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By Alex Sitaras

Coming to the Criterion Collection this month is Bing Liu’s documentary Minding the Gap. In his low-30s, Bing Liu is one of the youngest directors to join the Criterion Collection and a view of the film will easily confirm why it was added to the Collection. Liu’s debut film, Minding the Gap was shot over the course of 12 years in Rockford, Illinois, where Liu grew up. He captures primarily the lives of his friends, Kiere and Zack, who enjoy skateboarding with Liu. As the friends grow up, we see just how family and relationships impact the characters profoundly. What seems at first to be a documentary about skateboarding teens in Illinois becomes a mosaic of family, domestic violence, toxic masculinity, pride, racism, and perception. It can’t be said that Liu takes a passive role behind the camera as he frequently converses with his subjects; however, what is clear is that the lens of the camera is one of non-judgment. Liu observes with kindness, empathy, and precision how his life and the life of his friends change over time, and Minding the Gap couldn’t be a better film to join the Criterion Collection January 12th.

Later in the month, January 26th, Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent will be joining the Collection as well. Her last film before her untimely death at the age of 41, The Ascent follows a handful of Soviet partisans in Belarus, wintertime 1942. Two of the partisans are captured, interrogated, and ultimately persecuted, Shepitko choosing to imbue Christian iconography into her film’s narrative. The Ascent would go on to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and be remembered for the film’s striking winter imagery. Audiences today will be able to view in the film in 4K and the Criterion Collection has also used the restoration as a means to commemorate the late director by including a short film directed by her husband Elem Klimov (Come and See) following her death as well as two documentaries about the late director’s life and works in the home media release.

Also thematically relating to the hardships of war is Hearts and Bones, Ben Lawrence’s directorial debut starring Hugo Weaving. The film follows war photographer Daniel Fisher (Weaving) who forms a friendship with South Sudanese refugee Sebastian Aman (Andrew Luri). As the birth of Daniel’s child approaches, he immerses himself within his work and prepares for his coming exhibition which includes photographs of the massacre that occurred in Sebastian’s village fifteen years prior. Sebastian requests that Daniel not showcase any photographs from the massacre, drawing into question Sebastian’s character and past. Hearts and Bones will be released on Blu-ray January 19th by Gravitas Ventures. Though the release does not look to have special features, we still recommend exploring this lesser known film from last year.

The last two films showcased in this column, The Freshman and They Live, are long-awaited releases in Blu-ray and 4K, respectively. The lesser known of the two, The Freshman, is directed by Andrew Bergman and features Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick. Brando plays the role of a mafia leader who tasks Clark (Broderick) to deliver a Komodo dragon to an address for the purposes of serving at an exotic/endangered animals dinner. Not having seen The Freshman yet, the bizarreness of the animal trafficking subplot piqued my curiosity. The Freshman will be released by Mill Creek Entertainment January 12th at a very affordable price (currently listed for $8.99 on Amazon) for those who wish to add another Brando film to their home media collection.

For long-time followers of our site, it should come as no surprise that we included They Live, a John Carpenter film, to this month’s slate of Most Anticipated titles. The film is in part a critique of 1980s politics and culture, but retains its potency amongst audiences today. They Live follows a drifter who comes upon a special pair of sunglasses that reveals that many people, particularly those in power, are aliens. The glasses also reveal that the media contains subliminal messages enforcing a status quo put in place by these aliens. Conspiracy theories are ever present in today’s discourse, no matter one’s beliefs, and maintain They Live’s place in the public consciousness. Shout! Factory will release the film in 4K for the first time on January 19th, and the physical release includes an audio commentary from Carpenter and lead actor Roddy Piper as well as a few interviews from Carpenter and the cast.