Physical Media Ultraviolence

By now I'm sure you've heard that Criterion just dropped a bomb on us that only Slim Pickens could ride -- a massive box-set of every Stanley Kubrick movie on 4K, plus some shorts, plus all of those special features they're known for, will be landing on our heads come October 20th. You can pre-order it here if you're a person for whom money is no object (in which case hey there why don't you scooch a lil' closer, new best friend) although obviously I recommend you wait for one of the big 50% off sales that land in the fall at Criterion's own site or at Barnes & Noble. Because the price right now is four hundred and eighty bucks and goodness me that's a lot of money. Especially if you're a collector like me who already owns most of these movies in some format or another. (I suppose y'all who don't need or want 4K should be keeping your eyes on my eBay though because I will be buying this set so I will be selling off those discs at some point in the next few months.) But even if you're waiting to buy the set check the long long long list of specifics at the link -- this is really a staggering set; Criterion proving they're the gold standard yet again. And here's their trailer:

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Birth (2004)

Anna: What happened to me was not my fault. There's no way I could have behaved any differently, you now... What I did wasn't my fault. What happended to me wasn't my fault, and I can't be held accountable for it. There is no way I could ever have said to him 'Go away'. I couldn't do it... It was a mistake. And... I'm sorry. But I want to be with you. I want to be with you. Yes, I do. And I want to get married, and... I wanna have a good life, and I wanna be happy. That's all I want - peace.

A day we've been looking forward to for a decade at least has finally arrived -- after years of being only available on a shitty out-of-print DVD Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece in discomfort Birth has gotten the Criterion treatment! In 4K no less! Pick up your copy right here -- like every single Glazer movie there is (yes, every single one) this is not a movie to be missed. And NOW if they could just release Alexandre Desplat's astonishing score onto vinyl I'll be satisfied! Temporarily anyway! Related: have I mentioned here that I started a thread on Bluesky for movies I'm dying to get released on upgraded physical media? Click below to see what I've whined about so far if that's your thing:

‪Think I'm going to start a thread specifically for sporadic bitching about movies I need released on updated physical media already, like yesterday, dammit. Seen here are four standards - Apartment Zero, Chuck & Buck, Soldier of Orange, and of course the king of this, Ken Russell's The Devils

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) December 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Sandor: You know why women used to get married, don't you?

Alice: Why don't you tell me?

Sandor: It was the only way they could lose their virginity 

and be free to do what they wanted with other men. 

The ones they really wanted.

Alice: Fascinating.

Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut (and yes I do consider this Kubrick's own film even if it was finished post-mortem -- on that tip there's a great new interview with the film's editor right here that address this subject) has landed on 4K today thanks to Criterion -- you can grab a copy right here. I've had a copy for a couple of weeks but it doesn't feel right to watch this movie before the holidays so I've been saving it. I think I might actually watch it right on Christmas, or Christmas Eve anyway. I should time it so Nicole Kidman says "Fuck." just at the strike of Midnight! What are y'all's thoughts on this movie? I've been a big fan since Day One personally, but I know it's a controversial one!

Criterion Gives Birth This January

Put another checkmark in the "Fucking finally!" column because one of the great movies that hasn't gotten a proper release since the days of DVD is getting an upgrade on January 27th, 2026 -- yes obviously I speak of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece Birth, as that enormous visage of Nicole Kidman's face with the word "Birth" scrawled across it probably let on already. (Sidenote: Birth is coming out on my mother's birthday? How fortuitous.) I'd have a hard nigh impossible time ranking Glazer's films because he's made nothing but masterpieces in his directing career -- one wants to call his a "brief" career since he's only directed four features, but those four features are spread across 25 years (beginning with Sexy Beast in 2000) and that's the opposite of brief. But depending on the day Birth might be my favorite of his. The next day it'll be Under the Skin and the day after that's it's The Zone of Interest, and so it goes. But this is triuphant news nonetheless -- a 4K disc, including a new doc on the movie's making -- now can we get Alexandre Desplat's now-legendary score released on vinyl please??? No, it's never enough. You get one thing, you need another, and then you die. And are reborn in a little boy to go stalk Nicole Kidman!

And as if Birth wasn't chilly enough -- Criterion is definitely leaning into the January-ness of January -- we'll also be getting Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and John Huston's The Dead hitting 4k that month. I don't think I've seen either of these before? I may've seen the Huston ages and ages ago but I was certainly too young to get it and should revisit. As for Dead Man I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to Jarmusch and I'm not exactly crawling over broken glass to watch Johnny Depp movies these days, but I did really love Jarmusch's latest at NYFF so I can probably be convinced. Opinions on either?

