While Criterion devotes itself to essential classics and contemporary films, in a rare but not unprecedented move, the boutique DVD/Blu-Ray cinephile label is adding some TV to its collection in June. Just announced, Barry Jenkins’ ten-episode “Underground Railroad” mini-series, originally having premiered on Prime Video in 2021, is coming to the Criterion Collection this summer. Nearly 10 hours long, the series featured Thuso Mbedu, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Pierre, William Jackson Harper, Chukwudi Iwuji, Sheila Atim, and many more (you can read our A-grade review, which said it brought “poetic instant light to the ideas of black humanity and emancipation,” here)
Released right as the Cannes Film Festival was underway, one can argue the series was somewhat overlooked at the time; the similar cinephiles’ audiences gaze shifted towards France, so Criterion giving a second opportunity feels like a much-deserved move.
And as suggested, while the company rarely releases modern TV, Jenkins’ work is of a piece of their cinephile-friendly works, and his debut “Medicine for Melancholy” is already part of the collection (and we spoke to Jenkins for that release and you can read that here.)
Previous TV titles in Criterion’s collection include John Lurie’s “Fishing with John,” Robert Altman’s “Tanner ’88,” Olivier Assays’ “Carlos” and Ingmar Bergman’s TV versions of “Fanny and Alexander” (1982) and “Scenes From a Marriage” (1973), among others.
Also coming in June, Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s stylish, sapphic heist thriller, “Bound,” Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s delirious depiction of gay desire in “Querelle,” Emilio Fernández’s vibrant Mexican musical-melodrama-noir from “Victims of Sin,” plus 4K re-issues of David Lynch’s unforgettable “Blue Velvet” and Terry Gilliam’s madcap, LSD-soaked “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” adaptation.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
1998 • 118 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • 2.39:1 aspect ratio
It is 1971, and journalist Raoul Duke barrels toward Las Vegas—accompanied by a trunkful of contraband and his slightly unhinged Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo—to cover a motorcycle race. What should be a cut-and-dried journalistic assignment quickly descends into a feverish psychedelic odyssey. Director Terry Gilliam and an all-star cast, headlined by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, show no mercy in bringing Hunter S. Thompson’s excoriating dissection of the American way of life to the screen, creating a film both hilarious and savage.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Terry Gilliam, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Three audio commentaries: one with Gilliam, one with actors Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro and producer Laila Nabulsi, and one with author Hunter S. Thompson
• Deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Gilliam
• Selection of Thompson correspondence, read on camera by Depp
• Hunter Goes to Hollywood, a short documentary
• Program about the controversy over the screenwriting credit
• Profile of Oscar Zeta Acosta, the inspiration for Dr. Gonzo
• Collection of artwork by illustrator Ralph Steadman
• Excerpt from a 1996 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas audio recording featuring filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and actor Maury Chaykin
• Documentary from 1978 featuring Thompson and Steadman
• Storyboards, production designs, stills, and trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman and two pieces by Thompson
QUERELLE
1982 • 108 minutes • Color • Monaural • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Conjured from the unholy meeting of two iconoclastic queer artists, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film audaciously raises Jean Genet’s controversial novel to the level of myth. In an expressionistic soundstage vision of a French seaport town—bathed in fiery reds and complete with phallic spires—a strapping sailor and unrepentant criminal (Brad Davis) comes ashore to arouse passion, rivalry, and violence among the libidinal denizens drawn into his orbit. Enacted with dreamlike stylization by a cast of international stars, including Jeanne Moreau and Franco Nero, Querelle finds Fassbinder pushing his taboo-shattering depiction of gay desire to delirious extremes.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital master, approved by director of photography Xaver Schwarzenberger, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New interview with critic Michael Koresky on director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s aesthetics and visual storytelling
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder—Last Works, a 1982 documentary by Wolf Gremm
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing• PLUS: An essay by critic Nathan Lee
BOUND
1996 • 108 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio Before they blew the world’s mind with The Matrix, Lana and Lilly Wachowski delivered a jolt of pure pulp pleasure with their hyperstylish debut, which puts a deliciously sapphic spin on a crackerjack caper premise. When butch plumber Corky (Gina Gershon) catches the eye of alluring femme (fatale) Violet (Jennifer Tilly), little does she know she’s about to be drawn into both a torrid affair and a high-stakes heist that will pit the pair against the mob. With crackling dialogue, luscious neo-noir cinematography, and live-wire performances by Gershon, Tilly, and Joe Pantoliano, Bound is a genre-reimagining joyride that keeps both the tension and the erotic heat rising through each crazily careening twist.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by cinematographer Bill Pope, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary featuring directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski; actors Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, and Jennifer Tilly; editor Zach Staenberg; and technical consultant Susie Bright
