As much as physical media may be on its way out of the mainstream, what with the ease and relative cheapness of iTunes and similar services, there's nothing quite like a beautiful blu-ray package. For me, it's not unlike spending money for certain albums on vinyl, as pretentious as that may sound; "Madvillainy" and "Amnesiac" just sound so much better that way. Similarly, no movie looks quite as good on home video as the releases from the venerable Criterion Collection do, and this has been true since they were only putting out DVDs. Where so many bigger companies have ignored major art-house releases (or even older Hollywood releases) for careful, meticulous restoration, Criterion has always dived head first and taken their job very seriously, packaging astounding A/V transfers with truly revelatory extras and consistently thought-provoking critical essays on each of their films.

And right now would be just the time to stock up on some titles, as they are having one of their beyond-awesome Flash Sales, which slashes their admittedly high prices in half, making most of their releases cost less than 20 bucks. On top of this, if you go all out and spend over $100, you get a free tote bag designed by Criterion and BAGGU. The real selling point, however, are the range of titles and the unprecedented taste that the company has kept up over the years. Most recently, they put out a brand new restoration of Wes Anderson's magnificent Moonrise Kingdom, as well as Francois Truffaut's Day for Night, the Dardenne brothers' Two Days, One Night, and Alain Resnais' hugely influential Hiroshima Mon Amour. And in the coming months, they'll be handing the long-awaited Blu-ray release of the beloved Apu Trilogy, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, David Cronenberg's The Brood, D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back, and Ikiru Kurosawa's surpassingly lovely Ikiru, each one of which is an inarguable masterwork from some of cinema's most celebrated artists. Now, stop reading and get over there!

Here's the link to the Criterion Collection flash sale.