Watch at Home: Knives Out, Midway, System Crasher, and Monty Clift
Tuesday, February 25, 2020 at 10:30AM by Nathaniel R
Do any of you buy Blu-Rays or DVDs anymore? The release dates of such used to be a big deal for film fans but now it's but another random date and everyone is on their own timetable. Nevertheless we should probably check in once in a while, shouldn't we? (New to streaming titles are also listed after the jump)
New to DVD/ Blu-Ray (Feb 3rd-25th)
If we've written about the film it's linked up...
• 21 Bridges - the Russo brothers attempt to step away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (albeit with Black Panther himself in tow)
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - the misunderstood and underrated Mr Rogers hosted drama
• Color Out of Space - Nicolas Cage again...
• Doctor Sleep - a sequel (of sorts) to The Shining
• Frankie - Ira Sach directs Isabelle Huppert
• Ford V Ferrari - Oscar winner for Editing and Sound Editing
• Frozen II - the musical sequel
• The Good Liar - Dame Helen & Sir Ian's thriller romp
• Jojo Rabbit - Oscar winner for Adapted Screenplay
• Last Christmas - a flop rom-com
• Knives Out - Rian Johnson's surprise whodunnit blockbuster
Midway
• Midway - Roland Emmerich's WW II picture starring just about every familiar-faced good-looking B list white guy in Hollywood: Ed Skrein, Darren Criss, Nick Jonas, Keean Johnson, Patrick Wilson (who should be A list but you can't have everything), Luke Kleintank, Brandon Sklenar, Luke Evans, and many more. We're tempted to watch it just for all the square jaws but Emmerich's movies haven't been good since the mid 90s and even then they weren't "good" in the true definition of words sense. Have any of you reading seen this picture?
• The Nightingale - Jennifer Kent's brutal rape drama
• Roma (Criterion Classics Edition) - The Oscar favourite and critical darling from Alfonso Cuarón
• Synonyms - An Israeli man tries to reinvent himself in Paris
• Wild Nights with Emily - Molly Shannon's lesbian comedy
New to Streaming (since February 15th)
• 47 Meters Down Uncaged (2019) on Prime
• Annabelle Comes Home (2019) on HBO
• The Prince (2014) on Hulu. Action thriller with Jason Patric and Bruce Willis
• Run the Race (2019) on Hulu. A Christian high school sports drama.
• Super 8 (2011) on Hulu. J.J. Abrams' Spielberg homagey sci-fi drama starring Kyle Chandler and Joel Courtny as father and son. A then 13 year-old Elle Fanning steals it, though.
• System Crasher (2019) on Netflix. Germany's Oscar submission last season and a 3 time European Film Award nominee. We should probably watch this one, yes?
Mini Film Festivals on Criterion Channel (since Feb 15th)
• Anna Karina (8 films) - The Danish born French New Wave icon made 8 films with Jean-Luc Godard all but one of which are included in this lineup. The sole non-Godard film featured is Jacques Rivette's The Nun (1966)
• Dame Wendy Hiller (7 films) - This package includes her breakthrough film (Pygmalion, 1938), her Oscar winning role (Separate Tables, 1958), and her final film appearance (The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, 1987) among other films.
• Montgomery Clift (3 films) - three major classics starring our favourite brooding actor of the 1950s: Red River (1948) a winkingly gay western, A Place in the Sun (1951), a primary Nathaniel obsession recently discussed on the podcast And the Runner Up Is...,
And From Here to Eternity (1953), the sudsiest and sexiest of the Oscar-winning WWII films. For what it's worth Clift's centennial is coming up in October this year so we will be celebrating in a major way. Since he only made 17 films we're thinking of just writing about each and every one of them by October. What'cha think?
Reader Comments (31)
Australia is shithouse for classic films on any streaming services or channels, so I definitely pick up classic films on DVD or Blu-ray from op shops(thrift shops for you yanks) and occasionally regular stores when I can.
MIDWAY isn't awful (it's not good either). I saw it on Memorial Day and there seemed to have been were some veterans or family of veterans in my theater so that created a specific experience. But yes, PLENTY of rugged squared-jaws clean-cut man beef so I was just fine.
Also thanks for the heads up on Montgomery Clift. I've been meaning to see some of his films to bump up my classic movie list. Perfect reason to do so now for his centennial!
*Veteran's Day
Hollywood is trying really hard to make Ed Skrien happen. It is not working.
I mean, I guess they are Ben, but him being in Midway and not, say 1917, shows the real effort they've put into the endeavor.
Jamin & Ben -- i wish they'd try a little harder. I like him (from what admittedly little i've seen). I thought the good press he got by rejecting inappropriate casting (he was cast in a role and bailed when he realized the character was supposed to be half asian) would have won him more support online but people seem snarky about him.
I bought DVD's like mad in the 2000s and now feel somewhat burdened by them. I can't bear to get rid of them but many of them were only watched once.
Now I only buy each year's Best Picture winner on DVD (love seeing them all together on the shelf) and a few other series (the Star Wars movies, Fargo seasons).
I didn't like Knives Out at all,fairly obvious who was the murderer.
Oh I hadn't heard the snark. I actually hadn't heard anything since the rejection of the role in Hellboy, which did make me think highly of him. That's what surprised me about Ben's comment. Plus looking at his IMDB page after reading said comment it didn't really strike me as a big push by Hollywood to make him a thing. Seems like a Jai Courteney type, but he hasn't even hit that level yet.
