Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Body Heat (1981)

Ned: Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.

Matty: This is a blouse and a skirt. 

I don't know what you're talking about.

Ned: You shouldn't wear that body.

God there is so much snappy dialogue in Body Heat, I love it so much -- I could've chosen a dozen other lines to highlight (see also here); it's why I think it's one of the most successful of the neo-noirs that popped up in the 70s and 80s (alongside Chinatown of course). The dialogue harkens beautifully back to the genre's heyday where the verbal playfulness between the lovers-to-be reveals not just their desire but their danger -- anybody who can whip out a double entendre this fast isn't to be trusted. And it also helps when the people are as sexy as William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are in this scorcher. Anyway we're here of course because Lawrence Kasdan's sweaty masterpiece is hitting 4K thanks to the Criterion Collection today -- go snatch up a copy stat! How hot is that cover art too? Humina humina!

Criterion Brings the Heat to May

I feel as if Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat should be a July or August release, but Criterion has deemed it for this May and who am I to argue -- that's the first title in their May line-up which has just been revealed today and I'm already sweating with antici.... pation. That scorching neo-noir is perfection and I can't wait to see every bead of sweat dripping from William Hurt's mustache in gorgeous 4K. Gimme! 

 

It's a truly stellar roster for the month though -- also included are two of last year's absolute best movies (both of them figured into my favorites of 2025 list) with Joachim Trier's Oscar-nominated Sentimental Value (and I am obsessed with that Chris Ware cover art-work!) and Ira Sachs' Peter Hujar's Day (read my review of that one here). And speaking of Ira Sachs...

... his first film 1996's The Delta is also getting a drop, which rules. It's a lovely intimate little gay drama that showed we were in for a real one with Sachs. Sachs has never made a bad film that I've seen and I've seen I think like 90% of what he's done? I've never seen Married Life or Forty Shades of Blue but everything else is top-tier stellar.

As for classics getting their deserved 4K upgrades there is Bob Fosse's Lenny, the 1974 black-and-white bio-pic of the comedian Lenny Bruce starring Dustin Hoffman, and Kurosawa's 1949 crime thriller masterpiece Stray Dog starring, as ever, Toshiro Mifune. Did somebody say Toshiro Mifune? Toshiro Mifune break!

Ahhhhh I needed that. The final title for Criterion's May slate is the only one I've never seen -- Shu Lea Cheang's 1994 lesbian "cyber punk fantasia" Fresh Kill, but it's been on my list for a good long while now. Anybody ever seen it? It sounds like a trip.

Criterion Gives Birth This January

Put another checkmark in the "Fucking finally!" column because one of the great movies that hasn't gotten a proper release since the days of DVD is getting an upgrade on January 27th, 2026 -- yes obviously I speak of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece Birth, as that enormous visage of Nicole Kidman's face with the word "Birth" scrawled across it probably let on already. (Sidenote: Birth is coming out on my mother's birthday? How fortuitous.) I'd have a hard nigh impossible time ranking Glazer's films because he's made nothing but masterpieces in his directing career -- one wants to call his a "brief" career since he's only directed four features, but those four features are spread across 25 years (beginning with Sexy Beast in 2000) and that's the opposite of brief. But depending on the day Birth might be my favorite of his. The next day it'll be Under the Skin and the day after that's it's The Zone of Interest, and so it goes. But this is triuphant news nonetheless -- a 4K disc, including a new doc on the movie's making -- now can we get Alexandre Desplat's now-legendary score released on vinyl please??? No, it's never enough. You get one thing, you need another, and then you die. And are reborn in a little boy to go stalk Nicole Kidman!

And as if Birth wasn't chilly enough -- Criterion is definitely leaning into the January-ness of January -- we'll also be getting Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and John Huston's The Dead hitting 4k that month. I don't think I've seen either of these before? I may've seen the Huston ages and ages ago but I was certainly too young to get it and should revisit. As for Dead Man I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to Jarmusch and I'm not exactly crawling over broken glass to watch Johnny Depp movies these days, but I did really love Jarmusch's latest at NYFF so I can probably be convinced. Opinions on either?

Next up there's Jia Zhangke's tremendous latest Caught By the Tides, which I haven't seen since NYFF 2024 so it's been awhile, but it's a film that flits across my consciousness often -- Zhangke shot the film over 23 years (!!!) with actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin and watching them age in real time, watching China change around them -- it's an incredible experience. I suppose it must've been annoying for him when Richard Linklater beat him to the gimmick with Boyhood but I'm very much Team Zhangke on this one. It's an incredible accomplishment. And then there's the latest entry in Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project series, which honestly has long intimidated the hell out of me. I'll dive into them one day! 

