Welcome back to Projections, the only newsletter that wants you to feed the only addiction that will enrich your artistic soul: the procurement of plastic.
I am writing to you from a place of gentle frenzy. The weeks leading up to fall film festival season are harried for me, packed with pre-recordings, last-minute screenings, whispery late-breaking news about imminent surprises (I’m sitting on a fat one from a personal favorite that I can’t wait for the world to find out about), and much more in preparation for the fall.
I love the fall. As a kid, I loved going back to school—despite a July birthday, never been much of a summer guy (too pale). I love turning leaves, Halloween, and appropriate sweater weather. (I wear them year-round.) I love pumpkin-related accoutrements, cuisine, and decoration. I love striding hither and yon down a tree-lined street with my family, holding an overpriced coffee with no particular place to go. It’s a simple version of freedom. And I love fall movie season, of course. The festivals, the prestige pictures, the all-night horror marathons, the awards prognostication. I’m in for all of it. After two decades working in the world of pop culture, I’ve still got a childlike enthusiasm for the big game of What’s Next? I’ll be telling you all about it for the next several months.
But I also like fall because it’s that much closer to Christmas, the season of giving. And so today I am giving you a list of things I want and you should, too. After last week’s Physical Media Corner, in which I patted myself (and all of you) on the back for demanding and receiving a 4K release of Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, I thought we should make the whole newsletter out of the black box. That’s right, it’s time for my top 10 most-desired 4Ks.
I’m asking now because something exciting is happening: the market for Blu-ray 4Ks is so gassed and riled amongst collectors and increasingly curious novices that many titles that felt caught in the limbo of corporate disinterest are finally starting to emerge. Last week’s news that two beloved Robin Williams features, Dead Poets Society and Mrs. Doubtfire, would receive new 4Ks had brand-aware collectors excited simply because Disney controls the rights to these movies. Which means, after this and Barbarian, there is clearly still someone at the wheel in Burbank making calls on home video distribution for catalog. Even more exciting, Mrs. Doubtfire is a Fox title and, while an enduring family film, isn’t hitting an anniversary of any kind that would augur this announcement. It’s just ... good business for Disney. Heady times in this little corner of the world. Add that to a list of long-desired and varied films like The Devils, A.I., Wag the Dog, Nadja, and Something’s Gotta Give receiving new editions while films like Marie Antoinette, The Shout, and James Gray’s Little Odessa (with a special feature that includes yours truly) receive the gorgeous Criterion Collection treatment, it’s hard not to feel like anything is possible.
