Controversial Blus: Anything But Anything Else's Botched Discs, Please

Alright, this post has been a long time coming.  I guess I kept holding off because I was waiting for a happy resolution to this story.  But at this point, it's safe to say that just isn't coming.  At least not in this decade.  So here swe go.  I'm talking about the not just controversial, but straight-up botched, blu-rays of Woody Allen's underrated 2003 comedy Anything Else.

Admittedly our romantic leads, Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci, aren't the most dynamic movie stars Allen's ever cast.  In fact, I'd put them near the bottom of the list.  But at least they're age appropriate.  And they're bolstered immeasurably by a smart script and a fantastic supporting cast, including Stockard Channing, Danny Devito, Fisher Stevens and Allen himself in one of his funniest roles.  Also look for a pre-Tonight Show Jimmy Fallon.  Anyway, the central romance is a little inert, though Ricci manages to make things somewhat interesting, but the story around goes to some surprisingly bitter and compelling places.  It's an honest film about failure, and I think it's one of his best from this period.  But  it tends to get overlooked because Dreamworks tried to market it to the American Pie crowd (Allen isn't even shown in the trailer), and this is definitely not what that audience was looking for.

Dreamworks Entertainment released Anything Else on DVD as a new release back in 2003.  It was barebones, naturally, but otherwise a pretty solid presentation.  And that's a good thing, because it languished in standard definition for years.  Eventually, in 2016, it came out in Germany, from Concorde Video.  It's unfortunate it was our only option, because as we're about to see, it had a problem.  More recently, it's been released in the US (more on that in a bit) and Spain, but it's all the same.  Let's take a look.

2003 Dreamworks DVD top; 2016 Concorde BD bottom.

So, hard to miss, the sides have been completely shorn off the picture.  It takes me back to the old days, as a teen, when I learned the Star Wars movies I saw on television didn't look like they originally did in theaters.  Here, we're going from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1.  And to be clear, this is not an open matte situation, where Concorde is just showing extra picture along the top and bottom that shjould've been cropped out.  This just fully chops off both sides of the image, neutering the cinematography of DP Darius Khondji (Se7en, Uncut Gems) and making this one of those rare cases where the DVD is better than the blu.  And that's a shame, because otherwise this is a decent HD upgrade with a much clearer and sharper image.  The little sign on the counter in front of Allen is unreadable mush on the DVD, but on the blu, we can read it plainly, "AMERICA, FLY OUR FLAG PROUDLY!"  And just to be clear, yes, the new American and Spanish blus use this same, cropped HD master.

When Quiver announced their big Woody Allen Collection blu-ray set in 2021, all of us fans were hoping we could finally replace our Anything Else discs, whether we had the Dreamworks or the Concorde.  We were even more excited by the inclusion of Sweet & Lowdown (or "Lockdown," as they spelled it on their cover mock-up there) and Deconstructing Harry, both making their worldwide blu-ray debuts.  Well, their 9 nlu-ray set turned into an 8 blu-ray set, with Sweet and Deconstructing nowhere to be found.  I think it's a safe assumption that's because they bought the rights and announced the set before they learned the reason why those two films had never been released on blu anywhere else in the world: there were no preexisting HD masters.  And I guess Quiver is too small/ under-equipped a company, or just not interested enough in these films, to commission them.  And that would also explain why they released the same European 1.78 master of Anything Else.  That's just what they were handed.  At one point, Quiver responded about it publicly on Twitter that, "we understand the frustration! We are reviewing this internally."  But that was in 2021, and they've yet to follow up on that, so I hope nobody's been holding their breath.

Anyway, both of the discs we're looking at here feature the original English mono in 2.0, in DTS-HD on the blu.  Dreamworks disc also includes optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, while Concorde's only has German, plus a German dub, also in DTS-HD.  One point you have to give to Quiver: their release does include optional English subtitles if you need 'em.  Neither disc has any extras, not even the trailer.  So I guess I'd just suggest grabbing whichever release is cheapest and easiest for you to acquire in the moment, even if that's still the DVD.  Definitely don't bother double-dipping.  None of these discs are worth recommending, but this film deserves a spot on any Allen fan's shelf regardless.