And so we come to the months'f inal three releases (big batch!) -- the second more vital drop this month to my eye is their re-release of Edward Yang's Yi Yi in 4K, which I've talked about a few times since seeing it for the first time just a few months ago; an astonishing film, one of the greats. Then there's the 1985 film of Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Raul Julia and an Oscar-winning turn from William Hurt. I should probably give this one another chance -- I remember not being nuts about it when I saw it in my 20s. And then to bring us home there's Errol Flynn's best movie says me, the enormously entertaining 1935 swashbuckler Captain Blood. Love this movie; Errol is Peak Errol here.The big sword fight on the rocks is unmissable classic cinema. 

Nightmares & Fire: Criterion's Month of Violence

Every year October always has my favorite releases from the Criterion Collection -- I think it's the meeting of them ramping up for the holidays plus lots of horror because of Halloween? Anyway they've just announced their October 2025 releases and once again -- my god it's the good shit. Kicking it off they've got Ken Russell's hallucinatory 1980 gem Altered States, which is one of my personal faves -- peak William Hurt turning into a neanderthal after dosing himself with too much psychology? What's not to love? It's Russell at his most bonkers... well okay it's hard to quanitfy "most bonkers" when it comes to Russell but this one's up there. Can't wait to take this in in 4K -- it lands on October 21st.

Next up Guillemo Del Toro's tremendous 2021 noir-carny vision Nightmare Alley is finally finally getting a physical media release (it's a Netflix joint so it hasn't before this) -- I know reactions to this were mixed but I loved it, it's one of my favorite of Del Toro's movies, and I am of the mind that Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date in it. (aAnd given how much I soured on him otherwise over the past couple of years that's saying something.) Then there's the one title this month I'm unfamiliar with -- Mexican director Arturo Ripstein's 1996 melodrama Deep Crimson -- anyone know it?

Then there are the inevitable 4K upgrades of discs they've released before, but man oh man are these a wild duo of masterpieces -- David Lynch's Twin Peaks prequel Fire Walk With Me and  Georges Franju's 1960 horror classic Eyes Without a Face. You can't go wrong with either of those, which besides being perfect are both gorgeous to look at and will no doubt stun in 4K. Oh and then there's a double dose of David Cronenberg joints -- his most recent film The Shrouds (which hasn't gotten nearly enough love if you ask me) and his 2006 neo-noir A History of Violence. The latter has quite the surprising cover -- personally I love it but I feel as if it might be divisive? Thoughts?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Dark City (1998)

Dr. Schreber: Remember John
- never talk to strangers!

Dark City was released on February 27th 1998 and yes, that means it turns 25 today. Which also means I have been waiting for director Alex Proyas to make something as good, to no avail -- not to knock a man when he's down, seeing as it's been six years since he dropped the steaming turd that was Gods of Egypt and he's only made short films since then. I wonder if he's ever been attached to any of the attempted remakes of The Crow? I'm not much of a fan of the original Crow film but he did a fine stylish job there and I know it has its mega-fans, they should let him have another go. The man did have Dark City in him -- he's capable of greatness. Then again he's also capable of Knowing, shudder. Anyway I have pretty vivd memories of going to see Dark City at a midnight screening in college and immediately being blown away -- does it lean a little heavy on its silent-film goth noir influences? Sure, but I'd argue it tangles them into something fascinating and new.  I did get to revisit it on the big screen a few years ago at MoMA and its special effects still look fantastic today -- when in doubt cloak that shit in darkness! A 4K upgrade on this would be more than a little welcome though.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1987

Picking back up my "Siri Says" series after a couple of busy weeks as we plow into its final stretch of entries -- as I explained one month ago I've only got around a dozen years left out of one hundred total to write up, so maybe we'll finish this series off before the world ends even! Wouldn't that be a hoot? This series, you might or mightn't know, involves me asking my iPhone to assign me a random number between 1 and 100, and then I give you my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds. Anyway that's how I did it for the majority of these posts, but now that we're down to such minuscule options I've just written the remaining years out on slips of paper, and I pick one that way.

