The Criterion Collection

“Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire is a glorious sci-fi mind-bender that was clearly well ahead of its time,” writes Svet Atanasov in a review for Blu–ray.com. “Undoubtedly a masterpiece.” For Slant, Budd Wilkins muses on just how this “fascinating and dynamic film” was ahead of its time: “World on a Wire’s levels-of-reality story line anticipates an entire cycle of films, ranging from the bullet-time ballyhoo of the Matrix trilogy to the disconcerting low-fi dystopia of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, while its future-noir aesthetic clearly presages the moody atmospherics of Blade Runner.” And DVD Verdict’s Gordon Sullivan finds that “in a modern world where sci-fi means robots, explosions, and the occasional spaceship, Fassbinder’s vision feels refreshing.”

More from Home Theater Forum’s Matt Hough.