The Lost Highway Blu-ray Lynch Warned Us About Vs The One He Always Wanted

Well, having just revisited 1997's Lost Highway, I'm happy to report that it holds up just as strongly as ever.  You know, I was a little concerned with this being the bridge between David Lynch's more traditionally told narrative films (like Elephant Man and Blue Velvet), to his current style of mysterious films that ask to be deciphered (i.e. Mulholland Dr. or the current season of Twin Peaks).  I thought, looking back at this, it might come off as a bit simplistic, or a clumsy first attempt at what he's since perfected; and what was once impactful might now feel a little limp.  But no, it's still strong stuff.

Update 8/7/17 - 6/24/20: I didn't rush out to pick up this edition, since David Lynch himself came out publicly against it, but it doesn't seem like his desired restoration is behind any immediate corners, so what the heck.  Let's look at Kino's 2019 blu-ray edition of Lost Highway, still the only US option available in HD.

Update 10/13/22: But I did rush out to get this one, Criterion's new 4k BD/ UHD combo pack is the one we've all been waiting for.

That said, Lost Highway is a little simpler.  I can still see someone coming into Lynch's films cold being totally baffled by this film, but I'd say it's far easier to interpret than Inland Empire.  It's no less of a powerful work because of it, though.  The back of the Australian DVD (more on that in a minute) case describes it merely as, "the story of a killer who suffers acute schizophrenia."  For my money, that might be a little too specific a diagnosis; but that gives you the general idea.  We see a murder mystery start to unfold and then repeat, altered, with different people in each other's places.  And I'll just leave it at that, because I wouldn't want to spoil anything.

Despite being a little arch, as Lynch tends to be, with as much influence generated from old noir films as authentic human experience, the drama still lands, and the creepy imagery even more so.  I mean, that scene when Bill Pullman meets Robert Blake at the party may still go down as one of the most chilling horror scenes of all time.  Badalamenti's music plays backseat a bit this time, upstaged by some licensed songs and Lynch's always brilliant sound design, but it all adds up to a very consistent atmosphere.  And the cast is littered with greats.  Besides Pullman and Blake there's Patricia Arquette, Robert Loggia, Balthazar Getty, Jack Nance, Gary Busey, Richard Pryor(!) and Marilyn Manson.

Strangely, for the longest time, this film wasn't even available on a basic DVD here in America.  That's why I originally imported that aforementioned Australian DVD from Shock.  It was released in 2001 in anamorphic widescreen and with a couple interesting extras to boot.  Finally, Focus Features/ Universal issued it here on DVD... in 2008.  Barebones.  Jeez, guys, would it kill ya?  But there had been a number of additional DVDs and yes, blu-rays overseas.  The one I've got for us today is the 2011 German blu from Concorde.  Then eventually, this film did make it to blu here in the US, again barebones, although that wasn't originally the plan.  it wasn't the restoration Lynch and his fans hoped for, but Kino's blu isn't the same transfer as the Concorde blu either.  Finally, now in 2022, we do have the new 4k scan and transfer Lynched was waiting for, from Criterion.  And the benefit of us having waiting these three extra years is that we've got it on UHD now to boot.

1) 2001 Shock DVD; 2) 2008 Universal DVD; 3) 2011 Concorde BD;
4) 2019 Kino BD; 5) 2022 Criterion BD; 6) 2022 Criterion UHD.

