Quick personal question: How's your bank account doing? If you're like me, it's about to do a lot worse. The Criterion Collection just announced a half-off flash sale -- for the next 24 hours, every single title in print is 50% off, making their peerless slate of influential, incredible films that much more affordable. Their library is overwhelming -- if I could, I would click "buy all" and be on my way. But if you're looking for a little more prudence in what to spend and what to buy, here are 10 essential titles from the Criterion Collection that are well worth the 50%-off asking price.
Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975
One of our most influential, acclaimed franchises comes to the Criterion Collection in one of their most handsome packages. When watching the golden-age Godzilla films available in this collection, you'll be struck by just how prescient the Japanese monster movies remain -- both in their tragic social commentary, sympathizing of their "monsters," sheer sense of spectacle, and expanded universe building acumen. Plus: The artwork on this package is splendidly arresting pop art, rendering Godzilla on the same level of aesthetic importance as a Warhol soup can, a basic icon of culture expanded to its deserving glory.
High-definition digital transfers of all fifteen Godzilla films made between 1954 and 1975, released together for the first time, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
High-definition digital transfers of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the 1956 U.S.-release version of Godzilla; and the 1962 Japanese-release version of King Kong vs. Godzilla, presented with its original 4.0 surround soundtrack.
Audio commentaries from 2011 on Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters featuring film historian David Kalat
International English-language dub tracks for Invasion of Astro-Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and Terror of Mechagodzilla
Directors Guild of Japan interview with director Ishiro Honda, conducted by director Yoshimitsu Banno in 1990
Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects
Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection, a 1986 documentary featuring archival making-of footage; scenes deleted from films including Destroy All Monsters, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and Mothra vs. Godzilla; and interviews with Honda, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, special-effects director Teruyoshi Nakano, and others
New interview with filmmaker Alex Cox about his admiration for the Showa-era Godzilla films
New and archival interviews with cast and crew members, including actors Bin Furuya, Tsugutoshi Komada, Haruo Nakajima, and Akira Takarada; composer Akira Ifukube; and effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
Interview with critic Tadao Sato from 2011
Illustrated audio essay from 2011 about the real-life tragedy that inspired Godzilla
New English subtitle translations
Trailers
PLUS: A lavishly illustrated deluxe hardcover book featuring an essay by cinema historian Steve Ryfle, notes on the films by cinema historian Ed Godziszewski, and new illustrations by Arthur Adams, Sophie Campbell, Becky Cloonan, Jorge Coelho, Geof Darrow, Simon Gane, Robert Goodin, Benjamin Marra, Monarobot, Takashi Okazaki, Angela Rizza, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Katsuya Terada, Ronald Wimberly, and Chris Wisnia
Roma
Marriage Story and The Irishman will eventually be making their way from Netflix to the physical realm of the Criterion Collection. But the first film to make the transition is more than worth a space on your shelf. Roma comes from Alfonso Cuarón's blood, sweat, tears, and soul -- an unflinchingly personal story rendered with Cuarón's typical technical brilliance. The transition from buffering-issues-beset streaming to the beautifully set-in-stone resolution offered by the blu-ray will knock you out of your socks; the screenplay remains equal parts empathetic and sparsely observational; and the central performance from Yalitza Aparicio is a once-in-a-lifetime turn.
