Coming in September: Coming in September: Born in Flames, a DIY fantasia of female rebellion from Lizzie Borden; Flow, Gints Zilbalodis’s Academy Award–winning animated international sensation; Read My Lips and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, two tour-de-force thrillers from modern French master Jacques Audiard; and—now on 4K UHD—This Is Spinal Tap, a legendary mock rockumentary directed by Rob Reiner, and High and Low, Akira Kurosawa’s highly influential police procedural. Plus: The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years, our previously announced twenty-disc collector’s set celebrating a true American original, alongside two of his spellbindingly intricate adventures, Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun.
High and Low (#24) out Sept 9
Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in High and Low, the highly influential domestic drama and police procedural from director Akira Kurosawa. Adapting Ed McBain’s detective novel King’s Ransom, Kurosawa moves effortlessly from compelling race-against-time thriller to exacting social commentary, creating a diabolical treatise on class and contemporary Japanese society. Read Steve Geise’s review of the Criterion Blu-ray. The Special Edition Features are:
Buy High and Low Criterion Collection Blu-ray- New 4K digital restoration, with 4.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
- Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- Interviews with actors Toshiro Mifune and Tsutomu Yamazaki
- Trailers and teaser
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and an on-set account by Japanese-film scholar Donald Richi
This Is Spinal Tap (#12) out Sept 16
Spinal Tap has come to be recognized as England’s loudest and most punctual band. In the legendary rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, now beautifully restored, Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) embark on their final American tour, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) capturing all the mishaps, creative tensions, dwindling crowds, and ill-fated drummers. This Is Spinal Tap takes DiBergi’s brilliant vérité style and turns it up to eleven! The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Rob Reiner, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Alternate 2.0 uncompressed stereo soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
- Three audio commentaries: one with actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer; one with Reiner, producer Karen Murphy, and editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda; and one with band members Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls
- New conversation between Reiner and actor Patton Oswalt
- The Cutting Room Floor, featuring outtakes, alternate takes, and abandoned subplots
- Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (1981)
- Trailers, promotional spots, media appearances, music videos, and commercials
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Alex Pappademas
Born in Flames (#1277) out Sept 16
A blistering rallying cry issued loud, clear, and unapologetically queer, Lizzie Borden’s explosive postpunk provocation is a DIY fantasia of female rebellion set in America ten years after a revolution that supposedly transformed the country into a democratic socialist utopia. In reality, racism, sexism, and economic inequality are as virulent as ever, and a band of radicals—led by Black, lesbian, and working-class women—join forces to fight back. Told through a furiously fractured, kinetically edited flurry of television news broadcasts, pirate radio transmissions, agitprop, and protests shot guerrilla-style on the streets of New York City, Born in Flames is a shock wave of feminist futurism that’s both an essential document of its time and radically ahead of it. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- 2K digital restoration—preserved by Anthology Film Archives, with restoration funding from the Golden Globe Foundation and The Film Foundation, and supervised and approved by director Lizzie Borden—with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Introduction by Borden
- New audio commentary featuring Borden; cast members Adele Bertei, Hillary Hurst, Sheila McLaughlin, Pat Murphy, Marty Pottenger, and Jeanne Satterfield; and camerapeople DeeDee Halleck and Chris Hegedus
- Regrouping (1976), Borden’s directorial debut, an experimental documentary about a New York City women’s group
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by film scholar Yasmina Price and author So Mayer
Flow (#1278) out Sept 23
A thrilling tale of friendship and survival that took indie animation to ecstatic new heights of ambition and imagination, this Academy Award–winning international sensation follows a courageous cat after its home is devastated by a great flood. As the cat teams up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, the crew must rely on trust, courage, and their wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. Working with a small team using open-source software, visionary DIY animator Gints Zilbalodis conjures a sublime sensory odyssey and a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of community. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- 4K digital transfer, with 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, approved by director Gints Zilbalodis
- 4K digital master of Away (2019), Zilbalodis’s debut feature
- One 4K UHD disc of Flow and Away and two Blu-rays with Flow, Away, and the special features
- New audio commentary featuring Zilbalodis
- Full feature-length animatic
- New interviews with Zilbalodis and cowriter-coproducer Matīss Kaža
- Dream Cat (2025), a making-of documentary produced for Latvian Television
- Aqua (2012) and Priorities (2014), short films by Zilbalodis with new commentaries by the director
- Unused-shot reel, with new commentary by Zilbalodis
- Trailers, TV spots, and proof-of-concept teasers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by critic Nicolas Rapold and collectible stickers
Read My Lips (#1279) out Sept 23
Two outcasts are drawn together by crime and passion in this early tour de force from director Jacques Audiard. Carla (Emmanuelle Devos, who won a César Award for her performance) is an unappreciated, hard-of-hearing employee at a nondescript construction company. Her lonely life gets a jolt of excitement when she hires a new assistant: Paul (Vincent Cassel), an ex-con who soon enlists her (and her lip-reading ability) in a risky scheme. With visceral camera work and sound design, Audiard immerses viewers in the duo’s increasingly turbulent world, blending noir conventions with complex character development for a thriller of unique depth and emotion. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jacques Audiard and director of photography Mathieu Vadepied, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New afterword by Audiard
