Criterion Club: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Join John Anzalone film professor/history buff/raconteur for a lively presentation, scene analysis and Q&A after watching the movie at home.

On the occasion of his bloody and tumultuous new film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, critics have hailed the 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet as an American master, generously neglecting to mention that for every great picture (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon), there have been maybe four breathtaking stinkers (The Wiz, Equus, Deathtrap, Family Business, Guilty As Sin, Gloria, A Stranger Among Us, Garbo Talks…). I note Lumet’s batting average to underscore his present achievement. His touch in Before the Devil is so sure, so perfectly weighted, that it’s hard to imagine him capable of making a bad movie. The thing is just enthralling. It’s a crime-and-punishment story that is finally about (to borrow an earlier Lumet title) family business: primal injuries that lead, inexorably, to primal sins. (David Edelstein/New York Magazine)

Screening on Kanopy other streaming sites

Available free on Kanopy and Amazon Prime

Free parking on the street and adjacent lot

No after event is planned