• New video essay by film critic Christina Newland
• Six interview programs featuring Gershon, Pantoliano, Pope, Staenberg, Tilly, actor Christopher Meloni, composer Don Davis, title designer Patti Podesta, and film scholars Jennifer Moorman and B. Ruby Rich
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
VICTIMS OF SIN
1951 • 84 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Spanish with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
A treasure of Mexico’s cinematic golden age, this deliriously plotted blend of gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical is a dazzling showcase for iconic star Ninón Sevilla. She brings fierce charisma and fiery strength to her role as a rumbera—a female nightclub dancer—who gives up everything to raise an abandoned boy, whom she must protect from his ruthless gangster father. Directed at a dizzying pace by filmmaking titan Emilio Fernández, and shot in stylish chiaroscuro by renowned cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa amid smoky dance halls and atmospherically seedy underworld haunts, Victims of Sin is a ferociously entertaining female-powered noir pulsing with the intoxicating rhythms of some of Latin America’s most legendary musical stars.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New interview with filmmaker and archivist Viviana Garcia Besné
• New interview with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on the work of Gabriel Figueroa
• Archival documentary on cine de rumberas, featuring interviews with actor Ninón Sevilla
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by scholar Jacqueline Avila
BLUE VELVET
1986 • 120 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Home from college, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) makes an unsettling discovery: a severed human ear, lying in a field. In the mystery that follows, by turns terrifying and darkly funny, writer-director David Lynch burrows deep beneath the picturesque surfaces of small-town life. Driven to investigate, Jeffrey finds himself drawing closer to his fellow amateur sleuth, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), as well as their person of interest, lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini)—and facing the fury of Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), a psychopath who will stop at nothing to keep Dorothy in his grasp. With intense performances and hauntingly powerful scenes and images, Blue Velvet is an unforgettable vision of innocence lost, and one of the most influential American films of the late twentieth century.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised and approved by director David Lynch
• Alternate original 2.0 surround soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• The Lost Footage, fifty-three minutes of deleted scenes and alternate takes assembled by Lynch
• “Blue Velvet” Revisited, a feature-length meditation on the making of the movie by Peter Braatz, filmed on-set during the production
• Mysteries of Love, a seventy-minute documentary from 2002 on the making of the film
• Interview from 2017 with composer Angelo Badalamenti
• It’s a Strange World: The Filming of “Blue Velvet,” a 2019 documentary featuring interviews with crew members and visits to the shooting locations
• Lynch reading from Room to Dream, a 2018 book he coauthored with Kristine McKenna
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: Excerpts by McKenna from Room to Dream
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
2021 • 585 minutes • Color • Dolby Atmos • 1.78:1 and 2.39:1 aspect ratios
A monumental reimagining of American history, Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 2016 novel is a harrowing and rhapsodic journey through a still-echoing past. Weaving together historical fiction with moments of magical realism, The Underground Railroad is a full sensory immersion into the world of Cora (Thuso Mbedu), who, fleeing slavery, embarks on a treacherous quest for freedom—and is menaced by violence, supported by a clandestine community fighting for liberation, and haunted by the people she loses along the way. With images of searing power and stirring poetry, Jenkins delivers an epic saga of survival and resilience that pushes the limited-series format to new heights of cinematic transcendence.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• 4K digital master, approved by cowriter-director Barry Jenkins, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
• Alternate stereo soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring Jenkins and, on select chapters, cinematographer James Laxton and lead editor Joi McMillon, with an introduction by the director
• New graphic-novel adaptation of “Genesis,” an unfilmed chapter of The Underground Railroad written by Jenkins and Nathan C. Parker, with an introduction by Jenkins
• The Gaze, a companion film by Jenkins, with a new introduction by the director
• Deleted scenes
• Seven teasers made by Jenkins, with a new introduction by the director
• Building “The Underground Railroad,” a short program featuring Jenkins and production designer Mark Friedberg discussing the creation of the train-station sets
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
• PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién