The King of Physical Media. Plus: The 10 Best Blu-rays of 2024.

The King of Physical Media10,300 discs and the sickness behind them

Tracy Letts on

Serpico 1973

His parents took him to Dirty Harry at six; it was canceled, so he sat front row for Serpico instead. The start of a childhood with no kids' menu.

Tracy Letts on

Taxi Driver 1976

The only movie his parents ever pulled him out of, at a drive-in at 10, when Iris takes Travis back to her room and his mother said she was uncomfortable.

Tracy Letts on

City of Women 1980

Seen at 13 at UT while his father taught a summer seminar. The Fellini that told him you could break the rules: 'not his best, God knows,' but a mind-blower.

Tracy Letts on

Contempt 1963

Monastic era, a partially furnished Chicago studio, a fork for a comb. He did the math on a $29.99 Criterion at Tower Records, bought it, and the collection really began there.

Tracy Letts on

Christine 2016

Where he and Tim Simons (now 'Hitmaker,' too big for a physical-media show) became friends, 'because nobody else would talk to us.'

The small labels doing the real diggingLetts's discoveries of the year

Messiah of Evil 1975

Radiance Films, his label of the year, is a UK outfit mining overlooked world cinema. This was his favorite release of the year.

The Hot Spot 1990

One of Radiance's few American titles, a Dennis Hopper picture.

Miami Blues 1990

Radiance. 'A great transfer of the great Miami Blues.'

The Landlord 1970

Radiance's edition of early Hal Ashby.

Panic in Year Zero! 1962

Ray Milland directs and stars in a post-apocalypse where everyone needs a gun to survive. 'It's bonkers.' Bleakly relevant, per Letts.

Tony Arzenta 1973

Radiance's Italian gangster line: Alain Delon as a hitman trying to get out. 'We've seen it before, we'll see it again.'

Sympathy for the Underdog 1971

A Kinji Fukasaku yakuza picture; Radiance mining 1960s and '70s Japanese crime films.

Yakuza Graveyard 1976

More Fukasaku from Radiance.

Big Time Gambling Boss 1968

A Kosaku Yamashita film Letts had never heard of, one of Radiance's first releases and a good tell of what they do: micro-classics passed over by Criterion and Kino.

Dirty Money 1972

Canadian International Pictures (via Vinegar Syndrome). The first of Denys Arcand's informal early-'70s crime trilogy: 'what if Ken Loach made a crime film.'

Réjeanne Padovani 1973

The middle of Arcand's low-budget crime trilogy on Canadian International Pictures.

Gina 1975

The last of the Arcand trilogy. 'Every country has its own cinema and heritage, and some of it we just never had access to.'

The Bitter Stems 1956

Flicker Alley, with the Film Noir Foundation: an Argentinian noir he and Carrie watched last year. 'You are digging in the crates, Tracy.'

El Vampiro Negro 1953

Flicker Alley's Argentinian remake of M.

Deep in the Heart 1983

Fun City Editions, a New York label that manages about one title a year. A 1983 Texas production Sean bought on Letts's recommendation. 'Bizarrely relevant right now.'

Bad Company 1972

Fun City's edition of the Robert Benton Western, wanted on Blu-ray for a long time.

Rancho Deluxe 1975

Fun City, the Frank Perry picture.

Smile 1975

Fun City, Michael Ritchie's beauty-pageant satire.

Cutter's Way 1981

Fun City. 'Always on the list of movies you haven't seen that you need to see,' with an all-world John Heard performance.

Heartbreakers 1984

Fun City's Bobby Roth film, with Nick Mancuso and Peter Coyote 'back when Peter Coyote meant something in a movie.' A very specific personal point of view.

Freedom 1981

In Fun City's Primetime Panic box of '80s TV movies. Joseph Sargent directs a Barbara Turner script; the mother-daughter scenes 'are better than mother-daughter scenes' in most theatrical films.

Little Darlings 1980

Cinématographe (a Vinegar Syndrome offshoot) reissuing undistributed studio pictures in sturdy hard boxes. Put it on the shelf and a three-year-old grabs it: 'what is that pink thing?'

Touch 1997

Paul Schrader, cited as another Cinématographe rescue of overlooked studio work.

Red Rock West 1993

Cinématographe. Sean's pick, the John Dahl neo-noir.

Goin' South 1978

Cinématographe. One of the few films Jack Nicholson directed; Mary Steenburgen's first movie. 'A bit over-cranked, but I love Nicholson.'

Hollywood 90028 1973

Grindhouse Releasing: one part art-house existential drama, one part slasher, in the vein of Model Shop. Recommended to Sean by filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson; a major genre discovery of the year.

Death Game 1977

Grindhouse Releasing. 'Not exactly what you're expecting based on the packaging.' Thumbs up.

Interrogation 1989

Second Run, a small British label heavy on Eastern European cinema. Ryszard Bugajski's harrowing film about living in a totalitarian state, in the Hungarian Masters set.

Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea 1977

Second Run: a Czech sci-fi comedy about neo-Nazis who take a time machine back to deliver a hydrogen bomb to Hitler. 'It is hilarious.'

The 4K restorations worth the double-dipbuying a movie you already own, again

Happiness 1998

Todd Solondz, seen for the first time since its Angelika run. Letts made Wiener-Dog with Solondz; a title people had begged for.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 1973

The last great Peckinpah, in 4K, with a Bob Dylan score and a movie yearned for in the format for a long time. RIP Kris Kristofferson.

Peeping Tom 1960

Criterion 4K of the movie that, for all intents and purposes, ended Michael Powell's career and became a huge influence on Italian giallo filmmakers.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller 1971

The recurring argument for the format: try it on a 24-inch broadcast TV, then in 4K. With Altman, what's happening at the edge of the frame matters, and the pan-and-scan cut lost 40 percent of it.

Blood and Black Lace 1964

Arrow's 4K of the Mario Bava giallo, also the title of the film guide that first sent Letts chasing 200-odd gialli after post-therapy rentals at Cinefile. 'A fucking work of art.'

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978

The Philip Kaufman version, rediscovered, one of Adam Nayman's favorite films. Lost Donald Sutherland this year.

The Wages of Fear 1953

BFI's 4K restoration of the Clouzot: the film Friedkin's Sorcerer adapted, even as Friedkin insisted it wasn't based on it.

Paths of Glory 1957

Available in 4K from both Eureka and Kino Lorber, the double-dip shopper's dilemma over which transfer and packaging.

The Third Man 1949

Sean's favorite film of all time. He skipped the deluxe edition (the one with a pop-up Ferris wheel and a zither score that plays when you open the box), but the transfer is legit.

The Conversation 1974

Kino Lorber. The pricey edition ($79.99) ships with a cassette of the score ('what the hell am I going to play this on?'), but the transfer holds up: the waxy 70s look resolves into new clarity.

High Noon 1952

Kino Lorber 4K: 'one of the most significant American films ever made.'

Last Year at Marienbad 1961

Kino Lorber. The Alain Resnais 'durational mindfuck.' Not for everyone; for those it's for, a good transfer.

Prime Cut 1972

Kino Lorber. Letts owns it on Blu-ray.

North Dallas Forty 1979

One of the year's Kino Lorber releases.

Opera 1987

Severin's 4K of late-period Argento: 'maybe the last great Argento.' Already sold out by the time Sean tried to buy it.

Seven Samurai 1954

Reissued in 4K by both Criterion and BFI. Letts's first Criterion DVD; he now owns it across four formats, the running joke of never being done buying the same movie.

Bug 2007

William Friedkin's film of Letts's play, now with a 4K restoration. Letts adored Friedkin, who called him out of the blue and did everything he said he would.

Nowhere 1997

Criterion's Gregg Araki, an early creative influence on Letts. Araki's 'omnibus tale of slightly disassociated existentialist teens.'

Trainspotting 1996

Criterion 4K, which he loves, but the packaging is taller than every other spine on the shelf. 'A real fuck-you to people with shelves. Don't do that anymore, Criterion.'

The Devils 1971

A very good BFI DVD, never issued on Blu-ray. A pandemic movie-night favorite, one of his favorite films of all time, though not one he can put on for Carrie.

Saint Jack 1979

Peter Bogdanovich, surprisingly already on Blu-ray, with an underrated Ben Gazzara performance. 'That guy was good and stayed good.'

Also mentioned raised along the way

Growing up at the movies Dirty HarryBedknobs and BroomsticksThe Go-BetweenFrankenstein Must Be DestroyedDracula Has Risen from the GraveBattleship PotemkinNanook of the NorthGone with the WindNorth by NorthwestDuck SoupA Night at the Opera

The giallo rabbit hole Deep RedThe Stendhal SyndromeTrauma

Letts on screen and stage Barton FinkThe Talented Mr. RipleyKiller JoeAugust: Osage CountyWiener-DogWhere the Heart IsA Killing in a Small TownThe CompanyGeorgiaNight MovesWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?The Rainmaker

The kids' canon The Dark CrystalToy StoryThe Lion KingSleeping BeautyCreature from the Black LagoonFrankensteinFrankenstein Conquers the WorldGhostbusters: Afterlife

In passing SorcererThe ExorcistChuck & BuckModel ShopBring Me the Head of Alfredo GarciaCross of IronConvoyDuneDune: Part TwoA Complete UnknownLa Dolce Vita8½MartyrsGoodnight MommyThe LodgeDogvilleThe Devil's BathInglourious BasterdsMr. 3000Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryThe Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeRashomonThe Barbarian InvasionsJesus of Montreal

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Nobody Wants ThisVeepCandyThe SinnerFargoThe LeftoversThe White LotusThe Underground RailroadBarney MillerHomicide: Life on the StreetThe PrisonerSeinfeldThe Drew Carey ShowProfilerThe PretenderTiger KingThe Last DanceFriends

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