Criterion has just announced their October releases earlier today, which will include their first addition from A24 — the anxiety-inducing, adrenaline-creatingUncut GemsstarringAdam Sandler. The other five titles includeSatyajit Ray’sDevi,Lynne Ramsay’sRatcatcher,The Incredible Shrinking Man,High Sierra, andKaneto Shindo’sOnibaba.
BothRatcatcherandOnibabahave previously received Criterion releases, but both titles are receiving a re-release on Blu-ray.The Incredible Shrinking ManandHigh Sierraare new additions to the collection, whileDevijoins a substantial amount of Ray’s work that has already been released by Criterion. But arguably the big news in this month’s announcements is the release of 2019’sUncut Gems, the second Sandler film to join the collection afterPunch-Drunk Love, as well as the first film A24 film to be released on Criterion. While it’s not clear if Criterion has more future plans for more A24 releases in the future, this team-up is certainly an exciting one for film fans.
Check out the October 2021 Criterion Collection release dates, special features, cover arts, and more below. To learn more about these new additions or to preorder your copies, visit theCriterion website.
RELATED:Criterion Rounds Out September Collection With Gina Prince-Bythewood, Johnnie To Films
Onibaba(10/5)
Deep in the windswept marshes of war-torn medieval Japan, an impoverished older woman and her daughter-in-law murder lost samurai and sell their belongings for the most meager of sustenance. When a bedraggled neighbor returns from battle, lust, jealousy, and rage threaten to destroy the trio’s tenuous existence, before an ominous, ill-gotten demon mask seals their horrifying fate. Driven by primal emotions, dark eroticism, a frenzied score by Hikaru Hayashi, and stunning images both lyrical and macabre, the chilling folktaleOnibababy Kaneto Shindo conjures a nightmarish vision of humankind’s deepest desires and impulses.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary from 2001 featuring director Kaneto Shindo and actorsKeiSatoandJitsukoYoshimura
• Interview from 2003 with Shindo
• On-location footage shot by Sato
• PLUS: An essay by film criticElenaLazic, a 2001 director’s statement by Shindo, and a version of the Buddhist fable that inspired the film
High Sierra(10/12)
Marking the moment when the gritty gangster sagas of the 1930s began giving way to the romantic fatalism of 1940s film noir,HighSierraalso contains the star-making performance ofHumphreyBogart, who, alongside top-billedIdaLupino, proved his leading-man mettle with his tough yet tender turn as Roy Earle. A career criminal plagued by his checkered past, Earle longs for a simpler life, but after getting sprung on parole, he falls in with a band of thieves for one last heist in the Sierra Nevada. Directed with characteristic punch byRaoulWalsh—who makes the most of the vertiginous mountain location—Roy and Lupino’s Marie, a fellow outcast also desperate to escape her past, hurtle inexorably toward an unforgettable cliffside climax and a rendezvous with destiny.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
•ColoradoTerritory, director Raoul Walsh’s 1949 western remake ofHighSierra
• New conversation on Walsh between film programmerDave Kehrand criticFarran Smith Nehme
•The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh, a 2019 documentary byMarilynAnnMoss
•Curtains for Roy Earle, a 2003 featurette on the making of High Sierra
•Bogart: Here’s Looking at You, Kid, a 1997 documentary aired onThe South Bank Show
• New interview with film and media historianMiriam J. Pettyabout actorWillieBest
• New video essay featuring excerpts from a 1976 American Film Institute interview withHigh Sierranovelist and coscreenwriterW. R. Burnett
• Radio adaptation ofHigh Sierrafrom 1944
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by criticImogen Sara Smith
The Incredible Shrinking Man(10/19)
Existentialism goes pop in this benchmark of atomic-age science fiction, a superlative adaptation of a novel by the legendaryRichard Mathesonthat has awed and unnerved generations of viewers with the question, What is humanity’s place amid the infinity of the universe? Six months after being exposed to a mysterious radiation cloud, suburban everyman Scott Carey (GrantWilliams) finds himself becoming smaller . . . and smaller . . . and smaller—until he’s left to fend for himself in a world in which ordinary cats, mousetraps, and spiders pose a mortal threat, all while grappling with a diminishing sense of himself. Directed by the prolific creature-feature impresario Jack Arnold with ingenious optical effects and a transcendent metaphysical ending,The Incredible Shrinking Mangazes with wonder and trepidation into the unknowable vastness of the cosmic void.
