For a certain type of film fanatic, who also happens to be a physical media enthusiast, this is the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, Barnes & Noble’s 50% off Criterion Collection sale is upon us. This biannual tradition (the next sale happens in November) is the perfect opportunity to splurge on some of the very best home video releases around – for half the price, no less.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Criterion Collection, they started off as a laserdisc company, at the time known for their impeccable taste and commitment to extensive special features and commentary tracks, years before DVDs would make supplemental material commonplace. As the company continued to DVD, Blu-ray and now 4K UHD discs, the principals that made them so special in the first place have remained. Every Criterion release is an event. And the Barnes & Noble sales are an essential part of the Criterion experience.
With all of this in mind, we are running down 15 titles that you should absolutely pick up during this year’s sale. These releases have all come out since the last sale (in November 2024), so your picks are going to be up to date. The sale only runs until the end of the month, so get cracking!
“The Wages of Fear” (1953) and “Sorcerer” (1977)
“The Wages of Fear” is classic Criterion; its spine number is 36 for crying out loud. But earlier this year it got a full-blown re-release, with a new 4K transfer and a ton of special features (including a documentary on filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot and an analysis of the cuts made for the 1955 American release). If you’ve never seen the film, it’s a nerve-shredding masterpiece about a group of wayward men who are hired to transport a truck full of explosives over uneven jungle terrain. Criterion calls it “one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid” and it’s hard to argue. It feels like it never could be topped. Until William Friedkin, hot off the success of “The Exorcist,” decided to remake it. “Sorcerer,” released the same summer as “Star Wars,” was not a hit upon release, but has risen in estimation as the years have rolled on. Roy Scheider leads the disparate crew of misfits this time around, with the suspense somehow even greater and the human drama more fraught. Also adding to its mystique: a combustible synth score from Tangerine Dream and one of the greatest bummer endings ever. “Sorcerer” is also festooned with extras, including a documentary called “Friedkin Uncut,” an occasionally contentious 2015 interview with Friedkin and director Nicolas Winding Refn and behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the film. If you have a Xanax handy this could be the perfect double feature.
“Godzilla vs. Biollante” (1989)
Years ago Criterion released a box set of Godzilla’s Showa era, from 1954 to 1975. It was one of the greatest box sets the company had ever put out and while we waited patiently for subsequent sets, they never materialized. While we won’t fully give up hope, we are heartened by their release of what is perhaps the greatest entry in the entire franchise – a truly bonkers movie that is also strangely emotional. The second film in the Heisei era of films, “Godzilla vs. Biollante” is unique for a number of reasons, but mostly for Godzilla’s foe, who was created by a rogue scientist and is made up of a rose plant, some Godzilla DNA and the scientist’s dead daughter. (The character was created by a dentist, after Toho encouraged a story-writing campaign from the public.) What’s insane is this Kazuki Ōmori-directed masterpiece was released direct-to-video in the United States, meaning it’s only ever lived, in America, on home video. Thankfully, Criterion’s tricked out release comes with a making of program from the early ‘90s, a new commentary track from film historian Samm Deighan, deleted material and marketing materials. Now can we get more Godzilla in the Criterion Collection? Please?
“Night Moves” (1975)
Earlier this year we lost Gene Hackman, an everyman actor whose performances were uniformly excellent. And why not celebrate his life and work with one of his best, most underrated roles in Arthur Penn’s “Night Moves.” In “Night Moves,” Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a former professional football player who now works as a private eye in Los Angeles. After discovering his wife is having affair, Harry accepts a job from an aging Hollywood actress to find her missing teenager daughter (Melanie Griffith), which takes him to the Florida Keys, where she has been living with her lecherous stepfather. While there, he gets embroiled in a deadly conspiracy that spans California and Florida. “Night Moves” was initially dismissed upon its release but over the years has rightfully cemented itself as a paranoia-drenched post-Watergate triumph, or, as Criterion says, “a silent scream of existential dread and moral decay whose legend has only grown with time.” Among the extras here are a new commentary track by an author who wrote a book on the movie, a vintage Arthur Penn interview from 1975 and another from 1995, plus a behind-the-scenes featurette and an essay by Mark Harris, one of the sharpest minds in film writing.
