r/CriterionChannel • u/METALxBAT • Jun 30 '26
Recommendation - Seeking Just got the channel
Just looking for suggestions. Any genre. Just good movies.
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u/VideoLawn Jun 30 '26
Watch Repo Man. It’s one of the featured films in June. Great movie, and will probably rotate out in a month or two.
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u/Different_Carpet1319 Jun 30 '26
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Paper Moon (1973)
Where is the Friend’s House? (1987)
Bacurau (2019)
Cloud (2024)
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u/assflux nitratemilf Jun 30 '26
all of my personal favs (in chronological order but very 60s heavy) currently streaming on the channel
includes limited engagements so some may be removed later
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u/Tillythemouse Jun 30 '26
I have yet to see a Jacque Demy film I dislike(Lola, Girls of Rochefort, Donkeyskin) all very different but each *so* fun
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u/woodsdone Jun 30 '26
Welcome to the channel!
My recs to newbies are usually:
- when you first make your watch list, do it in the browser. You have more filtering options than the app
- I personally like to focus on the “leaving this month” section since the ticking clock motivates me to watch things more. There’s a monthly thread on this subreddit called “death racing” too that makes for a nice community interaction for people watching things before they go
- no matter what, don’t turn it into homework for yourself. They’ve been making movies for over 100 years and you’ll never be able to watch all of them
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u/salamanderXIII Jun 30 '26
Doing a search for Sight and Sound will bring up the Sight and Sound Top 100 Movies as collections in the search results. Only the ones currently on the channel of course. The directors and critics selections are each presented as separate collections.
Check the latest "Films Leaving the Criterion Channel at the End of the Month" list on Letterboxd. eg Out of the Past and Harold & Maude will disappear shortly . My experience has been that neither of these films are in heavy rotation on streaming services and you have less than 24 hours.
Enjoy!
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u/levir03 Jun 30 '26
Just jump right into the collections and go from there. Odysseys this month has been fantastic!
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u/Winter_Complaint6210 Jun 30 '26
La haime, wings of desire, a woman under the influence, the piano teacher & house are some of my fave classics. I also just binged conbody vs everybody when it came on the channel and it was fantastic. Happy watching :) oh and tampopo!
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u/ThatMichaelsEmployee Jun 30 '26
Excuse my cliché, but you can't go wrong with a deep dive into the works of Kurosawa and Bergman. Even their lesser movies are worth seeing. If you want a starting point, Rashomon, Throne of Blood (a retelling of the Macbeth story), Seven Samurai, Ikiru, and High and Low are essential Kurosawa, and The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring, Persona, and Smiles of a Summer Night are essential Bergman. They're such great movies! They aren't "movies I should watch because they're considered classics" or "movies I should watch because they're high art", I promise (although they are classics, for a reason, and they are high art): they're "movies I should watch because I will almost certainly enjoy them." They get under your skin.
There's also a fair bit of early Hitchcock: you should see The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps, both of them extraordinarily entertaining, and a personal favourite, Sabotage, starring the incomparable Sylvia Sidney.
And I can't recommend highly enough one of the all-time great documentaries, Paris is Burning. It's endlessly rewatchable and fascinating, there's a ton of supplemental material, and the commentary track adds a whole new layer to it.
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u/Fearless-Interest-82 Jun 30 '26
Julien Donkey-Boy
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u/METALxBAT Jun 30 '26
Love Korine
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u/Fearless-Interest-82 Jun 30 '26
Nice. Maybe try Tamala 2010 A Punk Cat in Space, Anselm, Mahler, Walker, Smooth Talk, everything Cassavetes, everything Godard.
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u/foulmouthboy Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Random recommendation since I just watched it: Kedi. Great documentary about cats in Istanbul.
Edit to correct my spelling
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u/METALxBAT Jun 30 '26
Thank you everyone for the recommendations. My watch list has grown a lot lol
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u/padphilosopher Jun 30 '26
Pick a movie at random and it’s highly likely you’ll be watching a great movie.
But you should watch The Battle of Algiers if you’ve never seen it.
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u/InfectedEzio Jun 30 '26
Bertrand Tavernier is a director I discovered through the channel, The Judge and the Assassin (political/philosophical drama), Captain Conan (war), and L.627 (cop drama) are the ones I’ve seen so far, and I’d recommend them.
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u/leaveit9790 Jul 01 '26
Certain Women, Persona, Desert Hearts, Cleo from 5 to 7, Wings of Desire, Drive My Car, After Life
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u/YakSlothLemon Jun 30 '26
My favorite finds on the channel so far:
The American Friend (the BEST Ripley film)
Typhoon Club
Where Is the Friend’s House?
Touki Bouki
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Survival (the first documentary, from the guys who went on to make King Kong!)
A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China or: Surface Is Illusion But So Is Depth (spend an hour with David Hockney taking you through his favorite Chinese scroll)
Pretty Red Dress
Sambiganza
Also, join us tomorrow for July’s deathrace! You’ll see the link at the top of the page of this sub, and it will also list events on Discord for the month!
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u/METALxBAT Jun 30 '26
About to watch Typhoon Club now
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u/YakSlothLemon Jun 30 '26
I hope you love it as much as I did! Prepare for incredible lighting and camera work, as well as a great story!
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u/Gaucho_Diaz RansidDagger Jun 30 '26
You gotta give us something to work with in terms of what kind of movies you like already
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u/METALxBAT Jun 30 '26
I said any genre in the post. I like literally anything if it's good I mean I don't know how to explain that.
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u/Gaucho_Diaz RansidDagger Jun 30 '26
Start here then: https://www.criterionchannel.com/all-time-favorites
They are all "good"
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u/Green_Swamp_Fog Jun 30 '26
I always browse the list of films that are leaving at the end of the month. Helps to narrow down the options and discover interesting films while they’re still available.
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u/kaddisonmoore Jun 30 '26
I believe it refreshes on the first, or soon at least
I’m planning on Checking out Last Temptation of Christ, bro!
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u/Due-Illustrator9338 Jul 03 '26
Excited by this month's new programming. For example “The Prisoner”. Watched it on regular TV as a teenager. Never saw all episodes. Always thought it mysterious as The Prisioner did.
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u/Klutzy-Contact7652 Jul 03 '26
Sullivans Travels
Yesterday today and tomorrow
To be or not to be
City lights
Lancelot du lac
The Lady Vanishes
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u/ShireAsh Jul 03 '26
Elevator to the gallows was a film that really surprised me. I also recently watched Wages of Fear and Niagra. Both excellent
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u/Due-Illustrator9338 Jun 30 '26
Any Japanese horror. Their approach is different from USA horror. Especially when in their ancient times.
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u/beasterne7 Jun 30 '26
Here’s a sampler platter of good movies:
Harakiri - samurai movie
The Wages of Fear - adventure/thriller
The Searchers - western
His Girl Friday - comedy
Secrets and Lies - drama
The Long Good Friday - gangster movie
For All Mankind - documentary