How now, what news: the Criterion Channel’s July lineup is here. Eight pop renditions of Shakespeare are on the docket: from movies you forgot were inspired by the Bard (Abel Ferrara’s China Girl) to ones you’d wish to forget altogether (Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing), with maybe my single favorite interpretation (Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet) alongside Paul Mazursky, Gus Van Sant, Baz Luhrmann, Derek Jarman, and (of course) Kenneth Branagh. A neonoir collection arrives four months ahead of Noirvember: two Ellroy adaptations, two from De Palma that are not his neonoir Ellroy adaptation, two from the Coen brothers (i.e. the chance to see a DVD-stranded The Man Who Wasn’t There in HD), and––finally––a Michael Winner picture given Criterion’s seal of approval.
Columbia screwballs run between classics to lesser-seens (a free subscription to those who can prove they’ve already seen Phffft, I imagine) while Nicolas Roeg and Heisei-era Godzilla face off. A Times Square collection brings The Gods of Times Square, Larry Cohen, Lucio Fulci, and many others who remind us what a hellhole (or different kind of hellhole) that place once was.
Someone finally found the commonality between Ridley Scott and Glauber Rocha: Thelma & Louise joins Black God, White Devil as July’s Criterion Editions. Meanwhile, 32 Sounds and Chicken for Linda make streaming debuts alongside restorations of Gregg Araki’s Nowhere and Kidlat Tahimik’s deeply sui generis Perfumed Nightmare and Turumba.
See the full list of films below:
32 Sounds, Sam Green, 2022
Absence of Malice, Sydney Pollack, 1981
All in This Tea, Gina Leibrecht and Les Blank, 2006
Alma Punk, Sarah Minter, 1991
The Awful Truth, Leo McCarey, 1937
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog, 2009*
The Big Sleep, Michael Winner, 1978
Black God, White Devil, Glauber Rocha, 1964
Blood and Wine, Bob Rafelson, 1996
Blow Out, Brian De Palma, 1981
Blue Steel, Kathryn Bigelow, 1990
Born to Win, Ivan Passer, 1971
Chicken for Linda!, Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, 2023
The Children of Times Square, Curtis Hanson, 1986
China Girl, Abel Ferrara, 1987
Chulas fronteras, Les Blank, 1976
Chuu Chuu, Mackie Mallison, 2022
Cop, James B. Harris, 1988
Crimes of Passion, Ken Russell, 1984
The Deep End, David Siegel and Scott McGehee, 2001
Del mero corazón, Les Blank, 1979
Dizzy Gillespie, Les Blank, 1965
Eyewitness, Peter Yates, 1981
Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird, Steven-Charles Jaffe, 2013
God Told Me To, Larry Cohen, 1976
The Gods of Times Square, Richard Sandler, 1999
Godzilla vs. Biollante, Kazuki Omori, 1989
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Kazuki Omori, 1991
Godzilla vs. Mothra, Takao Okawara, 1992
Good Neighbor Sam, David Swift, 1964
Hamlet, Michael Almereyda, 2000*
His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks, 1940
How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock at His Farm in Normandy, Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht, 2014
Huey Lewis and the News: BEFORE!, Les Blank, 1986
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, Sarah Jacobson, 1993
I Went to the Dance, Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, 1989
Innocents Abroad, Les Blank and Miel Van Hoogenbemt, 1991
It Happened One Night, Frank Capra, 1934
It Should Happen to You, George Cukor, 1954
It Smells Like Springtime, Mackie Mallison, 2022
It Was a Dark and Silly Night, Steven-Charles Jaffe, 2008
King of New York, Abel Ferrara, 1990
The Last Seduction, John Dahl, 1994
Learning to Live Together: The Return of Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Jesse Lauter, 2021
Lime Kiln Club Field Day, Edwin Middleton and T. Hayes Hunter, 2013
Live from the Clouds, Mackie Mallison, 2013
loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies, Matthew Galkin and Steven Cantor, 2006
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Kenneth Branagh, 2000*
The Man Who Wasn’t There, Joel Coen, 2001*
Marc and Ann, Les Blank, 1991
Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore, Sarah Jacobson, 1996
Medea, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969
Midnight Cowboy, John Schlesinger, 1969
The More the Merrier, George Stevens, 1943
Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon, 2012
My Own Private Idaho, Gus Van Sant, 1991
The New York Ripper, Lucio Fulci, 1982
Night Moves, Arthur Penn, 1975
Nobody Is Innocent, Sarah Minter, 1986
Nobody Is Innocent: Twenty Years Later, Sarah Minter, 2010
Nowhere, Gregg Araki, 1997
Obsession, Brian De Palma, 1976
Oedipus Rex, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967
Out of Sight, Steven Soderbergh, 1998*
Perfumed Nightmare, Kidlat Tahimik, 1977
Phffft, Mark Robson, 1954
Platinum Blonde, Frank Capra, 1931
Q, Jude Chehab, 2023
The Return of Godzilla, Koji Hashimoto, 1984
Romeo + Juliet, Baz Luhrmann, 1996
Shaft, Gordon Parks, 1971
Shit Saturday, Gregorio Rocha, 1988
A Single Man, Tom Ford, 2009*
So Fine, Andrew Bergman, 1981
Sweet Smell of Success, Alexander Mackendrick, 1957
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, 1976
The Tempest, Derek Jarman, 1979
Tempest, Paul Mazursky, 1982
Thailand Moment, Les Blank, 2015
Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott, 1991
Theodora Goes Wild, Richard Boleslawski, 1936
Times Square, Allan Moyle, 1980
Turumba, Kidlat Tahimik, 1981
Twentieth Century, Howard Hawks, 1934
Variety, Bette Gordon, 1983
The Whole Town’s Talking, John Ford, 1935
You Can’t Take It with You, Frank Capra, 1938
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, Xan Cassavetes, 2004
Ziveli! Medicine for the Heart, Les Blank, 1987
*Available in the U.S. only