Every month, the boutique cinephile DVD/Blu-Ray Label the Criterion Collection adds many new cineaste gems to its ever-growing closet, and November 2024 is no different. Four new titles were announced this week, and two classic releases received 4 K upgrades.

New Criterion titles include director William Wyler’s acclaimed 1968 musical “Funny Girl” starring Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif, Peter Bogdanovich’s classic black and white road comedy-drama starring Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal (the latter won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and became the youngest competitive winner in the history of the Academy Awards at that time), Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar Best-Picture winning “The Shape of Water,” with Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon, and Howard Hawks’ classic 1932 gangster picture “Scarface,” featuring Paul Muni.

Continue reading Criterion’s November Titles Include ‘The Shape Of Water,’ ‘Paper Moon’ & More at The Playlist.

Heard about the boutique home video label Criterion Collection but never splurged on one of their releases? Then their new 40-film box set may be the perfect purchase for you.  The company announced CC40, Criterion’s latest Blu-ray box set, curated with forty different titles from the Collection that includes special features, essays, and more.  

READ MORE: Criterion’s October Selections Are Disturbing & Terrifying Including ‘Demon Pond,’ ‘Gummo’ & More

Where’d Criterion get the idea for the boxset?

Continue reading Criterion Collection To Release New Blu-Ray Box Set CC40 On November 19 at The Playlist.

In October, it looks like the Criterion Collection will have you taken care of if you’re looking for classic horror for Halloween. And if classic horror doesn’t tickle your fancy, there are plenty of other options as well.

READ MORE: Criterion Adds Two New Albert Brooks Films, Martha Coolidge’s ‘Not A Pretty Picture’ & More For August 2024

On the horror side of things, the October Criterion selections include “Demon Pond,” a Japanese folk horror classic from director Masahiro Shinoda.

Continue reading Criterion’s October Selections Are Disturbing & Terrifying Including ‘Demon Pond,’ ‘Gummo’ & More at The Playlist.

Boutique DVD/Blu-Ray label The Criterion Collection always has a terrific monthly line-up, and its August 2024 releases are no different. Highlighting late summer’s Criterion announcements are a pair of comedian Albert Brooks films that have been out of print on DVD for quite some time. The first is Brooks’ 1979 directorial debut, the reality TV spoof “Real Life,” and the second is the 1996 comedy “Mother” co-starring Debbie Reynolds.

Continue reading Criterion Adds Two New Albert Brooks Films, Martha Coolidge’s ‘Not A Pretty Picture’ & More For August 2024 at The Playlist.

Tom Cruise has finally entered The Criterion Collection. While technically, “Cocktail” has been available on the Criterion Channel in the past (no, really), in announcing its July titles today, Criterion made Cruise’s inclusion with a DVD/Blu-Ray title official today with the addition of 1983’s classic comedy, “Risky Business,” the actor’s breakthrough film. Directed by Paul Brickman, the coming-of-age comedy film, sometimes said to be modeled after a more risqué, “The Graduate,” centers on a Chicago teenager (Cruise) and his sexual exploits while his parents are away on vacation, including spending time with prostitutes.

Continue reading Criterion Adds 4-Disc ‘Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid’ 50th Anniversary Edition & ‘Risky Business’ To July 2024 Releases at The Playlist.

While Criterion devotes itself to essential classics and contemporary films, in a rare but not unprecedented move, the boutique DVD/Blu-Ray cinephile label is adding some TV to its collection in June. Just announced, Barry Jenkins’ ten-episode “Underground Railroad” mini-series, originally having premiered on Prime Video in 2021, is coming to the Criterion Collection this summer. Nearly 10 hours long, the series featured Thuso Mbedu, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Pierre, William Jackson Harper, Chukwudi Iwuji, Sheila Atim, and many more (you can read our A-grade review, which said it brought “poetic instant light to the ideas of black humanity and emancipation,” here)

READ MORE: ‘Medicine for Melancholy’: Barry Jenkins Reflects On His Lo-Fi Debut & Why He Didn’t Think It Was Criterion Collection Worthy At First [Interview]

Released right as the Cannes Film Festival was underway, one can argue the series was somewhat overlooked at the time; the similar cinephiles’ audiences gaze shifted towards France, so Criterion giving a second opportunity feels like a much-deserved move.

