Current

An online magazine covering film culture past and present

Wes Anderson’s Impossible Dreams
Wes Anderson’s Impossible Dreams

Made with a formal control unparalleled in modern American cinema, the films of this utterly distinctive auteur seek to contain and understand an uncontainable, unknowable world.

By Bilge Ebiri

Sisters of Sacrilege
Sisters of Sacrilege

One of the most fertile subgenres of 1970s exploitation cinema, nunsploitation explores the collision of sex and religious dogma through stories of desperately horny women of the cloth.

By Beatrice Loayza

Deeper into Altman
Deeper into Altman

To celebrate Robert Altman’s centennial, we invited five writers—Howard Hampton, Bruce LaBruce, Violet Lucca, Christina Newland, and Carlos Valladares—to each explore a favorite lesser-known gem from the great director’s filmography.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped: Out of Sync
The Beat That My Heart Skipped: Out of Sync

Jacques Audiard’s Paris-set drama about small-time hoodlum with musical ambitions crystallized his identity as an artist with a high degree of confidence and control.

By Jonathan Romney

Read My Lips: The Tip of the Tongue
Read My Lips: The Tip of the Tongue

Propelled by outstanding performances from Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel, Jacques Audiard’s third feature is the rare French crime film built around a complex female character who takes initiative in a male-dominated world.

By Ginette Vincendeau

Flow: Swept Away
Flow: Swept Away

A tale of animal survival in a world deserted by humanity, Gints Zilbalodis’s Oscar-winning triumph casts a hushed spell with its elemental storytelling, immersive visual style, and creaturely subjectivity.

By Nicolas Rapold

“A Fragile Film Utopia”: Talking with Ehsan Khoshbakht
“A Fragile Film Utopia”: Talking with Ehsan Khoshbakht

The director of the documentary Celluloid Underground discusses his life as a curator, Iranian film culture, and the inherent ephemerality of cinema.

By Imogen Sara Smith

The Criterion Channel’s October 2025 Lineup

Channel Calendars

The Criterion Channel’s October 2025 Lineup

This month’s programs offer a feast of horror, including a John Carpenter retrospective and a collection of the most terrifying films of the 2000s.

This Is Spinal Tap: Stupid and Clever
This Is Spinal Tap: Stupid and Clever

One of the most influential comedies of the 1980s, Rob Reiner’s rock-and-roll satire is a remarkably authentic, lived-in portrait of musicians, their egotism, and the industry that feeds off their stardom.

By Alex Pappademas

“We No Longer Demand a Consenses”: A Brief History of Regrouping
“We No Longer Demand a Consenses”: A Brief History of Regrouping

A portrait of a new generation of feminist consciousness in the New York art world, Lizzie Borden’s first film project spikes with a persistent friction between the filmmaker and her documentary subjects.

By So Mayer

Born in Flames: From the Ashes
Born in Flames: From the Ashes

In response to the suffocating conservatism of the eighties, Lizzie Borden crafted a pluralistic vision of a feminist front that neither ignores difference nor lets it stand as an immovable obstacle to political solidarity.

By Yasmina Price

King Princess’s Top 10
King Princess’s Top 10

The musician and actor’s selections include pioneering works of queer cinema, horror classics, and two films starring her recent on-screen collaborator Nicole Kidman.

Video

Room Tone 2023
On Film  – 25 Dec 2023