Holiday DVD Shopping Guide

By Noel Murray, Special to The Times

It wasn’t so long ago that young professionals hung art on their walls and laid books on their coffee tables to declare their tastes to all comers. These days, though, the media room has become the epicenter of self-identification, the place where collectors showcase the hallmarks of their good (or not-so-good) taste, their affection for obscure filmmaking or their fondness for the good old-fashioned blockbuster.

So what better time for self-reflection, pop culture style, than the holidays, when the already saturated DVD market becomes deluged with new releases -- reissues, special editions and box sets of movies and TV shows, from the historically important to the wildly offbeat, all priced to move?

In the interests of helping sort through the almost innumerable buying options, what follows is a brief guide, tailored to almost any entertainment personality, of DVDs being released through the end of the year that best express the inner you. The you that’s not like the unthinking hordes. The you that’s into old cartoons, or early 20th century social movements, or subversive holiday movies in which Kris Kringle packs a butcher knife. (This last “you” might want to consider a more relaxed approach to the season -- just a thought.) And if there’s an uncanny match on the list for someone who’s not you, all the better.

Because, really, on the day of reckoning, who wants to come up short on the number of Criterion Collection DVDs in the eyes of the movie gods?  (Ed Zurga / AP)