Continue reading Barry Jenkins’ ‘Underground Railroad’ Comes To The Criterion Collection In June at The Playlist.

While the movie industry seemingly buckles, Disney’s seemingly cutting back on any physical media anymore, and Best Buy is apparently ending its run of selling DVDs and Blu-Rays, companies like the Criterion Collection are staying the course. As usual, the boutique, cinephile-friendly company always aims to release and rediscover classic movies in the annals of film history, and they’re doing much the same with their May 2024 announcements.

READ MORE: Criterion Adds ‘I Am Cuba,’ ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ & More For April 2024

Celebrated Senegalese film director Ousmane Sembène, known for 1966’s “Black Girl,” is getting his further due with “Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène, “a three-disc box set featuring powerful 1970s works by the trailblazing Senegalese auteur.

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘Anatomy Of A Fall,’ Karyn Kusama’s ‘Girlfight’ An Ousmane Sembène Box Set & More For May 2024 at The Playlist.

The Criterion Collection is constantly curating and adding the best and brightest of cinema to its collection, but its April 2024 is pretty stellar and adds two classic films that haven’t been in the collection previously that really deserved to be there.

The first film added to the collection in April is notable because of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr. While Tarr is a giant of international cinema, specifically what’s often referred to as “slow cinema,” the addition of Tarr’s 2000 classic, “Werckmeister Harmonies,” is actually the first of the filmmaker’s movies ever added to the Collection (at least on DVD/Blu-Ray and not counting the Criterion Channel).

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘I Am Cuba,’ ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ & More For April 2024 at The Playlist.

You know what time it is: time for a Criterion Collection update with their newly announced November releases. Two significant highlights anchor November: a six-film Jackie Chan box-set, “Jackie Chan: Emergence Of A Superstar,” and Martin Scorsese’s classic low-level gangster film “Mean Streets.”

“Mean Streets” needs little introduction. While it’s not Marty or Robert De Niro’s first film, it’s a seminal early work from both that eventually launched them into the pantheon of incredible American filmmakers and collaborators.  

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘Mean Streets,’ A Jackie Chan Boxset & More For November 2023 Releases at The Playlist.

Before “The Underground Railroad.” Before “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Before his Best Picture-winning “Moonlight,” there was “Medicine for Melancholy.” The debut feature from writer/director Barry Jenkins, “Medicine for Melancholy” is a mumblecore journey through the streets of San Francisco shared by Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Jo (Tracey Heggins), two brief lovers who share a day together after a one-night stand. 

Released in 2008, the low-budget film captures a specific moment in San Francisco before it gentrified from a vibrant denizen for young artists into a moneyed landscape composed of tech giants.

Continue reading ‘Medicine for Melancholy’: Barry Jenkins Reflects On His Lo-Fi Debut & Why He Didn’t Think It Was Criterion Collection Worthy At First [Interview] at The Playlist.

For some, when talking about the awards season’s biggest films, documentaries occasionally get lost in the conversation. This award season, however, one documentary film has broken through the noise since its premiere at Sundance last year. The Academy Award-nominated “All That Breathes,” directed by Shaunak Sen, will be joining the Criterion Collection library, which prides itself on gathering and distributing the greatest films from around the globe. 

Continue reading ‘All That Breathes’: Shaunak Sen’s Acclaimed & Academy Award-Nominated Documentary Joins The Criterion Collection [Exclusive] at The Playlist.

Each month, Criterion does its best to entice cinephiles to spend their money on a variety of new releases that are being added to their collection. For May 2023, the Criterion Collection is doing a great job about offering an eclectic mix of old and new, mainstream and underrated with its list of film offerings being added to the Collection. Do you want the debut film from an iconic filmmaker? Enjoy “Targets” from Peter Bogdanovich.

