Known for its meticulously considered DVD releases, Criterion outdid itself with its new 20-disc Wes Anderson collection. Containing the director’s first 10 films on 4K UHD DVD, the Anderson Archive brings the auteur’s precise design sensibilities to this stunning box set. At $400, the price dares potential purchasers to wait for one of Criterion’s many 50% off sales. Still, with the holidays around the corner, it’s a hefty, luxurious gift for the extremely lucky Anderson fanatic in anyone’s life, or the perfect start to a burgeoning cinephile’s physical media collection. We highlighted the collection back in the fall, but it bears repeating: This set contains new 4K masters of the director’s first 25 years of output, running from his early breakout Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Royal Tenenbaums through 2021’s The French Dispatch. His two stop-motion features, Isle Of Dogs and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, appear alongside 25 hours of special features, 10 illustrated books, and new essays from writers Richard Brody, Bilge Ebiri, and Moeko Fujii, as well as filmmakers James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese. Could we ask for anything else? Sure, Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme. For now, this is most satisfactory.
