NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (June 2020): Criterion have transferred Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Noah Baumbach". It's on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. The image quality is as pristine as you might expect for such a modern production. It looks flawless.

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track (24-bit) in the original English language (there is also a lossy Descriptive audio track option.) Like the video it is perfect exporting the film's sounds directly, and cleanly with the score by Randy Newman (The Natural, Pleasantville, Toy Story, The Princess and the Frog, Leatherheads, Awakenings.) Criterion offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray is stacked with supplements starting with a new 20-minute interview with director/writer Baumbach who talks about the film's evolution. The Players runs 20-minutes and is a new program featuring interviews with actors Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, and Ray Liotta, recorded in New York and Los Angeles in 2019, discussing the production and their individual participation. The Filmmakers, is a new 12-minute program about the production of the film, featuring interviews with Baumbach, editor Jennifer Lame, production designer Jade Healy, costume designer Mark Bridges, and producer David Heyman were recorded in Los Angeles in 2019. The Making of “Marriage Story,” is a new program of 1.5 hour's worth of video journal footage of the film's production featuring unseen on-set footage of the cast and crew. There is a new 11-minute interview with composer Randy Newman recorded in Los Angeles in 2019 and features footage of writer-director Noah Baumbach and Newman in a recording studio, working on the film's score. There is 7-minjutes of writer-director Noah Baumbach discussing a pivotal location in the film. Lastly, are two trailers and the package has liner notes by novelist Linn Ullmann.

Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story is... exceptional. There is a scene where Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) looks at the wall showing a framed photo of one of his plays, Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage" . An obvious reference to the influential film/play about the disintegration of a marriage. It's a desperately sad film, occasional humor, with amazing performances. Just excellent. The Criterion Blu-ray with plenty of valued extras is strongly endorsed. What a fantastic surprise Marriage Story turned out to be.

Gary Tooze