Cinema On A Shelf

In perhaps Matt's most anticipated edition of the Label Discovery series today, he finally gets to check out some releases from the boutique label Deaf Crocodile. Several of his podcast guests have been hyping this one up to him, and he finally took the plunge. Deaf Crocodile in shining light on many unknown, underseen classic of international cinema and animation that have been wowing collection since 2022. Matt gets the chance to sample several of their releases to see if they live up to the hype.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The next in our Collector Conversation series sees Matt returning the favour and talking to Isaiah Shupe, the host of the Mr. Rewatchability podcast. Isaiah has brought Matt on as a guest a few times, and since he also collects physical media, it only made sense to have him on for this series. Isaiah loves growing his physical media collection through the good old fashioned local thrift store scene, which brings its own thrills. He is also a big Criterion Collection fan, but seems to enjoy blind buying films just as much. He also talks about one of his favourite films of all time that is well overdue for a new physical media edition.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Inspired by recently having to move into a new place to live with his wife, Matt has had moving his various collections on the brain for the past while now. It's no one's favourite activity, but if you are a physical media collector, moving can be a daunting proposition. This episode is dedicated to a conversation about different topics relating to moving with a collection: what types of boxes might work best, how to pack your collection to save an organizational headache, shelves and spacing in your new place, protecting valuable items, and keeping a positive and open mind about your next collection space.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In the latest part in the Collector Conversation series, Matt sits down with Marta Djordjevic (AKA @marta.mcfly on Instagram) from Rewind & Revive to chat about physical media. Marta is an accomplished entertainment writer and editor who has a real passion for collecting physical media, especially stuff that fits with her ethos of highlighting and deep-diving into forgotten and underseen international films. She talks about how much boutique labels like Radiance and Deaf Crocodile fuel her as a cinephile, how painful it can be to part with a movie collection, how she has evolved as a collector over the years, and gives a bounty of great recommendations to check out.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 keeps a high standard of quality.

Matt dives a bit into the history of how Kino Lorber came about from a merger of two other companies, the different lines that Kino releases under their name, and a big list of personal favourites and recommendations that he has for discovering or getting into specific niches of what Kino Lorber releases.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 great information about some labels he has yet to check out, how great the local public library can be for discovering new (and even boutique) releases, and some of the underseen Samuel Fuller gems that he would love to see get a proper physical media treatment.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 gonzo, wicked, pseudo-autobiographical 1979 musical All That Jazz takes center stage while it blends genres, expectations, and artistic mythology.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 to offer and a great package to offer it in. As part of this label discovery, Matt samples three releases from Cinematographe that caught his eye: Goin' South, Thieves Like Us, and Swimming To Cambodia. Is this label worth the time to discover?

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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. No two people collect the same way, and Matt hopes to explore that with this series.

For this inaugural episode, he sits down with Dakota Arsenault, host of the podcast and film review site Contra Zoom. He talks about how Arrow has become his favourite label to collect for, his current case replacement project, the sad state of availability of Canadian films on physical media, and much more.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 bit of history and overview of the films and editions that they lovingly put out every month. Whether you are new to Arrow or a collector of there's from way back, there's always a surprising amount of depth to be discovered with what they do.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 your shelf and how these can potentially be combined to give it your own personalized touches. He also weighs in on which methods lean more towards logic and which look more at embracing the chaos. How do you organize your movies?

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 has upgraded in the past, continuing forward, and how he thinks about debating whether to upgrade something or not.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 produced by Robert Redford. It's a stripped down look at what it means for a high level athlete to pursue being the best, and how this kind of achievement does not only happen to decent and likable people. Then he gets to gush about the legendary Italian neo-realist masterpiece L'Avventura from the great Michelangelo Antonioni. It's a deliberately paced examination of the malaise of the upper class, even in the face of a friend and lover that has gone missing, that is regarded as a pillar of world cinema.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 lesser-seen films.

After talking about a brief history of Radiance and what they are all about in terms of what they release, Matt checks out three releases that seem emblematic of the style, genres, and eras that they often include films from. He gets to discover the returning film from a legendary Japanese iconoclastic director, an action-packed late-60s yakuza film-turned character study, and a box set of three Italian films that examine the corruption of the mafia in society, government, the law, and everything in between. Does Radiance live up to the considerable hype?

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 film fans, but CIP dedicates their efforts to presenting them at their best.

The episode starts with a bit of information about how a fledgling Canadian feature film industry was created in the early 1960s, how Canadian International Pictures chooses and curates their releases, and some (OK...many) recommendations to check out across different genres and movie-going interests. Prepare to discover something that you've likely not heard of but may just end up being your new favourite film!

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 about adding things to your collection. Plus, he also shares a few of his own collecting goals for 2026.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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, so it's no surprise that he is a big fan.

Through this episode, he talks about the history of Warner Archive's humble beginnings on DVD and through the some of the most stunning 4K releases available to date. If you are the type of movie lover that loves classic Hollywood and watching TCM, you're going to enjoy this episode!

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 kinds of sales, different ways that collectors can plan and prepare for a sale, and some ways to think about your own budgets for sales.

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Boutique Blu-ray Sales Listing - Reddit

"Why Shopping Makes You Happy" article - DW.com

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 pulls no punches and is both a critique of the macho private investigator trope and a Cold War era shocker. After that, he divots to the colourful, vibrant, and melodramatic tale of a ballet company in The Red Shoes, where art and life become intertwined for an up-and-coming ballet star. Both films feature unforgettable scenes and a wealth of supplements to dive into, more than worthy of that big letter C in the top left corner.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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 fall/spooky season provided a perfect setting for taking the plunge.

Once again, he samples three Vinegar Syndrome releases of films from the likes of directors David Cronenberg, Paul Morrissey, and Henry Hathaway. VS has a pretty great reputation with collectors as far as what they offer in their releases. Join Matt in this episode for a bit of background about Vinegar Syndrome as a company and to see how he would rate his initial sampling of their films.

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Email: cinemaonashelf@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinemaonashelf/

Substack: https://www.cinemaonashelf.substack.com

Matt's Letterboxd: @Matty236

---

Music:

"Vibing Over Venus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/