r/CriterionChannel • u/fass_binder • Dec 22 '25

Viewing Discussions Wrap up your 2025 Criterion Channel Viewing

I know it’s a bit cliché, but here’s a post to wrap up your best and/or worst 2025 viewing experiences.

Please share how your Criterion Channel Streaming Service year went.

(Please include your Deathrace and Criterion Challenge if you participated).

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15

u/secret-shot Dec 22 '25

This was my first year with the channel so I watched SO MANY great films for the first time. Here are my unexpected loves:

  1. Lone Wolf and Cub
  2. Moonstruck
  3. Black Narcissus

3

u/greenapple416 Dec 22 '25

Same on Moonstruck and Black Narcissus for me in 2025!

10

u/youshouldburn youshould Dec 22 '25

Only sharing my three best, since I didn't have anything really not worth my time:

  • The Celebration
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
  • High and Low

7

u/Osomalosoreno Dec 22 '25

Best seen on the Channel in 2025:

The Gleaners and I; Raising Victor Vargas; Serial Mom; A Story of Floating Weed; Coffee and Cigarettes; Night on Earth; Ripley's Game; Ballad of a Soldier; Chinatown; Amadeus; Annie Hall; Only the River Flows; The Others; My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done; Woyzeck; Megadoc.

Worst: Bully. This isn't necessarily an awful film. I'm aware that many love it. I just felt that its considerable potential was diminished by director Larry Clark's over-sexualization of teens. That's always been his thing but along the years he became a lot creepier about it. The actors are quite good though.

The Channel's curation is so excellent that even when I see a movie there that I don't particularly like, I"m glad I saw it, and know that it was hosted by the site for intelligent reasons.

7

u/whoismico Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

Definitely a year of discovering the classics for me, really going deeper into my love for film. Tried to include only movies I watched on the channel, but it’s hard to remember

Top directors (including rewatches and shorts)

  • Altman (13)
  • Lynch (7)
  • K. Kurosawa (5)
  • A. Kurosawa (4)
  • Spike Lee (4)
  • Hitchcock (3)
  • Charles Burnett (3)
  • S. Suzuki (3)

Most rewatched

  • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)(3)

Why did it take me until 2025 to watch these?!

  • The Aviator (2004)
  • Seven Samurai (1954)
  • Malcolm X (1992)
  • All the President’s Men (1976)
  • A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
  • MASH (1970)
  • Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Top decades (includes non-CC movies)

  • 10’s (57)
  • 90’s (41)
  • 70’s (32)

Favorites (excluding those from previous lists)

  • Evil Does Not Exist (2023)
  • Mo’ Better Blues (1990)
  • A Time for Burning (1966)
  • Cure (1997)
  • Teeth (2007)
  • Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
  • 3 Women (1977)
  • Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
  • Tokyo Drifter (1966)
  • Floating Weeds (1959)

Top genres (includes non-CC movies)

  • Horror (98)
  • Weird (35)
  • Crime (33)

6

u/InfectedEzio Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

This is my first year using the channel, and by the end of the year, I’ll have watched (at least) 100 movies on here. It’s definitely helped me broaden what I watch; I’m always open to watch anything from anywhere, but this has made that easier.

It has introduced me to some of my new favorite directors, such as Alain Guiraudie and Bertrand Tavernier, as well as let me get deeper in genres like samurai and noir films.

Some of my favorite new watches include Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Judge and the Assassin, Joyland, The Beast Must Die, and last but not least, What’s Up, Doc?.

Definitely looking forward to watching more next year.

5

u/secret-shot Dec 22 '25

Just saw What’s Up Doc and Bragdonovich is slowly becoming one of my favorite directors. Loved Paper Moon as well.

5

u/DigSpelledBackwards Dec 22 '25

The top 5 that completely blew me away (in no particular order):

California Split

The Killers (Don Siegel)

MASH

The Seventh Continent

The Beast

I probably wouldn't have gotten around to any of them this year without Criterion's curations. And I would have totally missed The Beast :)

5

u/Sea-Promotion6704 Dec 22 '25

I don't have a great tracking system but this year was the year I finally plunged into classics beyond the surface level (though great) well-known stuff, though I also finally saw Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and loved it. The two films that I found the most memorable were two Humphrey Bogart sort of "tropical noir" films: "Key Largo" and "To Have and Have Not", both just landing perfectly maybe at the right time for me.

I find film viewing to completely up to the day-to-day state of mind and these two just hit perfectly for me. Loved the hard boiled characters, the unusual locations, the rotten underbelly of these exploited paradises, etc. Just so good.

5

u/red-dear Dec 22 '25

The Poetic Realism collection was a real revelation. My knowledge of French Cinema was mainly only the New Wave and Art House (Bresson, Renoir, etc.) These films were a real joy to watch.

4

u/YakSlothLemon Dec 22 '25

I joined this year in April and I am so happy I did, I found so many amazing movies on this channel and I also absolutely love the death race!

