On October 11, 1975, the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” was broadcast on NBC, and the opening credits featured a series of photos of Manhattan shot by model-turned-photographer (and my cousin) Edie Baskin. She was the show’s sole photographer for its first 25 years, and her now-iconic images of the cast and hosts, enhanced by hand-drawn color graphics, served as “bumpers,” shots between the commercials and the broadcast.

Those photos of luminaries, including Steve Martin, Burt Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, The Rolling Stones, Lily Tomlin, and eventually “The Not Ready for Prime Time” players John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Dan Aykroyd, have now been collected into a book called Live from My Studio: The Art of Edie Baskin, published by Simon & Schuster Books.

In an interview, she talks to us about how she got the job and her evolving technique.  

How did you become interested in augmenting photographs with color and adding graphic elements?

A few people were doing it at the time. Jean Pagliuso and Benno Friedman were doing it a little bit differently. I had a boyfriend, and we went on a cross-country trip. One of the places we went was Las Vegas. I loved the Las Vegas pictures, so I decided to put some color in them, and then in some other pictures, pictures I’d done of some cows.

What do you use? Paint? Crayons?

Yes, Marshall photo oils, pencil sets, chalk, anything that makes color. 

When you put color on a black and white photo, what does that interaction mean to you?

I’d like to see it change into something I’ve made.

How did you get involved?

I met Lorne Michaels at a poker game at the Chateau Marmont. And there was just a group of us that hung out, and we went to Las Vegas together. We were just a group of kids. And then I moved back to New York. I had lived there before, but I was taking a little break.

He did a Lily Tomlin special. And he hired me for that because we were friends. It was like, “Let’s put on a show in the barnyard.” Only Lorne got a real job. I moved back to New York, and Lorne knew I was there. So he called me and he told me he got a late-night television show. And he was coming back to New York, and said, “Let’s hang.”

I invited him to come to my loft, where I’d been doing my photography work on my own. And I asked him to come down and look at my work. I was very proud of my photos. He liked those and the pictures from my cross-country trip, and he asked me if I could do the same thing for New York City at night. I said, “Yes, I’m sure I could.” I did that, and then I was called up to NBC to show a couple of the creative people there, and they liked it. So, out I went into the streets, shooting for the title sequence, and that became the opening credits. 

The bumpers started on the second show. I was friends with Paul Simon, and I introduced Paul and Lorne, and they became fast friends. So Paul did the second show, and I took a picture of him standing by a piano and tinted it. And I used it as a bumper.

What did your experience as a model teach you about interacting with the subjects of your pictures? 

I always try to make people comfortable and welcome.

I’m going to ask you about some of the images in the book that I thought represented a range worth discussing. Let’s start with Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin, actors who were and still are married. You really captured their chemistry.

They were just really great together, very happy together, and lively together.

The Talking Heads. That was one of the most subtle in terms of your additions to the image, almost like sepia, a very light touch. 

I didn’t make a conscious decision. It was what I did at the time and how I grew, how I moved in and out of different things. And that was more of what I was doing at the time. I did a scribble on her blouse. I did put some skin color. That was when I was just beginning to work with the skin color.

Your portrait of Teri Garr is much more vivid, really expressing her vibrance.

That’s one of my all-time favorites, and she said she liked all of them. Teri was a friend of mine. We were in dance class together, and I have just known her throughout my life.

And you donated some of the originals to UCLA.

A series of my hand-painted works. Yes, I call it my wall of laughter.  

10 NEW TO NETFLIX

“10 Things I Hate About You“
“28 Years Later“
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret“
“The Blackening“
“Bombshell“
“Daddy’s Home“
“Karate Kid Legends“
“Liar Liar“
“The Pledge“
“San Andreas“

15 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD

“28 Years Later“

Danny Boyle’s long-awaited sequel to “28 Weeks Later” is a truly insane and ambitious blockbuster. There aren’t a lot of filmmakers would even attempt something this bizarre, much less get Sony to put up $60 million for it. Set the titular time after the virus that decimated England, Boyle shot his film on iPhones, included more prosthetic penises than seems reasonable, and even embedded a Brexit commentary in his action flick. At its core, it’s a traditional coming-of-age action narrative about a young man who discovers that not only is the world unsafe but that adults in it will betray you, but it’s also just a visually stunning piece of work, a movie that looks like nothing else that played in a multiplex this year. The Sony Blu-ray quality is fantastic, showing off Anthony Dod Mantle’s unforgettable cinematography, but the special features are a little slight. With another movie coming in January and a third Boyle flick in production, a more special edition of this seems inevitable, but this will do for now.

Special Features:

• Days to Years
• Capturing the Chaos
• The Survivors
• Becoming The Infected
• Behind The Cameras

“Creepshow 2” (Arrow)

Arrow Home Video continues its admirable quest to give even the most unloved horror sequels the kind of treatment typically reserved for widely acknowledged masterpieces. While George A. Romero and Stephen King’s 1982 anthology flick “Creepshow” is widely considered a classic of its era, you would have trouble finding anyone willing to say the same about its follow-up, which was directed by Michael Gornick and dropped five years later.

This sequel had some notorious production problems (there were supposed to be five stories but the budget was cut so badly that it was trimmd back to three), and was widely hated by critics (29% on RT), but I’m here to defend at least “The Raft,” based on a short story included in King’s great Skeleton Crew. I think about it every time I’m on a raft in a lake (which is more often than you might think).

