Criterion in May 2023: BRANDED TO KILL Fights With WINGS OF DESIRE, TARGETS and THELMA & LOUISE

Empty your piggy banks! Beg your parents and/or children and/or strangers for money!

The Criterion Collection has announced a killer lineup -- sorry, cheap joke -- for the month of May 2023, which, it so happens, will be a month in which someone will drop a bag of money at my door so I can afford all these goodies, led by Branded to Kill, "Seijun Suzuki's brutal, hilarious story of a yakuza assassin--now on 4K UHD." I had the splendid opportunity to see this classic on a big screen in Los Angeles years ago, and the images seared their way into my brain. So, yes, this movie will justify the acquisition of the proper equipment to fully savor the 4K UHD experience.

ALSO! ALSO! ALSO!

Wim Wnders' Wings of Desire is also being released in director-approved 4K UHD, which, again, not to brag, but I also got to see this classic on the big screen in Los Angeles years ago, and it's phenomenal in the highest resolution possible. So tear down walls, rob banks, whatever you have to do to see this one on 4K UHD from Criterion.

Let's see, do they have anything else coming out in May?

I'm a little less pumped about Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise, but that is ALSO due for release on 4K UHD. The tout sheet notes: "The exhilaratingly cathartic Thelma & Louise stands as cinema's ultimate ode to ride-or-die female friendship."

Also: Peter Bogdanovich's scary, anticipatory, mass-shooting murder picture Targets, starring Boris Karloff, and Céline Sciamma's super-sweet and gentle and artistic Petite Maman. Both are due on Blu-ray, and I'm sure they will look as good possible.

Read all the details and place your pre-orders at the official Criterion site.