Celine and Julie Go Boating: Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) by Justin Remer The Movie: When someone first tried to describe the 1974 film Céline and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau) to me, they wrongly told me that it was a three-hour-plus film with no story. Of course, the film is so playful and odd that pinning down the narrative isn't the easiest task. It slithers all around, turns self-reflexive, and then essentially undoes itself. But that's not the same thing as not having a story; storytelling is almost the whole point.Céline and Julie centers on two women who meet by chance on the streets of Paris. Daydreaming librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier) notices frazzled, funky fashion plate Céline (Juliet Berto) dashing through a park, dropping accessories along the way. Like Alice f...Read the entire review »

Wanted for Murder / Cast a Dark Shadow (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movie:The Cohen Media Group offers up a double feature of vintage British noir films in high definition with these two films made in 1955 and 1946 respectively. Here's a look at what to expect…Cast A Dark Shadowirected by Lewis Gilbert and released to theaters in 1955, Cast A Dark Shadow follows a young man named Edward "Teddy" Bare (Dirk Bogarde) whose older wife of one year, Monica (Mona Washbourne), requests that her lawyer, Phillip Mortimer (Robert Flemyng), change her will. Edward assumes that this will not end in his favor and so he decides to murder her, making the blatant homicide look like a drunken accident. With Monica having shuffled off this mortal coil, Edward learns that she did actually want to leave all of her money to him, and that because the will wasn't altered in time, her existing last will and testament will be what the lawyer...Read the entire review »

Who Done It? (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV A real anomaly, Who Done It? (1956) is an Ealing comedy completely unlike the usual Ealing comedy, featuring Benny Hill in his debut feature and only starring film, a role unsuited to his talent. A frenetic but formula slapstick effort, it's a lot more like a late-period Abbott & Costello movie than anything either Ealing or Hill ever made. Ealing Studios made a series of great postwar comedies - King Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, The Ladykillers, etc. - movies notable for their whimsy and droll, eccentric characters. Who Done It? has no subtlety at all and the formula script, surprisingly credited to the usually better T.E.B. White, is an encyclopedia of familiar, recycled slapstick.At the time, Hill was known primarily as a radio and emerging television comedy star, concurrent with The Goon S...Read the entire review »