More importantly, Arrow nailed another horror release with interviews, commentary, and much more; however, the coolest feature might be a comic adaptation of “Pinfall,” one of the aforementioned canceled segments that was originally written for the first “Creepshow.” Given it’s never been included in a short story anthology, it feels like a must-own for King collectors.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary with director Michael Gornick
• Screenplay for a Sequel, an interview with screenwriter George A. Romero
• Tales from the Creep, an interview with actor and make-up artist Tom Savini
• Poncho’s Last Ride, an interview with actor Daniel Beer
• The Road to Dover, an interview with actor Tom Wright
• Nightmares in Foam Rubber, an archive featurette on the special effects of Creepshow 2, including interviews with FX artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero
• My Friend Rick, Howard Berger on his special effects mentor Rick Baker
• Behind-the-scenes footage
• Image gallery
• Trailers & TV spots
• Original screenplay galleries
• Creepshow 2: Pinfall, a Limited Edition booklet featuring the comic adaptation of the unfilmed Creepshow 2 segment “Pinfall” by artist Jason Mayoh
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by festival programmer Michael Blyth
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Mike Saputo

“Daybreakers“

Ethan Hawke is having an incredible year with one of the most acclaimed new shows (“The Lowdown“), an upcoming drama for which he should be considered for an Oscar (“Blue Moon“), and a soon-to-be-hit horror sequel (“Black Phone 2“). One of the best actors of his generation, there was a time when he seemed to be struggling to figure out the next phase of his career, appearing in genre flicks like “Staten Island” or “What Doesn’t Kill You.”

Even in this stretch of his filmography, Hawke distinguishes himself by working with interesting directors, including the Spierig brothers, who broke through with “Undead” in 2003 and would work with Hawke again on the fascinating “Predestination.” In between was the 2009 vampire flick “Daybreakers,” now given a 4K steelbook treatment with an excellent new cover and even new special features. The release also includes a commentary by the Spierigs and their short film “The Big Picture,” from 2000.

Special Features:

• NEW Building the World of Daybreakers
• NEW Art and Craft: The Actors of Daybreakers
• NEW Gag Reel
• NEW Art Department and Lighting Tests
• NEW Costume, Hair, and Make-up Tests
• NEW First Subsider Test
• NEW Make-up Effects Tapes
• NEW Stunt Department
• NEW On the Set of Daybreakers
• Making of Daybreakers
• The Big Picture (The Spierig Brothers Short Film)
• Audio Commentary with Co-Directors Peter and Michael Spierig and Creature Designer Steve Boyle
• Theatrical Trailer
• Poster Art Gallery

“Elio“

The first ten minutes of “Elio” are a tender study of a grieving child who becomes so lonely that he wants an alien species to take him away from everything. It’s a reminder of how empathetically Pixar can handle this kind of material. Sadly, the rest of “Elio” is largely a different movie, an adventure story of a kid and his alien BFF saving the universe.

While it remains largely inoffensive in a time when family entertainment from major studios can often be horrible, it squanders that early potential. And Pixar clearly saw the writing on the wall, burying this more than any movie they had made previously. Part of me wants to defend “Elio” because I dislike that Pixar has become a nostalgia factory that only supports its sequels. But even if we need more original Pixar ideas, we also need better ones than that.

Special Features:

• Inside the Communiverse: The World and Characters of Elio
• Out of This World: An Astro Q&A
• Astronomic Art Class: Ooooo and Glordon
• Extraterrestrial Easter Eggs and Fun Facts
• Galactic Gag Reel
• Deleted Scenes

“Flow” (Criterion)

One of the most unexpected Oscar winners was this Latvian tale of a cat trying to survive a dystopian future with rising water levels. Rather than just give the critical darling the Janus Contemporaries treatment like they’ve been doing with a lot of recent arthouse hits, Criterion gives “Flow” the full boat of special features, including new interviews and a new commentary with director Gints Zilbalodis.

As they’ve been doing often lately with new filmmakers, they include short films from early in his career, both with commentaries by the director. There is also a making-of documentary called “Dream Cat” about the making of the film. Everyone talks about the Oscar win (and nomination for International Feature), but here’s another cool piece of trivia: This is the most-viewed theatrical film in Latvian history, and has made over 50 million Euros worldwide on a budget that’s a fraction of that. People love “Flow.”

Special Features:

• 4K digital transfer, with 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, approved by director Gints Zilbalodis
• 4K digital master of Away (2019), Zilbalodis’s debut feature
• One 4K UHD disc of Flow and Away and two Blu-rays with Flow, Away, and the special features
• New audio commentary featuring Zilbalodis
• Full feature-length animatic
• New interviews with Zilbalodis and cowriter-coproducer Matīss Kaža
• Dream Cat (2025), a making-of documentary produced for Latvian Television
• Aqua (2012) and Priorities (2014), short films by Zilbalodis, with new commentaries by the director
• Unused-shot reel, with new commentary by Zilbalodis
• Trailers, TV spots, and proof-of-concept teasers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
• PLUS: An essay by critic Nicolas Rapold and collectible stickers

“Friendship“

Just as Tim Robinson’s brand of cringe humor is about to return to pop culture in HBO’s “The Chair Company,” A24 drops his acclaimed anti-buddy comedy in which the “I Think You Should Leave” star plays the most awkward guy in suburbia. It may be written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, but “Friendship” clearly channels Robinson’s sense of humor, and all of his fans should snag this A24 online shop exclusive.

He plays Craig, a guy who becomes a bit too attached to the new guy in his neighborhood, a meteorologist played by the always-likable Paul Rudd. Robinson is all-in for this story of a friendship that approaches stalking, and A24 has given the future cult classic a solid release with a commentary and deleted scenes. One more thing: This movie wins the award for tagline of the year: “Men Shouldn’t Have Friends.”

Special Features:

• Commentary with Writer-Director Andrew DeYoung, Director of Photography Andy Rydzewski, and Conner O’Malley
• Deleted Scenes
• “Men Talking in the Dark” Extended Q&A with Eric Rahill, Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson, and Andrew DeYoung
• Conner O’Malley Extended Garage Scene
• Six Collectible Postcards with Behind the Scenes Photography

“The Good, The Bad, The Weird” (Arrow)

This might be my favorite Arrow release of the year, and that’s a high bar to clear. 2008’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Weird” is a wonderfully gonzo Korean Western from the brilliant Kim Jee-woon, who also directed “A Tale of Two Sisters” and “I Saw the Devil,” two modern horror masterpieces that I’d love to see get the Arrow treatment too.

