July Criterion Channel Lineup

Summertime!

Pretty solid lineup coming in July; last month set a very high bar but we’re definitely continuing with those sun-drenched themes. Plus, uh, Haneke.

We open with yet another city-themed collection that isn’t Boston. To add insult to injury, it’s crime-themed. When do we get the Boston Crime collection, huh? My parochial biases do not prevent Miami Neonoir from being an excellent idea, featuring stuff like Out of Sight and Body Heat. Top-notch, and they didn’t even throw in Wild Things. I guess that’s not Miami. I admire the curator’s ability to avoid scope creep.

The second summery collection is Summer Romances, which is not as much my thing. Good curation again, though; from A Place in the Sun to Gidget, this is nothing if not a wide range. I am a bit surprised Bergman’s Summer with Monika didn’t get in here; it’d fit really well.

Then there’s a cool (and big, 19 movies) collection of D. A. Pennebaker movies. Mostly directed by him, and a few in which he’s the cinematographer. Lots of music, unsurprisingly. I’m in for Monterey Pop at the very least.

The second filmmaker-specific collection in July is from Jacques Rozier. I don’t know much about him and I probably won’t be making a beeline for any of these. The Castaways of Turtle Island looks kind of fun?

Portraits of Artists is an excellent theme. Apparently my theme for the month is “Oh, you should have included X,” because I think Faces Places belongs in here; nevertheless it’s a cool collection. This may be the push I need to see F is for Fake finally. Oh, wait, Faces Places isn’t on the Channel currently — they’re off the hook there.

Brian Cox talking about The Craft of Acting is promising. It feels like a long weekend kind of a thing. Cause you want to hear him talking about Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock, then watch the movie, right? Cox can be kind of precious about his craft but I do love his work.

And, hey! Frantz Fanon at 100. What a cool idea for a collection, and what good timing! We all know The Battle of Algiers is obligatory, right? I’m quite interested in the mix of documentaries about the man and movies that were influenced by him; that’s a clever concept.

Before we get to the Criterion Collection editions and the rediscoveries, there are a few more spotlights. Hou Hsiao-hsien gets a director spotlight; I just saw my first movie from him, Millennium Mambo, so this is pretty cool timing. Moustapha Alassane is a new name for me but his work looks pretty interesting. Michael Haneke — I’m pretty sure these are all on the Channel already, just not as a collection. I wonder if there’s something going on related to the Curzon and Umbrella Haneke Blu-ray collections? Maybe Criterion’s getting in on that action?

Lino Brocka can have his own paragraph cause I’m excited about this. If nothing else, it’s a chance to watch a great Filipino director without committing six hours to a Lav Diaz movie. I kid! I have La Flor pencilled in for later this year, I’m no shrinking violet. Anyhow, Manila in the Claws of Light looks amazing and I can’t wait.

Let’s see, down towards the bottom of the list… a nice little section for music films, featuring a real hodge podge of Rolling Stones on Film. Which includes Gimmie Shelter, one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. I will spend some time there. The other movies here look good too, particularly Let’s Get Lost.

I’m not sure why Heat is back but I never mind having another chance to see it.

And looping back to the Collection editions — Killer of Sheep has been on my list for a while, cool. I don’t have that much interest in Basquiat but I have a lot of interest in young Jeffrey Wright, so Basquiat goes on the list. And the rediscoveries also have some gems: early Tilda Swinton with Female Perversions? Peter Fonda and Harry Dean Stanton in a Key West movie? Lovely stuff, the kind of thing I subscribe to the Channel for.

#criterion #criterionChannel

I'm working my way through #CriterionChannel 's #JohnnyTo featured collection.

I feel embarrassed I haven't seen much of his work earlier. Drug War and Exiled are highlights but they're all exceptional for the most part. The Heroic Trio, which I've seen a couple of times, and its sequel are probably the weakest but they were early in his career.

#cinemastodon

@MargaretSefton I watched that just a few weeks ago. It was excellent.

I started Night Moves (from the Gene Hackman collection) last night, will probably finish it tonight.

It's just... okay, so far but it's a fun time-travel into the 1970s (and tries to be noir, sorta). Also a VERY young (16) Melanie Griffith's first credited role.

And I think there's a twist coming which hopefully will improve it a bit.