All six discs are anamorphic, widescreen at just wider than 2.35:1, and thankfully free from interlacing or other image problems.  The colors look a little bleached on the Australian DVD, and are substantially darker on the older two US releases.  None of the pre-2022 discs bear any stamp of having been approved by Lynch or DP Peter Deming to say which is the most "officially" accurate... In fact, we know from his comments on this article that Deming was specifically kept out of the process by Kino.  So we had been left to choose based on our own personal preferences.  Perhaps the film truly was meant to be so dark and vivid, but the older US releases crush blacks and lose some visual information for the sake of that bold choice.  On the other hand, the imports look a little overly bright for the gloomy mystery Lynch is building.  There's a note on DVDCompare's page that the Shock DVD is "[s]aid to feature a less than adequate transfer," but I'd take it over the Universal.  The HD blus are naturally sharper and clearer than either of them, though, and both have nicely realized grain.  I was expecting smudgier, flawed masters showing their age, but am pleasantly surprised with how both blus look.

And now of course we have Criterion's edition, which freshly scanned the original A/B camera negative in 4k, and was indeed supervised by Lynch.  And when I first took a glimpse at it, I thought, oh boy, some fans are not going to like this.  We're back to the paler, cooler colors timing, much closer to the Au and DE discs than the US discs, which seem to be generally more popular.  But now we know where Lynch falls on the issue, so that's pretty much that.  The scan is cleaner, even just comparing the two 1080p blus, with more accurate representation of tiny detail and grain (there's more digital noise on the guard's face, for example), but of course you really get the benefit with the UHD's full resolution.  And, as always, the UHD is a little darker because of its Dolby Vision HDR, but the result is the colors do look a little more organic and less washed than its BD companion.

Australia's Shock DVD features the original stereo and no subs, while the US features a 5.1 remix and subtitles in English, French and Spanish.  Concorde's blu gives us the 5.1 in DTS-HD, plus a German dub, but unfortunately only has optional German subtitles.  While Kino came with both the original stereo and 5.1 mixes in DTS-HD, and optional English subtitles to boot.  Criterion's new disc has the same options (5.1 and stereo with English subs), but they've also been remastered with Lynch's supervision.

So now let's talk extras.  There's never a whole lot to speak of, but there are some, and they're interesting.  Oh, except not in the US.  Our Universal DVD is completely barebones, they don't even throw in the trailer.  And Kino announced a Tim Lucas commentary, an interview with Lynch and the trailer, but had to scrap them.  The Australian DVD doesn't have the trailer either, but it has almost 45 minutes of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.  Pretty sweet, but Lynch fans might find it all a little familiar.  It's just footage excised from the documentary Pretty As a Picture: The Art of David Lynch.  That doc was filmed as Lynch was making Lost Highway, so while it isn't about Lost Highway per se; an awful lot of it centers around that shoot.  And Shock basically just cut out all the footage from it that pertains to Lost Highway and stuck it on their DVD as if they had five original featurettes.  But it's all taken 100% from there.  So, if you already have the film (Image released it on DVD way back in 1999), you're not seeing anything new.  Nice to have over Universal & Kino's abject nothingness, but still a little disappointing.

Concorde's interview.

Concorde doesn't have the Pretty As a Picture stuff, but it does have a few things, yes, including the trailer finally.  It also has a couple German-language bonus trailers, but more interestingly, it also has some vintage Lost Highway promo-material.  We get a five minute interview with David Lynch, seemingly shot on location (and I'm guessing this is the one Kino was going to include, too, since they obviously weren't working with him to record a new one), plus about ten minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, giving us a little glimpse of the film's creation.  Hearing little snippets of Lynch directing the actors could possibly help the die-hard analysts interpret a few scenes.  That's it, though; there's just those two things and the trailers.  Really not very much, under twenty minutes all together, but worth seeing for sure.

1) 1999 Image DVD; 2) 2022 Criterion BD.

And Criterion?  Well, it doesn't have quite as much as one would hope, but they've still won the day.  First and foremost, they've included the complete Pretty As a Picture documentary.  As you can see above, it's the same transfer as the old 1999 DVD from Image, except upconverting it to HD makes the interlacing much less destructive, which is nice.  And I was worried that Criterion would lose the 15 minutes worth of outtakes from that documentary that Image had on their disc, making us have to hold onto our old DVDs, but no.  They're here, too; so feel free to finally chuck your old DVDs.  Apart from that, they include about 25 minutes of vintage promo interviews, including some of what was on the Concorde (we did lose some of that B-roll footage, though, if you're a die-hard completist).  And the only new feature is a 45-minute audio-only reading of a chapter from Lynch's 2018 book, Next Door To Dark.  That's it.  Oh well.  It does include a nice 30-page booklet that mostly consists with another interview with Lynch about this film, packaged in a digipack inside a slipbox.

