Movies with a Spine

Movies with a Spine

5.0 (5)
Film Reviews

Three cinephiles discuss Criterion Collection releases one Spine at a time.

08/09/2021

No Spine Special - Can You Guess My Criterion Purchase? Summer Sale 2021

Recorded during Barnes & Noble's July Criterion Sale, MwaS quiz each other on the Spines they purchased from B&N. Prepare for multiple mess ups and cat noises. EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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. 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.
08/04/2021

Spine #408 - Breathless (1960)

MwaS jumps and cuts into the wild world of Godard with the fundamental French New Wave classic Breathless. EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
05/17/2021

Spine #539 - House (1977)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
05/03/2021

Spine #401 - Night on Earth (1991)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
04/19/2021

Spine #334 - Harlan County USA (1976)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
04/12/2021

Spine #681 - Frances Ha (2013)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
03/22/2021

Spine #977 - Blue Velvet (1986)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
03/15/2021

Spine #553 - Fish Tank (2009)

The kids are not alright! Neither is the water in this Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold's distressing sophomore feature. EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
03/01/2021

Spine #821 - Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

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 - movieswithaspine@gmail.com 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.
02/23/2021

Spine #608 - Harold & Maude (1971)

Grab your prop weapons cause we're freaking out computer dates on this discussion of the Criterion release of the cult classic Harold & Maude. EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com Harold & Maude's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/27896-harold-and-maude 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 HAROLD & MAUDE DESCRIPTION - With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens. 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.
02/15/2021

Spine #62 - The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

In our second episode, we explore a silent masterpiece that was almost lost forever! EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com The Passion of Joan of Arc's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/228-the-passion-of-joan-of-arc 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. 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.
02/11/2021

Spine #2 - Seven Samurai (1954)

On our first episode, the MwaS discuss the Akira Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai and its Criterion Release! EMAIL US - movieswithaspine@gmail.com Seven Samurai Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ1TOratCTo Seven Samurai's Criterion - https://www.criterion.com/films/165-seven-samurai 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. 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.

12 Episodes

5

out of 5

5 Ratings

Good show

03/21/2021

Jhorse678nih

I like when you guys talk about movies!
The one star review bit

03/18/2021

Kappa Commando

The bit at the end with the one star reviews are great, keep it up
Very informative

02/13/2021

Fishbiscuit Ryan

Criterion’s rule!

Three cinephiles discuss Criterion Collection releases one Spine at a time.

Creator

Movies with a Spine
Years Active

2021
Episodes

12
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Movies with a Spine
Show Website

Movies with a Spine