#amWatching #criterionChannel

https://www.criterionchannel.com/celebrating-gene-hackman/season:1/videos/night-moves

Wong Kar-wai’s ‘Blossoms Shanghai’ Sets Criterion Channel Launch Following Mubi Acquisition
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/wong-kar-wai-blossoms-shanghai-criterion-channel-1236436020/
#Asia #Global #News #BlossomsShanghai #CriterionChannel #Mubi #WongKarwai

Wong Kar-wai’s ‘Blossoms Shanghai’ Sets Criterion Channel Launch Following Mubi Acquisition
#Variety #Asia #Global #News #BlossomsShanghai #CriterionChannel #Mubi #WongKarwai

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/wong-kar-wai-blossoms-shanghai-criterion-channel-1236436020/

A new thread, as I (re) subscribed to The Criterion Channel

If I watch the entire movie I liked it.

/1

@criterionchannl
#movies
#streaming
#Criterion
#criterionchannel

June Criterion Channel Lineup

It’s clearly the beginning of summer because Criterion’s June lineup is even more summery than last month’s. And last month they did a whole collection of Coastal Thrillers.

It kicks off with In The Deep End: Swimming Pools On-Screen. Brilliant theme, raises to whoever thought of that one. This is not really about nice swimming pools; the sense of dread you’d get from watching The Swimmer, La Piscine, and Deep End in a row is substantial. There’s some Breillat and a deeply uneasy Martel — La Ciénaga — just to drive the point home. Great theme, great movies.

Then we rotate right into Ripley Films. Yep, it’s four out of five of the existing Tom Ripley movies, leaving out only Ripley Under Ground. Probably the right choice, no offense to Barry Pepper. I’ve seen (and liked) all four of these and look forward to watching Ripley’s Game again, since it’s been a while.

Next up is a tribute to Gene Hackman. This looks like everything’s new to the Channel, or at least it’s all movies that aren’t on the Channel right now. I appreciate the effort. Great movies, everything from The French Connection to The Royal Tenenbaums.

It wouldn’t be the Criterion Channel without a new collection focusing on some classic film history; this month it’s a René Clair collection. I know nothing about the gentleman. His movies look like a ton of frothy fun — and hey, I Married a Witch stars Veronica Lake, so I’ll add that to my mental watchlist. But his work in his home country of France also seems worthwhile.

The Johnnie To Essentials collection is something I’ve been low key hoping for. It’s worthy of the name — there are a couple of movies I wish were here but yeah, watch these and you’ll get what To is all about. A friend asked me which ones I’d prioritize: Heroic Trio because the cast is amazing and it’s goofy fun, even if it’s not typical of To’s work; Breaking News for an opening one-shot so good I just watched it again; and Election for being a perfect crime movie. Also now that I’m thinking about it, Throw Down for a look at To’s more contemplative work, inspired by Kurosawa.

LGBTQ+ Favorites is sort of a grab bag, as the writeup admits. Fassbinder, Araki, and hey, Mala Noche. I’m in for more early Gus van Sant. I don’t have a ton to say here but I like the curation.

Nothing blows me away among the premiers and Criterion editions. Great timing for Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring, which are very good movies starring a dude who was just found guilty of sexual assault. You know, if I’d been Criterion, I might have wanted to put an extra addressing that on the physical release.

Anyhow, there’s also an Alan Rudolph collection which, while small, includes Trouble In MInd. I am unreasonably fond of that movie and I’ve always been curious about Breakfast of Champions. Low expectations, but the cast is ridiculous.

As for the other two small director collections this month, I am intrigued by the descriptions of Ougie Pak‘s work and Amy Holden Jones did interesting things with Slumber Party Massacre so why not check out Love Letters? (Yeah, I probably won’t have time, but that’s OK.)

Finally, among the random movies at the bottom of the list, I am surprised to see Kill Zone 2 but also excited. I wonder if this wasn’t somehow connected to the Johnnie To rights, given that it’s got Simon Yam and Louis Koo, two of To’s regulars? It’s not from To’s production company, though. Well, anyhow, it’s got Tony Jaa and that’s all I need to know to watch it.

#criterion #criterionChannel

May Criterion Channel Lineup

The May Criterion lineup is, in my book, timely and exceptional. I am going to be excited for perhaps controversial reasons; let’s dig in! (Man, and I completely forgot to post this in a timely manner. Had it ready days ago.)

In fact, let’s hit the tough topic head on. The Channel is featuring Three by Kathryn Bigelow, and those three include the superb Strange Days plus her two other early movies that I haven’t seen. Pity Near Dark didn’t make it in, but this lets me catch up on one of my favorite directors plus Strange Days is rarely available on streaming.

Bigelow earned a lot of criticism for making a pro-torture movie with Zero Dark Thirty, of course. I have mixed opinions there which I need to solidify with a rewatch; until then I’m simply going to acknowledge the issues, note that Strange Days ultimately shies away from engaging with the question of police forces as fascist enablers, and move on.

