The Watch

Feb 7, 2020 — This week, we’re looking back on the work of Antonioni, Fellini, Cassavetes, and Mrinal Sen. Plus: Oscar talk!

Jan 3, 2020 — The director of Margaret and Manchester by the Sea celebrates Hollywood’s greatest humanist, whose films are featured in a series now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Oct 16, 2019 — Deep Dives “I have a feeling that the really crucial moments in a film should be wordless,” the Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray once said. He was speaking of his 1964 masterpiece Charulata, whose action consists largely of soulful looks passing...

Oct 9, 2019 — The Internet’s hardcore feline obsession may seem harmless, but is there something darker at play behind the millions of memes and GIFs it generates, or the eager crowds who gather to meet online animal celebrities like Grumpy Cat (R.I.P.)? In...

Jun 7, 2019 — He is the most disarming and self-effacing of the English actors who dominated stage and screen in the middle of the twentieth century—the others were John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier. Those fellows carried themselves like grand...

May 22, 2019 — Most critics won’t allow a comically absurd premise or a convoluted plot stand in the way of a good time.

May 7, 2019 — Art-House America From Ryman Auditorium to the historic entertainment district of Printer’s Alley, Nashville certainly isn’t a city that lacks for cultural landmarks. And country music is far from the only game in town. For a little piece of movie...

Apr 22, 2019 — When Criterion art director Eric Skillman reached out to me with the opportunity to work on Diamonds of the Night, he started with the statement “I couldn’t get your new work out of my head as I watched the film.”...

Mar 7, 2019 — The art of Orson Welles and David Lynch, the marriage of Fay Wray and Robert Riskin, and the criticism of Adrian Martin and David Thomson are among the subjects in this month’s round.

Feb 1, 2019 — It’s hard to look away from the stunning lead performances by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night. But no one who watches the seething procedural will soon forget Lee Grant as the...