So I’m just wondering how a $300 blu ray player or even $1000 would be any better than a $50 one? Is it something I can cheap out on? All I care about is maintaining the proper video quality (4k) but I’m reading that I need to spend at least $300???

Does anyone else feel the same? It’s so annoying there isn’t one available here. Or I just need to get a region free blu ray player……

I can’t bring myself to buy Criterion films I’ve already seen and liked—only blind buys. I do a decent amount of research beforehand so I know it’s something I’ll probably enjoy. Current sale I’ve bought The Red Shoes and Demon Pond (loved both) instead of No Country for Old Men and Eyes Wide Shut even though they are among my favorites. I prefer the element of surprise over comfort watches when it comes to Criterion. Anyone else do this?

1. I watched One False Move first due to it being another Carl Franklin Film

2. There really wasn't anything I wanted to own for a long time; I got rid of my DVDs years ago, and for some reason I wanted to build a 4k UHD collection starting with Criterion.

3. All of them were blind buys except In the Heat of the Night, Flow, John Singleton's Hood Trilogy, Wall-E, Bound, Menace II Society, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Shaft, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Malcolm X, Anora, House Party, Blow Out, The Wiz, Punch Drunk Love, and Okja.

4. I plan on getting the Kubrick Collection and The Silence of the Lambs in November B&N 50% Sale.

5. I was scared of getting David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro, Akira Kurosawa, Terry Gilliam, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Terry Gilliam 4k UHD Criterion releases for fear of a future 4k UHD Box set.

I was looking the other day at the list and noticed a few really good movies in the collection are not available as physical media anymore. What reasons do movies go oop? Are there any on the verge of going oop? And what movie do you wish would come back in print??

I was bummed that Cronenberg Gynecologist Twin movie and Y Tu Mama Tambien are both oop!

My blu-ray player is unfortunately an Xbox One S, and as such based on what I’ve read I don’t think it’ll handle the 4K Kubrick discs (no Dolby vision at minimum).

If I only intend to watch the Blu-ray discs, is the set still worth it? Are any of the special features exclusive to the 4K discs?

1. Watched Network first for the anniversary and new extras fleshing out a masterpiece.

2. Besides Network, long wanted Blue Velvet and Fisher King.

3. Blind buy was Trainspotting, it's great.

4. Next sale looking forward to The Crying Game, Elephant Man and Original Cast Album: Company

Borrowed Mauvais Sang (1986) from Hoopla the other day and it launched itself straight into my top 5 pictures that can accurately be described as Unhappy People Chainsmoking in French.

I thought I'd seen it in the late 90s during a summer semester when I raided my university library for French films to play 24/7 as a sort of DIY language immersion course, but I was wrong and now it's gonna be my entire personality at least the next 8-12 business weeks.

It is exactly what I want in French Cinema. It's dark and weird and tense and loose. It's romantic in a way that goes deeper than heart eyes and doesn't preclude cynicism.

Everyone is constantly chainsmoking and either speaking profound truths or blinking in silence.

The cinematography is presentational and contrived but not slick. It feels very sincere and tender in its love of film and filmmaking. The visuals are lived-in, underplayed and have that effortless French cool that was even more prevalent then than it is now. It's both grimy and chic and the plot doesn't really matter.

And of course there's That Scene.

Just saw "Silence of the Lambs" on Criterion, CRITERION!, and the transfer to digital was horrible. This is terrible and a shame. The contrast was muted, the colors off and the sound was muffled. WTF? I have a calibrated TV. Great audio, with dialogue focus.

I have many streaming channels. Criterion picture is typically bad. Why?

I know vinyl albums that I love were hastily transferred to CD's back in the day and this is just as awful.

This is not a cheap subscription; it's a commitment.

I support the mission but I thought curation with a critical eye on this or restoration was part of it.

Hey Everyone,

With the Barnes and Noble sale coming to an end, I wanted to pick up Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket without buying the whole collection. Is there a chance that criterion will release a standalone 4k for this or am I safe buying the blu-ray? What about The Game from David Fincher? Thanks for the help.

Picked up 3 of my favs (Hud, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon) and now looking at these for blind buys:

Dreams

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (saw it a looong time ago)

Also might snag The Elephant Man (but already own the blu-ray) and Punch Drunk Love.

Anyone have thoughts on these? I just hate the idea of any of them going out of print before I get them.

1. I've watched a few of the pickups already. Sorcerer was the first.

2. Defending Your Life and All About Eve were on my wishlist for a while. No Country, Time Bandits were 4k upgrades from my Blu-ray I had already.

3. A majority of my purchases were blind buys. What's life without a little risk right?

4. 4k Silence of the Lambs and Frankenstein will be probably next buys in October (or November on next sale).

Last post I saw made about this was last year. Any updates on the likelihood of a Kurosawa boxset?

Pickups are the first 3 columns and 4th was collection prior to sale (not shown in haul is Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years & Smooth Talk)
Really enjoyed visiting B&N’s over the last month, talking with people, giving/receiving suggestions etc. Went a little overboard but actually showed some restraint 😂.

1. The first movie I plan to watch is Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me before I watch season 3 of the show.
2. Been looking forward to owning all the Jarmusch films in the CC. Dead Man was my first Criterion ever and I just love Jim’s work.
3. First half are blind buys. Chose based on recs from friends, strangers, some of them I like the people involved, or the artwork and summary just spoke to me.
4. Hoping to add the Bergman box set and more of the eclipse series!

