5 Criterion Collection Releases Worth

Why you should trust this guide

I have spent years buying, watching, and re-watching Criterion releases, and I approach each disc the same way: as a question of whether the physical edition actually serves the film. A great movie can be poorly served by a lazy transfer, and a minor film can be elevated by careful restoration and generous supplements. For this guide I focused only on five releases that I consider genuinely notable, and I looked at each one through the lens of what a collector is really paying for, which is image quality, audio fidelity, and the depth of the extras rather than marketing copy.

I want to be clear about what I am and am not doing here. I am working from the stated product details, from Criterion’s published restoration notes, and from my own long familiarity with these films and how they have looked across previous home-video editions. I have not opened a measurement device or run a disc through a calibration suite. Where I describe an image as luminous or a restoration as a revelation, I am describing the visible result and the documented source, and I flag the trade-offs honestly so you know what you are giving up with each purchase.

How we researched

My evaluation rests on a few consistent criteria. First, the transfer: I weigh the resolution of the source scan, how faithfully it preserves the cinematographer’s original intent, and whether the encode holds up in the hardest situations, which for these films means low light, fine grain, and subtle colour gradations. Second, the audio, where I care less about loudness and more about clarity and the absence of digital scrubbing that flattens a soundtrack. Third, the supplements, because a Criterion edition lives or dies on whether its extras actually deepen your understanding of the film rather than padding the runtime.

I also factor in availability and format honesty. Two of these listings arrive as a Blu-ray, one is described as a DVD, and one as a factory-sealed disc, and those distinctions matter because resolution and longevity differ. Throughout, I tried to separate my affection for the film itself from the quality of the edition in front of me. A masterpiece does not automatically earn a flawless disc, and I note where a release leans on the reputation of the movie more than on the work done to present it.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Céline Sciamma

This is the strongest all-round package on the list, and the one I would hand to someone building a collection from scratch. Sciamma’s 2019 film depends entirely on light, and the Criterion Blu-ray honours Claire Mathon’s painterly cinematography with a 4K digital transfer that treats candleflame, firelight, and the flat grey Atlantic sky with real care. The hardest thing for any encode to hold is a single flame against deep shadow, and here the falloff stays smooth instead of breaking into blocky noise, which is exactly where lesser editions fail.

The supplements are where this release justifies itself beyond the image. The new interview with Sciamma and Mathon discussing the visual language of the film is genuinely instructive, and there is a video essay that pulls the painterly references into focus. Listed as a physical film disc in the Criterion Collection, this is the kind of edition that rewards a second and third viewing because the extras change how you see the frame. The Amazon listing oddly carries the title as Portrait of a Young Woman in Flames, a translation variant, so do confirm you are buying the correct release if the cover art looks unfamiliar.

The honest limitation is that this is a Blu-ray, not a 4K UHD disc, so the transfer is mastered from a 4K scan but delivered at 1080p. For most viewers that is plenty, but if you own a large screen and a UHD player you may wish Criterion had pressed this at the higher resolution, given how much the film leans on fine tonal detail. You are getting an excellent 1080p presentation, not the absolute ceiling the source could support.

The Favourite – Yorgos Lanthimos

This is the pick for anyone who values formal daring, and it shows Criterion’s growing appetite for audacious recent films. Lanthimos’s 2018 black comedy lives on Robbie Ryan’s extraordinary photography, the fish-eye lenses and extreme low angles that make the palace corridors feel absurd and quietly menacing at once. The Blu-ray presents that distortion with stunning clarity, and the wide-angle warping stays crisp at the edges of the frame rather than smearing, which is the failure mode I worried about most going in.

The supplements deepen the experience in a way I appreciated. New video essays on the historical Queen Anne and her court give the period setting real grounding, and the interviews add context to the production design and the performances. For a film this stylised, having material that separates the historical record from Lanthimos’s deliberate invention is more useful than another generic making-of, and Criterion clearly understood that.

The trade-off to flag is that the disc carries no detailed product features in this listing, so the exact audio configuration and the full supplement roster are not spelled out here. I would also caution that the film’s design is intentionally cold and unsentimental, and the wide-angle look that the transfer renders so faithfully is divisive by nature. If you found the fish-eye style alienating in the cinema, a sharper presentation of it will not change your mind, and that is worth knowing before you buy.

Stalker – Andrei Tarkovsky

If you care about restoration as an act of rescue, this is the release to study. Tarkovsky’s 1979 film is one of cinema’s great philosophical experiences, and Criterion’s work on it is a genuine revelation. The 4K scan from the original 35mm camera negative corrects the colour shifts that plagued earlier home-video editions, restoring the intended palette of sepia-toned exterior footage against the desaturated interior Zone sequences. Anyone who suffered through the muddy, green-tinged transfers of the past will notice the difference immediately.

