July brings the full heat of summer and a new crop of programming onThe Criterion Channel.
This month there are collections honoring great boxing films and timeless classics of all sorts.
It starsRobert De Niroas Jake La Motta, a washed-up boxer whose heyday we experience through flashbacks.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
La Mottaboth in his over-the-hill and prime formsis not a very pleasant man to spend 2-plus hours with.
Hes emotionally immature, reactive, unkind, and violent.
Embodying these shades of repulsionwhile retaining his trademark charismadidearn De Niro an Oscar.
Image via United Artists
Its the story of young Hansel, born in the communist East and dreaming of escape.
For this list, we have chosen to recommend the final installment,Before Midnight.
The first film told the story of two peopleJesse and Celinefinding each other and falling in love.
Image via New Line Cinema
Theyre coming to terms with the decisions theyve made over the course of their lives, professionally and personally.
Linklater is a great director, but the screenplay and its European-drama sensibility is the star here.
It stars real-life drag artistDivineas, well, fictional crime-enthusiast Divine.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
She lives in well-enjoyed squalor with her son and her mom.
Shes made notorious in the media as the Filthiest Person Alive.
To compete with such low-lives, Divine must step up her awful game.
Image via New Line Cinema
What ensues is a parade of poor taste.
This is a movie asking to bebanned, a movie whose request was granted in many countries.
It is not impossible to sit through, but it also basically is.
Image via The Criterion Channel
One gets the constant sense thatWesternis building to a climactic, definitive explosion of violence.
Well, a guy named Demetrius who isplayedby Denzel Washington.
There are quite a few peak eras in Washingtons career, and the early 90s is one of them.
Image via The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Together, he and Choudhury create a smoldering, convincing couple in the throes of intense attraction.
That is, at least, the case made heartbreakingly byPetitionand the Chinese citizens whose stories it follows.
They might waityearsto be seen.
Image via The Criterion Channel
The cruelty of such a system is felt, even just through the documentarys copious testimonials.
