The Best Independent Dramas Movies to Watch on Criterionchannel
Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a birth certificate, settling a traffic violation, or attending a job interview– but through nine vignettes framed with a static camera, aimed at a person trying to negotiate with someone more powerful just outside the frame, […]
Given the controversial subject matter, there’s something remarkably placid about the way About Dry Grasses proceeds. Amidst the snowy white steppes of Eastern Anatolia, writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan slowly lets the plot unfold through multiple conversations, where an accusation of inappropriate contact leads to a he-said, she-said investigation, all centered around a misanthropic protagonist Samet. […]
Despite the title and the premise, The Naked Kiss is actually less raunchy than it sounds. Sure, it does have themes that seem more explicit than what’s expected from older classic films, but writer-director Samuel Fuller considers these themes with the weight it deserves, directly challenging the way the men of the town would scorn […]
Sometimes, in life, we’re forced to be with people we don’t immediately get along with, like in the classroom, the workplace, or, if you’re unlucky, in a jail cell. Down by Law is black-and-white drama focused on three men in a jail cell, two of them outright hating each other, but not as much as […]
Sometimes, all you need to make a good movie is to get two vastly different characters and force them to stay together. It’s probably why Kiss of the Spider Woman was made in the first place– the novel dumps hardened, self-sacrificial activist Valentin and flamboyant gay man Molina in a jail cell. But rather than […]
With a driver protagonist, trying to reintegrate with the rougher parts of his home city, forming a connection with a woman way out of his league, Soho-based Mona Lisa has spawned comparisons to the New York-classic Taxi Driver (1976), but this British neo-noir has a completely different tone and spirit, with a completely different conclusion. […]
Many people have forgotten that representation and diversity in media isn’t meant just to fill a quota or to signal virtue– the push for it is in response to the way many of these stories were silenced, repressed, and shut out. Lilies might have been overlooked for quite a while, but its 2023 restoration has […]
With its first release botched by mishandled promotion, My Brother’s Wedding was considered lost until more than two decades later in 2007, when Milestone Films picked up the rights. This tragicomedy is a gem we’re glad got restored. Rather than the danger of his friend’s prison life, or the privileged upbringing of his brother’s fiancée, […]
Given the name, Revanche seemed to be a revenge thriller, and to a certain degree, that’s correct, but the way writer-director Götz Spielmann frames the plot makes it feel much more like a naturalistic character study of the way love and violence walks hand-in-hand, leading to a tragedy that shifts its thrill each time ex-con […]
Grand gestures, over-the-top declarations of love, and elaborate gifts… These normal romcom acts can sometimes make it seem that romance can only be done by the wealthy. But, in reality, love can happen anytime, and the first film of Aki Kaurismäki’s Proletariat Trilogy suggests that love is ultimately necessary in a world where two lovers […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Shot as a single day, it tells the story of college professor George (Colin Firth) who, unable to cope with the death of his partner months prior, resolves to commit suicide. The movie is not all dark, however, there are moving, deeply human encounters as George moves through his last day. Fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut and set […]
Philipp Seymour Hoffman stars in this family drama next to Laura Linney as siblings. They have to unite to support their father who after the death of his girlfriend finds himself alone. The Savages, after the family name, have dynamics that are all too common and easily recognizable. This is a beautiful and real movie.
Picked by Roger Ebert as the fifth best film of the decade. An observant, tender film about the little details in loneliness and then in relationships as we move through life. It’s funny, at times darkly so, and features a great performance by John Hawkes as Richard, an eccentric shoe salesman dealing with an ended marriage trying to turn his life […]
I don’t want to go too much into detail, but this film is an acting masterpiece. From start to finish it drags you into the characters’ life and really makes you feel for the main character. It shows you how hard it really is for the main character to struggle with what she’s going through. […]
A beautiful and subtle masterpiece exploring the life of Alike, a teen in Brooklyn navigating her identity as a gay black girl. Caught between the traditional world of her family and the butch and sexual world of her friend who has already come out, director Dee Rees allows the audience to see the trials and tribulations […]
Even after browsing through the entire AGMTW this is still my favorite movie. It is the first movie that I watched where I felt so pulled in to an incredibly real, heartbreaking family drama. Not only is the movie beautifully shot, but the acting is terrific, tight and sharp. Contrary to her nice girl image, Anne […]