“GBW” is a gorgeously shot film that centers on two of the best Korean actors of their generation: Song Kang-ho, of “Parasite” fame stateside, and Lee Byung-hun, of “Squid Game” and the upcoming “No Other Choice,” in which he may do his best work to date. They are just two parts of this creative, funny, thrilling film. Arrow pulls out all the stops, offering multiple versions of the movie, multiple audio commentaries, new interviews, and stunning artwork. Get this one.

Special Features:

• DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY
• 4K MASTER approved by director Kim Jee-woon
• DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• Includes both the International and Korean versions of the film presented via seamless branching
• DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio on both cuts of the film
• Optional English subtitles
• Audio commentary by film critic James Marsh and film critic and producer Pierce Conran
• Archival audio commentary of the International Cut by director Kim Jee-woon and actors Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung
• Archival audio commentary of the Korean Version by director Kim Jee-woon, cinematographer Lee Mogae, lighting director Oh Seung-chul, and art director Cho Hwa-sung (Korean Version)
• Introduction to the film by Kim Jee-woon
• DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
• Corralling Chaos in the Desert, an interview with director Kim Jee-woon
• Dusty Dust-ups and Sweaty Saddles, an interview with martial arts coordinator Jung Doo-hong
• Archival making-of films and featurettes
• Trailer gallery
• Image gallery
• ADDITIONAL CONTENT
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh
• Perfect bound collector’s book featuring writing by Darcy Paquet, Kyu Hyun Kim, Cho Jae-whee and Ariel Schudson
• Three postcard-sized artcards
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh

“Hellbender” (Arrow)

The Adams Family becomes a more essential part of the genre landscape every year. Their truly excellent “Mother of Flies” is currently making the fest circuit after lauded screenings at Fantasia and Fantastic Fest. Be sure to check it out when it drops early next year.

Before then, pick up the latest Arrow edition of one of their works, 2021’s twisted “Hellbender.” Arrow turns this one into a study of the family that acts, writes, and directs together, not only allowing all four of them to do a new commentary but including a 2021 short film by Zelda called “Fort Worden,” and four music videos made for the band within the film (who also handle the music in the new one, by the way, because of course they do).

Special Features:

• Brand new audio commentary with filmmakers Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams and Lulu Adams
• From the Forest She Rises, a brand new video essay by filmmaker Jen Handorf
• Black Magic Tricks, a featurette on the visual effects by VFX artist Trey Lindsay
• Behind-the-scenes compilation footage
• Fort Worden (2021), a short film by Zelda Adams
• Four music videos: Hit and Run (2024), Drive (2021), Lovely (2021) and Black Sky (2020)
• Original trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Beth Morris and original artwork by Sister Hyde
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Natasha Ball and Kat Hughes

“High & Low” (Criterion)

One of Akira Kurosawa’s best films (and that’s truly saying something) was remade this year in Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” which takes the basic premise of the 1963 original and then truly turns it into a Lee film in the second half. It’s a great example of how to do a remake, blending both the original voice and your own.

But this isn’t about Spike, as we’ll sadly probably never get a Blu-ray of that Apple TV+ original. This is about Akira, who shot this thriller about a man (Toshiro Mifune) who struggles when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped after being mistaken for his own. Criterion has released this before, but has gone back and given it the 4K treatment, including archival material such as an interview with Mifune and a Toho Masterworks documentary about the making of this masterpiece.

Special Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
• Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• Interviews with actors Toshiro Mifune and Tsutomu Yamazaki
• Trailers and teaser
• PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richie

“Jurassic World Rebirth“

It’s hard to believe we’ve now had more “World” movies than “Park” movies, as this is the fourth flick since the relaunch of the franchise based on the hit novel by Michael Crichton about people who resurrect dinosaurs. “Jurassic” feels like it becomes bigger every year with theme park rides, video games, Netflix cartoons, and more. But how about the movies? This is another bland CGI blockbuster, a story of a team that travels to a former dinosaur facility to extract some samples and gets caught up in dinosaur chaos again.

While I appreciate the simplicity of the plot (it’s essentially the first movie in which scientists go in and need to get out), the overabundance of CGI strikes me as lifeless. None of it creates the same sense of wonder that we experienced from Spielberg’s original over three decades ago. You should know that this is an impressive Blu-ray, complete with alternate opening, deleted scenes, featurettes, and two commentaries. At a time when studios seem to be pulling away from physical media, kudos to Universal for producing this one so well.

Special Features:

• ALTERNATE OPENING
• DELETED SCENES
• RAPTORS – Featuring Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, David Iacono, Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda
• MUTADON ATTACK – Featuring Scarlett Johansson, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, David Iacono, Rupert Friend, Luna Blaise and Audrina Miranda
• JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: HATCHING A NEW ERA
• THE WORLD EVOLVES – Journey into a reimagined Jurassic World with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali and the rest of the cast and filmmakers.
• OFF THE DEEP END – Dive into the thrilling ocean sequence and learn about the challenges of shooting on open water, the one-of-a-kind gimbal used to toss around the Essex and Mariposa, and the VFX wizardry that brought the Mosasaurus and Spinosaurs to life.
• TREKKING THROUGH THAILAND – Follow the cast and crew’s footsteps as they navigate the challenges of shooting in exotic jungles, beaches, and tall grass fields that become home to the Titanosaurs.
• REX IN THE RAPIDS – Brace for a T. rex encounter that’s different than anything experienced before with a nail-biting river chase recreated from Michael Crichton’s original Jurassic Park novel.
• DON’T LOOK DOWN – Soar into the Quetzalcoatlus sequence with Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Bechir Sylvain as they train for and shoot their cliff rappelling scenes.
• MINI-MART MAYHEM – Go inside the heart-stopping third act of Jurassic World Rebirth and witness the process of crafting sets that allow the movie’s mutant dinosaurs to step out of nightmare-inspired designs and stop on an exhilarating rampage.
• GAG REEL
• MEET DOLORES – Meet the animatronic Aquilops with an extraordinarily lifelike personality.
• MUNCHED: BECOMING DINO FOOD – Get a victim’s firsthand view inside the frightening jaws of deadly dinosaurs that munch, chomp, and chew their way into creating unforgettable death sequences.
• A DAY AT SKYWALKER SOUND – Actress Audrina Miranda guides a personal tour of Skywalker Sound in California to meet the audio editors, foley artists, and mixers who design the movie’s wide array of sounds.
• HUNTING FOR EASTER EGGS – Find out where to look for cleverly hidden Easter eggs that pay homage to everything from the first Jurassic Park film to other Steven Spielberg classics.
• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR GARETH EDWARDS, PRODUCTION DESIGNER JAMES CLYNE, AND FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR JACK RAVENSCROFT
• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR GARETH EDWARDS, EDITOR JABEZ OLSSEN, AND VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR DAVID VICKERY

“Lilo & Stitch“

I don’t know what to say anymore about the live-action remakes of Disney and now DreamWorks titles that haven’t been said repeatedly by critics all over the world. Most of them are soulless echoes of the original, and it feels like people I talk to agree with their artistic vacuity, and yet they make a FORTUNE. This one made more than its source did in its entire run on its first weekend, ending up with over $1 billion worldwide. They’re already working on the sequel. Can we ensure that one doesn’t resemble a Disney+ original? Please? I’m begging.

Special Features:

• Deleted Scenes
• ‘Ohana Means Family: Making Lilo & Stitch – Learn how an animated classic becomes an instant live-action favorite. Explore the challenges of bringing Stitch into the real world, how the familiar images of the original were recreated, and join returning cast members on a set that embodies ‘ohana.
• Drawn to Life – Check out scenes from the animated original film alongside their live-action counterparts to see how these beloved key moments were faithfully recreated. And uncover some easter eggs along the way!
• Bloopers – Take a look at some of the fun mishaps on set with the cast and crew of Lilo & Stitch.
• Scenes with Stitch – Hear Stitch talk about some of his favorite scenes as he watches the movie play.

“Materialists“

Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-nominated “Past Lives” is a smart movie that knows it’s smart. Sometimes, that intelligence is a drawback in scenes where characters played by Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal sometimes sound more like screenwriters’ creations than real people. As a matchmaker and the millionaire she personally matches with, both performers are engaging; however, the real MVP of the movie is Chris Evans, who delivers his most relaxed and genuine performance in years. He’s a bit miscast in that it’s hard to believe he’d struggle as much as he does into his mid-30s (he’s kind of a “unicorn” in a different way), but it’s so great to see him in something this naturally charismatic.

As much as I love “Past Lives,” this is a bit of a step down, but it’s not the sophomore slump you may have heard. And, even with its flaws, I wish we saw more films like it.

Special Features:

• Director Commentary with Celine Song
• “The Math of Modern Dating: Making Materialists” featurette
• Composer Deep Dive with Japanese Breakfast
• Six Collectible Postcards with Behind the Scenes Photography

“The Phoenician Scheme“

Wes Anderson is the king of physical media this month with a fantastic box set from Criterion of his first 10 movies that I’ll cover separately later this week. Also recently released? His 12th film is this clever 2025 comedy about a man who reconciles with what matters in life after several attempts to kill him. While that might sound more melodramatic than Anderson typically attempts, this movie smartly weaves issues of religion and business into another Anderson diorama film, one of precise compositions and quirky characters.

After how much I adored “Asteroid City,” I think this mid-life crisis Wes may make for one of the more interesting stretches of his career. Note: This is a bare-bones edition with an awful cover. Safe bet it’s a placeholder for an inevitable Criterion release in the next couple of years.

Special Features:

• Behind THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
• The Cast
• The Airplane
• Marseille Bob’s
• Zsa-zsa’s World

“Superman“

The highest-grossing superhero flick of the year is James Gunn’s launch for his vision of the DCU, a complete dismantling and restart for some of the most famous heroes in world history (with the possible exception of Matt Reeves’ “Batman” films, which appear to be progressing). Gunn does a few smart things with his take on the Man of Steel. One, he eschews the origin story everyone knows by heart and drops us into a Metropolis already reckoning with their alien hero. Two, and this is even more important, he discards the cynicism that has drowned so many recent DC films for a story of kindness.

I think “Superman” is a tick overrated and not my favorite Gunn, but I like what it promises for the future of all the heroes now under the Gunn empire. The Blu-ray? It’s pretty slight for one of the biggest films of the year, failing to include a commentary or deleted scenes. However, it does have that rocking WB 4K video quality, which is the best of the major studios.

Special Features:

• Krypto Saves the Day!: School Bus Scuffle – (5:32)
• Adventures in Making Superman Featurette (60:00)
• Icons Forever: Superman’s Enduring Legacy – Featurette (6:05)
• Lex Luthor: The Mind of a Master Villain – Featurette (5:18)
• Kryptunes: The Music of Superman – Featurette (6:31)
• Paws to Pixels: Krypto is Born – Featurette (5:54)
• Breaking News: The Daily Planet Returns – Featurette (5:23)
• The Ultimate Villain – Featurette (5:30)
• The Justice Gang – Featurette (10:37)
• A New Era: DC Takes Off – Featurette (4:53)

“This is Spinal Tap” (Criterion)

“Spinal Tap II” just hit theaters and was greeted largely with a shoulder shrug. The real news about everyone’s favorite ’80s rock stars is that they have joined the Criterion Collection with a new 4K special edition approved by Reiner himself and STUFFED with special features. There are three audio commentaries, including one that features the band members in character. Not enough? How about 89 minutes of deleted scenes? Does anyone remember the special “Spinal Tap: The Final Tour”? You can have that now, too. There are even interviews about the largely forgotten Back from the Dead, the band’s reunion album from 2009. It’s everything a Tap fan could ever want in one Blu-ray release.