Next up there's Jia Zhangke's tremendous latest Caught By the Tides, which I haven't seen since NYFF 2024 so it's been awhile, but it's a film that flits across my consciousness often -- Zhangke shot the film over 23 years (!!!) with actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin and watching them age in real time, watching China change around them -- it's an incredible experience. I suppose it must've been annoying for him when Richard Linklater beat him to the gimmick with Boyhood but I'm very much Team Zhangke on this one. It's an incredible accomplishment. And then there's the latest entry in Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project series, which honestly has long intimidated the hell out of me. I'll dive into them one day! 

And so we come to the months'f inal three releases (big batch!) -- the second more vital drop this month to my eye is their re-release of Edward Yang's Yi Yi in 4K, which I've talked about a few times since seeing it for the first time just a few months ago; an astonishing film, one of the greats. Then there's the 1985 film of Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Raul Julia and an Oscar-winning turn from William Hurt. I should probably give this one another chance -- I remember not being nuts about it when I saw it in my 20s. And then to bring us home there's Errol Flynn's best movie says me, the enormously entertaining 1935 swashbuckler Captain Blood. Love this movie; Errol is Peak Errol here.The big sword fight on the rocks is unmissable classic cinema. 

Kubrick Knew All About the Burden of Dreams

The October slate of Criterion releases is always my favorite bunch of the year because they always drop lots of horror for Halloween-time -- we discussed those a month ago right here -- but the November batch is always great too because they're gearing up for holiday shopping and wanna entice those of us who're still smartly on the physical media train. And so you get a wham-bam drop like this first one here -- Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut from 1999 hitting 4K huzzah! Correct me if I'm wrong (it happens often) but I don't think EWS even got much of a blu-ray release, so this is a huge step forward for a movie that was woefully misunderstood and under-appreciated at the time of its release but which I think most sane folks have come around on. I've always loved it even if my ability to take Tom Cruise has vacillated wildly over the years -- he's used perfectly by Kubrick, and Kidman is per usual brilliant, and I fucking love this movie. One of 1999's many many many masterpieces. And yeah okay Kubrick died before it was finished so calling it "his" movie always has an asterisk beside it, but it sure as hell feels like a Kubrick movie to me so I allow it. As an aside I finally got the soundtrack on vinyl recently with a re-release as well and I really recommend that shit too. Brilliance. 

Next on the list of November Must Haves are Luis Buñuel’s 1963 romantic thriller Él, which is a Buñuel I don't believe I've ever seen? My Buñuel viewings have been all over the place over the years -- we watched a lot of him in film school and obviously I've seen lots since, but there are still plenty of titles I've missed and this is one of them. Which is wild because it sounds right up my alley since Criterion calls it "perverse and unsettling" aka "my alley." And then there's Les Blank's brilliant doc Burden of Dreams, which follows Werner Herzog's deranged quest to make a movie about a deranged quest, Fitzcarraldo. One of the greatest docs about movie-making -- if not the greatest. Not to be missed.

At the absolute opposite end of the cinematic spectrum they're dropping the 1990 Kid 'n Play comedy House Party, which is delightful -- meaning the comedy itself and the fact that House Party is now in the Criterion Collection. To be honest I haven't seen this since the 90s but I look forward to a revisit -- I remember digging it back in the day. 1990 was a pretty formative year in my movie obsession and I probably saw this a dozen times on video. Oh and my favorite John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club is  getting a 4K upgrade as well. No it maybe doesn't have the magnificence of JAKE RYAN to stare at, but it also doesn't have Sixteen Candles' horrific racism and sexism either so you work with what you can!

Gazillionaire turned moviemaker turned reclusive pee-hoarding maniac Howard Hughes' legendary 1930 WWI fighter-pilot epic Hell's Angels is getting a 4K drop on November 18th (love the cover art) -- I have never seen it (save some of the flying sequences that are rightly acclaimed for their place in action filmmaking) so all I really know about this movie I learned from Martin Scorsese's film The Aviator. It'll be good to finally check it off. And then finally to finish November off we've got the reawakening of Criterion's wonderful "Eclipse" series of box-sets, which gather together collections of more obscure works by world-class filmmakers -- this time out it's the genius Abbas Kiarostami's "Early Shorts and Features" which really appears to be absolutely stacked with content I cannot wait to dig into. I admit Kiarostami is a filmmaker I've got a lot of catching up to do with but I've deeply loved everything I have seen to date. In summation, "Fuck."

