By My collecting habits in 2025, as they have in most years, functioned in a pocket between selective and impulsive. For a film like WEAPONS, which I quite enjoyed but didn’t strongly feel I had to add to my shelves, I opted for a Blu-ray over the 4K because of the muted color palette and lower cost, but also so that the eventual release of the superior BARBARIAN can be coupled with the successor it’s in dialogue with; there were also flash sales that concluded with me paying $12 for a 4K of TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA, a Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine two-hander western I had never heard of and still haven’t watched, but if Kino Lorber put it out, then how bad could it be? Though the MSRPs at new boutiques are skyrocketing, the brick and mortar storefronts are leveling out their pricing: There really hasn’t been a better time to start collecting when your local record store is selling anything that doesn’t have a Criterion label for under 10 bucks. It’s this type of freedom that’s encouraged a more collage-type approach to my Blu-ray collection, an assemblage of memories that doubles as an archive. If there are all-time favorites I’ve yet to physically purchase, it’s because there’s no copy available, so I’ve pivoted to seeking out friends and family’s all-timers, films I’ve written about (read: panned) for Merry-Go-Round, and finding new classics so I can keep haunting my pals at assorted Los Angeles record stores. I love going to record shops so much that, in the past year, I even started collecting vinyl, but the less I admit about my spending habits on that front, the better. One of the great final rushes of 2025 was watching BLUE THUNDER on Tubi, loving it, and then finding the out-of-print Blu-ray at Atomic Records for $5 less than a week later. Maybe God is real.
For anyone looking to dip their toes into physical media collecting in 2026, I will advise that 4K Blu-rays are fickle beasts: the quality of the transfers vary (translation: some look like shit), the prices are lowkey insane (though there are finally sales that mark them down to standard Blu-ray pricing), and it takes a bit of finagling to get them to actually look markedly better than what you’re used to (read: spend a lot of money on your TV). If you’ve never collected your favorite movies, start with Blu-rays! They’re pretty much getting as cheap as DVDs, and I promise, with all this HD streaming we’ve been doing, you’re going to notice how shitty DVDs look. There’s a lot of deeply nerdy, overly detailed minutiae that goes into finding a good 4K disc, and I don’t have that expertise per se, but I do keep track of what makes me go, “Oh shit, this is like watching it at the movies.”
As for this list you are about to read: This is judged from a very limited selection process. There just weren’t enough quarters hidden in 2025’s couch cushions to check out the wares of Lionsgate Limited or Grindhouse Releasing (even at the point of writing this, I’m staring at the home page wondering if I should give in to my $90 shopping cart occupied by the gorgeous deluxe editions of Fulci’s THE BEYOND and CAT IN THE BRAIN, respectively), nor have I dipped my toes into the ultra-obscurities put out by Fun City Editions. This whole tariff situation has locked me out of justifying any overseas purchases, too, so with great regret I haven’t been able to pay up for Umbrella’s release of FREAKED. And, finally, all my love to Arrow Video, and bravo to them for brokering a relationship with Warner to expand their catalogue into New Line Cinema additions (that boxy THE MASK set is up my alley), but their slate this year was one of the most “$45 edition of a three-star movie” slates in their history, so I ended up spending the year purchasing Arrow titles from previous years (that ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK disc is great). We don’t get sent free media copies of any of these titles, I’m putting down my cold, hard cash out of love for the game, baby. I still think we are mistaking a niche market feeding frenzy as a renaissance—no, I do not think physical media is “so fucking back”—but nevertheless, we are spoiled by a wealth of high-quality offerings, especially for titles that have never received that kind of respect. There are many caveats, but you cannot deny the palpable buzz circulating the resurgence of buying DVDs, books, trinkets, CDs, vinyl, and retro games. I’m jazzed about it. If you’re looking for a comprehensive review of the year’s physical media releases, Merry-Go-Round is not your outlet; however, if you’re looking for a personal purchasing record that I will go to bat for (including a selection of the best standard Blu-rays from the year), then welcome to my list of 2025’s greatest discs.