Special Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Rob Reiner, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Alternate 2.0 uncompressed stereo soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
• Three audio commentaries, featuring Reiner; actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer; producer Karen Murphy; editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda; and band members Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls
• Conversation between Reiner and actor Patton Oswalt
• The Cutting Room Floor, featuring ninety-eight minutes of outtakes
• Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (1982)
• Excerpts from The Return of Spinal Tap (1992)
• Interviews with the band for its 2009 Back from the Dead album
• Trailers, media appearances, and music videos
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Alex Pappademas

In 1975, Indian cinema released one of its greatest films, Ramesh Sippy’s “Sholay.” For this young grade-schooler, watching it with my parents in Chicago’s Arie Crown theater, it was among the most captivating movie experiences of my life. Fifty years later, I’m sure every South Asian man of my generation still remembers “Sholay” with the most fondness.

A local officer, Inspector Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar), hires two small-time convicts, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra), to capture the renegade scoundrel Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Thakur saw them not only as punks with a moral compass, but crafty enough to outwit Gabbar. In the process, both men fall in love with local women: Jai admires the quiet widow Radha (Jaya Bhaduri, later Bachchan) at first sight, and Veeru consumes himself with the vocal Basanti (Hima Malini)—the two fall into a series of smaller adventures until crossing paths with the final boss. Gabbar Singh may have been among the sadistic villains (pontificating in gruff Hindi, amputating his victims, cackling while killing his own henchmen) that Bollywood audiences had yet seen. The film ends with a twist and a tragedy that would teach young boys to cry. 

Overtly, the film is a Western, written and produced not long after the rise of the Italian Spaghetti Westerns, taking inspiration from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” While it did inspire a trend of loading big movies with multiple major stars, it did not inspire copycat Westerns. It is, at times, a screwball comedy, paying silly homage to Charlie Chaplin. Its songs are among the most memorable of their era, performed off-camera by the great Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, among others. 

Not that I would know then, Bollywood itself was evolving. The previous decades featured the proliferation of art films by such greats as Satyajit Ray. Now, in the 1970s, Indian cinema produced numerous formulaic popcorn pictures, featuring melodramatic plotlines of forbidden love, formulaic fights between heroes and villains, lip-synched songs, and semi-random dance performances. 

Among the central figures of this era were Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Dharmendra, generations of Kapoors (Raj, Shammi, Shashi, Rishi), Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Hima Malini, and others. New star Amitabh Bachchan, however, eclipsed all of them, becoming the hero for every young South Asian boy across the world. By today’s standards of sculpted hair, manicured faces, and chiseled bodies, these stars may not be as memorable—I’m South Asian, we’re all gorgeous, sort of—yet they radiated such charisma that even the painted marquee posters were exciting to look at. 

I wish I could, however, tap you into the way that film captured all of us. So many young men of my generation learned to love movies from their first experiences watching Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars.” For every moment my cousins, friends, and I swung wiffle bats in lightsaber duels, I am sure we quoted lines from “Sholay,” singing “Mehbooba Mehbooba” and “Yeh Dosti.” Yes, these two boys were punks, yes, they were incorrigible rogues, but they were also innocent, playful 13-year-olds trapped in the bodies of 20-somethings, forced to grow up in a harsh world. Every step of Jai’s swooning over Radha—straightening his posture, playing the harmonica in the distance, and speaking with manners—is a shy, pimply teenager’s hope to win his beloved’s approval, over her disapproval for everything he otherwise enjoyed fiddling with. In contrast, for Veeru, Basanti was the colorful, spunky force to be reckoned with whose shrugs would push him to swim in bottles of booze. 

The friendship between the two young men, Jai and Veeru, carries the film to the end. These two lads enjoyed their pranks more for their partnership than the stunts. Today, we’d call each other our “ride or die.” Each time they have to decide on something, Jai flips a coin, and they race according to where the coin falls. In the movie’s climax, perhaps the only time they have to separate, Jai flips to decide who will risk his life crossing a bridge toward sticks of dynamite. 

For so many of us young South Asian boys in the Subcontinent and (like myself) in the diaspora, Amitabh became our model of young manhood. Every few months, a local Chicago theater would pack the house with Amitabh’s latest. Soon, the arrival of VCRs allowed us to consume everything, and of course, we consumed “Sholay” more than all the rest. When an Indian kid enrolled in my Junior High, we became fast friends, spending much time talking about Amitabh. 

On first glance, long before today’s toxic masculinity, he was in this film, and for most of his movies for the next two decades, the model “angry young man.” His manhood, however, was not a product of disobedience, domination, or insecurities hidden behind lavish lifestyles. Rather, his was a model of being unable to be anything but himself, the result of which was a long process of butting heads with everyone, while still trying to remain upright. And, yes, to my parents’ and siblings’ chagrin, I butt many, many heads.  

This film was from an era in which it was still common to find sympathetic Muslims and Hindus in the stories, acting on camera, and writing and producing behind the scenes. In today’s India, it is still present, but it seems urgent against the nationalisms in India and beyond. I wonder if Amitabh is one of the few who can call on India and the world to come together in reconciliation. I would listen.

The newly-restored “Sholay” is currently screening at this year’s TIFF for its 50th anniversary.