- Audio commentary with actors Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos
- Program about the making of the film featuring interviews with Audiard, Vadepied, and coscreenwriter Tonino Benacquista
- Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Audiard
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (#1280) out Sept 23
A riveting character study in the guise of a gritty underworld thriller, Jacques Audiard’s international breakthrough features an explosive performance from Romain Duris as a real-estate broker torn between the dirty dealings of his slumlord father (Niels Arestrup) and his recently rekindled love for classical piano. Can music offer salvation from a life of sin? Winner of eight César Awards, including Best Film, this bold reimagining of the New Hollywood cult classic Fingers showcases Audiard’s gift for balancing breathtaking tension with galvanic human drama. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- High-definition digital master, approved by director Jacques Audiard, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New interview with Audiard
- Interviews with coscreenwriter Tonino Benacquista and composer Alexandre Desplat
- Press conference from the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival, featuring members of the cast and crew
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Audiard
- Rehearsal footage
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Jonathan Romney
The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years out Sept 30
Wes Anderson’s first ten features represent twenty-five years of irrepressible creativity, an ongoing ode to outsiders and quixotic dreamers, and a world unto themselves, graced with a mischievous wit and a current of existential melancholy that flows through every captivating frame. This momentous twenty-disc collector’s set includes new 4K masters of the films, over twenty-five hours of special features, and ten illustrated books, presented in a deluxe clothbound edition. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital masters of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
- Ten 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and ten Blu-rays with the films and special features
- Over twenty-five hours of special features, including audio commentaries, interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, auditions, short films, home movies, commercials, storyboards, animation tests, archival recordings, still photographs, discussions/analyses, and visual essays
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by Richard Brody, James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, Martin Scorsese, and Erica Wagner
Isle of Dogs (#1281) out Sept 30
Wes Anderson conjures a dystopian future Japan in magical stop-motion. After a canine virus outbreak, the dogs of Megasaki are exiled to a vast island garbage dump. When Atari (the daring twelve-year-old ward of the city’s mayor) sets out to rescue his beloved Spots, he meets a pack of mongrel friends and is launched on an epic quest. Innovatively blending English and Japanese dialogue through a cross-cultural voice cast that includes Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Yoko Ono, and Koyu Rankin, this fable of loyalty and disobedience combines Anderson’s signature themes—friendship among outsiders, the adventure of rebellion—with a delight in the boundless possibilities of animated storytelling. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Anderson and actor Jeff Goldblum
- Feature-length storyboard animatic The Making of “Isle of Dogs,” featuring animators, puppet makers, modelers, sculptors, set dressers, illustrators, production designers, and others
- The Visual Comedy of “Isle of Dogs,” a video essay by filmmakers Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou
- Jupiter in the Studio, featuring actor F. Murray Abraham touring the set
- Animation tests, visual-effects breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes and time-lapse footage
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Moeko Fujii and a poster by cover artist Katsuhiro Otomo
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (#1282) out Sept 30
A salute to writers and expatriates, Wes Anderson’s tenth feature takes the form of the final edition of The French Dispatch, a weekly magazine chronicling life in the city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, France (for American readers). Made up of three featured stories—a profile of a tortured artist, a report on student revolutionaries, and a recounting of a tabloid kidnapping with a gourmet twist—plus an obituary and a travelogue, this dazzlingly constructed anthology mixes everything from theatrical interludes to tableaux vivants to comic-book animation. The superb ensemble cast includes Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Léa Seydoux, Owen Wilson, and Jeffrey Wright. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital master supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Anderson and collaborators Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman
- Selected-scene storyboard animatic
- Behind the Scenes of “The French Dispatch”
- Visual essay featuring the writing of film scholar David Bordwell, read by Rupert Friend
- Episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour featuring Anderson, New Yorker editor David Remnick, and actor Jeffrey Wright
- Interview with artist Sandro Kopp, who created Moses Rosenthaler’s paintings in the film
- Music video for “Aline” by Jarvis Cocker, directed by Anderson and illustrated by Javi Aznarez
- “The French Dispatch” Reads the “New Yorker” (and Other Magazines), featuring Wright and actors Bill Murray, Stephen Park, Elisabeth Moss, Owen Wilson, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton reading excerpts from classic magazine pieces
- “The French Dispatch”: Miniature Unit Berlin and Accidentally Angoulême, shorts about the making of the film
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Richard Brody; excerpts from the limited-edition magazine issue of The French Dispatch, published to promote the film, including historical and production dispatches by writer Alex Pasternack and further-reading recommendations from Anderson; and a poster by Aznarez featuring the French Dispatch magazine covers created for the film
