CriterionCast

Contest: Win A 99 Reasons Criterion Collection DVD

To help celebrate the end of another great year of Criterion Collection titles, we’re giving away a couple of the 99 Reasons DVDs.

Last month Criterion posted about giving these discs out with any orders placed on their website, and I thought it’d be fun to hold a contest here on the site.

How can you win one of these discs? Simply leave a comment below, with your favorite Criterion Collection release of 2012, and your own 3 Reasons for why that release is the best.




I’ll pick a couple winners on Monday, December 10th 2012 at 12:01 a.m. (Pacific).

A couple of things to keep in mind if you want to win:

  1. Make it easy for me to contact you.
  2. If you sign in with Twitter or Facebook, make sure it is very clear how I can get in touch with you.

Last time there were some winners that didn’t have any contact information, or their email addresses bounced back.

You can view all of Criterion’s 3 Reasons videos here.

Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].

36 comments

  • Ishiro Honda’s “Godzilla” (1954)

    1. The inclusion of the 1956 American version

    2. Two AMAZING audio commentaries by Godzilla historian David Kalat.

    3. The Packaging (Godzilla Pop Up)

  • -Eating Raoul-

    1. Never in my life would I have anticipated Criterion adding this to its collection (stellar cover and insert too!).
    2. ‘Secret Cinema’ is an excellent (and important) supplement.
    3. Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel. Do I really need to elaborate?

    (Contacting me via FB is totally fine; whvanyo)

  • Heaven’s Gate

    1) Life (In all its complexity)

    2) Liberty (Under siege)

    3) & The pursuit of excess

  • The Last Days Of Disco

    1. Genius script, one of Whit Stillman’s personal best
    2. Absolutely perfect soundtrack that sounds amazing with Criterions audio transfer.
    3 Perhaps the most beautiful representations of the 1970s ever caught on film.

  • Being John Malkovich

    1. It’s lost none of its hilarity since it came out
    2. The “interview” in the booklet is one of the funniest I’ve ever read
    3. “Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich”

  • The Game

    1. Fincher’s mastery of his medium.

    2. Michael Douglas’ breaking point.

    3. The “game.”

  • David Fincher’s “The Game”

    1. Michael Douglas’ return to the screen as a coldblooded, ruthless businessman since his Oscar winning performance in “Wall Street”
    2. David Fincher’s second film in a psychological trilogy, preceded by “Seven” and concluded by “Fight Club”, where conventions in cinematic narrative turn on each other disguised as the easiest hints, that throw you off completely.
    3. The late great Harris Savides’ cinematography, depicts San Francisco, a city primarily set as gorgeous, cinematic backdrops for countless films, into a dark, blue hued and large metropolis with little life existing within it.

  • World on a Wire

    1. Its labyrinthine design
    2.The mysteries of the Simulacron
    3. Existentialist Fassbinder

  • Brazil

    1. Terry at his most ambitious
    2. “Love Conquers All” shows how studios/editing can destroy a beautifully honest film
    3. Even more relevant today

  • LONESOME

    1. One can’t admire color without seeing black and white; and vice versa.
    2. One can’t admire sound until they have experienced silence; and vice versa.
    3. One can’t admire love (or this film) until it has been taken away (as it was for 85 years).

  • The Game
    1) Harris Savides
    2) Fincher’s 3rd criterion release (2nd of “modern” collection so DVD/Blu)
    3a) Michael Douglas
    3b) Fincher, Fincher, Fincher…

  • The Royal Tenenbaums

    1. Because I had to wait so long for it, and when I finally got it I appreciated it more.

    2. I can pause the blu-ray and try to read all the names in the board game closet.

    3. Dalmatian Mice.

  • RASHOMON
    1. A story of stories, where truth and fiction are decided with each viewing
    2. Cinematography of an impressionistic quality that influences all to this day
    3. Quintessential Kurosawa

  • Heavens Gate 1. It is a underappreciated Masterpiece kf American Cinema, In my mind better than Gone With The Wind. 2. Christopher Walken gives a tired, stunning performance. The weight of his role seems to infuse his overworked body. Makeing for an amazing character. 3. Only Criterion can show this film for what it is, was and should be, Epic.

  • IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

    1. Christopher Doyle’s cinematography
    2. Criterion’s blu-ray standards
    3. I’ve never seen it.

    Thanks to Criterion and the B&N sale, now I can watch it in the best possible way (assuming that prints are unlikely to be shown, and now old enough to have started discoloring). It’s certainly hard to disagree with LONESOME and LETTER NEVER SENT as well.

  • It is hard to pick just one, but I will go with Down By Law. Why?

    1. Any movie with Tom Waits is okay with me.

    2. Black and white has never looked so good on blu.

    3. Every time that I watch it I get to think about the possibility of a Ghost Dog release.

  • HEAVEN’S GATE!

    1. A marvelous, beautiful, and strange (long!) chronicle of a strange regional war in my home state

    2. A film that single-handedly destroyed a studio is worth seeing

    3. Your release has forced a new conversation around the aesthetic and cultural value of the film throughout the cinema culture!

  • The Game, David Fincher’s best, love that its in the criterion collection and on blu ray now .The perfect thriller that keeps you guessing and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie. Love showing this movie to someone who hasn’t seen it. Trent @ [email protected]

  • Tiny Furniture

    1. It’s polarizing reception

    2. The conversation with the late, great Nora Ephron

    3. It’s significance in young, modern, American, independent cinema

    Just sending me a tweet would be great! Thank you

  • CERTIFIED COPY

    1. A relationship that changes and grows with each viewing.
    2. The beauty, mystery, and excitement of conversation.
    3. A true masterpiece by one of the great masters.

  • The 39 Steps
    1. Hitchcock hits his stride.
    2. The beginning of the “couple who hate each other get handcuffed together” motif.
    3. The first MacGuffin.

    Totally unrelated: If they ever decide to remake this film, John Hodgman should totally play Mr. Memory.

  • Slightly tricky as I’ve been abstaining (read: forbidden) from buying any new Blu-rays for most of this year, but sight-unseen I’ll have to say:

    The Qatsi Trilogy

    1. These incredible films will get a whole new lease of life now and reach a far wider audience thanks to the “Criterion bump”

    2. We will finally get anamorphic, uncropped, HD versions of Reggio’s stunning films and Glass’ hypnotic scores

    3. Everyone will finally get that awesome “Janitor gag” from Scrubs!

  • A Hollis Frampton Odyssey

    1. The Surface Tension
    2. The Poetic Justice
    3. The (nostalgia) for the Light

  • A Hollis Frampton Odyssey

    1. (nostalgia)
    2. The essays from Jenkins, Eisenstein, and Zyrd
    3. Michael Snow (!!!!!)

  • Weekend (Godard movie)
    1. The 8-minute single take tracking shot
    2. Wandering through the woods with fictional and historical figures who randomly show up
    3. Raoul Coutard’s simple yet masterful cinematography

  • David Lean Directs Noël Coward:

    3. In Which We Serve: Humanist war story with an personal focus.
    2. Blithe Spirit: Wonderful dark farce with a delicious Rex Harrison, Kay Hammond and Constance Cummings.
    1. Brief Encounter: Simply the greatest romance ever filmed.

  • A Hollis Frampton Odyssey

    1. The Surface Tension
    2. The Poetic Justice
    3. The (notstalgia) for the Light

  • Anatomy of a Murder

    1. The fastest 2 1/2 hour film of your life.
    2. One of the greatest ensemble casts in American film.
    3. Otto Preminger’s most piercing examination of the slippery nature of truth and morality.