The IFC Center, a five-screen art house cinema in New York’s West Village, is celebrating its 20th anniversary by showing one film from each year of its existence. The selection process was elaborate. The lineup was chosen by Harris Dew, the Senior VP and General Manager of IFC Center, and Caitlin Crowley, director of programs and promotions. Many factors were in play, such as how successful a film was with the IFC Center’s audience (which embraces certain movies far more enthusiastically than other New York venues) and how important a specific director was to the theater’s existence (Gaspar Noe, Lars von Trier, and David Lynch are just a few audience favorites). The theater’s top grossing film, Bong Joon-Ho’s “Parasite,” is included, as is their longest running film, “Boyhood.”

The 20th anniversary events will include panels honoring New York filmmakers and Q&A sessions with filmmakers Bill Morrison and Kirsten Johnson. The theater is also offering a “2 for 20” deal, where patrons can get two tickets for $20, less than the cost of a single ticket to other films. Dew and Crowley spoke to me about the series, the theater’s history, and their struggle to pick twenty movies to represent two decades of cinema. For the lineup and ticket information, click here. For the films listed by date and time sequentially, the lineup is also available in poster form as a PDF, here.

How would you describe IFC Center to someone who isn’t a New York moviegoer?  

Harris Dew: The building has been a movie theater since 1937. It used to be called The Waverly, and it was the place where “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” became a midnight movie sensation, where a lot of John Waters films opened in the 70s, ‘80s and 90s, but it also played a lot of other things. Towards the end of its years as The Waverly, it ended up becoming part of a chain that was called Cineplex Odeon. It wasn’t like a big flagship cinema, but it was a solid movie theater.

When we opened it as IFC Center in 2005, the theater was dark for maybe two years as part of a long renovation. The Waverly had been a two-screener, but we opened it as a three-screen venue, and we had a cafe as well, on the ground floor. In 2009, the contract ran out for the folks who ran the cafe, and we were itching for more theater space, so we turned the cafe into three additional theaters to bring the total to five screens. 

What kinds of movies is the theater most strongly identified with?

Harris Dew: We show a pretty broad mix of art house stuff. There are American independents, a lot of international films, a lot of documentaries. We are the only commercially operating cinema that still shows a short film before features. We do a different short film every week. We also have a very rough program of midnight movies every Friday and Saturday. We also produce the country’s biggest documentary festival, Doc NYC, every November.

How did the idea of selecting one film to represent each of these 20 years come about?

Caitlin Crowley: We were discussing different ways to celebrate the 20th anniversary this year. For the anniversary itself, which happened back in June, we showed all the films that we showed on our first day in business as the IFC Center, at 2005 ticket prices. But we also wanted to pay tribute to a broader range of films, so we thought it would be fun to just pick one film that we played for every year that we were in business.  

There are a lot of great movies that are released in any given year, and a lot of great movies that play at IFC Center. So how did you pick just one per year?

Harris Dew:  I’ve been at IFC Center since almost the very beginning. I started here a few weeks after we opened, so it’s been twenty-plus years for me. Caitlin just joined the team in 2023. So I had seen these films come through the first time around, but for the most part, Caitlin had been more of an audience member, so it was good to have her perspective, too. I had one view of what films meant to us internally, but she was able to bring a different perspective, as far as what kind of, what would be considered and IFC Center film to the public. So we wanted to do something that really represented the breadth of the programming.

We did think about including some revivals—you know, classics—just because that’s been a really important part of our programming. But it just made more sense for us to pay tribute to the new films we’ve shown. We had Charles Burnett’s “Killer of Sheep” in its first theatrical run ever. The Japanese horror film “House” had its first theatrical revival here. 

Caitlin Crowley: We wanted to include filmmakers who were very established and who were strongly associated with IFC Center, like David Lynch and Lars von Trier, but we also wanted to highlight work by people who, at the time, were considered emerging filmmakers. We’re showing Barry Jenkins’ first film, “Medicine for Melancholy,” as an example of that kind of film.

Looking over this lineup, I see there are some movies that I guess you could call “conversation starters,” like “Enter the Void” and “Antichrist,” which have an extreme, even punishing aesthetic.  

Harris Dew: “Enter the Void” was actually a big hit for us, andI think it definitely skews towards the midnight movie experience, which is often a trippy film. It spoke to the out-there nature, the edginess, of some of our programming. 

I would imagine that Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” is another one of those.

Harris Dew : Yeah, “Antichrist” is definitely another one. We’ve opened several big Lars von Trier films here. That was another thing that was nice to do with the series—to say, “Here are  filmmakers who have had a significant impact on us.”

I recall that “Parasite” not only did really well for you, but it was a movie you knew would do really well for you. To meet demand, you added showtimes at hours when most folks would be eating breakfast.

Harris Dew: Yeah, definitely. It premiered at Cannes and it was a real sensation. And it just sort of built and built and built and built from there. Then it had its launch in North America, playing at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. We could tell there was a built-up demand for people to see it. We knew that we were going to open it on multiple screens. 

But as we got closer to opening day, we realized it was going to need a lot of screens. We put tickets on sale a little early for that one, and it totally sold out. It sold out every show on every screen that we had it on for that first weekend. It’s still our biggest grosser.

Really? Out of all the films you’ve shown in 20 years?

Harris Dew: That’s right, our biggest grossing film. It was a film that opened in October [of 2019] and played for months. It was doing so well that the only reason we took it offscreen in mid-March of 2020 was because of pandemic closure, otherwise we would’ve kept playing it, and it would have made even more.

What are some of the movies that are in the 20th anniversary lineup that did better at IFC Center than almost any other US theater?  

Harris Dew: “Inland Empire” was one of those. The beauty of “Inland Empire” is that it did better here the first time around than it did anywhere else, and then we played the new restoration in 2024, and I think it did better here than any restoration in 2024 had done anywhere else. I think “Enter the Void” performed better here than anywhere else in its initial run. “Shoplifters,” I would say, did probably better here than anywhere else. 