Speaking of political, we also have a Noir and the Blacklist collection, from anti-fascist World War II movies on through movies made by blacklisted filmmakers. Lots of good movies I’ve seen; I think the context of censorship and repression is great here. The New Hollywood of the 70s had its roots in these movies; I’m mentally pairing them with Italian social dramas of the post-World War II era, as well. Great theme.

Speaking of New Hollywood, it’s a Terry Southern collection! I’ve seen a couple of these, so I think it’s a good opportunity to round out my Southern experience. Probably my top interest is The Magic Christian, since I’m on a minor Peter Sellers kick and I haven’t seen it before.

OK. Let’s breathe. I feel like Criterion enjoys putting a less weighty genre collection in each month; if so, Coastal Thrillers is May’s. This is a really wide range of movies — everything from the unabashedly sleazy 90s erotic thriller Wild Things to the satirical 70s neo-noir The Long Goodbye to the classic Bogart and Bacall Key Largo. Oh, cool, and the Insomnia remake! I’ve been meaning to catch that, I loved the original.

Back to political: hello, Spike Lee’s Adventures in Moviegoing! It’s a really cool curation. If I had to pick one to see, I’d say The Battle of Algiers, which is groundbreaking and fresh. But there’s not a dud on the list.

The final major collection is Directed by Jia Zhangke. One of these, Ash is Purest White, is already part of last month’s Chinese Crime Thrillers collection so that’s probably where I’ll start. It’s cool to have a whole mass of Jia’s movies available for further discovery, assuming I like the first one.

OK, on the the usual mix of restorations and Criterion Collection editions. I’m curious about Il grido, since I just watched L’avventura so seeing more early Antonioni would be cool. The Runner, an 1980s Iran film, seems like it’ll give me more context on the modern Iranian cinema I’ve been enjoying so much. Oh, and hey, Touchez pas au grisbi stars Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and is that Jeanne Moreau I see? Directed by Jacques Becker? That’s promising.

And as always, a lot of fascinating stuff I probably won’t get to down in the bottom. Jem Cohen is clearly one of those interesting directors; as I keep saying, “I should check out some of those shorts to get a sense for his style.” We will see. Every single one of those movies directed by Tim Blake Nelson has a good cast. Oh, hey, spotlight for Joan Chen, that’s got good stuff in it! And Abel Ferrara’s Turn in the Wound, a documentary about the Ukraine War with a Patti Smith performance is pretty intriguing.

I would not, however, call Mann’s The Keep a triumph. Still, it’s awfully pretty.

#criterion #criterionChannel

April Criterion Channel Lineup

I’m going to start keeping track of how many New York themed collections Criterion runs before they get around to Boston. Which I suppose would need to be Boston Crime — it’s a low hanging fruit, y’all. Or Boston Journalism but that’s not quite as rich a topic. Anyhow I did wind up watching Carol from New York Love Stories so I can’t complain too hard. So, April’s lineup:

Despite my regional bias, April’s a great month. Fun City: NYC Woos Hollywood, Flirts with Disaster has a few classics at the top and in general is the sort of deep dive into a specific moment in cinematic history that I love. I’ll choose Cotton Comes to Harlem to spotlight because I recently read the Chester Himes novel it’s based on; if it comes even close to the book it’ll be excellent.

And then as the primary actor-focused collection of the month, we have Starring Penélope Cruz. I’m thrilled to be able to easily catch up on Open Your Eyes and I might even rewatch Vanilla Sky for the sake of comparison. It’s not a huge collection, but it spans a lot of her career. Nothing really recent, which is kind of a pity — she’s been doing interesting work around the maternal role recently (I really liked L’immensità), but you take what you can license.

Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides looks amazing. It’s got many of the significant American Vietnam movies, and also Vietnamese movies about the war. I’m interested in lots of this; On the Same River stands out for me as a Vietnamese movie about the French-Indochina War and it has not been very available previously.

Next, Jacques Rivette gets a director spotlight. Well, after I loved Duelle, this is a slam dunk for me. Will I carve out the time necessary for most of Rivette’s long movies? Don’t ask mean questions. Criterion included at least one of his early shorts, anyhow. Also Love on the Ground stars Jane Birkin which is a draw for me.

Buried way down in fifth place on the post: Chinese Crime Thrillers. Not Hong Kong, mainland China. I literally want to see all of these; I’ve watched a couple of neo-noirs and thrillers from China and enjoyed them, and this looks like one of the sort of deep dives I was mentioning earlier. Reviews on Letterboxd compare Chongqing Hot Pot to Johnnie To’s work, which is high praise, so maybe I’ll start there. Very jazzed.

