Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, the slate is a bit of a rough one. There’s only one big title hitting shelves today, and that’s Moonfall, which sort of gets the top pick by default, but the true highlight is the Criterion Collection. Three films are receiving the Criterion treatment including For All Mankind, so read on to find out more about everything…
Moonfall
Normally, I hate citing a film I didn’t care for as the top pick, but there aren’t really any alternatives, and I’m aware this is what more folks will be purchasing. Plus, it kind of ties in to For All Mankind on Criterion, making it a moon-centric Home Movies column today. I will also say that Moonfall seemed to work better on most than it did for me, so perhaps at home it’ll play better? This is some of what I had to say in my review (here) at the time:
Moonfall should have been a slam dunk. This is the filmmaker you want for a flick like this. Unfortunately, the movie can’t even approach 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow level fun. This is, and I shudder to say it, closer to Independence Day: Resurgence. It’s not the unmitigated disaster that film was, but it’s a lazy slog.
Expired
Gasoline Alley
The Great: The Complete Second Season (TV)
Singin’ In The Rain (First Time on 4K)
Writing With Fire
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)
From The Criterion Collection: “This revelatory, award-winning debut feature from codirectors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria. Shot on richly textured 16 mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism, Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity.”
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For All Mankind
From The Criterion Collection: “In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Twenty years later, Al Reinert constructed a documentary that imparts the unforgettable story of the twenty-four astronauts who traveled to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo program—told in their words and in their voices, using the images they captured. With its awe-inspiring, otherworldly footage and a haunting atmospheric soundtrack by Brian Eno, For All Mankind stirs us with a profound sense of compassion for the “pale blue dot” that is our home, and it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema that has been made about this earthshaking event.”
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‘Round Midnight
From The Criterion Collection: “’Round Midnight is a love letter from director Bertrand Tavernier to the heyday of bebop and the Black American musicians who found refuge in the smoky underground jazz clubs of 1950s Paris. In a sui generis, Oscar-nominated fusion of performer and character, legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Dale Turner, a brilliant New York jazz veteran whose music aches with beauty but whose personal life is ravaged by addiction. Searching for a fresh start in Paris, Turner strikes up an unlikely friendship with a struggling single father and ardent jazz fan (François Cluzet) who finds his life transformed as he attempts to help the self-destructive musician. Herbie Hancock’s evocative, Oscar-winning score sets the mood for this definitive jazz film, a bittersweet opus that glows with lived-in, soulful authenticity.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
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