Current

An online magazine covering film culture past and present

Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray: Optical Dazzle
Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray: Optical Dazzle

In a string of short films he made in the 1920s, Man Ray brought a restlessly inventive spirit to a young medium, pushing the boundaries of cinematic form with frenetic editing, abstract imagery, and surrealist camera tricks.

By Mark Polizzotti

Eyes Wide Shut: A Sword in the Bed
Eyes Wide Shut: A Sword in the Bed

Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Traumnovelle, Stanley Kubrick’s final film is a deeply personal examination of the fragility of marriage and the destructive power of sexual fantasy.

By Megan Abbott

The Criterion Channel’s December 2025 Lineup
The Criterion Channel’s December 2025 Lineup

This December, make yourself at home in some of cinema’s most memorable hotels, celebrate Julianne Moore’s bracingly human performances, or explore the trailblazing debuts of Black women filmmakers.

Abbas Kiarostami’s Early Shorts and Features: Poetic Solutions to Philosophical Problems
Abbas Kiarostami’s Early Shorts and Features: Poetic Solutions to Philosophical Problems

Though the first two decades of the Iranian filmmaker’s career have long been underappreciated, this fertile period yielded philosophical and restlessly innovative works that reinvigorated both documentary and narrative-fiction cinema.

By Ehsan Khoshbakht

Hell’s Angels: The Sky Is the Limit
Hell’s Angels: The Sky Is the Limit

A pre-Code aviation epic that makes pioneering use of the era’s innovations in cinematic color and sound, Howard Hughes’s directorial debut was Hollywood’s first modern portrait of World War I.

By Fred Kaplan

Él: Mad Love
Él: Mad Love

This tale of paranoia and romantic jealousy slyly combines the conventions of popular Mexican filmmaking with the surrealist sensibility that made its director, Luis Buñuel, a legendary figure in his native Spain.

By Fernanda Solórzano

Dying Worlds: Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Dramas of Cosmic Disorder
Dying Worlds: Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Dramas of Cosmic Disorder

The director of Rat Trap and Monologue was an uncompromising artist who helped establish the Indian state of Kerala as a hub of bold political filmmaking.

By Kushanava Choudhury

The Other Side of Apocalypse: A Conversation on We Were the Scenery
The Other Side of Apocalypse: A Conversation on We Were the Scenery

In this Sundance-award-winning exploration of war and memory, writer Cathy Linh Che shines a spotlight on her parents, who were Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines when they were cast as extras in Apocalypse Now.

By Aaron E. Hunt

Olivia Laing’s Top 10
Olivia Laing’s Top 10

The writer and critic chooses a selection of favorite films, including three masterpieces by Nicolas Roeg and a few works that inspired their latest novel, The Silver Book.

Blossoms Shanghai: An Introduction
Blossoms Shanghai: An Introduction

Beginning on November 24, the Criterion Channel will exclusively premiere the long-awaited television series from visionary director Wong Kar Wai.

By John Powers

Mutation as Metaphor: Body Horror’s Visceral Transformations
Mutation as Metaphor: Body Horror’s Visceral Transformations

Classics of the genre—including Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession and David Cronenberg’s The Fly—explore the gory extremes of corporeal experience.

By Violet Lucca

The Banality of Apartheid: A Conversation with Milisuthando Bongela
The Banality of Apartheid: A Conversation with Milisuthando Bongela

In her intensely personal debut feature, the filmmaker and poet investigates the myths that have shaped South African history through a mix of archival footage, poetic remembrances, and conversations with friends and family.

By Ife Olujobi

Video

Room Tone 2023
On Film  – 25 Dec 2023