Then among the Criterion Collections and Rediscoveries, we have Dead Ringers. The Cronenberg commentary track isn’t new but I haven’t heard it, so that’s exciting for me. Céline and Julie Go Boating promises a documentary on Rivette by Claire Denis, which is also pretty exciting. I’d assume that’s Jacques Rivette, the Watchman.

Down to the minor collections. Predictably, given Dead Ringers, there’s a Cronenberg collection — it’s the early movies that are already on the Channel, plus Dead Ringers and Fast Company. In fact, this is just an expansion of an existing collection. That’s cheating but I suppose they wanted to highlight it.

Three Noirs by John Farrow isn’t something you need to run out to watch, based on my recent viewing of Alias Nick Beal at Noir City, but it’s likely to be a bit of fun. The Big Clock is supposed to be excellent and Farrow directed Ray Milland very well in Alias Nick Beal.

Three Melodramas by Ray Yeung give us queer melodrama out of Hong Kong — these seem like the kind of thing I might tune in to randomly and then regret not watching all of? Letterboxd reviews are positive, so there you go.

Finally, I’ll note that I saw Resynator at SIFF last year and I quite enjoyed it. It’s sort of about music but it’s really about exploring the true history of family, and how that can be liberating and painful.

#criterion #criterionChannel

March Criterion Channel Lineup

March’s lineup is the kind of varied, interesting curation that represents the Criterion Channel at its best. Unfortunately, there’s one big miss: no celebration for Women’s History Month! Nannina Gilder took up the slack with a great Bluesky thread curating the collection she’d have made with movies that are already on the Channel.

Also I’m late on this one. Criterion dropped the lineup later than usual and it’s been a very busy month for me. So it goes.

First up: a Michael Mann collection. This includes Heat, so what more do you need? These range from great to good but there’s not a dud on the list. If you haven’t seen Collateral, it’s worth it for the chilling Tom Cruise performance.

Next there’s a really quirky concept: movies with a supporting performance Oscar but no lead performance Oscar. It’s a good lineup without a lot of coherence, as you might expect. The Last Picture Show is my vote for standout; it’s an early Peter Bogdanovich with a ton of great performances; Ben Johnson won for Best Supporting Actor and Cloris Leachman won for Best Supporting Actress. Deeply melancholy.

In a completely different and more unified vein, we have a Dogme 95 collection. This is probably the one where I actually delve into Dogme. There are many of the films people associate with the movement — The Celebration is high on my list, and probably the first one I’ll watch — plus a couple of more obscure movies. I like this collection. Will I finally watch a Von Trier? Maaaybe.

More film movements! I love these collections; this month Criterion’s also giving us a French Poetic Realism collection. I’ve seen quite a few of these; Pépé le Moko is a good place to start if you’re interested in the way French film has portrayed Algiers over the years, plus it stars Jean Gabin. It’s a huge collection and looks well worth browsing.

Then we get to the premieres. Both All We Imagine as Light and Only the River Flows looks excellent; I’m particularly interested in the latter as I’ve seen some very good neo-noir takes from China.

The restorations and rediscoveries section includes Amadeus which may steal all the attention. Fair; Forman’s a great. But I really wanna watch Pressure and Burning an Illusion — two British movies by Black directors, which look to shed more light into a time and culture I don’t know a lot about.

The Director Spotlights give us a French director I don’t know, but who looks interesting, Alain Guiraudie, and three Douglas Sirk noirs. Noir was not where Sirk found his mastery; still and all, you could do worse. Finally, it’s another director I feel like I should have delved into already with Lee Chang-Dong. Time to finally catch Burning, huh?

Penelope Spheeris’ Decline of Western Civilization trilogy gets tucked in at the end. I’ve watched the first one already and man, the undertone of danger in the nihilism she documented is powerful. It’s not just a celebration of punk. Can’t wait to get to the next two.

