Criterion Channel's November Slate Leads With Nicolas Cage

By Elena Vasquez

The Criterion Channel will stream a Nicolas Cage retrospective in November spanning four decades, from 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High to 2009's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. The actor series anchors a month that also includes programs on Gene Tierney and the late producer Jeremy Thomas, alongside seven new Criterion Editions.

The Cage lineup runs from his earliest screen appearances (Fast Times, Rumble Fish) through auteurist favorites (Adaptation, Wild at Heart, Bringing Out the Dead) to later oddities (The Wicker Man, Bad Lieutenant). Count the titles on the full list: more than fifteen Cage films, including Raising Arizona, Vampire's Kiss, Leaving Las Vegas, Moonstruck and Snake Eyes.

The three headline retrospectives share one design choice: none is director-centric. Each, in the service's framing, comprises an entire film history of its own.

Who is Gene Tierney paired with?

The Gene Tierney program assembles a roster of mid-century auteurs: Jacques Tourneur, Jules Dassin, Otto Preminger, John M. Stahl and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Titles include Laura (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Night and the City (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) and Way of a Gaucho (1952).

The Jeremy Thomas tribute honors the late producer through his finest producing work: The Shout, Bad Timing, The Hit, Sexy Beast, The Last Emperor, EO and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence among them.

Which directors get dedicated programs?

Ryusuke Hamaguchi leads the director strand. Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist and Happy Hour — a good option for the Thanksgiving break — arrive newly packaged ahead of the November 25 opening of his All of a Sudden.

Roy Andersson's best-known films screen beside his lesser-seen 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story. Mary Stephen gets two features and three shorts; Bobbito García gets three documentaries.

What joins the Criterion Editions?

November is a major month for editions:

• The Last Waltz — surely timed to Thanksgiving
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Trainspotting
• The Secret of the Grain
• Welcome II the Terrordome
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Rumble Fish
• Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich also anchors the series "From MTV to Hollywood," which collects films by David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, recent Criterion anointee Mike Mills, Tamra Davis, Tarsem and Hype Williams. The program offers, in effect, an alternative history of Clinton-through-Bush Hollywood — and, perhaps, roads not taken.

Elsewhere, Adventures in Moviegoing continues with music-video and television director Hiro Murai. Restorations of Philip Hartman's No Picnic (1986) and Geoff Murphy's Utu Redux (2013) make their streaming debuts.

Titles marked with an asterisk on the full list — including Se7en, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and About Endlessness — are available in the U.S. only. The full slate is live at the Criterion Channel.