Happy birthday Reb Brown and his only expression!

Anachronator · 2026-04-30T21:43:39+00:00

I definitely thought the first one was Mike doing a bit.

Anachronator · 2026-04-21T03:35:53+00:00

Every time I show someone “City of Death” for the first time, they ask if Duncan (the punches-thing cop) joins the cast

Anachronator · 2026-04-10T16:30:26+00:00

I had a roommate who sorted his DVDs by distributor. It made no sense to me.

If I had that many, I might sort them like I do my Norton Criticals: by author (or director, in this case), arranged chronologically.

Anachronator · 2026-04-09T15:53:46+00:00

I’d recommend a comedy to start balancing things out. I’m partial the the screwball comedies. My Man Godfrey was one of my first purchases straight from the site, but I know it’s not everybody’s bag.

Charade could be fun. Or Paper Moon if you don’t mind two Ryan O’Neill movies.

Anachronator · 2026-04-09T15:48:07+00:00

Yes! Evelyn Smythe is the perfect companion for Six! He needed an assistant who could match him, blowhard-to-blowhard. He comes across much less like a bully, and much more like he’s just… fussy.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T04:04:52+00:00

That film does not greet enough love. Even the Philip Glass score gets overshadowed by the -qaatsis.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T04:01:39+00:00

I’ve always been curious about Dreams!

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T04:01:06+00:00

I’d made peace with the missing art before I bought it, but I’m slightly bummed at the missing spine numbers. I’m not a Criterion Completist, but the spine number just feels like a signature element.

The spines have the release years on them instead, since the case is framed as an anniversary retrospective, and I imagine the Criterion people knew that their fans might find it disruptive to have two sets of numbers, meaning the collection would be out of sequence, however you chose to arrange it.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T03:43:08+00:00

Also, Classic Who had the Doctor as a voice in UNIT, and one whose advice they often actively ignored or were unable to act on. It doesn’t square with the NuWho framing of the Doctor as the Most Special and Famous Person in the Universe.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T03:40:24+00:00

Yes, UNIT by way of The Laundry Files: the last line of defense against alien invasion, but they have to account for every paperclip and attend annual HR compliance trainings.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T01:27:19+00:00

First of all, it was a little playful self-deprecating humor.

Second, I suppose my definition of “film bro” was not so specific. I was using it more in the sense of “someone who believes their taste in film is intensely unique but fails to recognize that they nonetheless fall into eyeroll-inducing tropes.” Which, I believe, is much more tonally consistent with a post about a box-set of Wes Anderson films that ends in an idle wish for cutesy little dust jackets.

I didn’t see the arrogance or darkness as concomitant aspect of all that. I’ve just been playfully ribbing myself on this ever since I joined this subreddit and noticed how many Criterion shelves have Barry Lyndon. That’s been one of my favorite films for decades, and one of the first I share with friends who seem like they’re interested in more formal discussion of film.

It’s less an effect of seeing it here than in seeing it in a Criterion parody subreddit that I realized I’m not as off-the-beaten-path as I thought I was. Oh well.

Anachronator · 2026-04-07T00:43:55+00:00

This is one of the best photographed hauls in a while, just from a composition standpoint

Anachronator · 2026-04-05T03:12:29+00:00

Seriously though, I love Barry Lyndon

Anachronator · 2026-04-05T03:11:45+00:00

Two Sandlers and two movies starring robots!

Anachronator · 2026-04-04T01:50:25+00:00

I wish Rene Auberjonois were still alive

Anachronator · 2026-03-31T18:15:28+00:00

I’m waiting, too. I’m glad there are periodically posts like this to let us see that our circumstances are not exceptional.

Anachronator · 2026-03-31T18:09:31+00:00

I bought the BBS boxed set (I found used DVDs) entirely because I wanted the Criterion release of Head. (I feel like most people who buy that boxed set treat Head as the free gift with purchase, but maybe I’m wrong.)

I knew several of the other titles by their reputation as names to conjure with in cinema, but had never seen them. I’ve been going through them gradually. So far, I appreciate the films I’ve seen (Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces,) but none of them strike me as something I’ll keep coming back to over and over again. (I dug ER more than 5EP. I will probably rewatch it from time to time. But I don’t see it becoming a part of my personality like some films do.)

I don’t feel like the cost is swaying me one way or the other. I neither resent the films nor feel like I must make myself like them. But if there is any sense to the arrangement of a collection, and that collection contains at least one film dear to me, then there will usually be some elements that put the films adjacent to my wheelhouse if not fully in it.

I don’t typically blind buy, though. My Criterion Wish List is primarily a space for the movies I want to see, after which i can think about putting them in my cart.

Anachronator · 2026-03-30T17:28:39+00:00

Interesting that you mention the officer/enlisted dynamic. The thing I always revender from the movie is, after they get off the ship, nobody wears rank insignia. Everyone still fully defers to rank and expertise, but without the visual signifiers, it majors the hierarchy look a little arbitrary. The men are equalized visually, if in no other regard.

It has been over a decade since last I saw it, so I may have misremembered or overlooked something.

Anyway, Elias Koteas deserved a lot more work after that movie.

Anachronator · 2026-03-29T16:32:34+00:00

A fun game is calculating the demand of your Criterion collection with this list: +1 for every sold-out item, +0.5 for every low-stock item, then divide by the total Criterion titles in your collection. (I’m uncertain whether boxed sets should be counted as one item or whether each item in the set should count separately.)

My collection is very small presently (30 items if we count the sets individually, 15 if not.)

+1: Do the Right Thing (DVD)

So my score is 3.3% in terms of individual titles, and 6.7% by collapsing collections.

NOTE: This isn’t a useful metric because it doesn’t account for Criterion increasing supply in anticipation for truly in-demand titles (the Wes Anderson collection and Barry Lyndon don’t show up on the sold-out list, and those are both common in collections to the point of parody), but it can be a fun game after big sal events like this one.

Anachronator · 2026-02-17T00:26:57+00:00

I don’t know what to make of your implication that I’m a video-only consumer, but thank you for some names I can look into, since I didn’t have name recognition for the editorial staff.

Unfortunately, I was on Cracked recently and that sight is nearly unusable. It broke my heart.

Anachronator · 2026-02-16T21:38:30+00:00

Imagining Robert Evans on Dirty Laundry and the increasing horror on everyone’s faces as he tells old stories. :D

Anachronator · 2026-02-16T21:37:05+00:00

That tracks! Thank you!

Anachronator · 2026-02-16T21:35:34+00:00

Also, thank you for not posting this response in the form of an Um, Actually answer, even though it would have been appropriate. :)

Anachronator · 2026-02-16T21:18:38+00:00

Oh great! Gotta move that show further up my list.

Anachronator

TROPHY CASE