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring genre-film historianTomWeaverand horror-music expertDavidSchecter
• New program on the film’s special effects by effects expertsCraigBarronandBenBurtt
• New conversation between filmmakerJoe Danteand comedian and writerDana Gould
•Auteur on the Campus: Jack Arnold at Universal(Director’s Cut) (2021)
• Interview from 2016 withRichard Christian Matheson, novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson’s son
• Interview with directorJack Arnoldfrom 1983
• 8 mm home-cinema version from 1957
• Trailer and teaser narrated by filmmakerOrson Welles
• PLUS: An essay by criticGeoffrey O’Brien
Ratcatcher(10/19)
In her breathtaking and assured debut feature,LynneRamsaycreates a haunting evocation of a troubled Glasgow childhood. Set during Scotland’s national garbage strike of the mid-1970s,Ratcatcherexplores the experiences of a poor adolescent boy as he struggles to reconcile his dreams and his guilt with the abjection that surrounds him. Utilizing beautiful, elusive imagery, candid performances, and unexpected humor, Ramsay deftly contrasts urban decay with a rich interior landscape of hope and perseverance, resulting in a work at once raw and deeply poetic.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Lynne Ramsay and cinematographerAlwin Küchler, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• New interview with Ramsay
• Audio interview from 2020 with Küchler
• Three award-winning short films by Ramsay:Small Deaths(1995),Kill the Day(1996), andGasman(1997)
• Interview with Ramsay from 2002
• PLUS: Essays by film criticGirish Shambuand filmmakerBarry Jenkins
Uncut Gems(10/26)
This jolt of pure cinematic adrenaline affirmed directorsJoshandBennySafdieas heirs to the gritty, heightened realism ofMartinScorseseandJohnCassavetes. Adam Sandler delivers an almost maniacally embodied performance as Howard Ratner, a fast-talking New York jeweler in relentless pursuit of the next big score. When he comes into possession of a rare opal, it seems Howard’s ship has finally come in—as long as he can stay one step ahead of a wife (IdinaMenzel) who hates him, a mistress (JuliaFox) who can’t quit him, and a frenzy of loan sharks and hit men closing in on him. Wrapping a vivid look at the old-school Jewish world of Manhattan’s Diamond District within a kinetic thriller,Uncut Gemsgives us one of the great characters in modern cinema: a tragic hero of competing compulsions on a shoot-the-moon quest to transcend his destiny.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• 4K digital transfer, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2019 featuring writer-directors Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, writer and editorRonald Bronstein, and producerSebastian Bear-McClard
• New interviews with cinematographerDarius Khondji, costume designerMiyako Bellizzi, and casting directorJennifer Venditti
• Documentaries from 2019 and 2020 on the making of the film and soundtrack
• Screen test featuring actors Adam Sandler and Julia Fox
•Goldman v. Silverman, a 2020 short film by the Safdies, featuring Sandler and Benny Safdie
• “Question & Answer,” a 2020 short film featuring the Safdies, Sandler, actorJason Bateman, and comedy writerMegan Amram
• Deleted and extended scenes, including a full performance of “The Morning” byThe Weeknd
• PLUS: An essay by film criticJ. Hobermanand, for the Blu-ray, a 2020 discussion of the film by the editorial staff ofJewish Currentsmagazine
Devi(10/26)
Master filmmaker Satyajit Ray explores the conflict between fanaticism and free will in Devi (The Goddess), issuing a subversively modern challenge to religious orthodoxy and patriarchal power structures. In the waning days of mid-nineteenth-century India’s feudal system, after his son (Soumitra Chatterjee) leaves for Kolkata to complete his studies, a wealthy rural landowner (Chhabi Biswas) is seized by the notion that his beloved daughter-in-law (a hauntingly sad-eyedSharmilaTagore) is the reincarnation of the goddess Kali—a delusion that proves devastating to the young woman and those around her. The opulently stylized compositions and the chiaroscuro lighting by cinematographerSubrataMitraheighten the entrancing expressionistic intensity of this domestic tragedy, making for an experience that is both sublime and shattering.
• New program featuring interviews with actors Sharmila Tagore and Soumitra Chatterjee, recorded in 2013
• New video essay by film scholarMeheli Sen
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film criticDevika Girish
KEEP READING:Criterion’s Entire Collection is on Sale This Month Only at Barnes & Noble