Continue reading Criterion Collection Adds ‘Thelma & Louise,’ ‘Targets,’ & ‘Petite Maman’ For May at The Playlist.

Every month, the Criterion Collection adds a few more excellent titles to its esteemed library and restores ones that already CC titles for a rerelease or two. And in March 2023, it’s none other than David Lynch‘s “Inland Empire“ that frontlines the new release. It’s a long-awaited release for Lynch fans, as the director’s last feature film hasn’t had a readily available home video release for almost a decade.

Continue reading Criterion Adds David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire,’ An Early John Woo Wuxia Film & Joan Micklin Silver’s 1979 Melodrama Into The Collection This March at The Playlist.

We are fast approaching the holiday season, with Thanksgiving around the corner and Christmas creeping up behind it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look toward the end of winter, right? And if you want to have something to look forward to in February 2023, the Criterion Collection is adding quite a few great titles that film fans will want to pick up.

READ MORE: Richard Linklater To Direct Glenn Powell & Adria Arjona In Action-Comedy ‘Hitman’

The month is led by the 4K UHD release of “Dazed and Confused,” the iconic teen comedy film by director Richard Linklater.

Continue reading ‘Dazed & Confused,’ ‘Romeo & Juliet,’ And ‘Three Colors’ Lead Criterion Releases In February at The Playlist.

While you’re still trying to figure out exactly what your Thanksgiving and Christmas plans are, the Criterion Collection is already looking at 2023. Yes, with their 2022 schedule already locked, the boutique DVD/Blu-Ray label has finalized its January 2023 release, and as usual, it’s a terrific crop of films. The titles are led by Terry Gilliam’s epic adventure fantasy “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” starring John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Robin Williams, and Uma Thurman.

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘Adventures of Baron Munchausen,’ A New Lars Von Trier Trilogy Boxset & More For January 2023 at The Playlist.

Cinephiles take note, it’s that good cineaste time of the month: The Criterion Collection has unveiled its latest line-up, this time for December to wrap up 2022. The boutique DVD-Blu-Ray label is ending the year with quite a bang, including two trilogy box sets—one from Austrian fear-meister Michael Haneke and one from the lesser-known Mai Zetterling, a Swedish actor turned director who worked with Ingmar Bergman and then started making her own films in the 1960s.

Continue reading Criterion’s December 2022 Titles Include A Michael Haneke Trilogy Box Set, ‘Cooley High’ & More at The Playlist.

Another month, another bunch of new releases from everyone’s favorite boutique home video label, Criterion Collection. In the latest batch of releases, out this September, see Henri-Georges Clouzot’s fable of suspicion in a Nazi-occupied French town “Le Corbeau,” get a Blu-ray upgrade. Brian DePalma‘s 1980 paranoid political thriller “Blow Out” also gets an upgrade, this time a 4K UHD edition.

Continue reading Criterion September Releases Include Early Sean Baker Film, Atom Egoyan’s ‘Exotica,’ ‘Sound Of Metal’ & More at The Playlist.

The summer is known for big studio blockbusters, but for many fans of The Criterion Collection, releases are in store for something special in June as they’ve announced six additions are coming in glorious 4K UHD.

Criterion presents a group of films that includes Joachim Trier’s charming Oscar contender, “The Worst Person in the World”; Hong Kong master Stanley Kwan’s romantic ghost story, “Rouge”; Ekwa Msangi’s remarkable debut feature debut, “Farewell Amor”; and “Shaft,” the blaxploitation action-hero classic from Gordon Parks that helped launched serious black-led action films, now on 4K UHD.

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘Shaft,’ ‘Pink Flamingos,’ ‘Worst Person In The World’ & More Titles In June at The Playlist.

