Surprisingly Criterion

We make the case for the first Park Chan-Wook film to be in the Criterion Collection!   Articles mentioned: Sarah Waters interview in the Guardian Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker Laura Miller in Slate Park Chan-Wook speaking about Extended version and other elements of adapting the script Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Instagram  Facebook  Twitter

Jean Renoir’s colourful and, at times, funny film about the building of the Moulin Rouge is the next edition of the Randomizer Criterion’s listing and boxset: Spine #243: French Cancan Spine #241: Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook  

Terrence Malick’s re-telling of the story of Pocahontas and John Smith, the extended cut. It’s a doozy. Bonus Material: Indian Country Today review: https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/not-much-new-in-the-new-world Imperialist Nostalgia essay https://muse.jhu.edu/article/740973/pdf Roger Ebert’s review https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-new-world-2006 World Socialist Today review https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/02/neww-f10.html https://supportanishnawbe.ca/donate/make-a-donation/ http://www.nwia.ca/about/donate-to-nwia/ https://imaginenative.org/support/donate/ https://artscancircle.ca/ https://makemusicmatter.org/donate/ https://nctr.ca/ Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free https://orcd.co/af_genevafreeport courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter https://twitter.com/SurprisingCrit Instagram https://www.instagram.com/SurprisingCrit/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/surprisingcrit

The latest in our I Can’t Believe It’s Not Criterion, we discuss one of the Greek Weird Wave’s most significant films and its director (and co-writer) Yorgos Lanthimos.   Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc.   Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook

The martial arts masterpiece is part of a Bruce Lee box set on the Criterion Collection - does it kick ass? Or does it sink in a pool of acid? Bonus Content: Original Hong Kong poster referenced North American poster Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Instagram Twitter Facebook

Our latest edition of the Randomizer: will it be magic, or will it go up in flames? BONUS CONTENT Original Poster Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook

How is there no Steven Spielberg film in the Criterion Collection? BONUS CONTENT Lessons From The Screenplay: Using Theme To Craft Character Michael Crichton’s Global Warming Legacy Dinosaur Reimagining: 
All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals From a 99pi episode: Welcome To Jurassic Art Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook

The movie that made Boomers cool again — or maybe just Motown. We dig into the values and the problems with Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 ensemble film about … well about many things! Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc.   Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook

We give Jim Jarmusch’s vignettes a closer look as we travel across 5 time zones on one night in 1991, and experience 5 separate taxi rides. BONUS CONTENT Essays: Los Angeles New York Paris Rome Helsinki Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online @SurprisingCrit Twitter Instagram Facebook

The next edition of our Randomizer segment, the great wheel has fallen on Spine #463: IL GENERALE DELLA ROVERE by acclaimed Italian director Roberto Rossellini We had a lot of fun with this one! And what's more fun than... Italian Neorealism Multe Salami AND Vittorio De Sica as a wartime rascal. ...oh and it's another prison-themed movie *we promise we are not doing this on purpose* Bonus content: Essay: Rediscovering Roberto Rossellini Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter Instagram Facebook

Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet - this Michel Gondry directed and Charlie Kaufman film is a cult fan favourite - how will it fair? Listen to the latest edition of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Criterion. Bonus content: How editing shapes a story (YouTube) Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter Instagram Facebook

Forrest Gump meets Titanic? We watched the second David Fincher film to make it into the Criterion Collection. Bonus Material: Short Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Curious Case Of Benjamin: The Visuals, Music and Costumes (YouTube)   Criterion Listing: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button   Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit Facebook: @SurprisingCrit

“You guys up for some reggae tonight?” We watched the first feature film made in Jamaica, starring reggae star Jimmy Cliff, and featuring one of the best soundtracks we’ve covered thus far. Bonus Material: Klive Walker’s essay: How The Harder They Come created Jamaican cinema Ulrick Casamir’s essay: A question of audience: revisiting Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come Perry Henzell’s obituary from 2006 Criterion Listing: The Harder They Come Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit Facebook: @SurprisingCrit

A new segment - the Randomizer. Can the Criterion Collection handle a random selection and then subsequent viewing of one of the films? For our first Randomizer episode, we got Equinox, directed by Jack Woods and Dennis Murren - the 338th film on the list. Bonus material: Films made by students on cell phones in Nigeria discussed in the episode - news clip about them Criterion listing for Equinox Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit

The cult classic with Spine number 872 starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi, by Dir./Writer Terry Zwigoff and writer Daniel Clowes Bonus material: Three Things You Never Knew About Ghost World (that we discuss in the show) “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit

“I’d buy that for a dollar!” Criterion’s 23rd film is kind of an odd choice, and a surprise! Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop is a wonderful satire of the era it was made, but does it belong on the list? Bonus material: Theatrical vs Director’s Cut - the 1 minute difference   Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc.   Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit

John Carpenter! How has he been forgotten by the collection? We talk about his 1982 sci-fi horror classic, The Thing, featuring great performances from Kurt Russel, Wilford Brimley and Keith David, and a wonderful score from Ennio Morricone. Bonus material: - New reissue of the OST from 2020 - Story of the origins of the partnership of Morricone and Carpenter Background reading: - On the writer of the short story “Who Goes There?” and why a literary award was renamed after the winner, Jeannette Ng, criticized him - Cory Doctorow’s essay about why the award’s name was rightly changed and it being a good decision Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit

We have our first guest! Our friend, comedian and fellow podcaster, Cas Knihnisky, brings us a movie only half of us had seen — Rosemary’s Baby! It’s on the list - we talk about it, and a lot of the things surrounding it like what kind of a nightmare Polanski is, and how funny Ruth Gordon is!\r\n  \r\n Bonus Material: Cas’s podcast about Stephen King: Castle Rockettes Follow them on the Internet Follow Cas online\r\n Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc.\r\n Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit\r\n

In the conclusion of our inadvertent and accidental prisons and prisoners trilogy, we talk about how Michael Bay’s 1996 adventure into Alcatraz is on the list. Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, and Ed Harris star in this wild ride. Bonus Material: Every Frame A Painting - “Michael Bay - What Is Bayhem?” Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit

In a new edition of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Criterion” we talk about Denis Villeneuve, Hollywood, and why our favourite French Canadian director deserves some recognition. Bonus material: Team Deakins podcast speaking with Denis Villeneuve Music: “The Endless Scroll” by Absolutely Free courtesy of Idée Fixe Records and Arts & Crafts Music Inc. Follow us online: Twitter: @SurprisingCrit Instagram: @SurprisingCrit