The Criterion Collection Complete

DEL TORO, Guillermo (United States) Nightmare Alley [2021] Spine #1286 Blu-ray Noir fatalism has rarely been so alluring as in this vision of the world as a soul-sick carnival of corruption. Putting his own luxuriantly stylized spin on the classic hard-boiled novel by William Lindsay Gresham, master fabulist Guillermo del Toro conjures a sordid, seductive portrait of America on the cusp of World War II. The film follows Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a roustabout in a traveling sideshow who uses charm and deception to become a phony mentalist preying on the rich and powerful—but at what cost? Brought to life by an all-star cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, and Rooney Mara, and nominated for four Oscars (including Best Picture),  Nightmare Alley  is a haunting descent into the illusory abyss of the American dream. 150 minutes 5.1 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Guillermo del Toro  was 57 when he directed  Ni...

RIPSTEIN, Arturo (Mexico) Deep Crimson [1996] Spine #1285 Blu-ray One of the peaks of subversive Mexican director Arturo Ripstein’s cinema of outsiders, this deliriously perverse portrait of obsessive love dares audiences to see the humanity in the most sordid of antiheroes. A lonely-hearts advertisement leads lusty nurse Coral (Regina Orozco) to Nicolás (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a con man with whom she forges an increasingly intense, twisted bond as they crisscross 1940s Mexico, robbing and murdering the women he seduces. Blending sweeping melodrama with macabre humor and eruptions of berserk violence, Ripstein transforms one of the most infamous true-crime stories of the twentieth century into a haunting vision of how love can give way to madness. 136 minutes 2.0 Surround Color in Spanish 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Arturo Ripstein  was 53 when he directed  Deep Crimson . The Film a Film Rating (0-60): 60 The Extras The Booklet Commentary Video tribute Docum...

RUSSELL, Ken (United States) Altered States [1980] Spine #1284 Blu-ray The ultimate cinematic head trip of the 1980s, British renegade Ken Russell’s first Hollywood film—adapted by the legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky from his own novel—is part hallucinogenic freak-out, part gonzo creature feature, part transcendent love story, all played at a fever pitch. When researcher Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) begins using himself as a test subject for his mind-expanding psychological experiments, it sends him on an increasingly dangerous, substance-fueled odyssey from humankind’s primordial past to the outer limits of consciousness. It’s all visualized by Russell in a psychedelic supernova of out-there imagery that encompasses everything from the pagan to the cosmic sublime, culminating in a brain-wave-blasting battle between the mind and the heart. 103 minutes 2.0 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Ken Russell  was 53 when he directed  Altered States . ...

CRONENBERG, David (United States) A History of Violence [2005] Spine #1283 Blu-ray In David Cronenberg’s subtly provocative film, one of his most celebrated, all is not as it initially seems. In his first of many collaborations with the director, Viggo Mortensen delivers a highly nuanced performance as Tom Stall, a small-town husband and father who is hailed as a hero when he kills the would-be perpetrators of a violent robbery. But how did this ordinary family man dispatch them with such skill? Working with an exceptional cast that also includes Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and William Hurt, Cronenberg slyly deconstructs the mythos of the American action hero, posing elemental questions about identity, human nature, and the violence that we both abhor and can’t look away from. 96 minutes 5.1 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer David Cronenberg  was 62 when he directed  A History of Violence . Other Cronenberg films in the Collection: #777: The Brood (1979...