Current

An online magazine covering film culture past and present

Moonage Daydream: “Who Is He? What Is He?”
Moonage Daydream: “Who Is He? What Is He?”

Brett Morgen’s portrait of David Bowie is a free-associative hybrid of pop history and imaginative extravaganza—impressionistic, eclectically allusive, and, above all, immersive.

By Jonathan Romney

La Bamba: American Dreaming, Chicano Style
La Bamba: American Dreaming, Chicano Style

In this vibrant, music-filled portrait of an artist and his community, director Luis Valdez gathers what little is known about rock-and-roll idol Ritchie Valens and fuses it with a lived-in understanding of what it is to be Chicano.

By Yolanda Machado

The Man Behind the Wheel
The Man Behind the Wheel

Amid the anxiety and social turbulence of the Nixon era, car movies served to explore and embody the contradictions of American masculinity.

By Christina Newland

The Criterion Channel’s October 2023 Lineup

Channel Calendars

The Criterion Channel’s October 2023 Lineup

This October, brace yourself for chills, thrills, and some of the most mind-bending, spine-tingling horror imaginable.

Through a Screen Darkly: A Conversation with Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew
Through a Screen Darkly: A Conversation with Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew

In the work of this New York–based filmmaking duo, the internet is an omnipresent force in everyday life, warping our perceptions and desires.

By Maya Binyam

The Trial: Crime of the Century
The Trial: Crime of the Century

In the film he once called his best, Orson Welles found a cinematic language equal to Franz Kafka’s distinctive effects, creating a vertiginous experience that accentuates the writer’s subterranean perversity.

By Jonathan Lethem

Andrew Bujalski’s Top 10
Andrew Bujalski’s Top 10

The writer-director of Computer Chess and Support the Girls lets his eye and heart wander freely through our collection, and gives us a list of some films he admires.


Drylongso: A Refuge of Their Own
Drylongso: A Refuge of Their Own

Cauleen Smith’s debut feature celebrates the bond between two young Black women and the ways that they imaginatively, collaboratively choreograph their lives in the face of their common vulnerabilities.

By Yasmina Price

Into the Groove: A Conversation with Susan Seidelman
Into the Groove: A Conversation with Susan Seidelman

Beloved for her stylistic range and her vibrant portraits of New York City, the director discusses the feminist spirit that runs throughout her work and the collaborations that bring her films to life.

By Hillary Weston

“The House Is the Monster”: Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle
“The House Is the Monster”: Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle

In the great American writer’s Gothic tales, Corman found themes that inspired him to riff, invent, and create immersive cinematic environments.

By Geoffrey O’Brien

Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema: Another Sweden
Bo Widerberg’s New Swedish Cinema: Another Sweden

While frequently drawing from the depths of his private life, the writer-director also sought to shake Swedish cinema out of a state of complacency by engaging with the country’s turbulent social landscape.

By Peter Cowie

Video

Caitlin Kuhwald’s Hand-Drawn Portraits Bring Iconic Faces to Life
Inside Criterion  – 13 Sep 2021