One of the more surprising titles on the list for me was Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood.” I love it, but it doesn’t immediately strike me as an IFC Center movie. It’s formally unusual, but more sweet than edgy.

Harris Dew: That’s our longest running movie ever. It played here for more than nine months. That was a film that our sister company, IFC Films, financed over a span of 12 years, which is a pretty astonishing thing. We had Linklater here, and [star] Ellar Coltrane, and some other folks associated with it. We had a gallery space on the second floor that usually shows vintage movie posters where we put some of the photography they had done on set. 

We also did a series about time in the cinema in the lead-up to the release of “Boyhood,” because it felt like that’s what that film wrestled with more than anything, and it’s an aspect of cinema that we don’t always get to focus on. We had the Harry Potter series, which as you know consists of seven movies made with the same cast, so you can watch them all grow up. But we also showed movies that really dug into flashbacks, like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento,” which we’re showing again for this series.

Caitlin, what’s it like experiencing the IFC Center from both outside and inside?

Caitlin Crowley: I think I figured out when we were putting this list together that the first film I ever saw at IFC Center was Gregg Araki’s “Smiley Face.” I was a huge Greg Araki fan, and I was so excited to be living somewhere where they were showing his new film. I have always associated IFC Center with those really eye-popping kinds of moviegoing experiences. I saw “Antichrist here” opening weekend. I saw “The Human Centipede” here. Those are the kinds of films that I was thinking about a lot when we were talking about what makes us who we are, and what kinds of movies people come here to see.

Where did you grow up?

Caitlin Crowley: Just outside of Boston. They didn’t have anything close to me that was in the vein of IFC Center, though Boston has its own film culture. I worked at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge for a few years, and of course there’s The Coolidge in Brookline, but it was very exciting to move to a city that had so many more options.

Were there years on the calendar where the two of you went, “Well, obviously we’re showing this one”? And conversely, were there any particular years for which you struggled to settle on just one title?  

Harris Dew: There were definitely years where it was almost not even a question. The first choice was Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” which was the film that launched us, and it was the film that, you know, it was such an important film for us. The same is kind of true for “Inland Empire” and “Parasite” and “Boyhood.” For other other years, you know, there were a lot of options. 

Did you have any guidelines or rules to make the programming a little easier?

Harris Dew: We didn’t want to represent any filmmaker twice. We wanted to make sure it was a really broad range that encompassed documentary and fiction film, a range of international selections, and filmmakers from different generations. We were trying to build out a program that represented the eclectic nature of everything that we’ve shown in microcosm.

Caitlin Crowley: We had to make some very difficult decisions. Jeff Nichols’ first feature ‘Shotgun Stories,” from 2008, was a film that I really, personally love, but we decided it would be exciting to showcase Barry Jenkins’ first film instead, because it was a slightly under-seen film, even for people who love his work.  

Is there anything else you wanted to say before we part?

Harris Dew:  One is, I wanted to say that we’ve got work by some New York filmmakers represented, because New York filmmakers have been so important and so supportive for us. We got lucky that both Bill Morrison for “Dawson City: Frozen Time” and Kirsten Johnson for “Cameraperson” are going to be able to be here, to appear with their films and talk afterwards. The only other thing I was going to flag is—and I’m gonna get sappy here!—I feel incredibly lucky to have been doing this for 20 years, and that we’re still around after 20 years.  

When you go to see a zombie movie, what do you expect to see? High octane terror? Gruesome violence and dismemberment? The realization that we are the biggest monsters in a world full of brain eaters? It’s such an expected formula that we’ve now seen every which way the genre can go, for good or for worse. I feel like we’ve kind of become completely desensitized or willfully ignorant to what the bigger picture is in these movies, from the underlying rage of domestic life to the shambling droning of consumerism. But sometimes a zombie movie is just a zombie movie, made for thrills and nothing else. 28 Years Later is not that. In fact it’s so much more. Ever since I saw that first trailer that hauntingly recited a British war poem over it, I knew we were in for something special. Maybe not “best of the year” special, but holy shit, it just might be.

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have returned to a world of rage and terror, and I’m not just talking about the world in the film. In this post COVID era, where isolation, distrust and clinging to the past is out to tear us apart, there is a ton of horror to be found that doesn’t exactly involve rage-filled corpses. Okay, there’s plenty of those in the real world too, we just won’t stop electing them. But 28 Years Later’s look at the fall of society is so visceral and poignant while finding room for true compassion, making it feel so cathartic to the era we live in. It goes well over the top with its editing style, a choice that may scare some people off, but real Boyle heads know what’s cooking. Yet through the mania and the violence is a soothing reflection on the acceptance of death and the destruction of innocence that, honest to God, nearly brought me to tears. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so subverted in such a positive way. I definitely haven’t forgotten what Boyle, Garland and company are capable of, but sometimes I forget what horror is truly capable of, and boy, do I love being reminded.

28 years after a virus that sends humans into a violent, animalistic rage swept the UK and closed it off from the rest of the world, little colonies of people try to rebuild their own societies. This is where we meet Spike, a young boy being pushed into shocking, unflinching adulthood while his sick and forgetful mother wastes away in bed. When Spike hears word of a doctor living on the mainland, he goes against his father’s wishes and takes his mother to see him, braving the terrifying world of monsters that lie just beyond his settlement’s walls.

