Good Movies to Watch – Highly-Rated Movies on Criterionchannel (Page 4)
There are strange coincidences, connections, and chains that link two people within a place, whether they’re aware of it or not. Customers in a strip club may be linked just by the desire they share over a dancer, but in writer-director Atom Egoyan’s Exotica, they’re more so linked by trauma and grief, by trying to […]
Kindness is universally considered as a virtue, but so too is it considered a weakness– Reciprocation isn’t necessarily guaranteed and some people take advantage of the kindness given to them. But there are few instances when humanity does give back to those who have been generous to others, and one such instance is in Beijing […]
The entire premise of My Dinner with Andre is in the title. Nothing more or less happens physically—it’s literally two hours of pure conversation—and yet the film is more eventful and compelling than a lot of movies out today. That’s because there’s no pretension in the back-and-forth that happens between Wally and his friend Andre. […]
Frances (Greta Gerwig) lives in New York – but not the glamorous NYC of Woody Allen movies. Taking place primarily in the gritty and rapidly gentrifying North Brooklyn, the black and white film paints a picture of an extended adolescence. Focusing on the goofy and carefree Frances, who loses her boyfriend, her best friend and […]
Children like to play, but sometimes the line between regular roughhousing and outright bullying gets blurry, especially for people watching from the outside. What happens in this Swedish drama is clearly bullying, though. However, the audience could only recognize it as bullying because of the point of view, since the camera is present from start […]
Barton Fink is remarkable for many reasons, the most immediate of which is its style. Fink’s Hollywood, contrary to most depictions, is retro and rotting. Walls drip with all kinds of fluids while halls stretch out to infinite emptiness. It’s chilling, but maybe not as chilling as it is to realize how timeless its themes […]
You don’t have to be a tea drinker to enjoy this warm film from documentary legend Les Blank. The passion and eloquence with which the tea connoisseurs interviewed here talk about the beverage is a delight in itself, a soul-nourishing reminder of what worlds of meaning and experience open up when you really love something. […]
Dheepan is a French film from the director of A Prophet. It contrasts elements of Sri Lankan and French culture to provide interesting insights into both, while crafting a heart-wrenching and heartwarming tale of makeshift families in unimaginable circumstances. Like A Prophet, Dheepan makes occasional and shocking use of violence to underscore elements of culture and […]
While produced by Wong Kar Wai, Chinese Odyssey 2002 isn’t a moody, melancholy drama that we’re used to. Instead, the Ming Dynasty-set adventure directed by Jeffrey Lau comically spoofs plenty of the beloved genres that captivated Chinese audiences– wuxia epics, musical dramas, and historical romances. The ludicrous crossdressing plot is played in such an over-the-top […]
Based on the true story of the last French woman executed by guillotine, Story of Women depicts wartime survival under the Vichy regime. While men were sent to fight in the war, women in France stayed home, in a country occupied by the Nazis, with their government collaborating with the Axis powers they were supposedly […]
At the risk of being cliché, I’m going to state that only the French could have made a movie about racial issues and the troubles of youngsters in the suburbs and still make it elegant. I’ve tried looking for other adjectives, but I couldn’t find one that better describes those long takes shot in a […]
Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay both won Berlinale Best Actress and Best Actor for this movie. They play a couple who are only a few days away from their 45th marriage anniversary when they learn that the remains of the husband’s first lover have been found. He then starts obsessing about his previous relationship, to […]
Nelly is a concentration camp survivor who undergoes reconstructive facial surgery, and comes back to question whether her husband (unable to recognize her) was the one who betrayed her to the Nazis. Heavy, heavy stuff. But in Phoenix you will also see something else, as the story takes you beyond the subject matter to become almost a celebration of film: elements of […]
If you’re a fan of musical theater of any kind, Topsy-Turvy pays tribute to that notoriously tricky art form with a stunning attention to detail and a dedication to telling its story without any unnecessary drama whatsoever. It’s hard not to get swept up in the humor, entertainment, and simple joy found in the writing […]
In modern day Europe, demonic possession seems to be a thing of the past, something most likely to be attributed to mental illness, and something that can be dealt with through modern medicine, not exorcism. Still, exorcisms are conducted in certain areas in the continent, and some instances don’t go the way they should. Inspired […]
Why should anyone watch a decades-old biopic about a centuries-old Armenian troubadour that relies not on dialogue, not on a straightforward narrative, but on scenes that are cryptic as hell? The Color of Pomegranates won’t be for most viewers, but even without the historical context, cinephiles will appreciate the artistic vision Sergei Parajanov crafted alongside […]
At first glance, Dogfight seems to be just a standard love story: a Marine falling in love with a woman just before he’s sent overseas. But underneath, there’s a rebuke at American masculinity that needs to be acknowledged. As Eddie and his friends make bets at the expense of their dates, Dogfight rightfully portrays this […]
An underrated title from one of South Asia’s greatest directors, The Coward might have a simpler plot than Satyajit Ray’s other dramas, but it’s no less deep in exploring human behavior. As you would expect from the title, the film is about cowardice in relationships. The way it’s explored is interesting. It feels like a […]
We’ve seen anthology films with three, four, sometimes even five parts, but Songs from the Second Floor comprises forty six separate vignettes, quickly shifting in and out without any connecting thread inbetween, except for the dull gray color palette. Yet, even as the film abruptly transitions between vignettes, from tanning beds, construction sites, cars, trains, […]