KILLER OF SHEEP – The Criterion Collection
Previously only available on a scarcely available DVD from Milestone Films, Criterion settled up with them to follow up their 2019 release of TO SLEEP WITH ANGER with Charles Burnett’s almighty KILLER OF SHEEP in May. Six years later is better than never. There’s too much to be said about KILLER OF SHEEP, a softly seismic chronicle of Watts in the mid-70s: It’s somnambulant excursions into sense-memory, the tonal jolts between convivial scheming and downtrodden survival, and the inexplicable joys found in the misery. Burnett is my personal Steinbeck, but for now I’d rather contemplate the availability era of cinema that we are fortunate to live through. KILLER OF SHEEP only existed on 16mm—and eventually enlarged to 35mm thanks to UCLA—but since the soundtrack was unlicensed, showings were on the down-low for most of the 20th century. It wasn’t until 2007 that Charles Burnett’s masterpiece actually opened in theaters (with its soundtrack licensing covered by a donation from the legend, Steven Soderbergh), and even then, the film didn’t jump into the canon. To this day, it’s still only a classic for the intermediate-to-advanced film enthusiast classes, but I think this Criterion edition is tipping the scales. There’s a grave injustice behind the classics of the LA Rebellion not being embraced as essential cinema, but there’s also the plain truth that it was challenging to watch these films in an acceptable state. And now, boom, here’s a 4K fucking Blu-ray. It’s one thing to finally be able to buy a mythic film, but it’s another deeply moving beast to see decades of effort culminate in a readily available viewing experience for one of the best American films of the 20th century. Of all the “coming soon” announcements in 2025, KILLER OF SHEEP is the one that shook the most excitement into me.
THE KILLER 4K – Shout! Studios
Here’s the thing … I really don’t like what Shout! Studios has done with their long-awaited John Woo releases. Under their newly minted Hong Kong Cinema Classics banner, Shout! has secured the American rights to Woo’s greatest hometown hits, and instead of dropping them as normal additions to the product line, Shout! is instead chaining a hefty $50 price tag to limited hard-box editions of HARD BOILED and THE KILLER, in addition to arbitrarily pulling HARD BOILED from market so that now only scalper prices can reign. At this point, it’s crickets on whether regular (cough, more affordable) editions will be hitting the market. I gave in as soon as the January press release revealed that the Golden Princess catalogue was not only hitting legitimate purchasing avenues, but getting restorations to boot; I told myself “no matter the price, I am buying those.” And now, well, I’ve seen the price, and I’ve only begrudgingly purchased THE KILLER (I had a gift card!) This is pretty stinky behavior, and I understand that the market will reward this kind of artificial scarcity, but also, go fuck yourselves.
Yes, THE KILLER’s image quality is now healthier than it’s ever been, at last replacing the bootleg DVD I bought on eBay when I was 13. Gone is the pillarboxing, pixelation, and putrid translations. It looks like a real movie again, an action masterpiece that can get played next to your DIE HARD and LETHAL WEAPON 4Ks and blow both them honkeys out of the water. Is Shout! the best steward for this mythical line-up of movies? Known for scratches, subpar subtitles, and—if you peep Reddit—a wonky customer service history, a lot of folks would’ve preferred a better home (a fair amount of these complainers are holding out for Arrow Video’s UK release in March 2026), but I made a vow in January and followed through in December. I can’t totally recommend that you also pay up and encourage these dodgy practices ($64.95 MSRP for a Blu-ray, I’m sorry, guys, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me), but there’s no denying that there’s a new grail on my shelf.
EYES WIDE SHUT 4K – The Criterion Collection
There’s not much more to be said: This is the best transfer of 2025. The movie radiates with heat, its icy veins now coursing; a film that I always assumed looked cruddy by design (a beige, pukey varnish that flattened the colors and made human skin look like wax), the Criterion edition of EYES WIDE SHUT, with its restored visuals overseen by cinematographer Larry Smith, sees an already eternal masterstroke given a second life by the 4K format. Cruise! Kidman! Kubrick! Bada bing, bada boom! It took nearly two months for my pre-order to arrive, so to me that’s a sign that you probably already bought this, but in case you haven’t, now you’re adding it to your cart. A thick Taschen coffee table book, a reliable pair of black sweats, a sturdy pocket knife, a nice piece of luggage, a go-to red wine … newly added to the list of daily lifestyle essentials is the EYES WIDE SHUT Blu-ray. It’s not rare for Criterion to have a banner year, but 2025 was one for the books.
NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER 4K – Kino Lorber
To get it out of the way, there is technically a flaw on this transfer: On my first viewing, it went completely unnoticed, but Kino Lorber’s QC team left in a repeated sequence of some boys stripping the parts from a van. It made no difference on my perception of one of the best first-time viewings of 2025, Robert Butler’s bonkers and legendarily obscure NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER, and I am not in the camp of folks who are disappointed that replacement discs were not sent out. With grace: Who fucking cares? It is such a miracle that we get a 4K disc of this grimy ass flick in our lifetimes.
Star James Brolin’s adrenaline-fueled resilience is utilized within the narrative confines of rescuing his kidnapped daughter, but NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER sees a mechanical dispensary of man-on-the-street justice at the service of both defending and eviscerating the status quo of a metropolis in flux: It’s like the Mamdani mayoral run if Zohran sucker-punched four people at every campaign stop. More people moving out of New York? Fine, fuck ‘em, more hot dogs for the ones left behind—for the ones who will fight tooth and nail to do right by their neighbors, be they from your block or a whole different borough. New York may abandon you, but you’re pussy if your response is to abandon her back. Perhaps the all-time greatest “you don’t get to hate New York unless you love New York” film ever made. As the antagonist, you have Cliff Gorman playing one of the great New Yorkers in all of fiction: a tossed around reject who’s actually the most correct person in the room, but for the absolute worst reasons. The film sets up so much plot only for every scene to be motivated by the impact of what’s being felt in that very moment, I mean, folks, I was blown away by nearly every second of this thing. It’s an impossible American gem; so easy to say “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore,” but truthfully nothing with this vigor, scope, and sense of guerrilla destruction was common for 1980 either. No explosions to be seen, but this has a similar strain of DGAF artistic carnage in late-70s NYC that Coppola had in the Philippines. Run, do not walk, this was my favorite blind buy of the year.
THE SUBSTANCE 4K – Mubi
There is a poetic sleekness to the image quality on Mubi’s 4K edition of THE SUBSTANCE, as though watching it with this level of crystal-clear clarity adds an additional sheen of humor to Coraline Fargeat’s Henenlotter-indebted bad taste orgy. This pick boils down to being home to the best disc art of the year, and possibly a spot on the Disc Art Mount Rushmore. You can probably guess how Mubi decided to print the artwork on this 4K/Blu-ray combo pack, and even if you guess right, much like THE SUBSTANCE, there’s nothing like cracking the case open and seeing the gag for yourself. Really great midnight movie to keep in your backpocket, and, at last, Mubi is selling their wares outside of their proprietary store for under $30.
FRIENDSHIP – A24
Jesus Christ, A24, you weirdos. This company’s home video releases span a whole range of odd fuck-ups: bare-bones packages sold at a premium (pop in the disc from MIDSOMMAR’s awkward $50 longbox and you are treated to a black screen that says “play movie”), reeking of contractual obligations (I’m sure folks are lining up to pay $30 for a copy of DEATH OF A UNICORN), arguably broken products (their release of THE BRUTALIST on 4K straight up does not include HDR), and price-gouged treasures (the costly licensing rights to STOP MAKING SENSE and its revelatory 4K restoration will cost you $58 for a single disc). Gone are the days of Lionsgate producing and distributing A24’s Blu-rays at big-box scope and affordable pricing that mirrored Hollywood’s standard release strategies. Sacrificing accessibility and general availability, A24’s in-house physical media division preys on what remains of the home video market with releases that look and smell (and cost) boutique, but are essentially the same standard Blu-rays Lionsgate would’ve put out years ago. Nevertheless, in 2025, A24 figured out how to be a little normal about their whole shtick. Now available in Barnes & Noble storefronts, in addition to seeing the occasional Amazon discount, you don’t have to buy straight from A24 and abide by their $150 free shipping requirements anymore. And now the cases even fit in your shelves! While the 2025 slate has been lacking (for every MARTY SUPREME, you got a MATERIALISTS, EDDINGTON, and WARFARE), the company is figuring out how to play nicer with their fanbase while steadfastly holding to their specialty branding.