#criterionChannel

‘Vermiglio’ to Make Streaming Premiere on the Criterion Channel
#IndieWire #GeneralNews #News #CriterionChannel #Film #Vermiglio

https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/vermiglio-criterion-channel-streaming-premiere-1235120974/

A favorite movie on #criterionchannel this month: Museum Hours by Jem Cohen https://www.criterionchannel.com/newly-added/videos/museum-hours

Spike Lee Praises Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Stranger Than Paradise’ as a ‘Revelation’ for Him in Grad School — Watch Video
#IndieWire #GeneralNews #News #AdventuresinMoviegoing #CriterionChannel #Film #JimJarmusch #MartinScorsese #SpikeLee #TheCriterionChannel

https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/spike-lee-jim-jarmusch-stranger-than-paradise-revelation-1235119875/

Today’s #CriterionChannel live stream lineup: (all times ET)
Black Narcissus 3:00pm
Daisies 4:40pm
Paris, Texas 6:00pm
Cure 9:00pm
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 11:00pm
#movies #cinema #film

The #CriterionChannel is live streaming Breathless right now. After that they are live streaming The Beast, then Chunking Express, then Persona. I hope this is a successful experiment and they continue to do it. #cinema #movies #film #criterion

Watching "Party Girl." Peak '90s indie cinema, from the clothes to the music to the minimal sets to the simple lighting setups. You can clock the '90s of it all from the slide-in credits sequence alone.

#movie #movies #film #films #filmstodon #PartyGirl #CriterionChannel

Only Angels Have Wings
https://boxd.it/Ttw

#CurrentlyWatching
#Film
#Movies
#Cinemastadon
#CriterionChallenge
#CriterionCollection
#CriterionChannel

One of my favorite movies, Midnight (1939), is currently on the Criterion Channel.

It’s a fun take in the Cinderella story, with delightful performances by the legendary John Barrymore, a young Don Ameche, and academy award winning actress Claudette Colbert.

It’s absolutely worth a watch if you have access to it.

#Criterion #CriterionChannel #Movies #Film #Cinema #DonAmeche #JohnBarrymore #ClaudetteColbert #MitchellLeisen

My ★★★★ review of Wildcat on @letterboxd: https://boxd.it/8M4aVv

#265moviereview #wildcatmovie #criterionchannel #movies

February Criterion Channel Lineup

Sometimes it’s just a new month with new movies, you know? I’m gonna dig right into it — there’s at least one collection which I want to draw attention to.

In fact, screw going in order, let’s start with Argentine Noir. I have been really digging Argentinian film in the last few months, both the classic era and the new wave. As it happens, I’ve seen half of these six at Noir City festivals thanks to Eddie Mueller and the Film Noir Foundation; Never Open That Door and The Black Vampire are both reasonably fun, and I’d recommend making time for The Beast Must Die, which is acidic as hell. I will be digging further into this collection.

Then there’s New York Love Stories. I’m from Boston, New York exceptionalism leaves me cold. That said, OK, there’s gold in here. Carol is high on my list; Arthur is low. Somewhere in the middle, I see a movie I really liked at the time which may or may not have aged well: Kissing Jessica Stein. I just saw another sweet queer romcom from the early 2000s, which wasn’t all that good as a movie, but from the Letterboxd comments I’m not sure this one is going to redeem the era.

Arthur, man. Dudley Moore. Kids will find this hard to believe but he was a significant star back in the 80s. You think the Oscars are bad now? That thing got four Oscar nominations. Gielgud maybe deserved the win. That was the year of On Golden Pond, so sentiment was in the air.

Celebrate Black History is packed with strong movies. Oh, hey, little bit of Agnes Varda in there; Criterion thinks Black Panthers was a 1970 release for some reason. I’ve been meaning to see Daughters of the Dust forever (it’s not new to the Channel), so maybe this will push me over the edge.

As always, there are a couple of person-oriented categories: Starring Claudette Colbert, which satisfies my Golden Age yearnings for the month — can’t go wrong with her work — and Directed by Joan Micklin Silver. I don’t know Silver’s work, but from the writeup it sort of seems like I should. I like newspaper dramas so I’m adding Between The Lines to my watchlist. Also set in Boston! Nice compensation for the New York themed collection, OK. Ah, and a Directed by Buster Keaton collection. You’ve probably already seen most of this if you were so inclined; I think the Peter Bogdanovich documentary on Keaton is likely to be worthwhile, though.

Among the Criterion Collection Editions and the rediscoveries, I’m intrigued by Prévert’s Remorques because Jean Gabin is always interesting. Sara Gómez’s One Way or Another also seems likely to be worthwhile. Anyone who worked with Varda probably has something going for them. And right at the moment, having binged Céline Sciamma last year and having just watched my first Catherine Breillat movie, the Directed by Axelle Ropert collection is intriguing — another French woman director’s approach to children, adults, and human relationships? Sure!

Yeah, kind of a quiet month. New York Love Stories is obviously the keynote, and that doesn’t hook me, but hey — Valentine’s Day. They can’t all be perfect.

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