Over the past several months, we’ve seen the Criterion Collection add flashy new titles that are modern classics that most everyone is familiar with. But in the month of May, Criterion is going back to what it does best—taking potentially overlooked, underseen classics and giving them a brand new coat of paint and making them available for film fans who might have missed them previously.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2022

Leading the way in May is a film that many people are probably already familiar with, Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity.” However, what makes this release is special is that “Double Indemnity” is getting a 4K UHD release, which means the film will be seen in its best possible way.

Continue reading Noir Classic ‘Double Indemnity’ Gets A 4K UHD Release From Criterion In May at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s new streaming and disc guide (okay, it’s mostly a disc guide) is a back-breaker – which is unsurprising, with the holidays approaching, and the hunt for gift ideas already heating up.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Passing,’ ‘Scream,’ ‘The Eyes Of Tammy Faye’ & More at The Playlist.

It is too easy to throw superlatives around when talking about filmmakers. Many directors with a decent enough filmography, who have been around long enough to be forgotten about can attain such a status. The recently passed Melvin Van Peebles, however, is one of the only American filmmakers who truly deserves every beautiful descriptive that is laid upon him. He was a bona fide renaissance man. Actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist, and composer – amongst other things, the man was a true artist.

Continue reading ‘Melvin Van Peebles: The Essential Films’ Showcases The Brilliance Of The Iconic Cinema Trailblazer at The Playlist.

Melvin Van Peebles is a legendary filmmaker, there’s no question about that. In the ’60s, when the American filmmaker realized that studios in the U.S. weren’t going to give a Black director a chance to create cinema, Van Peebles went wherever he could to make it happen, including France where he created his first feature. Decades later, Van Peebles is one of the most revered filmmakers of his era and a trailblazer for Black artists.

Continue reading Win A Copy Of The Criterion Collection’s New ‘Melvin Van Peebles: 4 Films’ Box Set [Contest] at The Playlist.

Sometimes it takes more than a decade for a feature to be added to the Criterion Collection. Other times, it could be 60-plus years. And on the rare occasion, only about two years. This October, Criterion runs the gamut of release dates, with new additions like “Uncut Gems,” “Ratcatcher,” and “Onibaba,” just to name a few.

READ MORE: The Safdie Brothers Sign A New TV Deal With A24 & HBO

That’s right, less than two years after its debut, The Safdie Brothers’ breakout feature, “Uncut Gems,” is heading to the Criterion Collection.

Continue reading ‘Uncut Gems,’ Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Ratcatcher’ & More Join The Criterion Collection In October at The Playlist.

The Criterion Collection prides itself on curating fantastic classic cinephile-friendly films that may have gone under-the-radar in the home release market and their upcoming Blu-Ray release won’t be any different. Criterion has announced that they’ll be putting together an essential collection of Melvin Van Peebles movies with their latest offering, “Melvin Van Peebles: Four Films” set to be released on September 28. 

READ MORE: Criterion Adds ‘Bringing Up Baby,’ Tarkovsky’s Mirror,’ ‘La Piscine’ & More For July

A one-man creative maverick and revolutionary, who wrote, directed, starred in, and composed the music for many of his works, Melvin Van Peebles was a shock to the system of American Independent cinema.

Continue reading Criterion To Release ‘Melvin Van Peebles: Four Films’ Blu-Ray Collection This September at The Playlist.

Lizzie Borden’s groundbreaking film “Working Girls” is coming back to theaters. The project, detailing the lives of sex workers, approaches the topic with a seldom-seen motivation towards removing stigmas. It was revolutionary at the time of release, garnering attention from audiences as well as a 1987 Sundance Film Festival Special Grand Jury Prize.

READ MORE: Criterion Adds ‘Bringing Up Baby,’ Tarkovsky’s Mirror,’ ‘La Piscine’ & More For July

‘Girls’ conscious inspection of characters helps set apart the film’s structure.

Continue reading ‘Working Girls’ Trailer: Lizzie Borden’s Groundbreaking Sex Workers Film Is Coming Back To Theaters at The Playlist.