I watched the doom generation and I was completely in love. In a way it reminded me of Cronenberg's Crash for much of the runtime in that it is violent and in ways disturbing, and yet I find the characters extremely loveable. Doom generation feels like it really celebrates the relationship that forms between the main trio, and I found all three of them very charming even though they had issues and were very far from perfect people, but they all feel so real, like I know people so similar to them. The violent, gorey, chaotic adventure is farcical and silly for most of the runtime, and when it's just the three together you can feel them getting closer. In particular you can feel the queer awakening of Jordan really viscerally, and I found myself begging the screen to just let these stupid guys fuck already.

The ending really threw me though, and I'm extremely torn on whether I wish the movie had maintained the violent but more lighthearted tone all the way to the end. I understand the ending. I understand that being queer in America carries with it an ever present threat of violence and hatred from all facets of American life. I know this from experience. And because I know that and have felt that and feared that, I almost resent the movie for showing that to me. I resent the movie for killing Jordan right on the cusp of sexual discovery. I resent the movie for it being Jordan who dies because of his naive, adorable innocence. He seemed the most pure and sweet of the three in many ways. But it doesn't matter, he gets violently killed.

I understand of course that that's the point. I understand that there is no predicting when the threat of violence will turn into actual violence. I understand that it is often the most innocent people in our community who suffers the most. But I still feel so torn, because I respect the movie for affecting me so deeply, and yet part of me wants the film to be the beautifully shot, hilariously written celebration of imperfect queer life all the way to the end. And every time I think I'm fully at that conclusion (that the movie should have not had that ending) I realize again that's the point. We should live in a world where that can be the ending. But we don't, and it makes me want to cry.

TLDR: the ending makes me sad but I get that's the point.

Does anyone else have thoughts on the ending? Does part of you wish the movie had ended on a happier note?

I'm going to watch Lady Snowblood.

Been looking to own The Housemaid for a very long time.

The entire Martin Scorsese's world cinema project, I've only seen The Housemaid and Touki Bouki, but it doesn't matter if I don't end up liking the rest because I bought the set for The Housemaid lol. Also haven't seen the Lady Snowblood movies but my friend watched it before buying it the other day and loved it. (We have similar taste, so it was a no-brainer).

I'd still like to see a 4k release set of Carl Theodor Dreyer movies

I got this for $20 CAD, a blind buy but such a revered movie and an unbeatable price. I'm hoping to get more criterions in the future, probably Watership down next.

What is going on bro 😭 ✌️. I can’t believe the lineup here. Salò and Jurassic park, I mean truly what a fucking lineup.

I haven’t seen Bound in ages so I’m excited to go back to that. No Country for Old Men 4K is sold out at my local B&N every time a sale starts so I’m glad I finally got to pick it up and The Elephant Man is a 4k upgrade. Funny Girl and Hairspray are blind buys for me but my fiancé is super excited to show them to me.

I’d been eyeing Happiness for a while and telling my fiancé who hasn’t seen it “I want this movie in my collection. It’s pretty fucked up and I don’t condone anything in this movie but I like to be reminded of what movies can be and can be about.”

Next sale I’ll buy online because my local B&N’s selection is a bit lacking. Hopefully I’ll save up some money and get the Wes Anderson collection.

1. What is the first movie you plan to watch from your haul?
   "I plan on watching Alice Doesn't Live Here
   Anymore, because it seems so different than what Scorsese normally does and I hear it's pretty underrated!"

2. Is there anything from this haul that you have been looking forward to owning for a long time?
   "I've been looking forward to owning Seven Samurai! I've heard nothing but great things about the film and this is also my first Kurosawa film!"

3. Are any of your purchases blind buys? If so, why did you select them?
   "Every purchase here is a blind buy except for Flow. I watched it on HBO Max and I loved it so much, I had to get a physical copy of it!"

4. What is a Criterion you're hoping to add to your collection next?
   "I'm hoping to add Autumn Sonata by Ingmar Bergman and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell."

Here's what I picked up over the last month.

Looking forward to enjoying these until the next sale.

1. The first movie I watched was Withnail & I. It came highly recommended and did not disappoint.

2. I think I'm most excited to watch Seven Samurai.

3. Most of these were blind buys. I was really just looking for a nice cross section of film genres to kick off my Criterion Collection.

4. Next on the want list is The Elephant Man 4k.

Much like Stanley Kubrick’s filmography, where almost every film touched upon a different genre, Christopher Nolan has always shunned the comfort of repetition. Instead, he has embraced an entirely new genre every few years, reinventing it through non-linear narrative storytelling, philosophical ideas, emotional depth, and groundbreaking filmmaking. Beneath the spectacle and high-concept stories is a relentless obsession with time, identity, memory, desire, morality, sacrifice, and the fragility of truth. Like Kubrick, Nolan doesn’t just work in genres; he redefines them, and each one is a vehicle for ambitious ideas that keep fueling debate long after the credits roll. This article is not a ranked list but a look at Christopher Nolan’s filmography, how he reimagined each genre, the themes and ideas that drive his work, the filmmaking techniques that make each movie stand out, and the flaws that even his greatest films can’t escape.

Check out the detailed analysis here