What an efficient use of time.

A few weeks back I came across a YouTube video of a couple taking advantage of the B&N Criterion sale. They spent a long time in the store (a couple hours I think) going through all the titles, sitting on the floor and trying to decide which ones to purchase.

I don't get it. You can get all the information about every single Criterion title on their site - main cast, description and usually trailers. You also have IMDB and other sites for more information. You can even search for disc reviews (video/audio/supplements quality). Much more information than you're going to get looking at the front and back covers. Decide what you want when you're at home, and then go to the store, grab them off the shelves, pay and leave.

But if they behaved like normal people, they wouldn't have content, Content, CONTENT!

"INPUT! NEED MORE INPUT!"

Must! Make! Money! With! Para! Social! Relationships!

At least that B&N couple had a couple of hours to sit and fart around with the actual discs. At the Criterion Van you get three minutes. Either way, neither options seems ideal. Few Barnes & Noble stores have much of the overall Collection in stock, while the Van has everything but you get t little time. Go on the website, and you’re done.

But, as Story so rightly put it, it’s all about content these days.

I should note that the guy who came out of the truck when I was there was the second last guy (the last one was a festival volunteer). When you come out of the truck, the Criterion staff give you some polite applause as part of the ‘show’. When this dude emerged he screamed at the top of his lungs “YEEEEEEAAAAHHHH - BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVAAARRRR!!!” while hosting his loot over his head. He was stoked, no doubt about it, but I’m thinking “Seven hours in line for that birthday present?” To each his own, I guess.

In fairness I can’t deny the power that the CC brand and the Van have over people, some considerably more than others. I’ve said it before here: as ridiculous and time-wasting as I find the whole concept, it’s a brilliant marketing tool, and Criterion is no different than any company nowadays in embracing the social media + endless content era. They know full well that some people are born to stand in lines for whatever shiny bauble is at the other end, while other people cringe at the thought – that’s me! I rarely stand in line-ups for the screenings at TIFF, so the lines at the various collaborator pop-ups along ‘Festival Street’ – and there’s quite a few of them, mostly food related freebies – don’t get a second thought.

I for one miss the cultural experience of going to the video store with a friend and looking around for an hour at different covers, reading the back cover, debating which films to get, having drawn out discussions. That part of it was half the fun. I really miss it. Those Barnes and Noble people you saw are 100% doing it the right way. I don’t think I’d do the criterion closet mobile van. But they record and post the videos, so I understand how it would be satisfying to have a few minutes to share your personal experience with cinema on Criterion’s platform. None of it seems off putting to me.

You never went to the rental store with my dad. He would pick up every movie and read the back and after four hours not rent anything.

During the sale, I usually will pick out a couple of times that I make the nearly hour drive to the nearest B&N store. There are actually two nearby each other. I will check inventory if there's a high-demand title that I want, but otherwise, I just go to browse what the two stores have and decide which titles to buy from there. Maybe it's the fun of the hunt or flashbacks to rental store days, but I still appreciate the browse.

Yeah, I don't do it as much anymore, but I used to always buy 3 or 4 per visit during sales. I would usually go with a plan to buy one new release, one upgrade (once Blu-ray was introduced), and then one or two blind-buys/surprises. Whatever happened to catch my eye while I was browsing. It was absolutely part of the fun and a completely different experience than researching online. I made a lot of fun discoveries that way. I wouldn't video myself and put it on YouTube, because why would I, but hanging out in the store for an hour was great.

I don’t get watching a YouTube video of people shopping.

But seriously, I don’t have any issue with the way you or the people in the video decide to spend their time. Do what you enjoy, I say!

December:

Large Marge enters the hallowed Criterion ranks!

I Know Where I'm Going! Finally! The 4k restoration is like 5 years old at this point. It's the only major Powell & Pressburger film I haven't seen/don't already own. When I watched Made in England (the P&P documentary) last year, I even fast forwarded through the segment on IKWIG because I knew this was coming eventually and I didn't want to be spoiled.

House Party and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure on Criterion. We live in wild times.

Given that the 2nd U.S. Civil War is approaching, maybe Criterion is doing this to, you know, lighten the mood.

OK, I guess I'm down for Pee Wee on Criterion!

I never would have thought Pee Wee's Big Adventure would enter in the Criterion catalog. Im absolutely going to buy it. I would love it if Boogie Nights would be a Criterion 4k as well.

Who are these guys?

PTA is severely under-served on 4k overall.
Only 2 of his 9 movies released got 4k treatment (Punch-Drunk Love and Phantom Thread).

There was a tentative July date in a Warner presentation. A lot of what’s in that deck has been released or at least announced, so I bet we do see it soon (whether it’s from Warner directly or through Criterion). Barry Lyndon and Pee-Wee were both on the list and are being released through Criterion, so there’s definitely hope!

It would only make sense if Boogie Nights was put out on 4k by Criterion since I remember they put out a deluxe laserdisc release in the 90s.

The closet-in-a-truck is headed to Chicago.


I just wonder when the real Tracy Letts closet video will be released… not just this quick promo.

^ I was hoping that promo would be while the truck was driving and the DVDs were falling everywhere like Axel Foley and the cigarettes at the beginning of Beverly Hills Cop.

I guess Criterion is too high brow for that kind of humor.

I’ve often wondered if Severin or VS could do one of these to tour around to cult film and midnight-style fests, only in a van retrofitted to look like a creepy old beater, maybe with some bloodstained dents, sickly-coloured headlights, weird noises and screams emanating from hidden speakers, maybe some effects smoke spilling out. I still wouldn’t stand in line half a day for a discount, but it would be amusing to see and good for brand recognition in this age of social media. Criterion figured that out. Pretty sure both labels set up merch tables at conventions, but I don’t know about film fests. At TIFF, the Criterion truck fit well because the festival shuts down a lengthy section of a major downtown artery in the theater district for the first three days, so they were able to park the van easily and set up a few hundred feet of guardrails for the lineups. Most smaller and cult fests here don’t really have that kind of pull with the city, and I’d imagine that’s true in other places.

Incidentally, the shouting guy I mentioned coming out of the mobile closet after a six- to seven-hour wait – essentially the last guy in line except for a festival volunteer who went in after him without waiting all dayy – made it into that commercial with Tracy Letts, not surprisingly. You can see him for a nanosecond right around the 0:18 mark, and more of him in my boring ‘festival street’ video below, at 12:28. Despite my eye rolling at the time people waste in line for this kind of thing, I’m totally in agreement with others here who believe to each their own. This guy was definitely overjoyed about his ‘experience’ even though he could’ve gotten those movies and many more for the same discount online with all the time to choose. In all fairness it’s simply a part of the era we live in, so more power to him.

Sames. I think it will sell well.

I was hoping that if Criterion released His Girl Friday they would have done a box set with all the versions but I guess two out of four (I think) ain't bad.