To Be Bold and Naked At Your Side

Did Harris grab your attention? I feel as if Harris might've grabbed your attention. How useful! Thanks, Harris -- now I can get to my point which is that I didn't get a lot done this past weekend but I did get one thing I'd been meaning to get done for awhile done, and that is go through my overflowing vinyl collection and sort out an enormous heap to sell off on eBay. So that's mostly what I've been doing today -- if yiou're in the market for what's 99% movie soundtracks keep checking this link here and I'll continue listing more this week. I've got like 40 of them I'm putting up for sale (and there were already a ton listed) so it's a real blow-out! Kind of like how Harris Dickinson in Babygirl could've blown out our backs. Ahem. Point being that yes the Babygirl vinyl is one of the ones listed for sale. You know you want it! You know Harris wants you to want it...

Good Morning, World

Inspired by his moment to shine in yesterday's Mesh Shirt Off post here is the rest of Indian actor Ishaan Khatter's photoshoot for V Man magazine, where he was also photographed in said mesh shirt as seen in said post. The rest of this shoot might be even hotter than the photos I shared yesterday though -- give this boy a career in America stat! He has already had two small (I'm guessing, since I haven't seen one and the other I don't remember) roles in big U.S. projects -- he was in Nicole Kidman's series The Perfect Couple (which I didn't watch) and he was apparently in that awful all-star comet-apocalypse comedy Don't Look Up. We can do better! Scroll through his Instagram and you'll understand. Or just hit the jump for this full photoshoot (with video!) anbd you'll understand doubly....

Harris Dickinson Thirteen Times

Our Babygirl boy Harris Dickinson might not have landed the Oscar nomination for that movie he deserved -- Nicole also deserved one but I'm more frustrated he got nothing, since she sits atop a throne of statues already -- but he's still on the cover of THR this week smackdab in the middle of awards season and that can only mean good things for him going forward. He's got the golden touch, and I say that without -- regrettably -- ever having been touched by him. But he is very good at choosing jobs and then knocking said jobs out of the park...

...  and as I've said in the past I think he's one of if not The best actor of his generation. We love you, Harris! And we love this photoshoot, which has him dressed in a heap of gorgeous clothes I would kill for -- That yellow cardigan! Those tweed pants! I would murder ten grandmothers for those tweed pants. (And if they're Republican grandmothers make it twenty!) Hit the jump for what I've gathered up which I think is the full shoot...

Harris Dickinson Nine Times

I didn't know why Interview Magazine paired Harris Dickinson with Sam Rockwell as his interviewer for the new interview they dropped today until they mentioned they were in the 2022 caper comedy See How They Run together -- I never saw that. Did any of you see it? Is it worth seeing? Anyway these photos of Harris are worth seeing as ever (Sam calls him "the British Brad Pitt" and yeesh get a room you two) so hit the jump and see them all...

Harris Dickinson Seven Times

For a second I was sad to see that Harris Dickinson didn't nab a Golden Globe nomination this morning for his work in Babygirl -- even though his leading lady Nicole Kidman did -- but then I remembered these are the Golden f'ing Globes we're talking about, so who the fuck cares. (Not a question - a statement.)  They also didn't nominate the best performance by any actor this year -- Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths -- so her and Harris should go paint the town red that night together, take their sexy talented two-some on the road and live it up like the rock stars they are. That'd be a May December romance for the record books! Anyway I'm more enthusiastic about this Harris photo-shoot than I am anything having to do with the Globes so let's celebrate these! Hit the jump for them all...

Harris Dickinson Fourteen Times

Having now seen Babygirl I think -- I hope -- that Harris Dickinson might finally be breaking through. The boy has been deserving for some time (Beach Rats hive rise) and he is ace in the movie; indeed this was my first immediate thought upon walking out of the theater:

(For real though Harris Dickinson is the best actor of his generation maybe?)

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 10, 2024

The movie is mostly The Nicole Kidman Show and as ever she deserves all the praise she's getting but I am situating myself atop my soapbox that Harris' efforts don't get overlooked. His work in the film is funny, sweet, sexy -- every single bit that it needs to be. He really is that good.

Which is to say I'm glad he's getting some attention from GQ's "Men of the Year" -- with Babygirl not hitting theaters until the 17th he's has been absent a lot of end-of-year press but we the people demand more! I don't have a link to an article yet (I'll update when I do) but I do have the photos, so hit the jump for the photos...