So here it is, the long-awaited definitive edition of Lost Highway, and it is pretty sweet.  I don't mind the Kino diversion, because we would've been double-dipping a Criterion BD only release for the UHD anyway.  It may not be quite as exciting as we imagined - some fans will surely gripe about the colors, and the extras are still light - but it's still pretty damn sweet.

Criterion Breaks Into 4k UHDs with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive

a little pilot-only scene and character

Mulholland Drive seemed to be a comeback film for David Lynch. He got an Academy Award nomination as Best Director for it, despite or perhaps partially because of its long and painful birth process. It was originally shot as a ninety-odd minute television pilot for ABC. A sort of second Twin Peaks. But the network ultimately declined it, and it never aired. A year or two later, Lynch teamed up with the French film company Studio Canal to buy it from ABC bring back the cast, and film all new material to flush it out into a feature film and a complete, self-contained story (the pilot, naturally, was left open-ended, as it was meant to lead into an entire series worth of events).

So it played well theatrically, and eventually in 2002, Universal gave us the slightly controversial DVD. Thanks to Lynch's eccentricity and probably a slight misunderstanding of the medium, it is presented without chapter stops, as per his wishes. As a pleasant surprise, however, it turns out the DVD does have chapter stops, a lot even, they're just not indicated by a chapters menu. But they're there. It also doesn't have any special features (despite some good, on-set interviews being available, as we'll come to later) except for a single page insert with "10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller." And finally, Lynch personally censored one scene from the film for its home video release. A brief shot of Laura Herring, featuring some below the belt nudity, was optically fogged despite playing uncut in theaters, apparently to prevent nude photos from circulating on the internet.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Studio Canal released a 2-disc special edition. And in 2010, they even upgraded it to blu-ray, something which has yet to happen in the states. So, not for the first time, Lynch fans were compelled to import.

Update: 4/30/15 - 4/6/17 - 5/8/17 - 6/8/17: There is no end!  The Criterion blu did come out, so I updated this post with that.  Then I updated it with the Concorde blu, and now I'm updating it yet again with the new Studio Canal blu (not to be confused with the previous Studio Canal blu).  This one creates even more new special features and uses the updated 4k scan that debuted on the Criterion disc.  Is it the ultimate, definitive Mulholland Drive release?  Is it worth replacing an older edition for?  Let's solve the mystery.

Update 11/17/21: I'm about fed up with updating Mulholland Drive editions, but how could I say no when they've updated an entire format?  Yes, Mulholland Drive has finally been released as a 4k Ultra HD disc (with a standard BD as well).  And it's from Criterion.  They've finally caved to fan demand and started releasing UHDs.  This is an exciting day!

Mulholland Drive is pretty great, but even as a big Lynch fan, I do have minor issues with it. They mostly boil down to what I see as the more conventional characters and story points: like the stuff with the hitmen and the director's subplot. I can't say what was in the writers' heads, of course, but I suspect these elements are concessions for more mainstream television viewers who wouldn't appreciate Lynch's usual work, and as such is more archetypal and less humanistic and compelling than, say, his next film, Inland Empire, even though it's a far less popular work of his. At any rate, even if that's not true about why that material is in there, those points give that impression, which comes down to the same thing. But even accepting all of my quibbles, it's still a smart, creative and gripping drama, with all of Lynch's strengths here in force.

So how does it look on blu-ray and how does the DVD stand up against it? And how does each subsequent blu-ray (and UHD) release stack up against its predecessor?  We've got a lot of comparing to do!

1) Universal 2002 DVD 2) Studio Canal 2010 BD; 3) Concorde 2011 BD;
4) Criterion 2015 BD; 5) Studio Canal 2017 BD; 6) Criterion 2021 BD;
7) Criterion 2021 UHD.

