The Criterion Collection Complete

KUBRICK, Stanley (United Kingdom) Eyes Wide Shut [1999] Spine #1290 Blu-ray Stanley Kubrick’s career-capping  Eyes Wide Shut  unfolds in a dreamscape vision of New York City, where doctor Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), confront the unconscious desires, jealousies, and fears threatening their marriage. A Christmastime odyssey into a surreal sexual underworld whose hidden power structures are laid frighteningly bare, the film marks the fulfillment of the director’s decades-long desire to adapt Arthur Schnitzler’s novella  Dream Story  and the culmination of his obsessive interest in the relationship between institutional authority and the individual. Released in 1999, the film also serves as a fitting coda to a century of cinema, by one of its greatest visionaries—an endlessly tantalizing labyrinth whose myriad symbols, mysteries, and meanings are still being unraveled. 159 minutes 5.1 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Direct...

BUÑUEL, Luis (Mexico) Él [1953] Spine #1289 Blu-ray Spanish surrealist master Luis Buñuel’s fiendish tale of love gone wrong is among the most perverse and unsettling films he made during his two decades of exile in Mexico. Folding his own neuroses into an adaptation of Mercedes Pinto’s autobiographical novel, Buñuel crafts an expressionistically stylized nightmare in which a young woman (Delia Garcés) discovers that the outward sophistication of her new husband (Arturo de Córdova) masks disturbing depths of jealousy and paranoia. A characteristically raw indictment of religious and social hypocrisy,  Él  stands as the director’s greatest excursion into melodrama, a vivid portrayal of society’s inability to restrain the irrational urges of the human id. 93 minutes Monaural Black and White in Spanish 1:37:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Luis Buñuel  was 53 when he directed  Él . Other Buñuel films in the Collection: #332: Viridiana (1961) #459: The Extermina...

HUGHES, Howard (United States) Hell's Angels [1930] Spine #1288 Blu-ray A high-flying feat of adventure filmmaking and a testament to the audacious, spare-no-expense vision of Howard Hughes, this landmark aviation epic remains exhilarating both for its daredevil aerial sequences and its nervy pre-Code punch. With the onset of World War I, two British brothers recruited into the Royal Flying Corps (Ben Lyon and James Hall) find their bond tested by their differing attitudes toward the war and their love for the same woman (Jean Harlow in her bombshell breakthrough). The product of a notoriously long and dangerous production that resulted in the deaths of multiple crew members,  Hell ’ s Angels  broke new technical ground, making use of early sound and color technologies, and capturing some of the most thrilling dogfight scenes ever filmed. 132 minutes Monaural Black and White/Color 1:37:1 / 1:54:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Howard Hughes  was 25 when he direct...

HUDLIN, Reginald (United States) House Party [1990] Spine #1287 Blu-ray In this dazzlingly imaginative teen comedy, the breakthrough feature debut by writer-director Reginald Hudlin, hip-hop duo Kid ’n Play bring their star power to the big screen as aspiring MCs preparing for the party of the year. When Kid’s father (Robin Harris) forbids him from attending Play’s party, Kid sneaks out anyway, kicking off a wild night full of dance-offs and rap battles, run-ins with bullies and cops, and a bit of romance. With an ensemble cast that also includes Tisha Campbell, AJ Johnson, Martin Lawrence, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, and members of the music group Full Force, plus a hit soundtrack,  House Party  is a beloved, feel-good snapshot of early-1990s hip-hop culture that brought Black teenage experience to the mainstream, and that shines bright to this day. 104 minutes 4.0 Surround Color 1:85:1 Criterion Release 2025 Director/Writer Reginald Hudlin  was 29 when he directed  Ho...