Current

An online magazine covering film culture past and present

Julio Torres’s Top 10
Julio Torres’s Top 10

The writer, director, and comedian shines a spotlight on a group of iconic city films, a classic Japanese ghost story, and one of the defining movies of the Tumblr era.

On Restoration and Repair: A Conversation with Ja’Tovia Gary
On Restoration and Repair: A Conversation with Ja’Tovia Gary

The shape-shifting artist and director of The Giverny Document talks about the Black feminist tradition, her approach to direct animation, and the influence of Toni Morrison and Soviet montage theory on her work.

By Beandrea July

Next Stop: The Criterion Mobile Closet in Portland, Oregon
Next Stop: The Criterion Mobile Closet in Portland, Oregon

For our first trip this year, Criterion is bringing the Mobile Closet to PAM CUT in May, along with some exciting additional programming.

Point Blank: A Dream of Full-Color Noir
Point Blank: A Dream of Full-Color Noir

A crime-cinema masterpiece whose influence can be seen in such later touchstones as Mean Streets and Reservoir Dogs, this highly stylized portrait of a gangster subordinates the needs of plot to director John Boorman’s saturated aesthetic.

By Geoff Dyer

Sinister Synergies
Sinister Synergies

During a period of rapid deregulation and accelerating deindustrialization, Hollywood corporate thrillers depicted ambitious heroes gaining admission to a world of C-suites and private jets at the price of their souls.

By Max Read

The Criterion Channel’s May 2026 Lineup

Channel Calendars

The Criterion Channel’s May 2026 Lineup

This month, take a peek at movie history through the prism of the ’80s: our collection of the decade’s best remakes and the originals that inspired them reveals an era of wild reinventions and sly revisionism.

Trouble in Paradise: Pure Style
Trouble in Paradise: Pure Style

One of Ernst Lubitsch’s favorites among his own films, this delightful pre-Code whodunit exemplifies the director’s signature European worldliness and his ingenious way of drawing viewers in as if they were coconspirators.

By Farran Smith Nehme

Monty Python’s Life of Brian: The Wrong Messiah
Monty Python’s Life of Brian: The Wrong Messiah

The legendary comedy troupe’s most fully realized film is a hilarious Biblical parody with a streak of overwhelming horror and outrage running through it.

By Bilge Ebiri

The Blade: Cutting Deep
The Blade: Cutting Deep

Violently nihilistic, simultaneously energizing and crushing, Tsui Hark’s remake of the martial-arts classic One-Armed Swordsman captures the zeitgeist of pre–1997 handover Hong Kong.

By Lisa Morton

A Man and a Woman: Modern Lovers
A Man and a Woman: Modern Lovers

Claude Lelouch’s Palme d’Or–winning breakout hit combines elements of a classic Hollywood love story with dynamic photography, an edgy editing style, and a naturalistic sense of character and location.

By Carrie Rickey

To Become the Sky: A Conversation with Jess X. Snow
To Become the Sky: A Conversation with Jess X. Snow

Suffused with visual beauty and moments of magical realism, Jess X. Snow’s queer diasporic cinema invites us to imagine new possibilities for freedom, transformation, and intergenerational healing.

By Robin D. G. Kelley

The Rolling Stones on the Brink of Superstardom

Deep Dives

The Rolling Stones on the Brink of Superstardom

The first documentary feature about the rock legends, Charlie Is My Darling captures the band as a group of consummate musicians coming into their fame, fully committed to their craft and enjoying one another’s company.

By Vadim Rizov

Video

Room Tone 2025
On Film  – 25 Dec 2025