A pin-sharp reissue of the 1928 Harold Lloyd silent Speedy is the most obscure pick in a sample group that also includes Roman Polanski’s Macbeth, Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (recently celebrated in this very column), Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie, Howard Hawks’s Only Angels Have Wings and Albert and David Maysles’s Grey Gardens. Its UK slate kicks off next week with a sextet of titles only tentatively indicative of the collection’s range and reach. No further need for pricey imports and region-one players, then, to savour the impeccable transfers, high-end artwork and academically rich supporting material that have made Criterion the Folio Society of cinephilia. Would I be wholly enthralled if this were my first awakening to the Force? Probably not, though the numbers suggest more than a few virgins must have been converted.Īs for the extras-stuffed Blu-ray package, complete with feature-length, festival-premiered making-of doc Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey, longstanding devotees have plenty to pore over before the next instalment lands.įor film nerds of a more classical persuasion, this week brings home-entertainment news of comparably gargantuan proportions: the Criterion Collection, the beloved American series of vintage and art house DVD and Blu-ray releases, has finally hit the UK market. Daisy Ridley needs another film or two to fully thaw as a performer, but Adam Driver’s villain lends these otherwise by-the-book proceedings a welcome shot of human peculiarity. It’s a surprisingly old-fashioned space opera that barrels along jovially if not sleekly, hampered slightly by too-cute stylistic nods to George Lucas, but enlivened by the new arrivals in its cast.
Speaking as one who has never been sentimentally invested in the Star Wars universe, this peppy refresh is quite worthy of its predecessors.
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