Joey’s Home Movies For the Week of October 14th – A Classic Documentary in ‘American Movie’ Comes to 4K

Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have a ton of 4K re-releases, including American Movie, a classic documentary. This week also features a pair of new Criterion Collection releases, which is always nice. What took the prize of top pick? Read on to find out…

Joey’s Top Pick

American Movie (4K)

My all-time favorite documentary, American Movie is, quite simply, brilliant. From Chris Smith (interviewed here about Sr.), Mark Borchardt‘s quest to make the horror film Coven, along with his friend Mike Schank, amuses as well as inspires, in a way that really sneaks up on you. In case you don’t know, this the synopsis for the doc:

In this cult-favorite documentary, Mark Borchardt, an aspiring filmmaker from a working-class Wisconsin background, is set on finishing his low-budget horror movie, despite a barrage of difficulties. Plagued by lack of cash, unreliable help and numerous personal problems, Mark wants to complete the film to raise funds for a more ambitious drama. With the assistance of his bumbling but loyal friend Mike Schank, Mark struggles to move forward, making for plenty of bittersweet moments.

If you haven’t seen American Movie, make it your business to check it out, especially now that it’s available on 4K. The documentary will make you laugh, to be sure, but it will also undoubtedly move you as well.

Also Available This Week

Babylon Berlin: Season 4 (TV)

The Boy in the Woods

Brick (4K)

Captain Planet: The Complete Franchise (TV)

The Crown: The Complete Series (TV)

Doctor Who: Complete Series 1-4 (TV)

Fear the Walking Dead: The Complete Collection (TV)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (4K)

Criterion Corner

Demon Pond

From The Criterion Collection: “Japanese New Wave renegade Masahiro Shinoda transforms a classic Kabuki tale with his own extravagant visual style in this dimension-shattering folk-horror fantasia. When a lone traveler (Tsutomu Yamazaki) stumbles upon a remote, drought-stricken village, he finds himself engulfed in a whirlpool of myth, mystery, and magic: in a nearby pond reside spirits who hold the fate of the town’s inhabitants—including lovers Akira (Go Kato) and Yuri (Kabuki legend Tamasaburo Bando, who also plays the ethereal princess reigning over the water)—in their hands. Set to the swirling strains of electronic-music pioneer Isao Tomita’s synth score, Demon Pond blends theatrical artifice with cinematic surrealism for an aquatic-apocalyptic fable of human love and folly caught in the current of nature’s wrath.”

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Pandora’s Box

From The Criterion Collection: “One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst seemed to have an innate talent for discovering actresses. And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by Pabst’s lurid, controversial melodrama Pandora’s Box. Sensationally modern, the film follows the downward spiral of the fiery, brash, yet innocent showgirl Lulu, whose sexual vivacity has a devastating effect on everyone around her. Daring and stylish, Pandora’s Box is one of silent cinema’s great masterworks and a testament to Brooks’s dazzling individuality.”

Stay tuned for more next week…