1. Superbad and Knocked Up (Sony, Universal)
Superbad and Knocked Up were the funniest films of the year—but here they’re even better. Judd Apatow’s witty viral promotions now double as hysterical extras: fake auditions, “Line-o-Rama” improv riots, fake meltdowns, and more.
2. Twin Peaks and Inland Empire
(Paramount, Rhino)
David Lynch is a DVD natural—an inscrutable auteur who demands repeat viewing. But on these extras, he becomes a highbrow Mario Batali, gossiping in his kitchen while cooking quinoa. Somebody get Lynch a one-man show!
3. I Am Cuba and Battleship Potemkin (Milestone, Kino)
Attention, film students: Two of the year’s best restorations augment two of film’s most technically stunning features, by Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergei Eisenstein, respectively. Matrixes of their eras (and much more).
4. Children of Men and Death Proof (Universal, Weinstein)
Attention, student stuntmen: If you ever intend to crash a vehicle at a very high speed, listen to Quentin Tarantino and Alfonso Cuarón explain the most startling (and interminable) car chases in recent memory.
5. Planet Earth and Performance (BBC, Warner)
David Attenborough’s series films kinky leopard slugs and bioluminescent freak-fish. Nicolas Roeg’s 1970 art-gangster flick captures the strangest of all creatures: a young and wild Mick Jagger.
… and the rest …
6. Stanley Kubrick: Director’s Series and Ford at Fox. State-of-the-art hagiographies.
7. Ingmar Bergman: Four Masterworks and Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist. Just two of Criterion’s many new must-haves.
8. Blade Runner: The Final Cut and The Host. Two of sci-fi’s best dystopic parables.
9. Cinema 16: European Short Films and Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film. Obscurantist heaven.
10. The Sopranos and Seinfeld. The whole bada-yadda-bing.