The first chunk of the film goes about how you would anticipate; Spike is taken to the mainland by his father to hunt infected in order to toughen him up. It’s a tense sequence of events driven not really by survival, but rather, the illusion of it. They aren’t putting themselves into danger to hunt, forage or scout. They’re here to kill, and that’s it. This kind of establishes what the tiny world of the settlement embodies. Sure, this is a learning experience for Spike, but one that arguably does more to build upon his paranoia rather than actually support his community. This section of the film maintains the kind of chaos and brutality I was expecting from the film, while also giving us a glimpse of the talents of young Alfie Williams. This is his first major role from what I can tell, and he truly does a phenomenal job. Spike is one of those characters that I know people are gonna complain about because he makes a lot of bad decisions. You know, like most kids. Sure, bringing his sick and forgetful mother to the land of zombies is not a good idea, but his actions reflect a bigger picture. The whole film at first feels like a fight against death, but really, it’s a fight for life, which, yes, are two different things. His father, played very well by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is ready to give up on his wife, because truth be told, fighting the crazy hordes is much easier than fighting for his wife’s health. It’s something out of his control, but his unwillingness to give hope a chance is ultimately what drives Spike from their village. Additionally, Jodie Comer’s Isla, Spike’s sick mother, can be pretty gut wrenching at times. She’s slowly losing agency over her memories, often confusing Spike for her own father, which also reflects the position of caretaker and protector that Spike finds himself thrust into. All around, super solid character work.

As the film goes on, there’s a very notable shift in the vibe, as coincidently, the land of less civilization brings out much more humanity. This is also when we get to see a bit more humor bleed through the melancholy, showing that even some happiness can be brought from darkness. Whether it be from a lone Swedish soldier who reminds us that the rest of the world has continued to develop outside of Britain, or simply just seeing an alpha-zombie constantly hanging brain, there’s a surprising amount of laughs to be had alongside the horror. But the film soon gets more meditative and a lot more real, tackling the things we can’t control like death. This leads us into the introduction of Ralph Fiennes character, Dr. Kelson, who I won’t talk too much about to avoid spoilers. But I’ll just say he’s the best character in the whole thing. This latter portion of the film is genuinely far more tender and moving than anything I was expecting from a rabid zombie film, but I think it gives so much heart to this film.

And although this film has a lot of grittiness and visceral intensity to it, Jesus, does it look gorgeous. A lot of this thing was shot with an iPhone 15, and sure, there’s some rigs and stuff upping the quality but still, how does this look better than movies shot with cameras that cost a zombie arm and a zombie dong? From a terrifying dash across the ocean backdropped by a stunning nebula to haunting and ethereal night surrounded by a temple of bones, this thing is constantly drop-dead gorgeous. Shooting with small iPhones apparently gave the crew more freedom to traverse the environment they were shooting in, grounding the film further and making everything feel massive in the process. The world building is stellarly ominous, ripe with so much potential that will no doubt be harvested in future films. But don’t get me wrong, this whole movie isn’t exactly the kind of artsy fartsy horror film you may be thinking.

Like the original film, an aggressive style of editing is employed throughout the film, often in places it makes sense but also areas where it doesn’t. Quick cuts, dramatic closeups, and repeating frames work together to give many scenes a heart pumping intensity threatening to put you in cardiac arrest. There’s a lot of bold, out there choices too, like using 20 iPhone cameras to shoot a kind of rotating bullet time effect whenever an infected gets skewered with an arrow. It’s definitely not a clean cut film, and the abrasive style might not be for everyone. Hell, it actually took me a minute to get used to it, but once I did, I was floored.  The insane editing is also accompanied by an equally insane score, composed by Scottish hip hop ground Young Fathers. Somehow, these guys were able to create a score that is not only aggressively disorientating and in your face, but also strangely beautiful at times. It feels incredibly unique and further gives this film an identity you are not going to find in any other horror film today. 

As a horror film though, it may not fully deliver in the way audiences are expecting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of gross, naked, howling infected to go around, but the film isn’t shy about focusing far more on the human drama rather than the threat of the monsters. It’s kind of the same complaint I have for a lot of the modern Godzilla and Kong movies, only this time, the human element is actually good. It really is the Godzilla: Minus One of the modern zombie genre, and sure, it definitely isn’t the first of its kind. But it’s that unique voice driving the film that’s made me head over heels for it, despite it potentially not being as terrifying as 28 Days Later. There’s still moments of spines being ripped out by the head Sub Zero style and intense chases through the woods to keep the heart pumping, but it’s all certainly not the crux of the narrative, but rather, a supporting player. It’s definitely not what I was expecting, and that may turn you off from seeing it, but I implore you to go in with an open mind and tempered expectations.

28 Years Later manages to be both an energy drink injected straight into your bloodstream and a profoundly moving reflection on death and the warring to reclaim the past without looking ahead to the future. It’s staggeringly shot and frantically edited to create a film that borders on tonal whiplash, but always finds a way to reel itself in and regain its composure. This is a film I cannot wait to see again, as it begs for a rewatch to fully appreciate the craft that’s gone into it. 2025 is really cementing itself as a year of grade-A horror films after this and Sinners, and I hope the train keeps running with films like Weapons, Together, Him, and Clown in a Cornfield. That last one is already out, but my own personal fears have kept me from watching it just yet. I just can’t stand cornfields.

RATING

MEMENTO MORI

Memento Mori is Latin for “remember death” (loosely). And nothing helps jog the old memory, or brings on thoughts of the next life, quite like a tall drink. This slender, imposing cocktail is meant to be reflective of the bone temple seen later in the film, topped with a multitude of skulls. The concept of death is such a bitter sweet part of life, and that is reflected in this drink thanks to a mixture of Aperol, pomegranate juice and creme de cassis. And for your crowning skull, I went with a white chocolate ball to give you a nice snack while you sip. But remember the flipside of this phrase, memento amori: remember to love. So love yourself and don’t go overboard with these if you can help it.

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5oz gin
• 3/4oz Aperol
• 1/2oz creme de cassis
• 1oz pomegranate juice
• 1/4oz lemon juice
• 2-3oz sparkling water
• Garnish: White chocolate ball

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir to chill.
2. Strain into tall glass (over ice if preferred).
3. Garnish with ball of white chocolate.