“Anora” (2024)
That’s right – “Anora,” Sean Baker’s upside down fairy tale (and Oscar powerhouse) is already a part of the Criterion Collection. How about that? Mikey Madison stars as the title character, a dancer and escort who falls in love with a Russian oligarch’s bratty son (Mark Eydelshteyn) and whose life is turned inside out. It’s a wild, out-of-control ride, and one that is very much worth revisiting with this excellent package, which includes two commentaries (both with Baker and various members of the cast and crew), a new making-of documentary, new interviews and deleted scenes, along with audition footage and the Cannes Film Festival press conference (where it, of course, won the Palme d’Or). The new transfer looks stunning, it sounds terrific, and the extras are divine. And if you want even more Baker goodness, Criterion also just put out “Prince of Broadway,” the director’s third film from 2008, which Criterion calls an “early-career triumph” and “one of Baker’s most vivid explorations of the illusory nature of the American dream.” Sure sounds like a Sean Baker movie to us!
“Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” (1986)
One of the greatest aspects of Criterion is that sense of discovery – maybe you’ll pick up a title because of one of the stars, or because the cover art is devilishly good, and you’ll be transported to another place. You can fall in love with a filmmaker or film that you never even knew about. Last year, for us, that movie was “Dim Sum,” Wayne Wang’s beautiful slice-of-life drama that is utterly brilliant. This year, it’s been “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling,” the sole dramatic feature that comedy great Richard Pryor directed. (He also co-wrote, produced and starred in the movie.) Sometimes shockingly autobiographical (yes, he really grew up in a brothel), it stars Pryor as the title character who, after winding up in the hospital, takes a spiritual journey back through his life. If you’re rolling your eyes, that’s fair. It sounds self-indulgent, for sure, the kind of vanity project that can end somebody’s career. But “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” is both ornate and plainspoken. It is also deeply moving, with Pryor taking stock of things following his horrific self-immolation while freebasing crack. This release has a few special features, including an interview with filmmaker Robert Townsend and Pryor on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1985, but the most special feature of all is the movie, lovingly restored in 4K. A critical and commercial disappointment when it was released, hopefully this Criterion release can help rehabilitate it.
“The Grifters” (1990)
“The Grifters” is almost too good. It’s based on a 1963 novel written by legendary hardboiled crime writer Jim Thompson and adapted by Donald E. Westlake, another legendary hardboiled crime writer. It was produced by Martin Scorsese and served as the first Hollywood movie from British filmmaker Stephen Frears, who had made a splash with “Dangerous Liaisons,” released two years before “The Grifters.” If you have never seen “The Grifters,” we’ll keep things light since part of the fun of the movie are the pitch-black twists and turns it takes, but it’s about the intersection of three criminals – petty thief John Cusack, his hot potatoes girlfriend (Annette Bening) and his mother (Anjelica Huston). How they intersect and explode, we couldn’t possibly say. But buckle up. Things get dark. The movie has never looked or sounded better, and the release also includes a vintage commentary track that features Frears, Cusack, Huston and Westlake; a new interview with Bening; a making-of documentary; and “The Jim Thompson Story,” which features Westlake and Thompson’s biographer Robert Polito. What a movie.
“No Country for Old Men” (2007)
Joel and Ethan Coen might not be making movies together anymore but at least Criterion can keep rereleasing the ones that they’ve already made. There are startlingly few Coens classics in the Criterion Collection (how’s that for alliteration?) but we’re so thrilled “No Country for Old Men” is finally here – in 4K no less! The thriller, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, about a trio of characters – a killer (Javier Bardem, who also won an Oscar for his role), a well-meaning Vietnam vet (Josh Briolin) and an old school sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) – who intersect in surprising and violent ways. It mixes edge-of-your-seat suspense set pieces with quiet lyricism in a way that only the Coens could. And the special features are appropriately stacked, with a new conversation between the filmmakers and novelist Megan Abbott, a new conversation featuring cinematographer Roger Deakins, plus archival interviews with the stars and three documentaries about the making of the film. The booklet even contains a 2007 essay by author Larry McMurtry about the film. Just great.
