Good news for everyone who's sick of the James Taylor video

Morning, folks! Did you miss me? I’m sure you’ve all wondered what I’ve been up to lately that was more important than posting here. Truth is, I haven’t been myself lately. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong until yesterday, when I remembered that I hadn’t bought a DVD in over a month. Obviously, that really isn’t like me, so I promptly remedied the situation by running out and purchasing this:


I know- it’s not the kind of thing I usually go for. But there was actually a reason for this purchase. I’m not a huge fan of it myself, but it was a gift for my girlfriend and her son.

Yup. As Albert Brooks said in Broadcast News, “How do you like that? I buried the lead.”

Yes, recently I’ve found myself in a wonderful relationship with a lovely woman named Angela. It’s been too damn long since I’ve been this happy, either with myself or someone else. So I hope you’ll forgive me for being delinquent in my duties on this blog. Between Angela and work and Screengrab and Angela’s son and keeping up with new movies and Angela, something’s got to give. But I’m great, in case you’ve been worried. Pretty damn great, actually.

Moving on to other DVD news that you probably already knew about, here are the newly-announced Criterions for August:

First off is a new pressing of Salo, for the benefit of those of us who missed the three-hour window for it the first time around and couldn’t make it to the local indie video store before some punk decided to steal their copy. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

Continuing Criterion’s commitment to the Archers, here’s probably the best-known Powell/Pressburger film I haven’t yet seen. I love these guys (though certainly not as much as Donna) so I’m stoked to get a chance to finally see this one.

This one’s new to me, but I’m sure I’ll rent it. Hell, since it’s Criterion I’ll give it a spin on general principle.

This may be the most intriguing of all the August releases. I wasn’t a big fan of the movie, but it should be worth the price simply for the dazzling array of announced narration tracks- Isabella Rossellini, Crispin Glover, Eli Wallach, Laurie Anderson, and more.

Finally, the best Criterion-related news I’ve gotten lately is this month’s animated riddle. A month after I wished Max Ophüls would finally get some Criterion love, I found this in my e-Mail:

Ask and ye shall receive in my opinion. Now maybe they can get around to releasing some high-quality versions of Jacques Rivette films. Hint, hint.

That’s all there is for now. I’ll do my best to keep this regularly updated in the future, but I make no promises. Please try to understand.