‘Sorcerer,’ ‘The Wiz,’ ‘Midnight,’ ‘Thelonious Monk,’ ‘Glenn Gould,’ plus 4K Upgrades of ‘Brazil’ and ‘Mishima’ Enter the Criterion Collection for June 2025

Summertime is movie time as the latest films in the Criterion Collect offer a wide variety of cinema for film fans, spanning across nearly ninety years of filmmaking. As the month begins, two masterpieces of 1985, that previously entered the collection, get their 4K Blu-Ray upgrade in Brazil and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. In his dystopian sci-fi dark comedy, director Terry Gilliam delivered his best film, following a pitch-perfect Jonathan Pryce as a daydreaming everyman who finds himself caught in the hellish gears of a nightmarish bureaucracy. Inspired by the works of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Kurt Vonnegut, Brazil is a dazzling piece of work, featuring breathtaking production design, cinematography, and special effects way ahead of its time. With Mishima, writer-director Paul Schrader uses his signature investigative eye in looking at the life of acclaimed Japanese author, playwright Yukio Mishima (played by the incredible Ken Ogata). As he looks at the inner turmoil and the contradictions of a man who attempted the impossible task of finding harmony within oneself, art, and their society, Schrader provides his best work as well, alongside an unforgettable, highly influential score by Philip Glass and rich cinematography by John Bailey that changes throughout each chapter. Bold, beautiful work by two masters of cinema.
If you watched the Oscars a couple of months ago, you would know that Wicked and the world of Oz were front and center on Hollywood’s biggest night. Both in the opening number featuring Oscar nominees Cynthia Erivo, and in a tribute to the late, great Quincy Jones featuring a performance from Oscar nominees Queen Latifah, the film entering the collection in the second week of the month of June was center stage, making The Wiz’s Criterion debut timely and very necessary. A lavish adaptation of the landmark Broadway show based on the classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, veteran director Sidney Lumet brought to screen a dazzling spectacle for a new generation to fall in love with the characters of Oz. With Diana Ross as Dorothy, a Harlem schoolteacher who is transported to a surreal fantasy of New York City, where wonders and terrors are around every corner. Supported by an all-star cast that includes Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, and Lena Horne, The Wiz reframes the beloved epic through the eyes of the modern Black American experience and is a must own from this month.
Next up in the month of June is two titles, very different in approach, but important entries for their subgenres. For Charlotte Zwerin’s Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser, the renowned documentarian takes us on a journey through the brilliant, complex life of the visionary jazz musician, Thelonious Monk. Captured by archival footage, we see the pianist, composer, bebop innovator in rare moments of his life both on and offstage, revealing a portrait of an artist that is eccentric and complicated, as many of our favorite artists usually are. But Zwerin’s approach provides us a chance to see the unique perspective of one of the twentieth century’s most revolutionary souls. While you are picking up Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser, go ahead and grab a great screwball comedy from the sophisticated minds of writers Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, Midnight. Following a penniless American chorus girl (the incomparable Claudette Colbert) who crashes Parisian high society pretending to be a wealthy baroness, director Mitchell Leisen masterfully composes a hilarious social observation with a cynical bite at richer side of life.
Two unconventional forms of filmmaking make up the final titles of the month, with the first one being François Girard’s visionary portrait of renowned pianist Glenn Gould with Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. Set across multiple vignettes encompassing almost every type of storytelling device, the film pieces together Gould’s life from cradle to grave, highlighting the significant moments of his musical career. Led by an immaculate performance by Colm Feore, Girard’s film deconstructs the musical biopic as well as the genius behind the music. Lastly, the film release of the month is the highly anticipated release of William Friedkin’s hallucinatory masterpiece, Sorcerer. Known as being a reimagining of The Wages of Fear (also in the collection), this was one of the last bold films made in the New Hollywood era of the 1970s, following four doomed souls on a mission in the jungle, carrying two trucks full of explosives that could blow at any moment. Aided by Tangerine Dream’s all-time score, Sorcerer is the film personification of tension, and a defining piece of art from one of cinema’s greatest auteurs. We covered the film recently on an episode of Director Watch, where the hosts talked extensively about the haunting brilliance found at the heart of the film, which can now be displayed in glorious 4K for the first time ever.
Below are the special features for all films from the June 2025 Criterion Collection releases.
BRAZIL Director-Approved Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration of Terry Gilliam’s director’s cut, supervised and approved by Gilliam, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
- Audio commentary by Gilliam
- What Is “Brazil”?, Rob Hedden’s on-set documentary
- The Production Notebook, a collection of interviews and video essays, featuring a trove of Brazil-iana from Gilliam’s personal collection
- The Battle of “Brazil,” a documentary about the film’s contentious release, hosted by Jack Mathews and based on his book of the same name
- “Love Conquers All” version, the studio’s ninety-four-minute, happy-ending cut of Brazil, with commentary by Brazil expert David Morgan
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic David Sterritt
MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS Director- Approved Special Edition Features:
- 4K digital restoration of the director’s cut, supervised and approved by director Paul Schrader and cinematographer John Bailey, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Two alternate English narrations, including one by actor Roy Scheider
- Audio commentary featuring Schrader and producer Alan Poul
- Program on the making of the film featuring Bailey, producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto, composer Philip Glass, and production designer Eiko Ishioka
- Program on Yukio Mishima featuring his biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie
- Audio interview with co-screenwriter Chieko Schrader
- Interview excerpt from 1966 featuring Mishima talking about writing
- The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima, a 1985 documentary about the author
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic Kevin Jackson, a piece on the film’s censorship in Japan, and photographs of Ishioka’s sets
SORCERER Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack approved by director William Friedkin, and alternate original theatrical 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
- Friedkin Uncut (2018), a documentary by Francesco Zippel featuring interviews with Friedkin, screenwriter Walon Green, filmmakers Wes Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola, and others
- New conversation between filmmaker James Gray and film critic Sean Fennessey
- Conversation from 2015 between Friedkin and filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn
- Archival audio interviews with Green and editor Bud Smith, from the collection of Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, author of William Friedkin (2003)
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Justin Chang
THE WIZ Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by producer Rob Cohen, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New audio commentary featuring scholars Michael B. Gillespie and Alfred L. Martin
- Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet and actor Diana Ross
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Aisha Harris
THELONIOUS MONK STRAIGHT, NO CHASER Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Introduction by director Charlotte Zwerin
- New interview with musician T. S. Monk, son of Thelonious Monk
- New program about Zwerin and the making of the film featuring interviews with writer Michael Schulman, editor Bernadine Colish, and Zwerin’s nieces Lisa and Laura Tesone
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by musician and scholar Paul Grimstad
MIDNIGHT Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
- New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns
THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD Director Approved Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director François Girard, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New audio commentary featuring Girard and cowriter-actor Don McKellar
- New conversation between Girard and filmmaker Atom Egoyan
- Glenn Gould: Off the Record and Glenn Gould: On the Record, companion programs from 1959
- Archival interviews with actor Colm Feore and producer Niv Fichman
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky