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 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...

COMING TO THE CRITERION CHANNEL ON MAY 12 AT 8 P.M. ET

Directed by Hlynur Pálmason • 2025 • Iceland, Denmark, France
Starring Saga Garðarsdóttir, Sverrir Gudnason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir

Suffused with tenderness and deadpan humor, THE LOVE THAT REMAINS asks: What happens when a relationship end...

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 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 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...

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 Sidney Lumet • 2007 • United States
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke

Renowned director Sidney Lumet brought five decades of cinematic mastery to bear in his final film, a riveting thriller that achieves the weight of Greek tragedy. A typically virtuosic Phil...

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 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 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 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 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 Howard Hawks • 1940 • United States
Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy

One of the fastest, funniest, and most quotable films ever made, HIS GIRL FRIDAY stars Rosalind Russell as reporter Hildy Johnson, a standout among cinema’s powerful women. Hildy is matched in fo...

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 Wong Kar Wai • 2004 • Hong Kong
Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Gong Li, Faye Wong

Wong Kar Wai’s loose sequel to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE combines that film’s languorous air of romantic longing with a dizzying time-hopping structure and avant-sci-fi twist. Tony Leung Chiu Wai reprises his...

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 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 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 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...

Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1953 • Mexico
Starring Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Aurora Walker

Spanish surrealist master Luis Buñuel’s fiendish tale of love gone wrong is among the most perverse and unsettling films he made during his two decades of exile in Mexico. Folding his own neuroses int...

Directed by Roger Donaldson • 1987 • United States
Starring Gene Hackman, Kevin Costner, Sean Young

Based on Kenneth Fearing’s classic suspense novel THE BIG CLOCK (famously the basis for the 1948 Ray Milland/Charles Laughton noir), this gripping, inspired reimagining resets the story against th...

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...