“Brazil” (1985)
“Brazil” has become a Criterion Collection right of passage. Terry Gilliam’s misunderstood masterwork was first presented by the company on laserdisc. Then DVD. Then Blu-ray. And now – finally! – 4K UHD. (All with almost the exact same box art.) This is the ultimate edition of the dystopian epic, which stars the great Jonathan Pryce as a working class schlub who searches for a woman he only sees in his dreams (where he also escapes the drudgery of reality by soaring on eagle-like wings), which includes all the bells and whistles from earlier releases while also debuting a brand-new 4K transfer that is absolutely stunning. This is basically a film school on a disc, with the “Love Conquers All” version, mandated by the studio, that turns the film into a cheery, 94-minute romp, showing how student interference can go horribly wrong, along with multiple documentaries, a commentary track by Gilliam and much more. Even if you have purchased every other version of “Brazil,” this is an essential pick-up, especially with 50% off.
“Killer of Sheep” (1977)
We kind of always knew this was coming right? It wasn’t a matter of if but of when. But it doesn’t make “Killer of Sheep’s” arrival any less momentous. A beautiful, episodic look at working class Black America, it follows a man who works at a slaughterhouse in inner city Los Angeles and the day-to-day interactions of his life. As Criterion describes it, the movie “finds poetry amid everyday struggles in indelible images that glow with compassionate beauty.” One of those images – of children jumping over rooftops – was so indelible that it wound up as the cover of a Mos Def album (2009’s “The Ecstatic”). Completed in 1977 but left largely unseen for many years (part of the holdup was do to music rights), it was finally resurrected, with the help of Steven Soderbergh, and in 1990 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. This new 4K presentation is absolutely stunning and loaded with special features, including two early Burnett short films, an archival commentary track, new interviews with Burnett, an appreciation by Barry Jenkins and a 2019 documentary about Burnett by Robert Townsend (among many others). Burnett’s third film, 1990’s “To Sleep with Anger,” is also a part of the Criterion Collection. Pick up that too.
“Crossing Delancey” (1988)
Anytime Criterion releases a movie from a female filmmaker, it’s cause for celebration. But it’s worth getting extra jazzed when it’s a movie as good as “Crossing Delancey.” Directed by underrated auteur Joan Micklin Silver, “Crossing Delancey” stars Amy Irving as a young, single New Yorker caught between two men – a novelist (Jeroen Krabbé) and a more openly sweet pickle salesman (Peter Riegert). What makes the movie unique is its cultural specificity (which of course leads to a more powerful universality) and its gorgeous cinematography, which lovingly captures a New York City that no longer exists. Or, as the Criterion write-up says, it “gracefully captures the magic of a city where disparate cultures, generations, and traditions both clash and connect.” This new 4K version includes new interviews with Irving, Riegert and screenwriter Susan Sandler, along with a 1988 interview with Silver (who sadly passed away in 2020) and a new essay by critic Rachel Syme. Bonus recommendation: Silver’s “Chilly Scenes of Winter,” an even-better Silver movie that Criterion put out in 2023. It’s also 50% off! Why not?
