Criterion in September 2025: BORN IN FLAMES Leads an Impressive Slate
Lizzie Borden's incendiary (?!) Born in Flames (1983) leads an impressive slate of films due for release from the Criterion Collection in September 2025.
Because the film deserves its headlines, I'll just quote the official release: "A blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear, and unapologetically queer, Lizzie Borden's explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America ten years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a democratic socialist utopia. In reality, racism, sexism, and economic inequality are as virulent as ever, and a band of radicals--led by Black, lesbian, and working-class women--join forces to fight back.
"Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop, and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, Born in Flames is a shock wave of feminist futurism that's both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it."
The Blu-ray includes a "new audio commentary featuring Borden; cast members Adele Bertei, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Pat Murphy, Marty Pottenger, and Jeanne Satterfield; and camerapeople DeeDee Halleck and Chris Hegedus," along with other special features.
Akira Kurosawa's great High and Low (1963) will arrive in 4K the month after Spike Lee's remake hits theaters. Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is another 4K edition arriving after the original film gets a theatrical re-release this summer.
The gorgeous, Academy Award-winning animated insta-classic Flow (2024) should look great on 4K, while two Jacques Audiard crime films -- Read My Lips (2001) and The Beat My Heart Skipped (2005) are coming on Blu-ray, though only Read My Lips will get the 4K treatment.
The phenomenal 20-disc The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years will be issued, along with separate and individual editions of Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, all on 4K, of course.
Visit the official Criterion site for pertinent details and order placement.