Writer-director Sean Baker is best known for his naturalistic portraits of people in unglamorous circumstances, and he brings that same style to depict a random friendship made across generations in Starlet. It’s equally refreshing as his other work. Rather than painting 22-year-old Jane’s life as an adult film star with sensationalist drama, Starlet paints her […]
While it would be easy to make comparisons to The Good Place and other shows and films dealing with the afterlife, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film is devoted to a single thing: commemorating the ordinary moments that make our life precious. Through little more than workplace banter and documentary-style interviews (with an ensemble delivering uncannily naturalistic performances), […]
Loosely inspired by her childhood in French Africa, Claire Denis’ directorial debut Chocolat fittingly depicts this past through the perspective of a young child named France. She captures that viewpoint through a series of memories, through warm and beautifully shot moments in summer, but many of these instances take on a subtle dimension. For a […]
There are a few instances that prove the merit of one’s friendship, and one of those instances is a roadtrip. Withnail and I is considered one of the greatest British comedies of all time, but there’s a certain melancholy to it, as two unemployed actors have gone on holiday due to an offer from one […]
Given the subject matter of Charles Perrault’s Donkeyskin, it’s not surprising that Disney didn’t adapt this one. It’s not just that it’s too similar to Cinderella, with a donkey instead of a goose that lays gold, it’s also most probably because of the strange incestuous wedding proposal presented at the start. Yikes. But filmmaker Jacques […]
Filmed in 1970s Manila, at the height of dictatorship in the Philippines, Manila in the Claws of Night is above all else a political statement—against tyranny, yes, but more significantly, against imperialism, capitalism, and class divide. It’s a weighty film, but director Lino Brocka, with help from cinematographer Mike de Leon, balances his potent ideas […]
This drama was the first feature written and directed by an out Black lesbian, Cheryl Dunye, and it is an absolute joy: a cheeky faux-documentary that ingeniously blends lesbian dating life with a historical dive into Black actors in 30s Hollywood. Dunye plays Cheryl, a self-effacing version of herself, an aspiring director working at a […]
Anyone who’s seen All That Heaven Allows will naturally be skeptical that a movie claiming to be an homage to Douglas Sirk’s sumptuous masterpiece will live up to the heights of its inspiration. It’s a ballsy move, molding your film so closely to a peerless classic, but Todd Haynes transcends thin pastiche to be a […]
Director Wong Kar-Wai made this loose sequel to one of the best films ever made, his 2000 classic In the Mood for Love. Much of the story is set around Christmas eve. In the far future, people take a train to the world of 2046, where no sadness or sorrow can be experienced. No one […]
Starring Clive Owen in a post apocalyptic nightmare, Children of Men is definitely not for everyone. An insightful, moving and action-packed film where women can no longer have children, and all hope lies on one man to guide the world’s last fertile woman to safety. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, this film is a moving portrait of the […]
Pickpocket captures the experience of being left behind. As the camera follows Xiao Wu, the film captures how the sweeping changes enacted by China have improved the lives of many of his former friends. It’s supposed to be good. Sadly, that’s not for everyone. For people like Wu, a criminal, these reforms alienate them. It […]
What Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher intentionally refuses to give you by way of plot or resolution, it more than makes up for in sharp visuals, a beautifully sparse score, and an unscratchable feeling of restlessness. It’s a downer for sure, watching 12-year-old James hounded by guilt as he navigates the mundane bleakness of his everyday life. […]
Written and directed by Bambi from Scrubs himself, Garden State is one hell of a directorial debut. It is one of those movies that leaves you wanting to cuddle, as it is very sweet, charming and funny… the whole lot really. It’s a movie you want to date. More than that, this is the film that popularized […]
An old friend shows up on the doorstep of a happy family home and brings a whirlwind of trouble with him. Charles Burnett’s startling parable is tinged with magic and creeping danger. It digs into the tensions between African American folklore of the rural South and the assimilated middle-class lifestyle out West. This rift takes […]
Slow and almost silent, Edward Yang’s second feature film pins us down in a fast-moving city. In 1980s Taipei, Chin and Lung are childhood sweethearts who try to build a life together, but differences between their wants threaten to pull them apart. Chin bravely adapts to the changes she faces—moving house, shifting jobs, etc.—while Lung […]
Even before Agnès Varda pivoted to documentary filmmaking, she was a pioneer of French cinema. Her film Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond) is one of her most harrowing dramas. Varda’s sensibilities as a burgeoning documentarian are apparent as the film opens on the corpse of a woman lying dead in a snow-covered ditch. Through flashbacks, […]
A woman joins some acquaintances on a sailing trip only to get caught in a storm. They are rescued by a seemingly empty cruise ship and struggle to make sense of the mysteries that unfold. Definitely one of those “The less you know the better” type of films. If you like well-written creepy thrillers with […]
When power shifts from one hand to the other, there’s a sense of possibility that can happen. It’s this sense of hope that drives Platform, and at the start, it seemed like the four teenagers of the Fenyang Peasant Culture Group had the world as their oyster, being free to play any new play, or […]
The Promise has all the trappings of a sleazy crime drama, but there’s a sense of innocence buried underneath all the dirt that helps set it apart. Even as Igor helps his father do the shadiest things to exploit the illegal immigrants under their care, you can see the boy slowly wake up to the […]
