With the start of a new year comes the restless, romantic wish to be reborn. In these portraits of dreamers, outsiders, and risk-takers, characters yearning for renewal seek reinvention through everything from the promise of new love (SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE) to taboo-breaking social and sexual expl...

In the 1990s, the twenty-year cultural cycle—in which each generation rediscovers and reinterprets the youth culture of the last—saw Gen X filmmakers turn to the 1970s for inspiration. But with more in mind than mere nostalgia, directors like Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, Spike Lee, and Paul ...

The formally adventurous and psychologically intricate films of ever-fascinating Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan unfold according to complex, time-scrambling structures that heighten their searing emotional impact. Exploring issues of identity (including his own Armenian heritage), loss, alienation, ...

The dark cloud of disillusionment that spread across international screens in the wake of World War II didn’t spare the land of the midnight sun, as evidenced by this selection of stylishly shadowy, ripe-for-discovery crime dramas from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Precursors to the Scandinavian c...

One of the most thoughtful and quietly compelling actors working today, Ben Whishaw—currently nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award for his lead performance in PETER HUJAR’S DAY—projects a soulful sensitivity and soft-spoken intensity in his emotionally layered portrayals of dreamers, mis...

Growing up in New York City as the son of two writers, director Noah Baumbach had a unique exposure to a wide range of cinema—from classic swashbucklers to French New Wave masterpieces—from an early age. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, the Jay Kelly director sits down with Criterion ...

Raw, nightmarish transmissions from the unholy depths of the New York City underground, the films of revered cult auteur William Lustig are thrillingly intense, shockingly visceral plunges into the darkest chasms of urban existence. Pulsing with kinetic energy, his grindhouse opuses MANIAC, VIGIL...

Though his piercing blue eyes and tousled hair made him a defining sex symbol of swinging-sixties Britain, Terence Stamp was more than just a pretty face—he was a transfixing screen presence who brought an unmatched elegance, restraint, and existential gravity to works by some of the defining dir...

With a wit as dry as the martinis she famously loved, celebrated writer Dorothy Parker was a legend of the Jazz Age New York intelligentsia. Less well remembered is the time she spent in Hollywood as a screenwriter, where she brought her bitingly satirical voice and gift for delightfully dagger-l...

The barrier between waking and dreaming dissolves in the ecstatic, trancelike films of Maya Deren, a legend of the avant-garde who rewrote the rules of cinema in the name of uncompromising personal expression. Combining symbol-laden imagery, intricately choreographed camera movements, time- and s...

As his acclaimed latest THE SECRET AGENT comes to theaters, catch up with the bold, gripping, and fearlessly political cinema of Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Fusing slow-burn suspense with incisive social commentary, his features NEIGHBORING SOUNDS and BACURAU (the latter codirected ...

The expansive, wintry landscapes of rural Iceland and Denmark provide the majestic physical and psychological backdrops to the breathtaking films of director Hlynur Pálmason, whose acclaimed latest, THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, comes to theaters in January. Whether capturing the rift that forms between...

Uniquely unguarded glimpses of some of the twentieth century’s most captivating personalities, these probing portraits of legendary actresses unfold as intimate exchanges between director and subject, offering rare behind-the-scenes access to their inner worlds. Capturing vulnerable, unpredictabl...

The exquisitely textured, sensorially immersive films of Chinese Canadian artist and filmmaker Jess X. Snow are works of immense heart and healing, opening up a compassionate, imaginative dreamspace in which queer Asian American characters seek liberation from social and familial trauma through e...

In his acclaimed short films, Caribbean American director Dwayne LeBlanc has shown himself to be a rising talent already in full control of mood, tone, and visual texture. His mesmerizing CIVIC and its gorgeous follow-up, NOW, HEAR ME GOOD, each center on a young man named Booker (played by Barri...

Check in and stay a while in some of cinema’s most iconic hotels, where souls in transit meet, identities shift, and the by turns liberating and lonely experience of being far from home heightens every interaction. From the gilded art deco glamour of GRAND HOTEL to the haunted corridors of THE SH...

As his unmissable television epic BLOSSOMS SHANGHAI comes to the Criterion Channel, immerse yourself in the woozy world of Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai, whose lush visuals, swooning soundtracks, and wistful romanticism have made him one of contemporary cinema’s defining artists. Working with key...

Boasting one of the most compelling and adventurous filmographies of any actor working in Hollywood today, Julianne Moore has made consistently bold choices in a career that has moved easily between blockbuster hits and art-house passion projects. Working with auteurs like Todd Haynes, David Cron...

Though their voices have historically been marginalized, innovative Black women filmmakers have long broken barriers to tell urgent, powerful, and perceptive stories on-screen. This celebration of pioneering Black women who made an impact with their very first—and in some cases only—feature film ...

With six features—including his acclaimed latest, SENTIMENTAL VALUE—to his name, Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier has established himself as one of the most virtuosic directors working today, a humanist who brings novelistic depth and insight to his intimate portraits of people grappling with every...

On the occasion of the theatrical release of his highly anticipated third feature RESURRECTION, journey into the mesmerizing world of Bi Gan, the Chinese auteur whose labyrinthine, dreamlike narratives and immersive, mind-bogglingly epic long takes have rapidly established him as one of contempor...

“Sexual perversion, and any inference to it, is strictly forbidden.” Thus spoke the Hollywood Production Code, the system of censorship that defined the limits of the permissible during the studio system’s golden age from the 1930s to the ’60s. According to such dictates, queer people simply didn...

Raw, gritty, intensely angry visions of individuals pushed to the brink by a corrupt society, the films of Hong Kong action renegade Ringo Lam scorch the screen with an anarchic fury. His action classic CITY ON FIRE offered Chow Yun-fat one of his meatiest roles and inspired Quentin Tarantino’s R...

With her landmark debut feature WILL, pioneering cameraperson turned filmmaker (and all-around Renaissance woman) Jessie Maple became one of the first Black American women to direct an independent feature film, bringing unflinching honesty and stirring emotion to an endearingly tough and tender p...