4K digital master, supervised by director Alfonso Cuarón, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Road to “Roma,” a new documentary about the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Cuarón
Snapshots from the Set, a new documentary featuring actors Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, producers Gabriela Rodríguez and Nicolás Celis, production designer Eugenio Caballero, casting director Luis Rosales, executive producer David Linde, and others
New documentaries about the film’s sound and postproduction processes, featuring Cuarón; Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay, and Craig Henighan from the postproduction sound team; editor Adam Gough; postproduction supervisor Carlos Morales; and finishing artist Steven J. Scott
New documentary about the film’s ambitious theatrical campaign and social impact in Mexico, featuring Celis and Rodríguez
Trailers
Alternate French subtitles and Spanish SDH
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by novelist Valeria Luiselli, historian Enrique Krauze, and (with the Blu-ray) writing by author Aurelio Asiain, along with production-design images with notes by Caballero
Police Story/Police Story 2
Jackie Chan on Criterion Collection. Need I say more? Okay, I will -- the two Police Story films in this collection see Chan at a peak of his powers (I say "a" and not "the" because Chan seems to hit different peaks during different decades, and I would never dream of disrespecting the man). Made in the 1980s, these beyond-entertaining pictures boast invigorating cop drama narratives, a delightful contrapuntal performance from Maggie Cheung, and -- just, wow, the stunts in this thing. Balletic beauty, fingernail-biting horror, giddy childlike fun -- all rendered beautifully by Chan and his peerless stunt team. If you own some Buster Keaton Criterion titles and wanna see a modern version, look no further.
New 4K digital restorations of Police Story and Police Story 2
Alternate 5.1 surround soundtracks
Alternate English-dubbed soundtracks
Alternate version of Police Story 2, presented in a 2K digital transfer for the first time from a subtitled 35 mm Hong Kong–release print
New interview with filmmaker Edgar Wright and a 2017 podcast conversation between Wright and actor-director Jackie Chan
New programs on Chan’s screen persona and action-filmmaking techniques featuring author and New York Asian Film Festival cofounder Grady Hendrix
Episode of Son of the Incredibly Strange Film Show from 1989 featuring interviews with Chan and actor Maggie Cheung
Archival interviews with Chan and actor and stuntman Benny Lai
Excerpts from Jackie Chan: My Stunts, a 1999 documentary codirected by and starring Chan
Excerpt from a 2017 television program reuniting Chan with the original members of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team
Television program from 1964 detailing the rigors of Beijing-opera training, akin to the education that Chan received as a child
Chan stunt reel
Trailers
New English subtitle translations
PLUS: An essay by critic Nick Pinkerton
The Silence of the Lambs
Terrifying, aching, painfully human, grotesquely monstrous, exquisitely made, beyond influential in every contemporary piece of prestige genre storytelling made today. The Silence of the Lambs is a one of a kind picture, the sum of exquisite filmmakers and craftspeople working with never-better cast members to deliver an eminently watchable piece of entertainment that also gets under your skin and says a whole lot about power, sexism, uneasy alliances, and voyeurism. Even if you've seen the movie a hundred times, this disc's new transfer renders DP Tak Fujimoto's unique compositions (these actors are always looking at the dang camera!) in startling clarity and perverse beauty.
New 4K digital restoration, approved by director of photography Tak Fujimoto, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 1994 featuring director Jonathan Demme, actors Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, screenwriter Ted Tally, and former FBI agent John Douglas
New interview with critic Maitland McDonagh
Thirty-eight minutes of deleted scenes
Four documentaries featuring hours of interviews with cast and crew
Behind-the-scenes featurette
Storyboards
Trailer
PLUS: An introduction by Foster and an essay by critic Amy Taubin, and (Blu-ray only) pieces from 2000 and 2013 by author Thomas Harris on the origins of the character Hannibal Lecter and a 1991 interview with Demme
Do the Right Thing
The Oscars may have done this film dirty, but the Criterion Collection did it right. Do the Right Thing, one of the essential pieces of American cinema, gets a bold, beautiful package commanding attention with its instantly iconic design. Spike Lee's 1989 joint still slams with potent power and startlingly direct communication -- perhaps now more than ever. Every sequence is crafted with boldness and care, as if Lee knew he was capturing lightning in a bottle and made that bottle as perfect as anyone ever made a bottle. Close your green books and leave Ms. Daisy at home -- this is the blu-ray to own.
