‘The Power of the Dog,’ ‘Malcolm X’ and Pixar lead a packed field of additions to the Criterion Collection for November

As the year is winding down, the second yearly Barnes & Noble Criterion Collection 50% off sale is going on all November long, and just in time with one of the most stacked months of releases in some time from the premiere company of physical media. These titles include films from Jane Campion, Spike Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Věra Chytilová, one of the greatest trilogies of all time, and the first entry in the Criterion Collection by the biggest animated company in the business, Pixar. All of these and more are available for purchase this month.

First up is Jane Campion’s recent Oscar-winning western examining the fragile masculine psyche within the American frontier set against the desolate plains of 1920s Montana. With a quartet of Oscar nominated, career best performance by Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, 2021’s The Power of the Dog is a modern masterpiece from a director working at the height of her powers, using dazzling control and effortless skill in creating a tense thriller with luscious cinematography from Ari Wagner and another all-time score from Jonny Greenwood.

Next up is the latest entry in the collection from director Spike Lee with his biopic Malcolm X. Based on the rise and fall of one of the most important figures in American history, Lee tapped Oscar winning actor and longtime collaborator Denzel Washington in the titular role, and made one of the best films of both of their careers. Raw, honest, and unafraid of pulling punches, this three-hour epic tells the full story of a complicated man that was more than the anti-hero played out in the history books.

More additions include the 4K restoration of Wong Kar-Wai’s romantic milestone achievement, 2000’s In the Mood for Love, a powerful mixture of romantic longing and fleeting moments. Throw in two all-time performances from Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, and you have a film that has stood as a staple of modern cinema since the start of the new millennium. Daises, directed by Věra Chytilová, is a defiant film provocation of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema about two young women’s journey of destruction and resistance. With a wild aesthetic that feels like someone throwing the cinematic equivalent of the kitchen sink, Chytilová made a profound film of rebellion.

The Infernal Affairs Trilogy is a sweeping piece of Hong Kong crime cinema set over three highly entertaining films that follow two rival moles who seek to undermine each other within the Hong Kong police force and its criminal underworld. Mirroring its country’s moral identity, these films were the key inspiration to the Martin Scorsese Oscar winning Best Picture winner The Departed. And the last addition to the collection is Pixar’s Wall-E. The 2008 Best Animated Feature Film Oscar winner remains one of the best films within the studio’s highly celebrated collection. Mixing both the technology of the future and the emotional sentimentalities of the silent film era, director Andrew Stanton delivered a beautiful ode to the power of love between two adorable robots that are trying to heal a world and the human race on the decline. This is the perfect first film to enter the collection from Pixar and a sign of hope for more animated films to join Criterion soon.

THE POWER OF THE DOG DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   4K digital master, approved by director Jane Campion, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions

·   For 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

·   Interview with Campion about the making of the film

·   Program featuring interviews with members of the cast and crew and behind-the-scenes footage captured on location in New Zealand

·   Interview with Campion and composer Jonny Greenwood about the film’s score

·   Conversation among Campion, director of photography Ari Wegner, actor Kirsten Dunst, and producer Tanya Seghatchian, moderated by filmmaker Tamara Jenkins

·   New interview with novelist Annie Proulx 

·   Trailer

·   English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

·   English descriptive audio·   PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin

DAISIES BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

·   Audio commentary featuring film scholars Daniel Bird and Peter Hames

·   New interview with film programmer Irena Kovarova

·   Documentary from 2002 about director Věra Chytilová

·   Documentary about the artistic collaboration among Chytilová, cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera, and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová

·   Two short films from 1962 by Chytilová: A Bagful of Fleas and Ceiling

·   Trailer

·   New English subtitle translation ·   PLUS: An essay by critic Carmen Gray

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   4K digital restoration with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, both supervised and approved by director Wong Kar Wai

·   One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

·   Documentary from 2001 by Wong, chronicling the making of the film

·   Hua yang de nian hua (2000), a short film by Wong

·   Interview and cinema lesson from 2001 featuring Wong

·   Press conference from the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival with actors Maggie Cheung Man Yuk and Tony Leung Chiu Wai

·   Interview from 2012 with critic Tony Rayns about the soundtrack

·   Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wong

·   Music video

·   Trailer·   PLUS: A new essay by novelist Charles Yu

THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY DIRECTOR-APPROVED THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   New 4K digital restorations, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks

·   Audio commentaries for Infernal Affairs and Infernal Affairs II featuring codirectors Andrew Lau Wai-keung and Alan Mak and screenwriter Felix Chong Man-keung

·   Alternate ending for Infernal Affairs

·   New interview with Lau and Mak

·   Archival interviews with Lau, Mak, Chong, and actors Andy Lau Tak-wah, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Kelly Chen Wai-lam, Edison Chen Koon-hei, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, and Chapman To Man-chak

·   Making-of programs

·   Behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, and outtakes 

·   Trailers

·   New English subtitle translations ·   PLUS: An essay by film critic Justin Chang

MALCOLM X DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   New 4K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack 

·   For the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features

·   Audio commentary from 2005 featuring director Spike Lee, Dickerson, editor Barry Alexander Brown, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter

·   New conversation between Lee and journalist and screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper

·   New interviews with actor Delroy Lindo and composer Terence Blanchard

·   Program about the making of the film, featuring Lee, Dickerson, Brown, Blanchard, Carter, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, actor Ossie Davis, Reverend Al Sharpton, former Warner Bros. executive Lucy Fisher, producers Preston Holmes and Jon Kilik, production designer Wynn Thomas, casting director Robi Reed, and Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz

·   Malcolm X (1972), a feature-length documentary produced by Marvin Worth and Arnold Perl and directed by Perl, narrated by actor James Earl Jones

·   Deleted scenes with introductions by Lee

·   Trailer

·   English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing·   PLUS: An essay by Cooper, excerpts from Lee’s 1992 book By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of “Malcolm X” . . ., and Davis’s eulogy for Malcolm X

WALL•E DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

·   4K digital master, approved by director Andrew Stanton, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack

·   One 4K UHD disc of the film, presented in both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, and two Blu-rays with the film and special features

·   Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and stereo soundtracks

·   Two audio commentaries: one featuring Stanton and the other, character supervisor Bill Wise, co-producer Lindsey Collins, story artist Derek Thompson, and lead animator Angus MacLane

·   New programs on Stanton’s cinematic influences and production designer Ralph Eggleston’s color scripts

·   Tour of the Pixar Living Archive with Stanton

·   Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, including segments from early animation reels

·   The Pixar Story (2007), a documentary by Leslie Iwerks

·   More than a dozen documentaries exploring the film’s production and robots

·   Anatomy of a Scene: The Plant, a masterclass with Stanton

·   “WALL•E”: A to Z, a new program featuring Stanton and co-screenwriter Jim Reardon

·   Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Stanton

·   A Story (1987), a student film by Stanton

·   BURN•E (2008), a short film by MacLane

·   Trailers

·   English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

·   English descriptive audio 

·   PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson; selections from Stanton’s sketchbooks, script notes, and drawings; and artwork from the WALL•E team

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Ryan McQuade

Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.

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