I promise that my shitting on A24 has a happy ending! This summer, I was lucky enough to find Amazon slipping and put in a pre-order for a $20 copy of FRIENDSHIP, Andrew DeYoung’s incredible cult comedy starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd (MSRP $29.99). The edition—loaded with commentary tracks, deleted scenes, and physical postcards—even had bright yellow disc art with a proudly centered psychedelic toad that will magically transport you to your favorite sandwich chain. Now, the copy I received from Amazon didn’t have that toad. Something about a mix-up with Canadian disc printing making its way to the States? My disc was toad-less! Multiple Reddit threads indicated that A24’s customer support was issuing replacement discs for toad-less copies at no extra cost, regardless of where you purchased the Blu-ray from. Reader, lo and behold, I reached out, was immediately contacted by an A24 sales representatives, and was sent a toad disc. There’s no world where I thought they would honor my request (it’s small potatoes, but here I am, a customer who pounced at a pricing error from a separate storefront and is now asking for a free disc with the funny artwork), but I got the toad disc. For as much as we rag on A24 for being a gift shop that occasionally distributes great movies, I have to give them credit when the shopping experience makes me feel like my patronage is worth it after all.
SINNERS 4K – Warner
Handedly the most accomplished release of a 2025 film, the SINNERS 4K is a new marquee television stress tester, with color so saturated that skin tones spread like frosting, and the black levels pushed into the goddamned pavement. I’ve seen this movie three times in IMAX—once in 70mm—and this disc is as close to my memory of that viewing on celluloid as maybe any other Blu-ray in my library. SINNERS is as boldly underlit as it is bathed in orange, and what Warner has released is as near-reference quality as you can get. Among the tragedies associated with the global monopolization per Netflix’s hopeful acquisition of the studio, Warner has consistently delivered pristine transfers of their new releases—I cannot fathom some special restoration of SINNERS down the line that better captures Coogler’s vision than the one that’s come straight from the heart of the machine that produced it in the first place—so even the off chance that we’ll be robbed of this caliber of home video presentation registers as a seismic defeat. If a buyer kills Warner’s home video division, that’s a fat RIP to some of the best in the game right now. Compare the ratio shifts here to the fact that neither DUNE is available on home video in full-screen IMAX framing: What stings is that Warner’s attention to detail stands to be so short-lived.
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS – Cartuna/OCN Distribution
Technically, this Blu-ray was released through Vinegar Syndrome in winter 2024 and purchasable exclusively on their storefront for a limited window until other retailers got their hands on it in January. For the sticklers, it’s true; this is actually one of the best Blu-rays of 2024, but I will give HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS its flowers every year for the rest of time. Like watching a manic STARDEW VALLEY marathon play session, there is something bracingly modern about HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS, but as proven by this disc’s bonus features, it turns out the modernity is the result of lo-fi, boots-on-the-ground effort. In one of the greatest special features of all time, the HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS disc contains a VFX breakdown that plays side-by-side the finished film. What entails for 108 minutes is four simultaneous windows of footage, one playing the final product and the other three showing storyboards, special effects plates, and raw footage of the actors and filmmakers performing the gags. I’ve never seen anything like it, a feature so open to show us the stretch marks of moviemaking, while being delivered so smoothly that you can watch it as both educational how-to and for entertainment value. As we scramble to redefine the future of American independent cinema, Mike Cheslik has the answers. I really wish I could buy everyone a copy. We used to call the Criterion Closet “film school in a box,” but this is well and truly a lecture for all-time.
PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE 4K – The Criterion Collection
Another Criterion, and by default, my favorite that they’ve ever released. It’s done, my favorite movie ever made has a Criterion. We did it, Joe! Pee-Wee Herman is in the Criterion Collection: Done are the days of ever having to make you square, visionless losers take this movie seriously. It stings that we were collectively too slow to let Paul Reubens know how crucial he was to the tapestry of American artistry, and a dinky boutique Blu-ray is nowhere near the honors he deserved, but it’s a damn good start. It is as carefully assembled a special edition you could build in the wake of its primary star and writers’ deaths, and though the special features are lacking (again, it hurts that the folks you’d want to most include are no longer with us), this is unfortunately a larger symptom across many Criterion releases. The “film school in a box” reputation has been sacrificed for “getting these films seen,” and though the trade-off is largely worth it, it is not an unnoticeable sacrifice. Luckily, it looks great. For a movie that was never in bad shape, the transfer here is as good as sitting fourth row at the Vista to watch a 35mm print at a weekend matinee. Big shout out to Luigi Olivadoti, whose artwork deviates from the preestablished Herman songbook, but nonetheless stakes a claim in the Pee-Wee realm of imagery: Simply put, the cover and additional interior illustrations look like something Reubens would’ve loved.
If you’ve read this far and are interested in more 4K Blu-ray recommendations, here’s a running list of my collection. Shop small when you can!
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