Criterion UK, December Announcements.

Rumours swirled last week that Criterion were on the verge of cancelling their UK experiment. Radio silence surrounded their most recent announcement, promised for “around the 25th” of the month, while existing titles were mysteriously pulled from Amazon. Alas, any concerns have been put to rest with today’s announcmeent that Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums and Noah Baumbach’s The Squid And The Whale would be in British stores in time for Christmas.

That both titles are being released here is fantastic news. The Royal Tenenbaums is a long-time catalogue favourite, while the promise of The Squid And The Whale on Blu-ray is amongst the most exciting announcements of 2016 for those of us that consider Baumbach to be amongst the pre-eminent American auteurs of the modern era. Such positivity ought not distract from the fact that the launch of Criterion in the UK has not been without it’s problems though. Some 8 months on from the news breaking we’re still without an official web-presence, be it in the form of social media or as a website (hell, a sub-section on Criterion.com would be an improvement over the nothing we have now). It’s little wonder that last week’s rumour managed to spiral in the way that it did.