The Film Stage’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide

The holidays are upon us, so whether you’re looking for film-related gifts or simply want to get for yourself some of the finest this year had to offer, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and other home-video lines, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

4K & Blu-ray Box Sets

There’s no better gift than an epic film collection, and 2024 was an embarrassment of riches thanks to a number of box sets. The king of them all, especially if you’re looking for a gift for a burgeoning cinephile, is Criterion’s massive CC40, collecting 40 landmark films form their 40-year history. It’s not the only stellar set from the company, of course, as I adored the essential Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978, Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène, and Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova. While it’s past the spooky season, I also recommend I Walked with a Zombie / The Seventh Victim: Produced by Val Lewton, and while it’s on the television side, Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad got a deserved release.

Elsewhere, Film Movement’s release of new restorations with The Poetry of Lee Chang-Dong: Four Films is a must-own. MUBI also dropped Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom Trilogy, featuring The Kingdom I & II and The Kingdom Exodus, earlier this year. One of the most entertaining viewing experiences this year was revisiting Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Trilogy, this time in 4K UHD. Coming soon is the epic Frank Capra at Columbia Collection, amassing 20 features across 27 discs. Lastly when it comes to box sets, the best sitcom in history, Seinfeld: The Complete Series comes to 4K UHD in its original aspect ratio just in time for Festivus.

Check out our picks of the best individual-film releases throughout the year below.

4K Ultra HD

Blu-rays

Books

Christopher Schobert, our resident book expert, has compiled his favorite filmmaking books of the year. Happy reading!

Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (Penguin Press)

Al Pacino’s memoir, Sonny Boy, is easily one of the most eagerly awaited books of 2024. And for me, this look at the actor’s life and career more than lives up to the hype. Many of the highlights have already earned some social media chatter — most notably young Al’s penis trauma (!), a near-death experience after a recent bout with COVID, and the reasons behind his decision to do Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill. There are plenty of other stories here that may raise eyebrows, and that is a testament to Pacino’s honesty and wit. Especially fascinating is his analysis of what went wrong with Hugh Hudson’s Revolution, and why it inspired him to retreat from cinema for several years: “These are the walls you run into in our business sometimes. This is the wire you walk on up there. It’s risky doing this thing — when you take chances, you can fall. And then you have to decide to get up or not.” Sonny Boy is an engrossing account of a legend who has fallen and risen several times over, and reading it made me thankful that Pacino keeps going. “When the clock stops ticking,” he writes, “I’ll stop. And as far as I can tell my clock is still ticking.” (Watch for more on Sonny Boy in an upcoming “Recommended New Books on Filmmaking” column.)

The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story by Sam Wasson (Harper)

Author Sam Wasson’s 2020 book about the creation and legacy of Polanski’s Chinatown, titled The Big Goodbye, was a knockout. His recent look at the dreams, failures, and ultimate redemption of Francis Ford Coppola is just as absorbing. What makes The Path to Paradise so refreshing is its focus. Rather than simply rehashing the oft-told tales of making The Godfather, Wasson covers the American Zoetrope experience––the still-shocking making of Apocalypse Now, the unjust failure of One from the Heart, and, finally, Coppola’s rebirth as a businessman and director. Therefore we learn a bit about Megalopolis, and yes, there is plenty of Godfather too. As Coppola tells Wasson during the production of Megalopolis, “I’m not making the film. It’s making itself.” Spoken like a true visionary.

Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema by Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner (Repeater)

The world of cinema has been in dire need of a book like Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. It is no exaggeration to say that this study of transness in film––from the silent era to more recent works like Isabel Sandoval’s Lingua Franca and Jane Schoenbrum’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair––is a landmark in writing on cinema. More than a simple history, authors Maclay and Gardner provide crucial context while also wrestling with the complexities of films like The Silence of the Lambs and Boys Don’t Cry. They also celebrate many less well-known productions. “This book places many of these films and images within their periods to give context to the dialogues, societal perceptions, and institutions surrounding trans people,” the authors explain. “Corpses, Fools, and Monsters functions as an admonishment of the ways the mainstream has presented trans lives onscreen through harmful stereotypes and tropes, and in that respect the book was written to serve as a critical history of the trans film image, much as Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies has done for gay and lesbian representation.” The comparison to The Celluloid Closet is an apt one. Russo’s book is an essential film-history text, and there is no doubt that Corpses, Fools, and Monsters is an equal.

Kubrick: An Odyssey by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams (Pegasus Books)

There have been many exceptional books about the life and films of Stanley Kubrick over the last few decades; one of the best was Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams. Kolker and Abrams have returned to the mighty Stanley K. with Kubrick: An Odyssey, and this is the exhaustive, doorstop-sized bio fans have been coveting. It covers the entirety of the master filmmaker’s life, from the Bronx to Hertfordshire, with scores of new details and insights throughout. In the end, the authors find, Eyes Wide Shut was “the perfect statement of what Stanley Kubrick has been working to do all his career, to make genuine works of honest art.” And Kubrick: An Odyssey is a perfect overview of such.