So, not a huge difference, but there is an incremental improvement with each release.  Well, except the 2010 Studio Canal and the Concorde.  They're virtually identical.  In fact, Concorde's encode is slightly worse; so it's a tiny step down.  But the older SC blu-ray clears away all the standard def smudginess of the DVD, and Criterion's 2015 4k scan of the OCN smartens up the image with a touch more clarity and noticeably deeper colors.  They'll be slim upgrades to casual viewers, but aficionados will appreciate each generation's step forward.  All seven releases feature a slightly letterboxed 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but the 4k updates have ever so slightly shifted horizontally and vertically.  And then, again, Studio Canal's 2017 blu uses the same 4k scan as the Criterion, so I have to say I'm surprised how distinct it turned out.  There had been rumblings that perhaps Criterion's encoding could be slightly better, and indeed, I'd say it is on the 2017 SC.  Criterion's encoding does leave things like a hint of horizontal lines running across Naomi's upper lip and cheek, for example.  And areas of grain seem patchy, like little pixelated blocks.  This is real magnifying-glass-to-the-monitor stuff, but it's there, and SC does do a better job of not having that problem.  However, what's much more obvious is how much grainier the 2017 SC blu looks.  It looks like Criterion tried to de-grain the image a bit, whereas SC let it all hang out, which perfectionists always prefer.

But anyone who's looking that close, or whose screen is big enough, can forget all about which BD is better.  Because the UHD obviously boosts the resolution to a whole new level.  It's a new Dolby Vision transfer, made in conjunction with SC and, according to the booklet, "based on the 2015 color transfer."  So it's boosted to HDR and in true 4k now (you can really see jagged edges turned smooth and natural when you zoom in close), but still holding to the spirit of the previous restorations, as supervised by Lynch.  Therefor, it's interesting to note that the BD in the new 2021 set doesn't even use the new 2021 transfer at all; it's still their 2015, even in terms of how it captures/ retains grain.  So SC's 2017 BD is actually still better than Criterion's 2021 BD; and if you can't play UHDs, the SC is still the blu to stick with.  But of course, if you can play it, Criterion's UHD is the best this film has ever looked.

2010 Studio Canal blu-ray on top; bootleg DV-R of the pilot below

So now there's nothing to be gained from noting that the blu-ray trumps the DV-R of the TV pilot. That's just a low quality bootleg. There is no legit release of the pilot version, so don't run yourself ragged searching. It's no great loss, anyway, since there's very little in the pilot that's not in the film... It's mostly the other way around: there's a lot in the film that's missing in the pilot. But I thought it was worth posting the comparison because we see that, naturally, the 90s television image is full-frame. And since it was shot for TV first and converted to cinema second, Lynch clearly matted the 4:3 image down. So that means in the lower image you're seeing the image open matte, with a lot more picture on the top and bottom; and that's the way it was originally composed to be viewed. It's the OAR, at least for the footage that wasn't added later.

Speaking of interesting, alternate presentations of the footage, The 2015 Criterion release is the first uncensored presentation of the film, and yes, Studio Canal's 2017 blu follows suit.  As you may've already been familiar with, Lynch himself blurred a scene of full frontal nudity for the home video release (that played uncensored in the original theatrical run) around the 99 minute mark.  It was already a heavily shadowed scene, so casual viewers wouldn't even notice, but a distinct blur was put over Jeanne Bates Laura Harring in one bedroom scene, and that was on the original US DVD, the 2010 Studio Canal blu, the Concorde blu and pretty much every other version.  But by going back to the original film elements for their new 4k scan, Criterion bypassed it (sorry, no screenshot, kids).  And yes, it's still uncensored on the UHD.

