TCM and Criterion Go All In on Stanley Kubrick with The Complete Kubrick

Some filmmakers make great movies. Stanley Kubrick made movies that stick with you, occasionally rearrange your brain, and leave you arguing about what you just watched long after the credits roll. Now, Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Collection are joining forces to celebrate a director whose influence stretches far beyond cinema.

Then there’s The Complete Kubrick, an ambitious collection that brings together all thirteen of his feature films and three shorts. The set features 4K restorations, original soundtracks and remastered 5.1 mixes, along with more than 25 hours of interviews, documentaries and behind-the-scenes material. Rare photographs, artwork and documents annotated by Kubrick himself add another layer of fascination, while the packaging takes inspiration from his legendary archive.

Criterion’s Completely Kubrick initiative brought together an on-air film spotlight in September and a special season of The Plot Thickens, TCM’s award-winning film-history podcast hosted by Ben Mankiewicz. Titled Stanley, the podcast’s seventh season was co-produced with The Criterion Collection and features 11 episodes exploring Kubrick’s life, career and cinematic legacy, from his working-class upbringing in the West Bronx to the legendary perfectionism that shaped his filmmaking. That’s quite a treasure chest for anyone fascinated by the man behind Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut.

Kubrick could move between genres while making each film unmistakably his own. He turned science fiction into a meditation on humanity, military satire into a terrifyingly funny examination of power, and horror into something that burrows beneath your skin. His precise visual style and chilling sense of irony made his films endlessly rewarding, with new details and questions waiting to be discovered on repeat viewings.

My own journey into Kubrick’s world goes back to a time when I was first learning to look beyond the screen and understand what made a great film tick. Before podcasts, behind-the-scenes documentaries and lavish box sets, there was television, and one wonderful host who could make watching a movie feel like discovering a little piece of cinematic magic. My introduction to Kubrick came through Dr. Strangelove on TVOntario’s Saturday Night at the Movies, hosted by the unforgettable Elwy Yost.

I loved Yost’s infectious, “Oh, gee whiz!” enthusiasm. He had a way of making you feel as though you were being let in on a marvellous discovery. He didn’t simply introduce a film and leave you to it; he made you curious about what you were about to see and gave you reasons to keep thinking about it afterwards.

I especially remember how he highlighted Peter Sellers playing three distinctly different roles in Dr. Strangelove and unpacked the film’s extraordinary double nature. Here was a movie that could have you laughing hysterically one moment, then leave you genuinely terrified by the prospect of nuclear annihilation the next. That balance between absurd comedy and genuine horror is what makes the film so remarkable. Yost helped me appreciate just how much was going on beneath the surface.

Saturday Night at the Movies also introduced audiences to films such as The Killing, Spartacus and Paths of Glory. For me, it was more than watching old movies on television. It was an invitation to look closer, listen to someone who genuinely loved the medium, and discover why certain films stayed with you long after they ended. Those memories are part of why Kubrick still fascinates me today.

That’s also what makes The Plot Thickens: Stanley so compelling. Through interviews and accounts from people connected to Kubrick and his projects, the series goes beyond the familiar stories about his genius and perfectionism to offer fresh perspectives on the man behind the camera.

This has been my favourite season of The Plot Thickens. Hearing from people involved in Kubrick’s films, alongside more recent interviews, has given me a different appreciation for his life and work. You start to see the films through the experiences of the people who helped bring them to life, and that makes revisiting them all the more appealing. The series has left me wanting to go back and watch them all over again, armed with a little more insight into what went into making them.

I love collections that offer more than a stack of discs. The chance to explore the ideas, experiments and creative decisions behind films this ambitious is part of the attraction. Pair that with a podcast that adds fresh context to the filmmaker’s story, and you have a wonderful excuse to revisit some of cinema’s most fascinating work.

For me, it all comes full circle: from watching Elwy Yost bring Dr. Strangelove to life on TVOntario to discovering fresh perspectives on Kubrick decades later. If you love cinema, I cannot recommend The Plot Thickens: Stanley highly enough. Give it a listen, then revisit a Kubrick film you think you know inside out. You might be surprised by how much more there is to discover. Just don’t expect every viewing to leave you with fewer questions than you started with.