My First Movie: Vol. 3: Sci-Fi Movie, Kung Fu Movie, and Midnight Movie by Cory Everett (Cinephile LLC)

The latest entries in the My First Movie books for budding cinephiles are sweet, humorous, and intelligent. In other words, these are perfect additions to this ongoing series from the makers of Cinephile: A Card Game. Sci-Fi Movie features a few expected selections, like 2001: A Space Odyssey (“supercomputers”) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (“firelights”), but also more offbeat choices like Logan’s Run, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Zardoz. This is a hallmark of the series, and it is especially evident in Midnight Movie. With Eraserhead on the cover and entries on “valley vixens,” “divine transgression,” and “nunsploitation,” Midnight just might be the best yet. To paraphrase Seymour Skinner, the kids have to learn about Videodrome sooner or later.

Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis (riverrun)

Those of us who were not alive during the hot, heavy, combustible marriage(s) of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton will never quite grasp the couple’s immense cultural impact. But it’s much easier to understand after reading Roger Lewis’ Erotic Vagrancy. Few biographies have been written with this level of intelligence and beauty; Lewis has a keen understanding of what Liz and Dick represent, and how their lives encompassed incredibly pleasurable highs and extreme lows. Consider this vivid, lovely writing, which comes near the end of Lewis’ 600-page masterpiece: “Burton and Taylor: we can only watch such figures at a distance. We can’t emulate their behavior. They are dream images, light and matter in conjunction.”

The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface by Glenn Kenny (Hanover Square Press)

If you are a film fan who read Glenn Kenny’s Made Men, the blood-drenched dive into the making of Goodfellas, there is a good chance it is one of your favorite books. Kenny’s follow-up is a look into the creation and legacy of another ultra-violent classic, Brian De Palma’s Scarface. Unsurprisingly, The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface is damn near as impressive as Made Men. The subject itself is, of course, part of the reason––Scarface is as luridly entertaining today as it was upon release. That wasn’t always the view, of course. Kenny delves into the horror that greeted the film, from critics and audience members like Kurt Vonnegut (!): “Were the A-listers who attended the simultaneous bicoastal preview screenings of the movie warned? Possibly not.” To reflect on the making of Scarface and its lasting significance, Kenny shares new interviews with most of the major players: De Palma, screenwriter Oliver Stone, co-stars Steven Bauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. So memorable as Elvira, “the only one of the movie’s four central characters who does not meet a violent death,” Pfeiffer explains that the production was a traumatic experience for her. She was just 23 years old and had only a few credits (including a starring role in Grease 2) before being cast in Scarface. Pfeiffer says she was treated well by everyone involved, but was petrified: “I was tortured every day. Every single day.” This is just one example of the Scarface insights unearthed by Kenny, one of our finest film writers.

Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Cynthia Carr’s biography of Candy Darling, the Warhol superstar and queer icon whose impact is still felt, is so powerful and vivid that it demands to be read more than once. Carr unearths never-before-heard details on the early life of Candy. Note that Carr calls her by her first name throughout the book, which the author explains thusly: “What made sense to me in the end was to consider what Candy would have wanted,” Carr states. “So I am calling her Candy.” She adds that this is “the story of becoming Candy. The word ‘trans’ implies a journey.” Excerpts from the Kim Novak-obsessed teenager’s diary are both fascinating and heartbreaking. “To go through her diary is to absorb a real sense of Candy’s isolation,” Carr writes. Stardom, and Candy’s role as a trailblazer, were yet to come. She died young, and late in Candy’s life Carr identifies “depression and the wish-I-was-dead writing” in her journal. There may have been “no place for her in Hollywood or on Broadway” when she passed away in 1974. But in 2024, Candy Darling has never seemed more important, more breathtaking, and––thanks to Dreamer, Icon, Superstar––more alive.

How Directors Dress: On Set, in the Edit, and Down the Red Carpet (A24)

Explore an exclusive look at How Directors Dress above.

In addition to its lineup of films, A24 continues to release first-rate books. Its latest is the truly delightful How Directors Dress: On Set, in the Edit, and Down the Red Carpet, a photo-heavy text with a bold, clever focus: What do filmmakers wear, and what do these choices mean? Some of the selections are unsurprising (Spike Lee, Sofia Coppola, David Lynch), while some are delightfully unexpected. (Ron Howard in full Grinch makeup?) The accompanying text is often poignant, especially Shumon Basar’s take on Jean-Luc Godard: “Clothes, to JLG, are functional and forensic: they narrate ideas without words. Decade by decade, he predicted the times around him, often by portraying himself.” Other recent gems from A24 include Hey Kids, Watch This! and Darren Aronofsky’s Pi: The Guerilla Diaries.

