Criterion in December 2025: SALAAM BOMBAY!, PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE, and More

The Criterion Collection wants to make the month of December 2025 a bit more festive for physical media fans.

Perfect for the season, Tim Burton's popular comedy sensation Pee-wee Herman's Big Adventure (1985) will arrive on 4K UHD, showcasing the late, great Pee-wee Herman's comic genius, even as it also marks an auspicious directorial debut for Burton.

Also arriving on 4K UHD, Mira Nair's first narrative feature, the highly-acclaimed Salaam Bombay! (1988) plunges the viewer into Bombay's vibrant street life and a striking drama that emerges. To complete the 4K troika, David Byrne's American Utopia (2020), directed by Spike Lee, is a record of the musician's wildly ambitious stage show that must have been incredible to behold in person; on video, it is still compelled to watch it all unfold.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger teamed up to direct I Know Where I'm Going (1945), a splendid romantic film that was shot in black and white -- so it should look picture perfect on 4K UHD. (Personally, I absolutely adore 4K editions of films shot in black and white.)

Going further back in time, I've seen Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) in a revival house, on videotape, and on DVD, so I'm hoping that the 4K UHD will look even better. Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant star in a newspaper comedy par excellence.

Going even further back in time, I've not seen Return to Reason: Four Films By Man Ray, so I turn to the official Criterion release for a blurb: "The swirling surrealist dreams of Man Ray are high-water marks of 1920s avant-garde cinema, a nexus of cryptic themes, dark eroticism, and playful abstraction." If that's you, I'm sure you'll be delighted by what the new Blu-ray set of discs has to offer.

For more information about all these release and to place your pre-orders, visit the official Criterion Collection site. And note that Criterion is offering 30% their 4K discs, including pre-orders, through September 19.