Directed by John Carpenter • 1982 • United States
Starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter

John Carpenter’s terrifying remake of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD boasts some of the most impressively gory special effects in all of horror cinema. When scientists at an Antarctic research st...

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow • 1991 • United States
Starring Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty

Cops-and-robbers action meets sun-kissed surfing counterculture for the most ecstatically adrenalized cult classic of the 1990s. Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny Utah, the hotshot FBI rookie who goes...

Directed by Jacques Tourneur • 1947 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas

Everything you want in a film noir you’ll find in OUT OF THE PAST: a tenacious detective (Robert Mitchum) spinning his wheels to make good, a drop-dead beauty (Jane Greer) up to no good, and a m...

Directed by Lav Diaz • 2025 • Philippines, Spain, Portugal
Starring Gael García Bernal, Ângela Azevedo, Amado Arjay Babon

A hypnotic journey engraved in images of staggering beauty and horror, this monumental achievement from acclaimed Filipino auteur Lav Diaz boldly rewrites the imperialist myt...

Directed by Oliver Stone • 1987 • United States
Starring Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen

The ultimate portrait of ’80s corporate excess, Oliver Stone’s hard-hitting, brilliantly entertaining look at the moral emptiness behind the era’s “greed is good” mentality features an iconicall...

Directed by Jim McBride • 1983 • United States
Starring Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky, Art Metrano

Remaking Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave landmark (itself an homage to American gangster films) was surely one of the more audacious cinematic gambits of the 1980s, but director Jim McBride (DAV...

Directed by Taylor Hackford • 1984 • United States
Starring Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, James Woods

Based on the same novel that inspired Jacques Tourneur’s dark noir diamond OUT OF THE PAST, this steamy update infuses the classic story of betrayal, murder, and doomed love with a vivid sensuality...

Directed by Thierry Frémaux • 2025 • France

In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, “lumière,” the French word for “light,” was also the surname of brothers Auguste and Louis, whose brilliant invention, the cinematograph, helped to inaugurate the most beloved art form of the last 130 ...

Directed by Paul Verhoeven • 1987 • United States
Starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herilhy

Called by Ken Russell “the greatest science-fiction film since METROPOLIS,” ROBOCOP is a special effects-laden cult phenomenon. Directed by controversial filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, the film feature...

Directed by Tom Tykwer • 2009 • United States, Germany
Starring Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl

A high-stakes game of suspense, intrigue, and explosive action plays out against a succession of striking international locales from Milan to New York to Istanbul in this globe-trotting c...

Directed by Paul Schrader • 1982 • United States
Starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard

Paul Schrader’s kinky-stylish reworking of the 1942 Val Lewton classic transfers the action to a voodoo-spooky New Orleans, adds an incestuous undercurrent, and ups the sex and gore. Nastassj...

Directed by Christian Nyby • 1951 • United States
Starring Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Cornthwaite

Reputedly directed in large part by Howard Hawks (officially credited as the film’s producer), this chilling touchstone of 1950s sci-fi horror unleashes otherworldly terror in an isola...

Directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton • 1988 • United States
Starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Charlotte Rampling

Time is running out for university professor Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid). He has just twenty-four hours to unravel the bitter truth surrounding his own poisoning. In his despe...

COMING TO THE CRITERION CHANNEL ON 3/24 AT 8 P.M. ET

With his ravishing third feature, visionary director Bi Gan takes his deepest plunge yet into the realm of pure dreamscape. In a world where humans have forsaken dreams in exchange for immortality, a dreaming monster (Jackson Yee) embarks on a...

Directed by Bob Rafelson • 1981 • United States
Starring Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos

Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange smolder in this erotically charged take on James M. Cain’s hard-boiled novel, kicking off the wave of stylish neonoirs that would proliferate in the 1980s. She’s ...

Directed by Hal Ashby • 1971 • United States
Starring Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort

With the idiosyncratic American fable HAROLD AND MAUDE, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emo...

Directed by Terry Gilliam • 1991 • United States
Starring Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Robin Williams

A fairy tale grounded in poignant reality, Terry Gilliam’s magnificent, Manhattan-set THE FISHER KING features Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams in two of their most brilliant roles. Bridges play...

Directed by Billy Wilder • 1960 • United States
Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray

Jack Lemmon stars in one of Billy Wilder’s most beloved films as C. C. Baxter, a company man anxious to please his superiors at the New York insurance firm where he works—enough to let his boss...

Criterion Collection Edition #833

The first of the horror films producer Val Lewton made for RKO Pictures redefined the genre by leaving its most frightening terrors to its audience’s imagination. Simone Simon stars as a Serbian émigré in Manhattan who believes that, because of an ancient curse,...

Directed by George Stevens • 1942 • United States
Starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter

George Stevens’s WOMAN OF THE YEAR, conceived to build on the smashing comeback Katharine Hepburn had made in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, marked the beginning of the personal and professional uni...

Directed by Fred Zinnemann • 1952 • United States
Starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell

Gary Cooper stars in this real-time western as a sheriff looking forward to retirement and marriage whose plans are upended by the news that a gang of outlaws are on their way to gun him down. Th...

Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack • 1933 • United States
Starring Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot

The grandaddy of all monster movies remains one of the screen’s most awe-inspiring achievements: a landmark in both special effects and modern mythmaking. Original scream...

Directed by Jill Sprecher • 1997 • United States
Starring Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow

Something of a female-driven precursor to OFFICE SPACE, Jill Sprecher’s lost indie gem stars Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Toni Collette, and Alanna Ubach as a quartet of temp workers who bond over th...

Directed by Peter Howitt • 2001 • United States
Starring Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Tim Robbins

In this slick Y2K-era technothriller, Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) thinks he’s found his dream job when he’s hired by Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), the CEO of the world’s largest computer comp...