New 4K digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 1995 featuring director Spike Lee, Dickerson, production designer Wynn Thomas, and actor Joie Lee
Introductions by Lee
Making “Do the Right Thing,” a documentary from 1989 by St. Clair Bourne, in a new 2K digital transfer
New interviews with costume designer Ruth E. Carter, New York City Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr., writer Nelson George, and filmmaker Darnell Martin
Three programs from 2000 and 2009, featuring Lee and cast and crew members Barry Alexander Brown, Chuck D, Dickerson, Richard Edson, Frankie Faison, Jon Kilik, Kevin Ladson, Steve Park, Rosie Perez, Luis Ramos, Monty Ross, John Savage, Roger Guenveur Smith, and John Turturro
Music video for Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” directed by Lee, with remarks from rapper Chuck D
Cannes Film Festival press conference from 1989 featuring Lee along with actors Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Edson, and Joie Lee
Behind-the-scenes footage
Deleted and extended scenes
Original storyboards, trailer, and TV spots
PLUS: An essay by critic Vinson Cunningham and (on the Blu-ray) extensive excerpts from the journal Lee kept during the preparation for and production of the film
The Complete Lady Snowblood
There's beauty in everything -- even (especially?) acts of violence and vengeance. This Lady Snowblood collection renders Toshiya Fujita's double feature in pristine, shocking quality. Even as the film's compositions and sequence constructions delve into the world of surrealism and poeticism, the crack squad of clean-up craftspeople in Criterion make it look like it was made yesterday, giving the acts of a violence a John Wick-esque level of brutal realism that juts up against the stylization satisfyingly. And lead actor Meiko Kaji is just perfect in the lead role. They don't make 'em like this anymore -- even as you can see the films' DNA embedded in just about every contemporary action flick.
New 2K digital restorations of both films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
New interviews with Kazuo Koike, the writer of the manga that inspired the films, and screenwriter Norio Osada
Trailers
New English subtitle translations
PLUS: An essay by critic Howard Hampton
New cover by Angie Wang
Hoop Dreams
There's beauty, and universality, in the specific. A trio of filmmakers dissect the simple dreams of young Chicago kids playing basketball, and wind up interrogating the American dream, the constant perils of systemic racism, the brokenness of class issues under capitalism, and yes, the joys of throwing a ball through a hoop. At a nearly three hour length, consisting of footage filmed over a five-year period, the documentary is thorough, sensitive, exacting, unmerciful, loving, and thoroughly captivating. Hoop Dreams is an essential watch for fans of documentaries, sports, American stories, and anyone who's ever felt like it's hard to dream in this world.
New high-definition digital restoration, created through a collaboration between the Academy Film Archive, the Sundance Film Institute, and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Two audio commentaries: one with filmmakers Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert, and one with the film’s subjects, Arthur Agee and William Gates
Life After “Hoop Dreams,” a new documentary that catches up with Agee, Gates, and their families
Additional scenes
Collection of excerpts from Siskel & Ebert tracking the acclaim for Hoop Dreams
Original 1994 music video for the film’s theme song
Trailers
PLUS: Essays by author John Edgar Wideman and filmmaker and critic Robert Greene
Fantastic Mr. Fox
It's a Criterion sale. I know you're gonna want a Wes Anderson. And the collection offers nearly all of his films -- your Rushmores, your Royal Tenenbaums, your Life Aquatics. But I'd like to draw your attention to one of his less universally celebrated films -- an animated lark based on a children's book. Fantastic Mr. Fox is charming, complicated, hilarious, empathetic, and delivers some of the best performances in Anderson's career. George Clooney and Meryl Streep give themselves over to the fastidious director, resulting in incredible dissections of how we often view them as screen performers. Jason Schwartzman is beautifully sympathetic by being hilariously whiny. And the animation on this thing... it's just friggin' beautiful, y'all. Watch Fantastic Mr. Fox, feel your heart grow, have a great time (and be tided over until The Grand Budapest Hotel drops).