The Legend of Mad Max: The Complete Saga From Mad Max to Furiosa by Ian Nathan (Palazzo)

Though Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earned less than its predecessor, it was as creatively satisfying. Fury Road can safely be called the greatest action film of all time, but director George Miller had it in him to make Furiosa even more epic, and succeeded in crafting a wholly original, widely engaging Mad Max entry. Furiosa is now available for home viewing, so the timing is just right for the release of The Legend of Mad Max: The Complete Saga From Mad Max to Furiosa by Ian Nathan. The author has written a detailed, entertaining study of the creation, production, and legacy of the Mad Max films. “It’s a saga inside and out: that of Max and Miller (and [late producer Byron] Kennedy) and the possibility of action cinema, hurling metal about for real, the poetry of motion and the poetry of arrested motion,” writes Nathan. The author documents the wild, death-defying making of the first entry; the more confident approach to The Road Warrior; the tragic mood that overtook Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome; the “Wasteland logic” driving every brave decision behind Fury Road; and the “back to basics” aesthetic of Furiosa. As Nathan puts it, “Miller was heading home. Back to futures past––not only Furiosa’s backstory, but Max’s, and his own.” The Legend of Mad Max is the history this series deserves, and joins Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road and Matt Brown’s The Cinema of Survival: Mad Max: Fury Road as an essential purchase for the Wasteland faithful.

Barbie: The World Tour by Margot Robbie and Andrew Mukamal, photographs by Craig McDean (Rizzoli)

Barbie: The World Tour has a simple, brilliant concept: it is a photo collection of the delectable looks developed by star Margot Robbie and her stylist Andrew Mukamal for the promotion of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in 2023. This involved bringing to life some of the doll’s most famous and beloved outfits––a task Robbie and Mukamal pulled off. The resulting book is a genuine wonder. Yes, it helps when the central figure is the ever-resplendent Robbie––the actress-producer appears on nearly every page––but the book itself is an aesthetic dream, from its ingenious cover to remarkably intricate designs therein. Barbie: The World Tour serves as a tribute to the work of Gerwig, Robbie, and Mukamal, and as a work of art on its own.

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (Penguin Press)

The life of actor-director Griffin Dunne has been one of highs and tragic lows. He covers both ends in The Friday Afternoon Club, an emotionally overwhelming memoir. Dunne’s has been no ordinary life: childhood in Hollywood as the son of Dominick Dunne and nephew of John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, roommates with Carrie Fisher in his 20s, acclaim for his performance in After Hours, and the horrific murder of his actress sister, Dominique. The events surrounding her brutal slaying are the most upsetting of this book, and Dunne covers the murder and trial with great candor. The pain is still evident, and it is clear that writing The Friday Afternoon Club has been a way for Dunne to gain a greater understanding of the worst period of his family’s lives. “I’m not sure exactly when, either after the funeral, waiting for the trial, or during the trial, but at some point everyone in my family had become, each in our own way, totally insane.” The pain never ends, but Dunne shows how life somehow continues. His must-read memoir concludes with the birth of his daughter, in a sequence that is tremendously affecting and beautifully life-affirming.

Film Magazines

We recommend supporting outlets offering some of the finest film analysis and consideration in print form: Filmmaker Magazine, Sight and Sound, Little White Lies, ASC, MUBI’s Notebook Magazine, and the newly launched The Metrograph.

Streaming Service Subscription

If you are familiar with this site, we imagine you are already aware of at least some of the streaming services that care a great deal about preserving the art form of cinema. As always, one can’t beat the variety and quality found at the Criterion Channel, while MUBI continually champions bold filmmaking voices both old and new, offering some of the year’s best films. For those seeking even more worthwhile gems from across the world, Metrograph at Home, Kino Film Collection, OVID.tv, and Film Movement Plus continually present eclectic lineups.

Prints, Posters, and More Merch

There’s no better piece to hang on your wall than a print from the cinema-obsessed Brianna Ashby, who is offering work featuring Phantom Thread, the Before series, Carrie, and more.

The NYC-based Posteritati also has a staggering archive of movie posters from every era of filmmaking. For just a few recommendations: international posters for Apocalypse Now, Au Hasard Balthazar, The Ballad of Narayama, Barry Lyndon, John Cassavetes, Chungking Express, La Cienaga, and a vast archive of NYFF posters.

Vinyl

On the vinyl music side, we recommend the scores for Evil Does Not Exist, I Saw the TV Glow, Marie Antoinette, Priscilla, The Boy and the Heron, Challengers, Dune: Part Two, and epic Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection.

Support Your Local Arthouse Theater

As the future of theatrical distribution, especially in the indie realm, continues to find a footing, local arthouse theaters need your support more than ever. Whether it’s a gift membership or certificate, be sure to check out your local arthouse theater to see what they offer this season. If you’re looking for something that can be used at virtually all theaters, I’ve also been enjoying the return of MoviePass, which offers up gift certificates.

Happy holidays from The Film Stage!

The post The Film Stage’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide first appeared on The Film Stage.