Movies with a Spine

MwaS jumps and cuts into the wild world of Godard with the fundamental French New Wave classic Breathless.

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Breathless' Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/268-breathless

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S BREATHLESS DESCRIPTION - There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy,  free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him  as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish,  surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent  young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured that cinema would never be the same.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion   Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and   contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the   highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No   matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to   streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to   presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in   state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to   encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the   art of film.

The Spines head to 1930s Italy to soak up the sights, party with the townspeople, and fall for the vicious allure of fascism. Uh, disregard that last part. They're good boys!

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Amarcord's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/208-amarcord

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S AMARCORD DESCRIPTION - Federico Fellini returned to the provincial landscape of his childhood  with this carnivalesque reminiscence, recreating his hometown of Rimini  in Cinecittà’s studios and rendering its daily life as a circus of  social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political  subterfuge. Sketching a gallery of warmly observed comic caricatures,  Fellini affectionately evokes a vanished world haloed with the glow of  memory, even as he sends up authority figures representing church and  state, satirizing a country stultified by Fascism. Winner of Fellini’s  fourth Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Amarcord remains  one of the director’s best-loved creations, beautifully weaving  together Giuseppe Rottuno’s colorful cinematography, Danilo Donati’s  extravagant costumes and sets, and Nino Rota’s nostalgia-tinged score.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion  Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and  contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the  highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No  matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to  streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to  presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in  state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to  encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the  art of film.

Your House is trying to eat you. What do you do? Do you sit and listen to the new Movies with a Spine while your clock chews you up? Sure, why not!? MwaS talks the Criterion release of the Japanese cult classic House!

EMAIL US - [email protected]

House's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/27523-house

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S HOUSE DESCRIPTION - How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Finally! A movie about the thing you experience 365 times per year! The cooler side of the clock! Spine takes five trips through five different cities in Jim Jarmusch's cool, melancholy, and hilarious collection of Taxi Cab characters. 

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Night on Earth's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/227-night-on-earth

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S NIGHT ON EARTH DESCRIPTION - Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Béatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this quintet of transitory tales of urban displacement and existential angst, all staged as encounters between cabbies and their fares. Spanning time zones, continents, and languages, Night on Earth winds its course through scenes of uproarious comedy, nocturnal poetry, and somber fatalism, set to a moody soundtrack by Tom Waits. Jarmusch’s lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one of his most charming and beloved films, a freewheeling showcase for the cosmopolitan range of his imagination.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Strike! Kentucky coal workers pack up their pickaxes and leave the mine to fight for better wages and working conditions... In the 1970s! Strike busters, scabs, and crooked Union presidents are just some of the hurdles to a better life in rural Kentucky. Movies with a Spine covers its first Criterion documentary.

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Harlan County USA's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/777-harlan-county-usa

Harlan County USA (YouTube) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCOd7fPHmfU&t=7s

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S HARLAN COUNTY USA DESCRIPTION - Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award–winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack—with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece—the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Frances Who? Frances Ha! No, I'm not laughing at our dearest friend Frances! That's just the name of the movie about her! (duh) Look, maybe you didn't know that, I don't mean to be rude. As a peace offering, here is a Podcast all about our delightful friend Frances and her Criterion Collection release.

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Frances Ha's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/28560-frances-ha

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S FRANCES HA DESCRIPTION - Greta Gerwig is radiant as Frances, a woman in her late twenties in contemporary New York trying to sort out her ambitions, her finances, and, above all, her intimate but shifting bond with her best friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner). Meticulously directed by Noah Baumbach with a free-and-easy vibe reminiscent of the French New Wave’s most spirited films, and written by Baumbach and Gerwig with an effortless combination of sweetness and wit, Frances Ha gets at both the frustrations and the joys of being young and unsure of where to go next. This wry and sparkling city romance is a testament to the ongoing vitality of independent American cinema.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Who would've thought that such a nice fabric could cause such harm? Nathan, Ryan, and Chris discuss the wild & weird world of Lynch on this discussion of the controversial masterpiece Blue Velvet. Prick up your ear and pop open an ice cold beer for this one! (Just no Heineken).

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Media Boys Discuss Justice League (FEAT. Ryan) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-boys-34-zack-snyders-justice-league/id1521871039?i=1000513863272

Blue Velvet's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/29144-blue-velvet

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S BLUE VELVET DESCRIPTION - Home from college, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) makes an unsettling discovery: a severed human ear, lying in a field. In the mystery that follows, by turns terrifying and darkly funny, writer-director David Lynch burrows deep beneath the picturesque surfaces of small-town life. Driven to investigate, Jeffrey finds himself drawing closer to his fellow amateur sleuth, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), as well as their person of interest, lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini)—and facing the fury of Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a psychopath who will stop at nothing to keep Dorothy in his grasp. With intense performances and hauntingly powerful scenes and images, Blue Velvet is an unforgettable vision of innocence lost, and one of the most influential American films of the past few decades.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

The kids are not alright! Neither is the water in this Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold's distressing sophomore feature. 

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Fish Tank's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/27541-fish-tank

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S FISH TANK DESCRIPTION - Fish Tank, about a fifteen-year-old girl, Mia (electrifying newcomer Katie Jarvis), who lives with her mother and sister in the housing projects of Essex. Mia’s adolescent conflicts and emerging sexuality reach a boiling point when her mother’s new boyfriend (a lethally attractive Michael Fassbender) enters the picture. In her young career, Arnold has already proven herself to be a master of social realism, evoking the work of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach; and she invests her sympathetic portraits of dead-end lives with a poetic, earthy sensibility all her own. Fish Tank heralds the official arrival of a major new filmmaker.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.

Stop shutting up this is the Podcast Room!... Or, something like that. Movies with a Spine preps for Red Alert on this discussion of the Stanley Kubrick comedy classic.

EMAIL US - [email protected]

Dr. Strangelove's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/28822-dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb

Movies with a Spine is three cinephiles discussing the releases of the Criterion Collection.

Hosted by Nathaniel Combs, Ryan Hope, and Chris Miele.

Edited by Chris Miele.

CRITERION'S DR. STRANGELOVE DESCRIPTION - Stanley Kubrick’s painfully funny take on Cold War anxiety is one of the fiercest satires of human folly ever to come out of Hollywood. The matchless shape-shifter Peter Sellers plays three wildly different roles: Royal Air Force Captain Lionel Mandrake, timidly trying to stop a nuclear attack on the USSR ordered by an unbalanced general (Sterling Hayden); the ineffectual and perpetually dumbfounded U.S. President Merkin Muffley, who must deliver the very bad news to the Soviet premier; and the titular Strangelove himself, a wheelchair-bound presidential adviser with a Nazi past. Finding improbable hilarity in nearly every unimaginable scenario, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a subversive masterpiece that officially announced Kubrick as an unparalleled stylist and pitch-black ironist.

FROM THE CRITERION COLLECTION'S WEBSITE: Since 1984, the Criterion Collection has been dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. No matter the medium—from laserdisc to DVD and Blu-ray to streaming—Criterion has maintained its pioneering commitment to presenting each film as its maker would want it seen, in state-of-the-art restorations with special features designed to encourage repeated watching and deepen the viewer’s appreciation of the art of film.