As for audio options, the Universal DVD gave us a choice between DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, but all four blus and the UHD simply give us uncompressed DTS-HD 5.1 tracks.  Well, Concorde also has a German DTS-HD 5.1 and 2010 Studio Canal gives us Spanish and French DTS-HD 5.1s (2017 SC keeps the French, but drops the Spanish).  They also include Dutch, French and Italian subtitles, while Concorde just have German subs and the original DVD has French and Spanish subtitles.  Only the Criterions and new Studio Canal actually give us (optional) English subtitles... at least for the main feature.

But what about the extras? Like I said, the DVD had nothing, not even the trailer. Just that insert with "clues." The Studio Canal blu-ray trumps even the insert by including a 20 page booklet, which, yes, includes the clues. But there's also some real, meaty extras on the blu as well:

• Introduction by Thierry Jousse - A ten minute lead in by filmmaker Jousse. This, like several of the extras, are in French, but everything's fully subtitled for English viewers.

• In the Blue Box - A 28 minute featurette where a bunch of filmmakers (the guy who directed Donnie Darko, the director of Colt 45, etc) talk about the film and their experiences with it.

• On the Road To Mulholland Drive - a 24 minute 'making of' documentary, primarily based on interviews with Lynch, Naomi Watts and Laura Herring, inter-cutting between them with some nice behind the scenes B-roll footage. This one's been around a while, even my pilot bootleg DVD has it on there, and was mostly or entirely shot during filming. One wonders why this was left off the Universal DVD. I guess Lynch just didn't want there to be any extras on that?

• Interview with Mary Sweeny - A short but interesting talk with the film's co-producer and editor.

• Interview with Angelo Badalamenti - A little under twenty minutes with the film's composer, who also plays a small role, from around the time of the film's release.

• Interview with Angelo Badalamenti - Yes, another one. But this one's newly recorded, and it's audio only. It's about 17 minutes and unfortunately repeats a lot of anecdotes nearly word for word from the previous interview. There are some unique bits, so it's still worth watching, but one wishes Studio Canal would've edited out all the duplicate material.

• Back to Mulholland Drive - A 24 minute featurette that focuses on the mysteries of the film and decoding its more symbolic meanings. It includes some additional interview footage of Lynch, and explains the 10 clues, which is nice, because as written they're not illuminating at all, even when you pretty much get the film. Overall, it's a pretty compelling extra, but it's a little silly and I think they arrive at precisely the wrong conclusion about one of the clues. But for the most part, it pretty much explains and clarifies everything for people who saw the movie and felt they didn't understand any of it. And even if you feel you've got everything worked out, you probably didn't catch all of the little hints and touches they point out.

That was pretty awesome, but now Criterion is here to enter the races!  They've got a healthy collection of special features, too; and they're mostly all new.

• Interview with David Lynch and Naomi Watts - Finally, a proper interview with Lynch on this film besides those vintage promo clips. And here he's alongside star Watts for a really engaging talk.

• New interviews with Justin Theroux, Laura Harring, Naomi Watts and casting director Johanna Ray - A substantial featurette with several of the stars that runs well over half and hour.

• Interview with Angelo Badalamenti - Yes, this is different than the two on the Studio Canal discs, running just under 20 minutes, though he doesn't really say anything he didn't say before.

• Interviews with Peter Deming and Jack Fisk - We get to hear from a couple key people we haven't yet, the cinematographer and production designer.

• On-set footage - About 24 minutes worth of behind-the-scenes footage.  We saw a lot of this in On the Road To Mulholland Drive, but this is basically just the raw, B-roll footage without the framing interviews.

• Deleted scene - Robert Forster at the police station.  I'm surprised they didn't put in all the other material from the pilot - it would've been great to see it restored from film elements, too - but maybe Lynch didn't want it included?

• Trailer

Criterion's release also includes a 48-page booklet, with an interview with Lynch from the book Lynch on Lynch.  And it comes packaged in a stylish fold-out digipack that fits inside a sturdy slipbox.  Overall, both blus have some nice, exclusive stuff.  But overall, I definitely have to give the win to Criterion's collection.  Or I did at the time.

Concorde?  That's the whole reason I tracked this blu down and, well, it's pretty disappointing.  I mean, taken on its own, it's okay.  It sure trumps the DVD.