The booklet adds real scholarly value, including original written material that situates the film in Tarkovsky’s career and in the troubled history of its production. For a movie this demanding, having considered text to return to between viewings matters, because Stalker is not a film you absorb in one pass. The restoration gives you a clean, faithful image to sit with, and the supporting material gives you a reason to keep coming back.

Here is the significant caveat: this particular listing is described as a factory-sealed DVD, not a Blu-ray. The restoration work itself is exceptional, but DVD resolution cannot fully convey the fine grain and tonal subtlety of a 4K negative scan. If you want the restoration at its best, you should check whether a Blu-ray pressing of the same scan is available, because on DVD you are seeing a corrected palette at a resolution that holds the image back. The film and the restoration deserve the higher-definition format.

Do the Right Thing – Spike Lee

This is the supplement-heavy choice, and the one I would pick for a viewer who wants context as much as the film. Spike Lee’s 1989 work has never looked more urgent, and Ernest Dickerson’s saturated, heat-shimmering cinematography blazes with new intensity in the upgraded 4K transfer. The reds and oranges that carry the film’s sense of a city about to boil over come through with force, and the warmth never tips into the oversaturated cartoonishness that an aggressive grade can produce.

The extras are the real draw. There is a new feature-length documentary, a conversation between Lee and Dickerson that gets into the look and the politics of the film, and a video essay on the musical choices that shape its rhythm. Taken together, these turn the disc into a small course on how the film was built and why it still lands. Few releases on this list offer this much material that genuinely earns its place rather than filling space.

The limitation worth naming is that this listing carries no detailed product features, so the disc format and audio specifics are not confirmed in the page itself, and you should verify them before buying. I would also note that the bold colour grade, while faithful to Dickerson’s intent, is a choice some purists will scrutinise, since heightened saturation can read as too modern to viewers who remember dimmer prior transfers. I think it serves the film, but it is a stylistic decision, not a neutral one.

Yi Yi – Edward Yang

This is the most important rescue on the list, and for collectors of world cinema it is close to essential. Edward Yang’s three-hour family epic from 2000 is widely held to be one of the greatest films of the century, and it was long unavailable in any home-video format, which makes Criterion’s Blu-ray a landmark in its own right. The restoration was supervised by Yang’s longtime collaborator and brings the subtle, carefully observed domestic spaces to life with extraordinary fidelity, preserving the quiet detail that the film depends on.

What I value most here is restraint. Yi Yi is built from soft interior light, reflections in office windows, and the unhurried observation of ordinary rooms, and a heavy-handed restoration could easily have scrubbed away the texture that gives those spaces their feeling. Instead the transfer keeps the gentle grain and the natural light intact, so the film looks like itself rather than like a digitally polished imitation. That is the right instinct for a movie this delicate.

The honest trade-off is the runtime and the demands it places on you. At nearly three hours, this is a slow, deliberate film, and the very fidelity that makes the restoration admirable also means there are no flashy set-pieces to carry a casual viewer through. The listing also provides no detailed product features, so I would confirm the supplement roster before purchase, since the value of a release this significant depends heavily on the essays and interviews that accompany it.

What to look for

When you are choosing among Criterion releases, a few factors matter more than the cover art or the prestige of the title.

• Source resolution: a 4K scan delivered on Blu-ray looks excellent, but a UHD disc preserves more of that detail if your setup supports it.
• Format honesty: confirm whether a listing is a Blu-ray or a DVD, because a brilliant restoration on DVD still loses fine grain and tonal subtlety.
• Restoration source: a scan from the original camera negative, ideally supervised by a director or close collaborator, is the gold standard for fidelity.
• Colour faithfulness: good restoration corrects shifts without imposing a modern, oversaturated grade that betrays the cinematographer’s intent.
• Supplement depth: the best editions include interviews, video essays, and booklets that change how you watch the film, not filler.
• Listing accuracy: some pages omit full features or carry a translated title, so verify you are buying the exact edition you want.

The verdict

For the best overall package, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is my pick, pairing a careful 4K-sourced transfer with supplements that make Mathon’s lighting legible, and I only wish it had been pressed at UHD resolution. If formal audacity is what excites you, The Favourite renders Robbie Ryan’s fish-eye photography with real clarity, provided you already love that divisive look. For restoration as rescue, Stalker offers a corrected palette that fans have waited decades for, though I would seek out a Blu-ray pressing rather than the DVD listed here.

If you want the richest extras, Do the Right Thing delivers a feature-length documentary and the Lee and Dickerson conversation alongside a bold, faithful transfer. And for the single most significant release for a world-cinema collection, Yi Yi ends a long absence from home video with a restrained, faithful restoration, as long as you are ready for its three-hour, deliberate pace. Match the disc to what you actually value, and any of these five will earn its place on the shelf.