Je t'aime moi non plus (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie: The beautiful Jane Birkin plays Johnny, a tomboyish looking waitress who works, and lives, in a remote truck stop in rural France. She's lonely and longs for romance, the only real company she has is her sleazy boss Boris (Ren Kolldehoff), who is abusive to her. When she meets a garbage truck driver named Krassky (Joe Dallessandro), she falls pretty hard for him, though Boris warns her that he's gay. Krassky does, in fact, have a boyfriend in the form of Padovan (Hugues Quester), though despite this fact he's clearly attracted to Johnny. As Krasky and Johnny carry on an affair, Padovan becomes upset, enraged even, going so far as to bring in a local peasant man (G rard Depardieu) to help him solve the problem. Simultaneously remarkably warped and completely romantic at the same time, singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg's directorial debut is an effecting film that...Read the entire review »

And Hope to Die (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV An eccentric but rewarding crime thriller from Ren Cl ment, And Hope to Die (La course du li vre travers les champs, "The Hare Races Across the Fields," 1972) both recalls earlier films and, significantly if awkwardly, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but its character-driven screenplay by S bastien Japrisot and Cl ment's direction keep it interesting. Best of all is the cast, an excellent mix of American and French talent, most notably Jean-Louis Trintignant and the irreplaceable Robert Ryan. Although Kino's Blu-ray, licensed from Studio Canal, includes only the French-language track, it's also the complete 140-minute cut. When first released in the U.S. by 20th Century-Fox, they savaged the narrative down to just 99 minutes. The complete version is leisurely paced, to be sure, but ultimately much more satisfying. Read the entire review »

The Light at the Edge of the World (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV A brutally violent period adventure film, adapted from Jules Verne's posthumously-published 1905 novel, The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) has the look of an expensive movie compromised by rather shoddy postproduction, visual effects, and even some poor second unit work. Reportedly budgeted at $11 million, quite high for the period, this U.S.-Spanish-Liechtensteinian (!) co-production stars the late, great Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner. Its release on Blu-ray now may have been influenced by Roger Eggers's recent The Lighthouse (2019) with which it shares some elements. Set in 1865, its story takes place on the remote, rocky archipelago of the Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, where expatriate American Will Denton (Kirk Douglas), ...Read the entire review »

Jexi (Blu-ray) by Jesse Skeen Cell phones have been among the best and worst inventions in recent years. They keep us in constant contact and give us lots of information, but can sometimes be the only thing we pay attention to. I know this as I was among the last people to even get a cell phone and after upgrading to an iPhone I now try not to be one of "those people" but have still wasted more time with it than I care to admit. That's the basis of Jexi, which has been called a less intelligent version of Her (a movie I felt was silly and overrated) and I also found similar to 1984's Electric Dreams (which was also quite silly, but at least has been more fun to watch with age.) Adam DeVine is Phil, who would rather stay at home with his phone than join co-workers for fun after wo...Read the entire review »