“Performance” (1970)
Nicolas Roeg returns to the Criterion Collection! The influential British auteur, whose “Don’t Look Now” and “Walkabout” have been given the 4K treatment from Criterion and whose “Insignificance” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth” have also been a part of the library, now sees his very first film, lovingly restored. “Performance,” which Roeg directed with Scottish filmmaker Donald Cammell (whose excellent thriller “White of the Eye” deserves the Criterion treatment), stars James Fox as a gangster who hides out at the home of reclusive rockstar (an excellent Mick Jagger). While there… strange things start to happen. (It would honestly make a great double feature with David Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” which is also a part of the Criterion Collection.) “Performance” courted controversy when it was released, thanks to its frank depictions of sex and violence (which would become hallmarks of Roeg’s filmography), but in the years since it was released is now considered a modern classic. There are two vintage documentaries included here – one from 19988 (about Cammell) and another from 2007 (on the making of the film); plus a new visual essay about the film’s dialect coach and technical adviser; interviews with the actors; footage from set; and a program on how the film was re-dubbed for American audiences. “Performance” is a trip. And this new release is the ultimate way to go on that trip.
“Barry Lyndon” (1975)
One of Stanley Kubrick’s final masterworks. In 4K. Oh we still need to go on? Set partially during the Seven Years’ War, it follows a rascally gold digger (Ryan O’Neal) who climbs the social ranks, as his quest for influence and power continues. Kubrick shot the movie in a series of long, unbroken takes that often recreate paintings from the time, sometimes photographing sequences using only candlelight. (He appropriated some technology from NASA, which only fueled the longstanding rumor that he had helped the space agency fake the moon landing.) The movie isn’t for everybody – the pacing is, shall we say, deliberate – but it is a funny, flinty, novelistic wonder and, as Criterion puts it, “a sardonic, devastating portrait of a vanishing world whose opulence conceals the moral vacancy at its heart.” The Criterion release includes archival audio material with Kubrick, an interview with a historian about the production design of the legendary Ken Adam (most famous for his 007 sets) and much more. Any new Kubrick 4K is cause for celebration. This release deserves a parade.
The Three Musketeers / The Four Musketeers: Two Films by Richard Lester (1973, 1974)
Every Criterion sale deserves a splurge on at least one box set and this is a more reasonably priced one, since it only includes two films –“The Three Musketeers” and “The Four Musketeers,” two movies were shot at once (originally intended as a single film) but released over two years in the early 1970’s. The movies feature an incredible cast – the musketeers are played by Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Richard Chamberlain, with villains played by Charlton Heston and Faye Dunaway. And what’s more, both movies showcase the considerable skills of underrated journeyman filmmaker Richard Lester, who made movies with the Beatles and whose mastery of both comedic timing and more dramatic moments are on display in both films. This set is a great tribute to Lester, with a two-part documentary on the making of the films (from 2002), a making-of featurette from 1973 and a new documentary on the films. But the real star of this set are the movies, now in 4K. Bonus recommendation: another two-movie box set, this time of French dramas “Jean de Florette” and “Manon of the Spring,” from director Claude Berri. The films, which span generations (based on the novels by Marcel Pagnol) were some of the most expensive French productions at the time of release, and it’s all on the screen, with a sprawling cast (which includes Gérard Depardieu, Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Béart) and gorgeous cinematography.
“King Lear” (1987)
We love when a Cannon Films sneak into the Criterion Collection, especially when it also happens to be Jean-Luc Godard’s first English language feature. A wild, woolly deconstruction of William Shakespeare’s beloved play, it is set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic world where a relative of Shakespeare’s (played by theater director Peter Sellars, who also helped with the movie’s screenplay) who attempts to resurrect his ancestor’s work. The truly insane movie has an equally unhinged cast, which includes Molly Ringwald, Julie Delpy and filmmakers like Leos Carax, Woody Allen, Godard himself and the movie’s producer, Cannon mastermind Menahem Golan. Criterion calls it “a radical anti-adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece that finds the visionary filmmaker continuing to reinvent the syntax of cinema.” There aren’t a ton of special features, although there are new interviews with Ringwald and Richard Brody, who wrote a book about Godard. But that’s okay. The movie is the main star here, which Criterion described as “a puckish and profound metacinematic riddle to be endlessly analyzed, argued over, and savored.”
