Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Want something new in your streaming playlist? Once again, Melanie delivers a top-notch tip in her latest Six Damn Fine Degrees post, this time about Chinese historical drama Flourished Peony. (Make sure to switch on subtitles in the trailer below!)
Meanwhile, our 2025 summer series of Podcast, the Lost Summer, continues with an episode on films and TV that, for one reason or another, are gone – such as classic British TV from a time when TV shows weren’t routinely archived. (These days we should be lucky, as storage space is cheaper than it has ever been… which doesn’t keep production companies from permanently sunsetting so many series and films simply because they wouldn’t make enough money.)
And for our regular programming we have two blasts from the past. Enjoy!
Matt: Whether in scratchy old 35mm or in a glorious digital 4K restoration, Sergio Leone belongs on the big screen – but it isn’t half bad to have a good copy (physical, if possible!) to play on our somewhat smaller screens at home. Meanwhile, the Kurosawa retrospective taking place in New York this summer, co-hosted by Janus Films, makes me think that I’m closer to having my dream of a gorgeous Kurosawa box set by Criterion fulfilled. Janus and Criterion are close collaborators, and Criterion’s AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa came out at a time when Blu-ray was only a twinkle in the company’s eye. What better time than this to consider an upgrade?
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 