Casino (Universal)

I love the operatic quality of Martin Scorsese’s Casino and its larger-than-life characters. Buried in it are a history lesson and a story of survival among the mob. A "Tenth Anniversary Edition" DVD is slated for release in June of this year; this is the treatment a movie like this deserves.

Crimes and Misdemeanors (MGM Home Entertainment)

Religion and ethics, good and bad, are juxtaposed in my favorite Woody Allen film. One story line involves two brothers: an ophthalmologist who can’t "see" and a rabbi who’s going blind.

Do the Right Thing (The Criterion Collection)

Bad things happen on hot days. In Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee’s stylish mediation on multicultural racism, a race riot breaks out at the height of summer’s heat. Two DVD versions exist; the two-disc Criterion Collection edition has the better video image and is the one to own.

Grand Canyon (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)

The popularity of Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill is underscored by how often it appears on cable TV, but Grand Canyon is the contemplative movie that the self-absorbed Chill should have been. The DVD has a crisp, clean video image.

Jackie Brown (Miramax Home Entertainment)

Pulp Fiction is the more famous Quentin Tarantino film, but I keep coming back to Jackie Brown for its performances and more restrained humor. Pam Grier and Robert Forster are terrific. The two-DVD set includes many extras.

Magnolia (New Line Home Entertainment)

Magnolia made me a believer in Paul Thomas Anderson’s immense writing and directing talents. Its wounded characters are each headed for a fall until something happens to change their world -- and make you applaud Anderson’s daring. The entire "Frank T.J. Mackey Seminar" is a wickedly funny DVD extra.

Short Cuts (The Criterion Collection)

Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, based on short stories by Raymond Carver, follows 22 characters who live in and around Los Angeles as unsuspecting neighbors. It has only recently made it to DVD, but the grand Criterion Collection edition makes the wait worthwhile.

The Straight Story (Walt Disney Home Video)

David Lynch is best known for Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, which wallow in the murkiest side of human nature. The Straight Story does a complete 180 and shows that persistence and forgiveness never die, even if we think they have.

Touch of Evil (Universal)

A stylish, mesmerizing movie. In an era when movie stars wanted to look good onscreen, director Orson Welles dressed down for the role of a sweaty, doughy, corrupt police captain who clashes with a Mexican cop played by a darkened Charlton Heston. The widescreen DVD restores Welles’s original vision for the movie.

The Treasure of Sierra Madre (Warner Home Video)

The story of Fred C. Dobbs, an American down on his luck, is universal: Greed and suspicion overtake Dobbs as he and two comrades strike it rich as gold prospectors. Director John Huston cast his father in what is perhaps Walter Huston’s most memorable role, as the all-knowing prospector Howard.