• Making of featurette - This is actually the On the Road To Mulholland Drive doc.  Still a good little doc, but nothing new if you have any of the other releases.

• Interviews - Interviews with Watts, Lynch, Harring and Theroux.  These are actually the exact same interview clips that appear in On the Road.  That's right; it's the same stuff on the disc twice.  I guess the benefit is this lets you jump right to certain interview clips without watching the whole, 23 minute doc?  Meh.

• 3 TV spots

• Trailer - Surprisingly, only this and the Criterion disc have this.  The old DVD and both Studio Canal releases are missing it.

• German trailer

And it has a couple of bonus German-dubbed trailers.  Pretty disappointing.  I figured the 'making of' doc would turn out to be On the Road again.  But I figured the interviews had to be some exclusive press junket clips or something.  Who knew they'd have the audacity to just reuse the same footage twice?  Oh well.

Studio Canal really went for it this time.  They've got new extras, previous Studio Canal extras, they've got Concorde extras and they've even got Criterion extras.  But they still don't have everything...

• Introduction by Thierry Jousse - As carried over from the previous Studio Canal disc.

• Interview with David Lynch and Naomi Watts - I was surprised to see this one here; it's the one Criterion made for their release.  Sweet!

• New interview with Laura Harring - Even sweeter, some brand new content.  A nicely edited, 14-minute on-camera piece.

• Interview with Mary Sweeny - This is from the previous Studio Canal disc, still quite good.

• Back to Mulholland Drive - The look at the mysteries from the previous Studio Canal disc.

• In the Blue Box - Again, this is from the previous Studio Canal disc.  But don't take that as dismissive comment.  I'm glad they kept all these goodies.

• On the Road To Mulholland Drive - This is the vintage 'making of' that's been on every release except the original DVD.

• EPK Interviews - These are the same, short interview clips with Watts, Lynch, Harring and Theroux that were on the Concorde disc; basically the remaining soundbites that weren't heard in On the Road.

• Interview with Angelo Badalamenti - This is the one from the older Studio Canal disc; the video one.  The audio-only one was not ported over.

• On-set footage - About 24 minutes worth of behind-the-scenes footage.  We saw a lot of this in On the Road To Mulholland Drive, but this is basically just the raw, B-roll footage without the framing interviews.

• Deleted scene - The same Robert Forster scene from the Criterion disc.

So, this may well be the best collection of extras, but even though they brought over the Lynch/ Watts talk, they're still missing a couple featurettes from the Criterion: the interviews with cinematographer Peter Deming and production designer Jack Fisk, the cast featurette interviewing Justin Theroux, Laura Harring, Naomi Watts and Johanna Ray, the on-set footage featurette and their interview with Badalamenti.  And they've dropped the audio-only interview with Badalamenti from their own previous release.  Given how redundant it was, that makes some sense, but it seems odd they'd lose one of their own special features.  Frankly though, the biggest losses are the interviews with Fisk, Deming and Ray, as their voices aren't included anywhere else.  Also, bizarrely, it's missing the trailer.  Why do so many releases of this film keep forgetting the trailer?  But still, the trailer's just the trailer.  In 2017, Studio Canal's assembled a very strong mesh of the best of all the previous releases that's tough to beat.  Also, this release comes in a slip cover and includes six cardstock art cards that you can see in the photo above.

And Criterion's 2021 UHD/ BD set?  Finally a simple answer: exactly the same extras as their 2015 release.  The same book, slipbox (albeit with UHD markings, natch) and everything.

What was once a tough call has been made easy.  Criterion's UHD is the best presentation of this film.  But fans will probably want to hang onto their SC discs for the (mostly) unique set of extras.  Yes, there's some overlap and redundancy (how many Badalamenti interviews does one need?), but SC and Criterion both have some compelling, unique stuff.  You won't need any of the older releases after that, unless you're a real completist and want to hold onto the old Studio Canal release for the audio-only Badalamenti interview (but, like I just said...).