Since its founding in 2002, Focus Features has been synonymous with innovative and critically acclaimed filmmaking. The iconic studio presents their renowned films that illuminate some of Hollywood’s greatest writers, directors, and actors in the Focus Features:10-Movie Spotlight Collection. Totaling an impressive 7 Academy Awards and 11 Golden Globes wins, the film set includes only the best.
With films from acclaimed directors such as The Coen Brothers, Sophia Coppola, Ang Lee and Wes Anderson, this collection is loaded with bonus features including filmmaker feature commentaries, cast interviews, deleted scenes and more!
Films Included:
- Lost in Translation
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Pride & Prejudice
- Brokeback Mountain
- Atonement
- Burn After Reading
- Moonrise Kingdom
- The Theory of Everything
- On the Basis of Sex
- Harriet
*Digital Code Included
“Nothing but award winners and heavy hitters.”
Review:
I went ahead and looked up the reviews on all ten of the films included in this collection — the highest rated film is Lost in Translation at 95%, while the lowest films are their newest two On the Basis of Sex & Harriet at 73%. When you average out the collection to a score, you get 84% from the critics… I’m not here to say the critics are always right, but the numbers add up nicely, don’t they? Sometimes collections will have low-points, but I don’t think you can use that language with this set — you’ll have yourself a nice nest egg of films at your disposal when the mood hits. Shockingly, when I looked at how many of these films I already owned, it was only one — The Theory of Everything. I am extremely pleased to own this set today!
Officially, Focus Features has been around for almost two decades now (2002) and while this collection has many award winners and heavy hitters, this collection doesn’t include some of their other top-notch films like The Pianist, Milk or Dallas Buyers Club just to name a few. I know why The Pianist wasn’t included, but it would’ve been awesome if it was. (That’s one of the films I’d love to see in UHD.)
What do I think their best work is so far?
At the very least, Focus Features has created a platform that guarantees they will be in consideration every-time award season rolls around. Not a lot of companies can claim that kind of approval, but Focus Features has it.
As in the previous 10-Movie Collections, I think the best way to go about reviewing these movies is ranking them from best to worst. At the top of this ten-piece collection are Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pride & Prejudice, Brokeback Mountain, Moonrise Kingdom and The Theory of Everything. Closing it out… Atonement, Burn After Reading, On the Basis of Sex & Harriet fall right in the middle (none of them are bad) in comparison.
Packaging wise, this release is housed in a standard 10-disc case with each disc getting its own tray — that means no discs are being stacked! Even better, the casing fits like a book on bookshelf, perfect for collectors. I hate it when collections get cheap packaging — this isn’t anything amazing — but it’s sturdy for the long-haul.
Taking everything I’ve said into account, you can be sure that the Focus Features 10-Movie Spotlight Collection gets my biggest recommendation to own. The only thing that should stop you is if you already own most of these films — otherwise, jump on it! Usually the must-own collections are tied to franchise sets or director exclusives, but that changes here! Make sure you can head out and grab a copy at your local retailer today!
Are you a fan of Focus Features? Will you be picking it up to own? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Cheers,
Matt.
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