The Criterion Collection announced its June release slate this past week and there are a couple of surprises that should please cinephiles and movie lovers as well as the casual viewer.
So let’s get to it (and this is always a subjective visitation).
How about we start with Barry Jenkins’ 2021 min-series adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad.
This ten-part mini-series, starring Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King), will be available as both four-disc Blu-ray and four-disc DVD purchasing options on June 25.
Bonus features include commentary by Barry Jenkins (selected episodes), who is joined by cinematographer James Laxton and film editor Joi McMillion. Additionally, there are deleted scenes, the featurette titled “Building The Underground Railroad” and Jenkins’ film titled The Gaze.
On the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack release front from Criterion during the month of June we find three new arrivals.
Again, it’s a subjective call, but let’s go with the writing and directing team of Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s 1996 steamy neo-noir thriller, Bound, teaming Gina Gershon with Jennifer Tilly as Violet and Corky — outside-the-law lovers — who scheme to steal Mafia money from Violet’s money-laundering boyfriend, Caesar (played by Joe Pantoliano).
Bonus delights here include a tag-team commentary with the Wachowskis, Gershon, Tilly, Pantoliano, editor Zach Staenberg and consultant Susie Bright (she worked with Gershon and Tilly on their sex scenes) and a half-dozen video sessions.
The other two 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack releases from Criterion in June are auteur filmmaker David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, which will be available on June 25, and director Terry Gilliam’s 1998 “road trip,” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (June 4).