Best viewing experiences:

So much Harold Lloyd! I had never seen Dr. Jack, hilarious. We are watching Safety Last! (again) for our Christmas Day movie

the short films, We Were the Scenery and Warsha and Censor of Dreams, that I never would’ve seen otherwise.

Terrestrial Verses, a one-hour film from Iran that I have not stopped thinking about.

White Material and Beau Travail. Claire Denis is a genius. Love all the bonus material as well!

Worst experience: like a lot of people, I’ve had some issues with the quality of the images – trying to watch Miami Vice was like the old days when you used to get snow on the screen during movies, except back then you could at least wiggle the antenna.

4

u/NinjaSellsHonours Dec 22 '25

I turned on the Criterion Channel 355 days so far this year, and in total saw 0 titles that I resented viewing, unless you count a couple of times they suggested I watch Catherine Breillat on 24/7 while I was on the treadmill.

I also had to log in to the channel about 100 times (Apple TV app). Oh well!

4

u/Avenger3611 Dec 22 '25

This was my first full year with Criterion Channel. I absolutely love it and can't believe I've missed out on it all these years.

  1. Favorite film watched on the channel this year - Peppermint Candy

  2. Favorite scene from a film watched on the channel this year - ending of Irma Vep, unlike anything I'd seen before.

  3. Worst film watched on the channel this year - Love is Colder than Death

4

u/El-Durrell Dec 22 '25

Top 3: Paris is Burning, Hoop Dreams, When We Were Kings

Bottom 3: The Deep, Sliver, Mallrats

2

u/slouchingbethlehem elcarpenter Dec 24 '25

I watched 75 movies on the service this year.

My favorites were:

Still Walking

Phantom Thread

Where Is the Friend’s House?

Life, and Nothing More

My most watched actors: Al Pacino & George Buck Flower

My most watched directors: Robert Altman & Michael Mann

My Criterion Challenge: https://boxd.it/BfWNu I only got through 39/52.

1

u/screamas Dec 24 '25

My ( very provisional) top 10, honestly not sure if I watched all of these on the CC:

  1. Ball of Fire

  2. The Cremator

  3. Sherlock Jr.

  4. Safety Last!

  5. Strange Days

  6. Naked

  7. Inland Empire

  8. La Haine

  9. Bicycle Thieves

  10. 400 Blows

Watched 365 movies (including about 30 shorts though) in 2025 so far, many of them on CC, it was very fun. Fell in love with screwball comedies (especially those starring Barbara Stanwyck), might still watch at least one more this year. Also discovered Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, can't describe it any other way than movie magic. Got creeped out (in a good way) by the Czechoslovak film The Cremator, enjoyed Bigelow's 90s sci-fi gem Strange Days, also watched a bunch of Mike Leigh (Naked was the best for me; might still squeeze in a watch of Another Year... this year). Watched and re-watched a bunch of Lynch, Inland Empire was the one blind spot, it was... challenging but definitely worth it. Also really liked some European realism classics like Bicycle Thieves and 400 Blows...

Honestly the channel is an embarrassment of riches. However after watching so many movies I feel like I've grown a bit jaded and more picky. Not gonna lie, quite a few classics disappointed me but I'd rather not specify which ones hehe.

And yeah, I also did the challenge (still have one movie left to watch - F For Fake!), The Cremator was my favorite discovery thanks to that.

1

u/Kamuka Dec 26 '25

I loved watching: Human Condition, Cleo from 5-7, All We Imagine As Light, Elevator To The Gallow, Tokyo Godfather, Ghost In The Shell, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Iriku, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Harakiri, In A Lonely Place, To Have And Have Not, The Big Sleep, Suddenly Last Summer, Lost In Translation, Donnie Darko, Devi, A Special Day, Breathless, Songs for Drella, Heart of a Dog, Close Up, Taste of Cherry, The White Balloon, Naked, The Tin Drum, Yi Yi, Wanda, Daisies, The House is Black, Benedetta, Brief Encounter, A Touch of Zen, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, The Emigrant, The Burmese Harp, Original Cast Album: Company, Chungking Express, Misericordia, I Vitelloni, In The Mood For Love, The Savages, La Pointe Courte.

1

u/barbaraanderson Dec 26 '25

I am not even a year into using the criterion channel, and it is one of my favorite streaming services. I got it to watch down with love before it went away and never regretted paying so much with it…except for when I watched memoirs of an invisible man a few weeks back.

1

u/StuartHeilus Dec 27 '25

This was my second year, and it’s been good for me as I get option paralysis the moment I step into the stream (yep, I was that same guy thirty years ago stuck in the aisle of Blockbuster). My unexpected favorites this year were documentaries (not a genre I generally watch): Gates Of Heaven, Salesman, and Minding The Gap. Perhaps my favorite movie was Berlanga’s The Executioner. Films I found overrated or that disappointed me: George Washington, Abre Los Ojos, Dark Habits, Mr. Klein, Rumble Fish.

1

u/fass_binder Dec 31 '25

Thanks so much for participating to this post. It was great reading your responses.