Trawling Through The Thrift Stores with Joseph Finn

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  We're moving in a week and lord knows long next week's column will be.  But let's enjoy some stuff I've found and also that I'm packing.

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Do I already own this in the current edition that also includes the novel?  Absolutely.  But do I like having the older Criterion editions as well?  Also absolutely.  Yes, it's a sickness.  But also, this is a great Australian movie that I always recommend, the tale of several boarding school students who disappear at Hanging Rock on a Valentine's Day excursion in 1900.  It's a wonderful look at the death of the Victorian era, colonizers attempting to impose their will on the landscape and the landscape fighting back, and a psycho-sexual storyline where you're never quite sure what's going on.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is currently streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel.

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Now here's one that I didn't have before and is sadly mostly out of print for some reason.  The Long Good Friday (1980) came out of George Harrison's production company, Handmade Films, and was the breakthrough role for Bob Hoskins as a London gangster trying to go straight and diversify into respectable business ventures, including developments on the London docks ahead of a possible London Olympics games (which wouldn't end up happening until 2012).

Unfortunately, old business keeps rearing its ugly head with other mobs and the IRA getting in the way of Hoskins getting to enjoy a new life of respectability and American investments flowing in.  It's a fantastic piece of work, very 1980 as London starts to come back as a city the money flows through but there is still a very ugly mob scene going on.  Mona Lisa, the other Bob Hoskins movie from Handmade, recently got a very nice Criterion edition so here's hoping that this also gets a new edition.

Thankfully, this is also streaming on HBO Max and Criterion.  (And hey, look out for an almost shockingly young Pierce Brosnan.)

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I'd somehow never seen the original Criterion of Brazil, which is a three-disc set that has one of those weird plastic sleeves that were a bit of a rage for a while in DVD sets.  Luckily, this is in great condition with no tears or weird abrasions.

And the discs are themselves in great shape!  This is was darn good find.

I love the progression of these covers.  The first disc contains the Terry Gilliam cut of Brazil, the second is the various documentaries about the production and about the infamous fight over the cut, and the third disc contains the disreputable happy ending cut after the head of Universal, which was handling the US release, insisted on a shorter and happier movie.  Somehow, I've never seen that cut and I think I will try it at some point just to. compare.

Brazil is not currently on any streaming platform but for rental or purchase.

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Another example of "do I already own these sets but want the complete set?"  Absolutely. And what an interesting presentation it is.

Yep, that's fake grass on top around a gravestone.

The use of the key art here for the cast isn't great, but I do like that they don't pretend that the heights line up perfectly.  Like Claire is in no way close to Nate's height.

I love so, so much of Six Feet Under's promotional art but that season 4 art is just wrong.

I like the touch of having the family tree for the major characters as of the end of the series.

And hey, obituaries for everyone!  (Spoilers ahoy but come on, the finale of this series was 17 years ago.)

Seriously, these soundtracks could not have been more early 2000s.

Six Feet Under is all streaming on the various HBO platforms.

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My recommendation for the week, like from so many other people, is to rush out to a theater if you can and are comfortable and see Everything Everywhere All At Once.  Not going to say a damn thing as to what it is about but suffice to say it has at least four performances I can see getting Oscar nominations as well as a fight scene involving a fanny pack that is pretty damn amazing.  You owe it to yourself to see this.