Which brings me to this week's selection -- we'll be choosing our favorite movies from the movies of 1987! Which, well, all of these movies are coincidentally turning 35 this year, so prepare your cake-based celebrations accordingly. And you know what else? This is the last year that I had left from the 1980s! Whenever I finish off a decade like this I collect up links to all that decade's entries, so here those are for your glance-back pleasure:

Here are my favorite movies of 1980

Here are my favorite movies of 1981 

Here are my favorite movies of 1982

Here are my favorite movies of 1983

Here are my favorite movies of 1984

Here are my favorite movies of 1985

Here are my favorite movies of 1986

Here are my favorite movies of 1988

Here are my favorite movies of 1989

Personally speaking I have a deep fondness for a lot of 1980s cinema since I saw my first movie in that decade and slowly, across its span, found myself becoming the obsessive who types before you today, but... the 1980s? Not really the greatest decade for movies when it comes down to it. I can admit that. Don't get me wrong, there are heaps of great films, as all of those links above will show you. But when I steep myself in the general sense of 80s Cinema it's a lot of big budget nonsense that dominated, while even foreign art-cinema was in a kind of strange in-between place. But hey if the 80s are your favorite movie decade please let me have it in the comments! And it's possible I'm feeling less than enthusiastic about them today after going through 1987's specific offerings, which were a little wobbly in particular. But I found some great ones! (It's a really great year for horror movies, actually.) On that note here are...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1987

Wings of Desire

(dir. Wim Wenders)

-- released on October 19th 1987 --

Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

(dir. Sam Raimi)

-- released on March 13th 1987 --

Broadcast News

(dir. James Brooks)

-- released on December 13th 1987 --

RoboCop

(dir. Paul Verhoeven)

-- released on July 17th 1987 --

Maurice

(dir. James Ivory)

-- released on September 18th 1987 --

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Runners-up: Opera (dir. Dario Argento), The Princess Bride (dir. Rob Reiner), Full Metal Jacket (dir. Stanley Kubrick), Moonstruck (dir. Norman Jewison), Raising Arizona (dir. Coens), Fatal Attraction (dir. Adrian Lyne), Adventures in Babysitting (dir. Chris Columbus), Outrageous Fortune (dir. Arthur Hiller), The Last of England (dir. Derek Jarman), House of Games (dir. David Mamet), Near Dark (dir. Bigelow), Dolls (dir. Stuart Gordon)...

... Empire of the Sun (dir. Spielberg), Prince of Darkness (dir. John Carpenter), The Stepfather (dir. Joseph Ruben), River's Edge (dir. Tim Hunter), Hellraiser (dir. Clive Barker), Predator (dir. John McTiernan), The Running Man (dir. Paul Michael Glaser), Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (dir. Bruce Pittman), Withnail & I (dir. Bruce Robinson), Street Trash (dir. James Muro)

Never seen: My Life as a Dog (dir. Lasse Holstrom), Au Revoir Les Enfants (dir. Louis Malle), Angel Heart (dir. Alan Parker), The Believers (dir. John Schlesinger), Matewan (dir. John Sayles), Making Mr. Right (dir. Susan Seidelman), Ishtar (dir. Elaine May), Who's That Girl (dir. James Foley), The Dead (dir. John Huston), September (dir. Woody Allen), The Last Emperor (dir. Bertolucci)

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What are your favorite movies of 1987?

Good Morning, World

I cannot in wholly good faith recommend you watch Ivan Passer's 1981 "neo-noir" Cutter's Way, which is now streaming as part of Criterion's "Neo-Noir" series -- which has proved to be an excellent series on there, one of their best -- because Cutter's Way ain't great. Oh its leading man Jeff Bridges certainly looks phenomenal, as you can see there -- indeed I'd say that alongside Richard Gere in American Gigolo in 1980 and William Hurt in Body Heat, also in 1981, that Bridges fills out the trinity of sweaty sorta-sleazy WASPishly sharp-dressed early-80s men.

bike trails

And that might be enough reason to watch the movie on its own -- it got me through it! But other than the noted pleasure of Bridges, his mustache, his beach sweaters, there's not much to recommend... more of recommendation's opposite. For example, and primarily, John Heard gives one of the screen's most irritating performances as Bridges' bestie, the titular Cutter. The character is supposed to be a mess who ruins everybody's lives but Heard forgot to give us anything else and instead dialed "dickhead" up to fourteen. Absolutely exhausting to watch, and you actively recoil from the screen when he pops up. Which is constantly.

And I say that as someone who has found Heard extremely charming in numerous roles before. (I will always think of him as the sleepy theater-director who Bette Midler croons to from a bunny suit in Beaches.) But back to Bridges -- ogling him at his near-peak (which I'd say he reached three years after this in another bad movie, Against All Odds -- but perhaps you've got another pick?) isn't a negligible past-time, so maybe the movie will work for you on that alone. In that spirit let's do some more (and these gifs are from just the opening scene -- there's a lot more Jeff to be ogled later in the film), after the jump...

Who Wore It Best?

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Yesterday I was looking at this week's banner of Patrick Wilson in Little Children (which I'm really personally enjoying, I don't know about you) while simultaneously reading our post on Kathleen Turner's fantastic new interview when a vision of a shot of William Hurt in Body Hurt occurred to me (as it often, often does)...