Digital master, approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary featuring Anderson
Storyboard animatic for the entire film
Footage of the actors voicing their characters, puppet construction, stop-motion setups, and the recording of the score
Interviews with cast and crew
Puppet animation tests
Photo gallery of puppets, props, and sets
Animated awards acceptance speeches
Audio recording of author Roald Dahl reading the book on which the film is based
Fantastic Mr. Dahl, an hour-long 2005 documentary about the author
Gallery of Dahl’s original manuscripts
Discussion and analysis of the film
Stop-motion Sony robot commercial by Anderson
PLUS: An essay by critic Erica Wagner and (Blu-ray only) a 2002 article on Dahl’s Gipsy House by Anderson; White Cape, a comic book used as a prop in the film; and drawings, original paintings, and other ephemera
The Essential Jacques Demy
If you wanna give your home theater setup a workout, but don't necessarily wanna buy, say, the Transformers series on 4K blu-ray, check out this collection of works from fantastical French filmmaker Jacques Demy. His films burst off the screen with imagination, color, music, and deliriously infectious spectacle. Damien Chazelle bit from Mr. Demy quite a bit in La La Land, and if you enjoyed that American neo-musical, you simply must return to the source with essential titles like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Crackling underneath all these visions of filmmaking heaven is a beautifully French melancholy, ensuring that your candy is still packed with all the essential vitamins and minerals you need to grow.
New 2K digital restorations of all six films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Lola and Bay of Angels and 5.1 or 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Blu-rays of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Donkey Skin, and Une chambre en ville
Two documentaries by filmmaker Agnès Varda: The World of Jacques Demy (1995) and The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993)
Four short films by director Jacques Demy: Les horizons morts (1951), Le sabotier du Val de Loire (1956), Ars (1959), and La luxure (1962)
Jacques Demy, A to Z, a new visual essay by critic James Quandt
Archival interviews with Demy, composer Michel Legrand, and actors Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, and Jacques Perrin
Once Upon a Time . . . “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” a 2008 documentary
Episode from Behind the Screen, a 1966 series about the making of Young Girls
“Donkey Skin” Illustrated, a 2008 program on the many versions of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale
“Donkey Skin” and the Thinkers, a 2008 program featuring critic Camille Tabouley
New conversation between Demy biographer Jean-Pierre Berthomé and costume designer Jacqueline Moreau
New interviews with journalist Marie Colmant and film scholar Rodney Hill
Archival audio Q&A with Demy
Archival audio interviews with Legrand and Deneuve
Interview with actor Anouk Aimée from 2012, conducted by Varda
Interview with Varda from 2012 on the origin of Lola’s song
Restoration demonstrations for Lola, Bay of Angels, Umbrellas, and Une chambre
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Ginette Vincendeau, Terrence Rafferty, Jim Ridley, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Anne E. Duggan, and Geoff Andrew, and a postscript by Berthomé
High and Low
It's a Criterion sale. I know you're gonna want a Akira Kurosawa. And the collection offers nearly all of his films -- your Seven Samurais, your Rashomons, your Yojimbos. But I'd But I'd like to draw your attention to one of his less universally celebrated films -- a claustrophobic, black-and-white, contemporarily-set suspense thriller. High and Low finds Kurosawa muse Toshiro Mifune as a sickeningly unsympathetic lead character, a ruthless businessman whose daughter is kidnapped by an unknown criminal with dubious intent. Kurosawa is riffing on the time-honored real-time procedural genre, and what he finds is entertaining, horrifying, and mercilessly indicting of who the real monsters are. It's crackerjack entertainment that makes you think, and it's an underseen jewel in Kurosawa's crown.
Restored high-definition digital transfer, with original four-track surround sound, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
A thirty-seven-minute documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Rare interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1984
Interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki
Theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.
PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and (Blu-ray only) an on-set account by Japanese film-scholar Donald Richie