Pics of the Day

The new issue of the annual Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue is here, which always gives our favorite hot young things a chance to mingle in fun behind-the-scenes snaps.... and which has brought us the above moment between Jonathan Bailey and Josh O'Connor and I'm just about done for the day, how about y'all? Here's the full cover: 

(click to embiggen) And good for Nicole Kidman slamming her way into the center of the front flap (that phrase feels wrong) all these many many decades into her esteemed career -- having now seen Babygirl I get it! Not that I ever stopped loving Nic, but Babygirl has the makings of a hit if they're smart about it. Harris Dickinson's reading of "Good girl" will probably (and should) be the line of the year if they do. (And Harris should've made the cover too dammit.) Anyway! 

These two fucking photos of Glen Powell!

A mesh shirt? That hair and those glasses?

Were they actually actively trying to kill me? 

Whoever took these photos really went for it and we applaud them. You can see them all at this link, which further links to the invidividual interviews, but I've got all the photos of note right here after the jump...

Good Morning, World

Surprise! I know I said in yesterday's single, solitary post that I was off today and wouldn't be posting anything but then I saw this gif of Harris Dickinson dancing shirtless in the Babygirl trailer going around and I was like... yeah, post that. Do it for your people! I'm actually pretty sure most of y'all caught it already but if not -- there is Harris Dickinson dancing shirtless in the Babygirl trailer. It's exactly like I said it would be, right? Babygirl, the new movie from Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn about a dom-sub relationship between Harris and one Nicole Kidman, got stellar reviews when it played Venice and TIFF and I can't wait for it -- wait I will have to though since it's not out until Christmas. Christmas is sure crowded this year though with this, the Robbie Williams biopic starring a CG monkey, Timothee Chalamet's Bob Dylan movie, and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu! Get out of the way, Jesus!

Let's Hear It For The Paperboy

Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are reuniting in a movie for Netflix this weekend called A Family Affair, for the first time since Lee Daniels' The Paperboy in 2012... so naturally I had to write about The Paperboy. How could I not? Head on over to Mashable where I make the case in this movie's defense -- I genuinely think it's Daniels' best movie, and preciesly because of the way it deliberately wields camp. We should appreciate Daniels more dammit!

Big Hogs For Everybody

Biker gangs are apparently the next hot trend -- this news I am about to share is the second bit of news today announcing a movie involving them, for goodness' sake! (See my previous post on Alexander Skarsgard's upcoming "kinky queer" biker movie here.) Add all that to the fact that out this June there is Jeff Nichols' film The Bikeriders with Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Karl Glusman -- Glusman who co-starred in 2022's fantastically queer Please Baby Please, which I am choosing to see as the real spark that started this Biker Gang Fire -- and we're calling it a trend. Anyway onto the second Biker Gang news of the day -- Cate Blanchett is going to star in Alpha Gang from the Zellner Brothers, whose wonderful film Sasquatch Sunset (starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough as sasquatch) is out in theaters now. As with all Zellner Bros movies there's nothing straightforward about Alpha Gang though, which is described thus:

"Alpha Gang follows alien invaders sent on a mission to conquer Earth. “Disguised in human form as an armed and dangerous 1950’s leather-clad biker gang, they show no mercy… until they catch the most toxic, contagious human disease of all: emotion.”

Is that description making anybody else think of John Cameron Mitchell's dementedly under-appreciated 2017 movie How to Talk to Girls at Parties, which starred Nicole Kidman as a leather-clad punk rock alien? 

All the Bloodshed Money Can Buy To Die For

Happy Criterion Announcement Day! As goes every 15th of the month (or sometimes therebaouts) we have gotten the new slate of Criterion blu-rays and 4Ks for an upcoming month, which in today's case means March of 2024. And what a slate it is! Starting with the happiest shock of the bunch -- on March 26th they're dropping Gus Van Sant's satical masterpiece To Die For onto 4K! Definitely my favoritew movie of Van Sant's (with all due apologies to the very close runner-up My own Private Idaho) and possibly still my favorite Nicole Kidman performance -- all that's a long list and it would depend on the day and my mood. Anyway there weirdly aren't a ton of special features on this -- some commentary tracks, deleted scenes, and an essay -- but when the movie itself is this good and it's been newly restored I don't really care. Next up...

... we have Iranian director Amir Naderi's 1984 film The Runner, which is based on his own childhood in that post-revolutionary country and stars child actor Madjid Niroumand as an orphan determined to rise above his circumstances, and we have Senegalese director Alice Diop's 2022 masterful Saint Omer, a courtroom drama about a novelist following the trial in France of an immigrant accused of murdering her own daughter. 

And then we have William Dieterle's 1941 classic retelling of The Daniel and Devil Webster called All That Money Can Buy, which memorably stars Walter Huston as the devil himself and has a grand score from Bernard Herrmann. And to top it all off we've got my #8 favorite film of last year, Laura Poitras' documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed about photographer and activist Nan Goldin, which is a goddamned masterpiece and one of the most important documents of our age. This is not a light bunch of movies, y'all! Great great stuff coming from Criterion in March -- pre-order everything at the links provided. 