... and I realized there was an homage to Body Heat in Little Children that I had never noticed before! How perfect! And riddle me this -- wouldn't you kill to see a remake of Body Heat starring Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson? Brains, blown. Anyway I clearly must now ask...

web polls

Quote of the Day

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It was hard to pick just one quote from the interview with Kathleen Turner at Vulture that hit this morning, making this Tuesday into an exponentially greater day right off the bat - she calls Elizabeth Taylor shit, she drags Nicholas Cage and Burt Reynolds and the cast of Friends and all of the method actors, and she does all of this without seeming especially mean about it, just honest. I came out of it angrier than ever that nobody's giving this woman great roles in the movies anymore.
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Alright -- everybody tell me who you think Kathleen Turner is talking about here: pic.twitter.com/WjuXb5ond9

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 7, 2018

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Anyway you should read the whole thing but I decided to share this bit  below about her two-time co-star William Hurt (in Body Heat and The Accidental Tourist) because it made me chuckle, and appreciate Hurt more in the process:

Vulture: I read in your memoir that William Hurt was into magic mushrooms. Did he ever try and get you to take them with him?
Turner: No, I never tried any of those things that he liked. Bill can be very odd.
Vulture: How so?
Turner: I remember one night while we were shooting Body Heat we were sitting around, and for some reason he wanted to talk about how we’d each like to die. I don’t remember what my answer was, but he said he wanted to be sucked up into a jet engine. You would find yourself in that kind of discussion with Bill. Then when we did The Accidental Tourist, Bill was sober, so there were fewer discussions like that. God, you did not want to get Bill talking too much.

In related, talk about Great Moments in Movie Staches:

Great Moments in Movie Shelves #129

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Not the usual bookshelves this time around but what's to stop us from giving some love to the video-store shelves of our youth when they make a movie appearance? I assume that this video-store in Brian DePalma's Body Double (1984) is an actual Los Angeles location but not being familiar with L.A. perhaps one of you locals can help me out - anyway it looks much like the ones I was skulking around in the mid-80s myself, and I certainly remember one of them having a cordoned off "Adult" section like this that you'd try to peek into.

Body Double is screening this weekend at The Quad as part of their ongoing "Erotic Thriller" series - it's a "Body" triple-feature tomorrow with Body Heat and Body of Evidence all screening right in a row! What a marvelous and magical city that I live in.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Big Chill (1983)

Karen: No... I know that Richard will always be faithful to me.
Harold: That's nice. You trust.
Karen: [shakes head no] Fear of herpes.

A happy 69 to JoBeth Williams!

This doesn't have anything to do with JoBeth...

... but I felt I should also post this picture of

William Hurt & Tom Berenger in this movie, just cuz.

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Today's Mood

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Hurt So Good

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It is the great William Hurt's birthday today and so you need to click on over to The Film Experience to vote on this week's edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" poll, which is all about the great Broadcast News. It's actually Holly Hunter's birthday too! So wish them both a happy day, and vote. And then as a reward you may come back here and look at these pictures of him in Body Heat at prime hotness.

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5 Off My Head - Siri Says 1980

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We normally post our "Siri Says When" series on Tuesdays but everything's been thrown out of whack... well, full stop. Everything in the entire world has been thrown out of whack since last Tuesday. So we're off a day. You're lucky it's just a day and we didn't just drop dead, really. (You might be lucky but I'm not so sure I'm lucky to still be breathing at this point, honestly.) Anyway here we are and Siri told us the number 80, so it's The Movies of 1980 today. A pretty good year! I mean it gave us both Can't Stop the Music and Naked Richard Gere, so clearly. Plus these five movies besides...

My Five Favorite Movies of 1980

Altered States

(dir. Ken Russell)

-- released on December 25th 1980 --

The Elephant Man

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released on October 10th 1980 --

The Shining

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)

-- released on June 13th 1980 --

 Dressed To Kill

(dir. Brian De Palma)

-- released on July 25th 1980 --

The Fog

(dir. John Carpenter)

-- released on February 8th 1980 --

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Runners-up: The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Kershner), Cruising (dir. Friedkin), Stardust Memories (dir. Woody Allen), 9 to 5 (dir. Higgins), Airplane! (dir. Abrahams & the Zuckers), Friday the 13th (dir. Cunningham), Berlin Alexanderplatz (dir. Fassbinder - not technically a movie but a TV miniseries which is the only thing disqualifying it from my main list)

Never Seen: Kagemusha (dir. Kurosawa)

Pepe Luci Bom (dir. Almodovar)

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What are your favorite movies of 1980?

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