We can ALWAYS use more Montgomery.
Hopefully someone can tell us where/how to watch good versions of the Clift movies. I've tried to see them all but I've never seen a good version of say, I Confess, on TV anywhere.
Nathaniel, did you see MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT, a documentary released last year, directed by his nephew? Recommended!
Was Last Christmas a flop? I was under the impression it was a hit. In the UK at least. Ed Skrein, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnamen... any snark coming from me is purely motivated by a combination of jealousy & horniness.
Although I must say my impression of Last Christmas might be influenced by the fact it’s poster was on the side of what felt like every bus and in every tube station from October.
I hope Nathaniel is working on a tribute to Baby Peggy, she was the last living star from the silent film era, literally the silent film era died yesterday.
I own a DVD library and I will. not. stop. Knives Out is sitting at my doorstep right now.
Choog - LAST CHRISTMAS under-performed here in the US, but it's Top 20 in the UK making about $23million (which roughly translates to $115million gross in the US if you adjusted for population). For comparison, KNIVES OUT made $19million. Worldwide it made over $121million against a $25million budget, so not a flop.
I still buy DVDs and Blu-rays. Better quality than streaming, deeper catalogue titles, and the studios can't come into my house and remove my discs the way they can remove things on my streaming watchlists.
I'm an eternal physical media devotee and I have no plans to stop buying blu-rays and DVDs. I have to be extremely disciplined with my spending, though, as it's definitely not an inexpensive habit. I'm a completist and have this weird compulsion to own things, so I buy movies, but libraries are a really great resource for physical media as well!
@Dave in Hollywood: lots of Clift movies (including I Confess) are on blu-ray and one that I've been dying to see, Indiscretion of an American Wife/Terminal Station, is getting a release at the end of March from Kino.
re: Clift, oh hell yeah.
There are two articles I'd love to see on The Film Experience for this year. One is a best actress retrospective of 1995 (25th annviersary, riduclously deep bench) and Clift's centennial
re: Physical media
I love books and video-discs. Now, I'm not full Nick Davis (no VCR's or anything), but yeah - I love it. I totally get feeling burdened by them, though. Why do I own more copies of the Dekalog than the number of times I've seen it (own three, seen it twice)? On the other hand, I've literally held blu-rays that I own and just felt slightly happier knowing that I could see even if I don't want to just right now...
"Since he only made 17 films we're thinking of just writing about each and every one of them by October. What'cha think?" YES! October 17th, 2020. I own 4 films of Monty: Red River (I don't even like Westerns), The Heiress, From Here to Eternity (not much on war films, but this was mostly stateside), and Suddenly, Last Summer (More for Liz and Kate, since Mr. Clift was post ghastly accident and not looking or acting well, poor guy).
YES on Montgomery Clift!
Physical media still matters to me. Certain movies I love won't be loved by cloud based distributors. Sometimes you appreciate niche stuff and if there's a physical copy of it owning it is the only logical choice. I mean there's no Blu-ray edition of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006).
I love me some Wendy Hiller. Her leading turn in Pygmalion should have bagged her the Oscar for sure. It seems she maybe tarnished her reputation by taking on too many imperious aristocrats in her later roles.
Luke, we know Bette Davis beat out Wendy Hiller in Pygmalion, but I do loves me some Margaret Sullavan, that year's winner of NYFCC's Best Actress Award and cited for Best Acting at the NBR (Hiller also was, but Davis was not. Jezebel made their Top Ten Films, but Pygmalion did not). So basically in the limited way of those days, "the critic's choice". I'm always partial to Sullavan, plus if 1950 wasn't so stacked, and if Greer Garson didn't have a similar storyline in the Mrs. Miniver sequel (The Miniver Story) that year, Sullavan would have been a great nominee for her final film role in the touching melodrama No Sad Songs For Me.
Knives Out was a bore and very rarely funny. What a waste of a great cast. A+ production design but that’s it. Didn’t get the hype.
Of course! Best thing to own YOUR movies. I get the greatest pleasure even looking at my DVD library shelf (build sleekly by a very ... very handsome carpenter) - not to mention choosing the right movie for the right mood ... And some movies will even grow on you or you suddenly see in a different light with more life experience - I find it fascinating.
Love to use streaming for discovery & my library for celebration !
Same effect then choosing a book, lying in the hammock and smelling the paper it was printed on... will we ever loose the DVD ?
It would be such a shame - but thats what we prophesied when everyone kindled, and now my friends in their 30's by vinyl.
And yes to Monty & Wendy
I still buy blu-rays on a regular basis. I use Netflix and Prime, and while they do have a big selection, it’s not EVERYTHING. And I hate the idea of letting them tell me what I can watch and when. Plus if I love a movie I just like owning a copy of it. Maybe that’s materialistic but, for example, Criterion just released a beautiful edition of All About My Mother and I love having it propped up in my DVD/bluray collection and I can stare at the wonderful cover art.
I did see "Midway" in the theater are really liked it as old fashion war picture spectacular and yesit has a great looking male cast. I was not impressed by "Knifes Out" specially the heavy handed woke politics
Just saw "Knives Out" and I thought it was hilarious, especially seeing Chris Evans and Daniel Craig hamming it up in fun roles. I did wish the supporting cast had more to be, but I guess casting big name actors in small roles is part of the misdirection.