Cinema On A Shelf

In this most recent installment of the Label Spotlight series, Matt takes some time to talk about one of the real workhorses of the physical media space, Kino Lorber. With one of the largest available libraries of releases, Kino Lorber has been in the physical media game for a long time. They fill an important space for movie fans and collectors, and they do it in a way that is not as flashy but k...

For the second Collector Conversation episode, Matt welcomes Philip Marinello from The Substance Podcast to chat about physical media and how he collects it. Philip talks about movies a lot on his "Substantive Cinema" episodes and often does little physical media shout-outs for what is new and what he has recently added to his collection. In this conversation, Philip gives Matt some grea...

To commemorate the most recent Cannes Film Festival, Matt has chosen two new Criterion releases for his Hall of Fame that are previous winner of the festival's prestigious Palme D'or! First up is Henri-Georges Clouzot masterclass in suspense and tension  The Wages of Fear , which is an everlasting pillar to what it means to watch a film from the edge of your seat. Then, Bob Fosse's...

Matt gets to discovery another new (to him) boutique physical media label on today's episode! This time he is diving into a Vinegar Syndrome sub-label called Cinematographe, which specializes in filling in some of the gaps in the American film cannon. From lesser known titles by acclaimed directors to films that slipped through the cracks of notoriety and wider distribution, they have a lot t...

In a little change of pace from the typical episode, Matt has invited his first guest onto the podcast! This is the first in a "Collector Conversation" series where he talks to different physical media collectors and aficionados about how they collect physical media, what sort of things interest them as collectors, and an quirks or special interests they may have relating to collecting....

In this edition of the Label Spotlight series, Matt talks about one of the top dogs o the boutique physical media space: the UK-based Arrow Video. From genre, cult, and horror films to their more recent expansion into many other eras and genres, Arrow is synonymous with collectors for stellar quality. Matt tends to collect Arrow stuff a little differently than others, but he does try to provide a...

There may not be a more polarizing topic in physical media collecting than how you organize your movies. You can see and hear about SO MANY different methods that people have to organize their shelves. They may or may not make any sense to you...and that's what makes it such an interesting thing to talk about! In this episode, Matt talks about many different ways you can organize movies on yo...

While not as dramatic as when Hamlet posed it, today's episode center around the question of upgrading movies in your physical media collection. Do you do it? Why would someone want to upgrade a film they already own? What are some of the issues to think about when upgrading? Matt tackles all of these and a few more in this episode. He also gives a little bit of insight on some of the ways he...

With the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina currently in their final week, Matt has found a way to fit in a cheeky little on-brand homage to two of his favourite films in the Criterion Collection: one that is directly about a Winter Olympic sport, and another from a legendary director from northern Italy! First up is Michael Ritchie's New Hollywood sports film Downhill Racer, starring and...

The newest entry into the on-going Label Discovery series finds Matt taking his first steps into one of the most talked about boutique physical media labels in recent year, Radiance Films. While not necessarily a label that has made big splashes in terms of "high profile" film releases, Radiance has established their place in many collector's hearts for their quality and curation of...

In his continued series of putting the spotlight on physical media labels that he loves, Matt gets to show his national pride for Canadian International Pictures. As a relatively new partner label of Vinegar Syndrome, CIP has been making great releases for underseen gems across many different genres of films made within the Canadian film industry. These films may not have the kind of notoriety for...

It's the first episode of 2026, and what better way to start the new year than talking about collecting goals for the next 12 months...and beyond! For this episode, Matt talks about why setting goals for your movie collecting can be interesting and insightful, different ways that you can focus your own physical media collecting goals, and how sometimes those goals don't always have to be...

With the recent news in the entertainment industry related to Warner Bros., Matt wanted to take a look into his favourite aspect of the WB physical media landscape: the Warner Archive Collection! This long-running "boutique"-ish label has thousands and thousands of titles spanning the vast catalogue of vintage Hollywood films that comprises the Warner Archive. Matt loves classic films, s...

With one of the biggest sale seasons, Black Friday, being upon us, Matt wanted to take a bit of time to talk about different physical media sales. While Black Friday is quite a popular time for discounted movies, it is certainly not the only sale that happens; in fact many physical media sales happen on a fairly regular basis! He also looks into a little bit of info about the psychology of these k...

The beginning of the month of November brings one of the annual Criterion Collection 50% off sales, so what better time for Matt's second installment of the Criterion Hall of Fame! For his second and third entries respectively, Matt revisits two of his all-time favourite Criterion releases. First up is the unflinching film noir Kiss Me Deadly, an adaptation of a Mickey Spillane novel that pul...

In the next episode in his Label Discovery series, Matt takes a dive into a mainstay of boutique physical media that specializes in low budget and genre films: Vinegar Syndrome. It's a label that he is definitely familiar with as a company, but this is more based around their partner labels. The mainline VS films are something he did not have any first-and experience with, so this year's...

A big part of the fun of collecting physical media from boutique labels is actually discovering a new label. Every company has their own unique touches on the types of films they release, how they present them, and what they lie to include to enhance the experience of watching the film. Personally, Matt loves this act of discovery! In this first of his Label Discovery episodes, he finally gets to...

One of the really special parts about collecting movies on physical media is the great boutique labels that create some of the most exciting releases each year. In the first of his Label Spotlights, Matt wanted to talk about the label that started it all 41 years ago: The Criterion Collection! In this episode, he'll touch on the history of Criterion from the early days of laserdisc all the wa...

There are so many different ways to go about building your physical media collection, and the beauty of it is that there is no right or wrong way to go about it!  For this episode of Cinema On A Shelf, Matt breaks down collecting into two focal points: the HOW and the WHERE. The "how" part of the discussion is a bit of a brainstorm of the different ways you can focus on what you add to y...

Whether you have never owned them or want to get back to collecting them, movies on physical media are pretty great. You can go diving for DVDs, high definition hunting for Blu-Rays, or searching for the sharpest 4K UHD discs that technology can produce. So what do you need to know about starting your collection? In this first episode of Cinema On A Shelf , Matt talks about the different physical...