Holiday-party season is upon us, which means you’ve probably encountered at least one round of Secret Santa, whether it’s at work or among friends. Of course, this also means you’re faced with the conundrum of finding something cool without spending too much. Because we all know that the two things most important with Secret Santa gifts are that 1) they shouldn’t actually set you back financially, and 2) they need to demonstrate your thoughtfulness, creativity, and utter coolness, impressing the pants off the recipient and everyone involved. We already took inspiration from the release of Madden NFL 12 from our friends at EA Sports to give you ideas on how to enjoy the holidays at home; now we’re using it as the jumping-off point to help you find some top-notch gifts that will leave you feeling smugger than Mr. Claus himself. Whether your recipient is a football fanatic, a culture vulture, or a sartorial junkie, here’s a plethora of thrifty gifts that will make you wish your own Secret Santa had this list. Read More »

In retrospect, last week’s gift guide for movie geeks was seriously lacking in one important element: it needs more Criterion. The Criterion Collection, as you presumably well know, is the preeminent home video label for film nerds, lavishing their second-to-none skills of restoration and supplementation on titles both well-known and obscure. So yes, a week-late addendum: if you’re shopping for cinephiles, a title or two from the Criterion Collection should do the trick.

Alas, which titles? At 600+ films (and growing monthly), sifting through the collection is a daunting task. Thankfully, the label is more than happy to help out; one of the most enjoyable time-killers on their site is their section of Top 10s, in which film fans from across the spectrum — directors, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers, comedians, critics, etc. — select their ten favorite Criterion titles, often with concise mini-reviews for each. After the jump, in a bit of meta list construction, we’ve picked out ten of our favorite folks from that page, and a few of their recommendations as well. Read More »

1. Hollywood big shot Brian Grazier has stepped in to replace Brett Ratner as the producer of this year’s Oscars. Despite some initial speculation, Grazier now says that there’s no way that he’s going ask Eddie Murphy to reconsider his exit as host. [via Deadline]

2. Ricky Gervais says that NBC wants him to host this year’s Golden Globes, but with only two months to go before the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is still unsure. One potential reason for the holdup: Deadline reports that there’s at least “one A-lister who is threatening not to attend if Gervais emcees.” Any guesses who it is?

3. The Criterion Collection — or at least 46 of its titles — is now available on iTunes! But wait, there’s a catch: even if you purchase a film, you won’t have access to the extensive special features, which is kind of the whole point, right? [via Slashfilm]

4. A list of the musicians who will be making cameo appearances on Season 2 of Portlandia includes Eddie Vedder, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, Johnny Marr, and Joanna Newsom. [via THR]

5. The Rolling Stones (apparently sans frontman Mick Jagger) are meeting up in a London studio later this month, sparking rumors of a 50th anniversary show. Keith Richards denies the reports: “We’re just going to play a little together, because we haven’t played for three or four years. You don’t necessarily want to rehearse or write anything – you just want to touch bases.” [via NME]

Bonus Buzz: Presidential Super Heroes

We’ve made occasional mention of our love for the Fake Criterons tumblr, in which the striking graphics, clever designs, and isolated imagery of that preeminent cinephile line is applied to films that are, for the most part, entirely undeserving of inclusion among that “continuing series of important classic and contemporary films.” But that site has gone above and beyond this month, with their “Faked from the Dead” series, comprised entirely of fake Criterions for 1980s-era horror movies (From their challenge: “Summer camps, creepy basements, old caretakers, guys with improbable masks, dime store psychologists, abandoned insane asylums, broken down cars in the middle of nowhere- all of it”). Their many contributors risen to the occasion, and have created dozens of sharp, funny, and downright ridiculous covers. After the jump, we’ve selected a few of our faves.

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As both former carpal tunnel-suffering Super Nintendo addicts and current fans of the Fake Criterions parody site, you can only imagine how thrilled we were to come across this clever series of box art for 16-bit classics like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Kart, re-imagined as official Criterion Collection releases. Click through to check out a few of our favorite mockups, and let us know in the comments which faux title you’d be dying to get your hands on if they were real. For the record, we’ll always be partial to Street Fighter II.

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It’s tough to be a cinephile in the digital age. Make no mistake — there’s certainly something to be said for the rise in sheer availability these days; it’s hard to even remember a time when your film viewing choices were limited to the lousy stock at your local Blockbuster, to say nothing of our forefathers, who could only take in film classics at revival screenings and on the local TV stations’ “Late Show.” The rise of DVD, the takeover of Netflix, and the influx of streaming options amount to a film fanatic’s dream: just about every movie, available either right now or within a couple of days.

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Today at Flavorpill, we looked at pictures of the new life that NASA discovered and thought that it resembled potatoes. We lusted after this Great Gatsby-inspired tattoo. We discovered that the rating on This Is Spinal Tap on IMDB goes all the way up to 11. We started getting excited about the slate for this year’s Sundance Film Festival. We saw what cocaine looks like inside of a drug mule’s stomach. We enjoyed The Atlantic‘s roundup of the 10 best ideas of the year. We wanted to own some of these hilarious fake Criterion Collection posters. We watched Robyn’s entire MySpace “Secret Show.” We realized just how much the Harry Potter stars have grown up over the past nine years. And finally, we ended our day by dancing along to the candy-colored music video for Cee Lo’s “It’s OK.” You should too.

When Paste tipped us off to this ridiculously awesome Mubi.com thread, featuring 184 pages of fan-made faux Criterion Collection covers, we were like a kid in a candy store. The mock-ups range from enthusiastically amateur to hand-illustrated works of art, and mimicking Criterion’s style — which usually involves either minimalist illustration or a single still from a picturesque scene and always features smart, stylish typography — offers some helpful constraints. Unsurprisingly, our favorite covers were for cult films, from the Coen brothers to the Czech New Wave and Hedwig to Dr. Strangelove. Click through our gallery of the 20 best, after the jump.

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There is so much great music at All Tomorrow’s Parties’s yearly New York festival that it can be easy to neglect the great selection of classic Criterion Collection films on view throughout the weekend. But this time, the plethora of great viewing options was much harder to ignore, thanks to the gorgeous posters created for each film by a diverse group of independent comic artists. We were wondering when these great pieces would turn up online, and now we’ve found them, thanks to Super Punch, which has collected most of the weekend’s posters. After the jump, check out comic book-style covers for everything from Night of the Hunter to Naked Lunch to Easy Rider.

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The latest installment of Criterion’s budget-friendly Essential Art House series features pristine transfers of six highly influential films from the massive 50-disc Janus box set.

Volume five is the strongest to date, featuring classics like Federico Fellini’s existential character study 8 1/2 and Francois Truffaut’s freewheeling love story Jules and Jim, along with lesser known but equally impressive works: Milos Forman’s breakthrough feature, Loves of a Blonde, and Yasujiro Ozu’s visually stunning Floating Weeds. David Lean’s adaptation of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter and Gillo Pontecorvo’s brutally audacious Kapo round out the collection.

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