All My Nonsense

Sorry for the semi-quietude here today -- I took a long lunch-break where I went and picked up my first batch of Criterions from the just-begun month-long Barnes & Noble sale, including that lovely most perfect ghost movie seen above in resplendant 4K -- that's what I am watching tonight! Have y'all bought anything at the sale yet? Tell me what, if so! Nothing makes me giddier than sexy physical-media talk. (Unless it's Alden Ehrenreich doing the talking in which case -- look out!)

Oh the things I would do to him when the Criterion Closet door closed. Poor Agnes Varda's eyes will be bugging off her box-set cover! Aaaaanyway -- the other thing I have been doing that's not blogging today is listing a bunch of movies and movie ephemera on eBay because my apartment is overflowing with nonsense and I need to get rid of the redundant nonsense. It's really good nonsense though -- beautiful posters and blu-rays and books and vinyl! -- so if anybody wants to buy some of my nonsense there are heaps of said nonsense on sale on eBay right now right here. Please help me scale down so I don't die under my nonsense! (Who am I kidding, that's obviously the way I will die.)

The Other Aqua Men

The first trailer for James Wan's long-delayed super-sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has arrived and jumping right into what matters most there's not a single second of Jason Momoa flesh to be seen, but both the villain Black Manta played Watchmen star Yahya Abdul-Mateen (seen above) and Aquaman's brother played by the great Patrick Wilson...

... at least know what's up. Anyway this movie is out in December and people were feeling weird that no footage had been released -- well here it is. 

I liked the first Aquaman movie pretty well -- compared to the other dreck that DC was dropping it was fun and it had one of my favorite sequences in any superhero movies, ever (the "Trench" sequence) so I will probably go see this even though DC is such a disaster and Superhero Movies are so far past their expiration point for me besides. (Not that I won't go see David Corenswet as Superman because duh.) Anyway if you have an opinion on this trailer let her rip in the comments, while I share a few more gifs after the jump...

This October Criterion is Coming For Your Souls!

Since the 15th fell on the weekend (which we all noticed since it was my birthday and all, wink nudge wink) we're only getting our monthly "Criterion Announcement Day" today, here on the 17th -- but that's cool, given they're announcing their titles for the greatest month of them all, October! And per usual Criterion's line-up is bubbling and brewing over with Horror Titles, hooray! And what better place to start then with some of the scariest movies of all time -- a triple-feature of Tod Browning's films The Unknown (1927) and Freaks (1932) and The Mystic (1925)! I've only ever seen the first two titles there -- and lord knows I have seen Freaks more times than I could count -- but The Mystic (about what else carnies) sounds like a must-watch! And the disc is per usual loaded with special-features -- check em all out and pre-order the disc on their site. (And it's out on October 17th, which will give you plenty of time to frame your entire Halloween party around it.) 

Next up and just as exciting -- they're releasing a brand new 4K restoration of Alejandro Amenábar's 2001 haunted masterpiece The Others starring Nicole Kidman! This remains one of my favorite of all ghost movies, and it's not ruined in the slightest by knowing what "the twist" is going in (not that I will spoil it here if any of you are unaware) -- I've seen it a dozen times and it's just as much spooky fun either way. And this is definitely a Top 5 Kidman performance. Cannot wait to see what this gothic gorgeousness looks like in resplendent 4K!

Next up is Nikyatu Jusu's 2022 horror flick Nanny, which is about a Senegalese immigrant who takes a job caring for the children of rich white people (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector, drool) and things do not go well, no they do not go well at all. I liked this movie but didn't quite love it the way a lot of other critics did, but I think it's very much due for a revisit. And no I am not just saying that so I can stare at Morgan Spector some more, shut up. The final two titles on Criterion's October docket are both 4K upgrades for previously released editions -- David Cronenberg's Videodrome and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. Both absolute masterpieces! Will I be able to stay strong my self-imposed financial limitation of not buying movies on 4K if I already own them on blu-ray? Stay tuned! I have my doubts!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

How To Talk To Girls At Parties (2018)

Zan: What is Punk, Boadicea?

Queen Boadicea: It's just the fag end
of the Blues, dear.

A happy 5 to this incredibly underrated musical-comedy from John Cameron Mitchell! I said at the time it was like a lost episode of The Monkees crossed with the miniseries V and I very much stand by that assessment! It's super goofy and Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman are having a blast and I wanna re-watch it right this minute.