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.
Category: Culture
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.)
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:
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.
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.
OK, this time I really did cut back on movies. When I say “cut back” what I mean is I watched only 291 movies, which is only cutting back if you start at a baseline of 508 movies watched. Partially this is because we didn’t do Fantasia in 2024; really, though, I made myself be less obsessive, watched more TV, and so on. Also I had a nasty case of something at the beginning of the year which left me exhausted for most of the rest of the year; I want to say it was COVID but who knows? Either way my workday evenings were less useful than once they were.
I did SIFF again, with a festival pass this time. I only saw 22 movies because of the aforementioned fatigue factor. I didn’t see as many movies I loved but I saw some really good ones, including my second favorite movie of the year. Janet Planet is awesome. After the first three or four the movies kind of tailed off into a tight group of enjoyable but not excellent movies.
I haven’t nailed down my top ten 2024 movies yet because I give myself a month or so to catch up on a few more 2024 movies post-Christmas. For example, I’m gonna see Nosferatu and Nickel Boys in January. I will be hugely surprised if anything surpasses the amazing The People’s Joker, which found new ways to tell a very personal story. Otherwise, though, there’s some room for changes. The current list is here, and I expect to cut it down to a top 20 in February. Top ten was feeling too limited.
I started the year with Sátántangó. Now I know I can sit through a seven hour movie if it’s really, really amazing! I did take the intermissions. It’s a remarkable deliberate construction; every shot in the movie has purpose and adds significance to the whole. It’s about demagogues and the trust they abuse. It doesn’t provide much hope. I decided this should be a tradition — watching a long movie on January 1st — and I saw an incredible Argentinian movie this year, but that’s 2025. Eh, I guess it’s cool to read ahead. I very much hope to have more to say about Laura Citarella and the film collective of which she’s a part next year.
If I had a theme this year, it was Radiance Films. I did not resubscribe this year, because we didn’t finish the 2024 subscription and because I have enough interesting Japanese and Italian crime thrillers in my library right now. I still love their taste and I’m very glad we did one year of subscription, though.
S. and I successfully finished Boofest, our date night challenge. Second year running. Five 5-star movies for me this year, wow. Two of them were from Kurosawa, who I am getting to appreciate more and more.
My most watched actor was Phillip Kwok. Also a lot of Lo Meng, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng… yeah, I spent quality time with the second Arrow Shaw Brothers boxed set, which has a ton of Five Venom movies. Good stuff. Outside the Shaw crowd, I also saw five films starring Tomisaburō Wakayama, courtesy of Radiance. My most watched director was Krzysztof Kieślowski, since I log each Decalogue episode separately (and as a result, Artur Barciś also snuck into the list of most watched actors). New to me directors: Damiano Damiani, whose 60s Italian politically infused crime thrillers are great and Tai Katō, who I don’t love but certainly like.
I also finished up Céline Sciamma’s filmography with great pleasure. Let’s see. Four films from Lukas Moodysson, including those two very experimental ones that are hard watches. I am up for following his vision anywhere even when he misses. Three Mike Leighs — I also got a great book about his work, Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh. Like Sciamma, he is completely dedicated to the human condition and I vastly appreciate his career.
I guess that’s about it. If I had to guess I’d say I’m going to keep digging into Argentinian cinema in 2025; I bumped into impressive Argentinian work from a number of different directions this year and I’m pretty fascinated. S. and I have plans for Fantasia again, which is exciting, and I already have my SIFF pass for 2025. We have also set out our date night challenge for 2025, which looks excellent. I feel like getting back to the canon a bit; perhaps I’ll make more progress on my Great Directors watchlist? Finally, I am not gonna lay any expectations on myself for numbers — I will watch what I watch and be happy with that.
January is kind of a traditional, vanilla month for the Criterion Channel — less experimental or unknown work, more stuff from the canon. Which is still not bad! So let’s see what we’ve got.
Holiday time! What does Criterion Channel have for us in December?
OK, look, Hitchcock doesn’t become holiday-related just because you call your collection “Hitchcock for the Holidays.” Great collection but come on. We’ll return to this. However, I want to start with the very last thing on the announcement.
November is Noirvember for many of us, the Criterion Channel included. Their November lineup features two noir collections and a couple more that include more than a little noir flavor. Let’s open it up and see what we’ve got in the briefcase.
This is in part an experiment to figure out if I can keep to a monthly posting cadence on a particular topic. Unsurprisingly, it’s about movies — specifically, what’s coming to the Criterion Channel next month? Criterion themes their months around collections, which typically stick around for several months thereafter; any given collection is usually a mix of new to the channel movies and existing faves. Here’s a rundown of October’s collections and some specifics which caught my eye.