipment ensured that talking…